Strictly Come Dancing

Leeds Arena

While I freely admit to having two left feet when on the dance floor, this hasn’t stopped me being a massive fan of ‘Strictly’ during the ten years that the series has run.

And over this period, apart from Bruce Forsyth’s jokes, it has got better and better with every new series. The 2013 series was an absolute cracker and the three female celebrity finalists, Abbey Clancy, Susanna Reid and Natalie Gumede, now headline the tour that is taking place around the UK at various arenas during January and February.

They are joined by three other celebrities from the 2013 series – Deborah Meaden, Ben Cohen and Mark Benton, plus Nicky Byrne from Westlife who was a quarter-finalist in the 2012 series. The tour is hosted by actress Lisa Riley (a semi-finalist in the 2012 series) alongside the outspoken judges Len Goodman, Craig Revel Horwood and Bruno Tonioli.

In the tour schedule for this year, Leeds’s First Direct Arena has been included for the first time after it opened last September, with four shows, one on Friday evening, two on Saturday and a final show on Sunday afternoon. I went along to the opening performance, and what a great night it was.

The show opened with a spectacular routine by the professional dancers – what speed and agility they exude! After that each of the couples performed one of their favourite dances from the series they performed in. We were treated to Viennese waltzes, rumbas, paso doble, cha cha chas, quicksteps, the American smooth, Charleston, jive, salsa etc. At the end of each dance the three judges gave the scores in their inimitable styles; Len precise and comedic at times, Bruno flamboyant with arms flailing and Craig with his usual dour face and over-critical rhetoric.

At the end of the first set of dances, Abbey with her partner Aljaz Skorjanec and Natalie with Artem Chigvintsev were joint leaders with a maximum 30 points each from the judges, closely followed by Susannah and her partner Kevin Clifton on 29 points. However, these scores were purely academic as it is the audiences who decide the winners as they are asked to text the name of their favourite to a given number during the interval and during the second half of the show.

The dancing by all the pairs was brilliant – you don’t appreciate on TV just how intricate the footwork is and the speed of movement. There were also some highly amusing parts, especially when the contestants were giving back to Craig as good as they got from his critique. Best of these was Mark Benton, who after being given a score of only two marks by Craig, responded by saying, “You know Craig, I wish you were a statue and I was a pigeon”!

At the end of the second half Abbey and Natalie again scored maximum points, with Susanna scoring another 29 points (Craig yet again failing to give a maximum). But in the audience vote it came down to Susanna and Natalie in the top two positions, with Natalie coming out on top and her and Artem being presented with the legendary glitter ball.

Finally, I must make mention of the great singers and orchestra whose talents provided the icing on the cake as far as the evening was concerned. A great evening at the Arena, a venue tailor-made for lavish productions such as this, and totally enjoyed by the 13,500 capacity audience.

John Burland