Come Dancing with Strictly in Blackpool

So with a last minute shuffle around we were able to rearrange our schedule and make it to Blackpool for this one-off event. Sorry it's taken so long for the weekend updates but we were waiting to see if any of the pictures or videos from the weekend, uploaded today, included us (none so far).

Setting off at 7am in the morning, with a couple of stops on the way, we arrived in Blackpool by midday. We popped into our favourite B&B (Lolly's Hotel, Regents Road) and luckily they could fit us in so we didn't have to worry about driving back that night.

Braving the rain (even with Emma's broken umbrella) we made the short walk to Winter Gardens and joined the queue (thankfully inside, unlike those at the Tower who had to queue outside in the rain - purportedly due to Rod wanting a closed set for his rehearsal).

It didn't take long to clear the queues and get our wristbands, only to find we had to join a new queue before we could get into the Opera House, though this did give us a chance to grab a sandwich for lunch.

Once settled in our chairs we watched a rolling highlights reel of the dances and past performances on Strictly, whilst the rest of the people were seated. By the 4th repeat though it was getting a little tiresome!

Eventually the lights went down and we were introduced to our hosts for the day:

Dominic Littlewood and Karen Hardy opened by telling us how there had been over 21,000 applicants for tickets for the event, not bad considering the event was only publicised via online sources!

The event was set up by the BBC Learning Program to offer the complimentary lessons to allow anyone to try Ballroom dancing (not everyone is as lucky as myself and Karen - I started at 3 and Karen at 5)

Dominic then decided to interview a couple of the guys in the audience to ascertain just how many had been unwillingly dragged along, a pretty even split.

It was then revealed that we would be learning (well Emma and I didn't really need the lessons...) the basics of the Cha Cha Cha and Karen introduced two professional dancers [Sean and Emma] to give a quick demonstration.

They danced to Jennifer Lopez's 'Let's Get Loud' and for those that came with us to dancing in Battersea park over the summer may recognise Sean as he was there dancing with one of his students.

Dominic and Karen revealed that there would be additional help during the classes from three celebrities who had previously competed on Strictly; Jo Wood, Rav Wilding and Mark Foster.

Mark was asked how he found the Strictly experience in last year's competition, and he went on to explain how difficult he'd found it - what with his height and the fact that in swimming it didn't matter what you looked like, just how long it took you to finish. Also he found stamina to be a real issue when you compare the 20 seconds of the average swimming race to the 1 1/2 minutes of dancing. Rav said that he'd found it very scary but lots of fun and Jo still adores Brendan.

Karen then introduced the professional teachers that would be running the classes (we were to be split up into 3 groups, which had been decided when we registered and received one of 3 coloured wristbands) and she told us how dancing was all about having fun.

Everyone on stage then proceeded to give us a 'rhythm demo', getting their hips moving around, and Karen asked us all to stand up so that we could practice our chasses - a little difficult considering we were seated in a theatre! Then we moved onto hips practice, to which Karen commented we all looked like Kangaroos (a jokey reference to Jo Wood on stage).

We were then led to the different rooms in which our lessons were going to take place, and we were in The Spanish Hall along with our celebrity Rav Wilding.

The class consisted of the basic Cha Cha movement, followed by 4 New Yorks, 2 Spot Turns, some timing steps (closing on the spot rather than rocking back or forward) and 2 Cuban Breaks. This was repeated 3 times and on the 3rd and final run through the last Cuban Break was turned into a big finish.

Rav opened up the floor to questions:

Did you enjoy SCD-Very much

What was the one dance that you wished you'd had the chance to do-Paso Doble, on the week he went out there was a running rivalry with Joe Calzaghe because Joe got Paso and Rav didn't

Are you still dancing-not currently as he had to have an operation on his knee and he's still recovering

One woman then cheekily piped up with a request for a Cha Cah with Rav-He had to refuse due to still recovering from the operation, and a lack of time left in the session

Finally he was asked whether he'd lost any weight on the show-Rav apparently lost about 1/2 stone in the 8 weeks he was involved in the show, nothing [he said] compared to the over 2 stone lost by Ricky Groves and Natalie Cassidy

Then there was a surprise visit from Lilia and Darren

who told us a bit about what the day had been like over in the Tower (the girls had been in make-up since 7.30am!), they also told us that we were to receive a free DVD each with some basic dance tuition on.

We then broke up to get ready for the evening screening