British Female Professional Dancers?

2 of 2

Espresso

29-11-2011

Originally Posted by *Topaz*:
“I can imagine it being disruptive if a dancer is still competing but haven't many of the pros come to SCD - having more or less finished with competitions? That was the case with Karen and I know James said recently he and Ola were teaching in Hong Kong when they were asked and I think James said something like they were advised it was too good an opportunity to turn down appearing on SCD. It was discussed in the other thread they might not get paid comparatively much to do SCD but the resulting publicity results in lots of lucrative opportunities. I know Karen eventually had to give SCD up because she had her dancing school commitments but then she also has a young child.

I'm sure there would be some British pros that aren't competing now but just teaching/doing exhibitions that would jump at the chance of appearing in SCD .”

Darren, Lilia, Vincent, Flavia, Anton and Erin were all still competing when they first started on Strictly.
In fact, the reason Strictly first went to Blackpool in the middle of the series, rather than just for the final was because of the British Nationals, which are held in Blackpool in November. Darren and Lillia won the Pro Latin at The Nationals that year, the same year as Darren and Jil Halfpenny won SCD.

None of the current crop of SCD pros competed in this year's Nationals. Which were on the same weekend as Wembly Arena's show this year.

*Topaz*

29-11-2011

Originally Posted by Espresso:
“Darren, Lilia, Vincent, Flavia, Anton and Erin were all still competing when they first started on Strictly.
In fact, the reason Strictly first went to Blackpool in the middle of the series, rather than just for the final was because of the British Nationals, which are held in Blackpool in November. Darren and Lillia won the Pro Latin at The Nationals that year, the same year as Darren and Jil Halfpenny won SCD.

None of the current crop of SCD pros competed in this year's Nationals. Which were on the same weekend as Wembly Arena's show this year.”

Hi thanks for that I vaguely remembered that Darren and Lilia were still competing while they were still on SCD because I remember it being mentioned they won a title during a series - I only started getting into SCD during series 4 - I'm a fan of Vincent and Flavia but didn't know they were still competing whilst still on SCD and blimey I'm surprised Anton was still competing whilst doing SCD

- even way back in the early days of Strictly he looked erm well middle aged

All the more reason why the BBC should search harder for British talent then - there must be some British ballroom/latin dancers who compete but still want to be on SCD.

Lolly_Du_Beke

29-11-2011

While I'm all for having more British pro's on, my worry is that we've all grown so attached to the current line-up and everyone has their favourites, mine obviously being Anton and Erin - if a rule came in saying we need at least (for example) 4 of the 7 girls and 4 of the 7 guys to be british... that could potentially mean losing 4 of the current girls, and one of the guys (If I'm right 3 guys are born and bred brits - Anton, Robin and James.) Would you want to lose Artem, Pasha, Vincent or Brendan in favour for another Brit? (waits for all Ian fans to dive in here.... lol). Lets also assume we can count Ola and Flavia as brits even though not born here... would you wave goodbye to 2 from either Natalie, Aliona, Katya, Erin and Kristina to make room for 2 new brit girls?

I wouldn't.

So while I agree with the OP in part that it is kinda sad they're not showcasing british talent, I wouldn't replace our current much loved pro's.

2 of 2