Strictly Posh Dancing?

So a new series of Strictly Come Dancing is fast approaching and talk turns to who could be taking part this year.  Last year's show was a bit of a letdown for some in terms of the celebrities selected and the BBC want to make amends this year.

According to The Sun Strictly are lining up a number of high profile celebrities for this year's competition, top targets include Victoria Beckham, Amy Winehouse, Chelsea Clinton (ex-US president Bill's daughter) and [controversially if Chelsea signs up too] Monica Lewinsky [Bill's former 'secretary with benefits'].

Other targets are said to include Kimberley Walsh (Girls Aloud) and Patsy Kensit (Lethal Weapon 2 and currently Holby City).

It's not all glitz and glamour though as they're also purportedly considering former Cheeky Girl fancier, oh and ex-Lib Dem MP, Lembit Opik!

There are also going to be more planned recordings from Blackpool Tower (though not a complete move - something Ian Waite agrees isn't feasible in an interview with Digital Spy).

Talk is also abound of changes in the professional lineup, with the new producer having flown out to the States to audition potential new pro's...why they couldn't start with more homegrown talent is beyond me (hint BBC if you're listening...give me a call!!!)

Alesha Dixon is currently continuing as a judge (though no offense Alesha but I hope they drop you for someone with even a little bit more knowledge).  Surely a departing female professional could've been a viable option.

Regardless of the changes, or non-, i'll still be avidly watching and giving my own views on the performances.

Who knows, one day I might even be on the show - even if it's in the dark recesses of the public audience!

How would you change this year's Strictly, and who would you like to see on the show?

We're famous!

Well the BBC have finally uploaded one solitary picture of us from the 'Come Dancing With Strictly' event in Blackpool!

Not the best photo they took of us during the day so i'm sure there'll be more...maybe.

For more photos from Blackpool visit the BBC website.

Evening Show

A packed theatre in Blackpool's Winter Garden Opera House was the setting for the evening screening of Strictly Come Dancing.

There was an almost feverish party atmosphere in the theatre, and even though they were re-showing the highlight reel that we'd been subjected to earlier in the day, people were in the mood to cheer (Mark Ramprakash's Argentine Tango, Jill Halfpenny's Jive) or laugh (John Sergeant's Paso Doble, Fiona Bruce's Jive) at the various scenes.

Dominic Littlewood and Karen Hardy returned to host the evening show, we were told that the videos and pictures that had been taken throughout the day would be appearing on the BBC website during the coming week - none of us yet though!

We were shown a highlights reel of the morning dance sessions (we were on the afternoon session) and this was pretty much the same video you'll have seen on the live show.

Rav Wilding and Mark Foster were re-introduced onto the stage and we were shown some highlights of their appearances on the show before they had to duck out to head over to the Tower, but not before Mark put his arm round Karen and commented on how great she looked, how she should still be in the show, and 'You're my favourite'.

Dominic then introduced highlights of Karen's appearances on Strictly, including Gary Rhodes Cha Cha (receiving a lowly 1 from Craig) and Mark Ramprakash's Salsa. Karen talked about how much she loved dancing, which she'd being doing since the age of 5, and had been so honoured when Strictly had convinced her to come out of retirement after her 6 year break (and a baby).

Matthew and Aliona made a surprise visit to perform an elegant Viennese Waltz

Matthew talked about how everyone at the Tower was so excited, and due to the significantly increased audience numbers there was a really great atmosphere.

Aliona talked about how this was her first time visiting in Blackpool, and how much she was enjoying it.

Before the live show was due to start Karen gave her comments and predictions on the show to follow:

Ali Bastian was still suffering from her injured foot, and with a dance such as the Viennese Waltz - heavy on technique - she could find it difficult to perform.

Craig Kelly would most likely be going out as it was definitely his time to go.

Ricky Groves started as a clown but is now taking it seriously and could be a real dark horse in the competition.

It was then time for the live show, Karen told us she'd be sticking around to comment on the show at intervals, and I settled down ready to make my notes on the evening performances...

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

Blogging from Blackpool?

Well we've managed to get tickets for Blackpool this weekend, ok so it's not the live show but rather a dance class during the day with Karen Hardy and then a live 'screening' in Winter Gardens afterwards, but we'll still be up there!

Unless of course Ian can pull some favours and get us in to the Tower that is...!

Either way i'll do my best to blog the show live but i'm guessing they probably won't let me in with my laptop and dongle, so you may have to wait for my comments this week.

If I can't blog live i'll have to make do with bog-standard pen and paper then write it up afterwards.

Anyone else going to Blackpool? Anyone lucky enough to get the actual live show tickets?

Strictly's Blackpool visit

What are the dancers most looking forward to in Blackpool this weekend?



Sadly we didn't get tickets for the live show (though a student did pass us tickets for the live screening at Winter Gardens, but not sure if we're going to go yet!)

As ever for more details on Strictly please visit the BBC's dedicated website.