Yes certainly, a few of our local dance schools are starting quite a few beginners classes for people to learn to dance. Happens every year - people get bitten by the Strictly bug !
Lovely it is too.

Carol Vordeman has done a programme about Airbus engineering for the BBC as recently as this summer 2015 - nothing to do with finance.

Can't find any job with the BBC where Carol was sacked.

Her 'good with numbers' was on Countdown on Channel 4 - she was replaced by Rachel Riley. The concern over the financial services advert was raised by a charity.

Esther Rantzen can advertise Financial Services as long as she doesn't do anything for the BBC about finance. As far as I've seen, most of her BBC appearances recently have about children and care of older people.

And they both did Strictly - but that's dancing, not finance

Didn't Carol Vordermann leave the BBC initially when she was on Tomorrow's World, she did an advert wearing a white coat, pretending to be a scientist, which I was considered to be taking advantage of her being on such a prominent scientific programme as Tomorrow's World. She has obviously done plenty of work for the BBC since then.

Why? It would have to come out of the licence fee revenue.

Another poster has said the pros get paid more if they stay in longer, I am not sure that is true. The 'celebs' get paid a flat fee and then an additional fee according to the number of weeks they stay in the competition but I believe the pros are paid a flat fee whether they are go in week 1 or in the final.

It's even more lucrative if you're out early. In fact the earliest you go the most money you pocket for least work. Right?

Financially yes you are correct. However Pro's are by their nature very competitive (they wouldn't have got where they are now with the majority having competed and some at the very highest level) and I think this is a pretty big motivation which is overlooked.

The longer they stay in then the more coverage they get which helps for things like the tours which Anton (and Erin), Brendan, Pasha etc do in terms of getting people interested in them and/or setting up studios for joe public to attend e.g. Matt Cutler, Karen Hardy etc

I think it would be a better use of the licence fee than what they pay to Tess for reading the auto-cue once a week, and what they spent on Bruce Forsyth trotting out tired catch-phrases.

1995 Sacked from Tomorrow's World for doing Ariel washing powder ads at the same time.


Quote from Guardianmedia archive

But the ones that are out early have to do CIN and the Christmas special - and more pro numbers and still some ITT appearances, so being out early doesn't mean being free from obligation to work on Strictly till the final.

With the BBC having to make savings of over £30m and choosing to end their contract to cover a proportion of F1 three years early, I can't see the pros getting a pay rise any time soon, especially as there must be thousands of competent dancers worldwide who would kill for the exposure SCD offers to step into the shoes of any perceived as too greedy or getting too big for their boots.

That sounds fairer to me, considering the uncertainty of whether they'll be used each year and the number of hours they have to fit in around their partner's availability.

Ah, that explains it - thank you.

Bit too close to science I suppose - especially wearing a 'scientific' white coat.

Being cynical, you criticise the presenters but want the professionals paid more for a 90 second dance once a week? Everyone on the show contributes to it and none of their roles are as easy as some like to think. I bet the presenters on Ex Factor were paid a lot more than Tess but from all I read, they made a complete mess of it.

In Janette's weekly article (another money earner!) in OK magazine, this week, Janette outlined what she and Aljaz will be doing for the next few months:

"The Strictly Live tour until February. Once that's finished we have a few Corporate and charity events, as well as Strictly themed cruises for P&O that we will be dancing in. Although we have some more time off, we still keep very busy."

Right .......that's it - I'm off to book a P&O Cruise so I can get to dance with Aliajz

It's a decent amount of money, probably more than the average dancer would make from performances and raises their profile to make more money in the future with tours, appearences and teaching. Just look at how much james and ola charge for a private lesson! Strictly is never the only thing they do - jasmine who's one of the backing dancers is constantly working if her instagram is amything to go by and I'd bet shed be on less money than a pro with a celeb.


Same with the dance school i go to. Beginners classes end up jam packed! I started dancing because of strictly so its always lovely to see.

Just consider what mediocre footballers get paid per week .. then compare with a dancers' wage for 15 weeks. That's enough to make you grind your teeth.

Don't forget that the pros can't slink off overseas like the amateurs (I refuse to call them 'celebs') once they are voted out because they are required for the group dances and accompanying background dancing every week.

Janette tweeted today about scheduling private lessons:

Janette Manrara ‏@JManrara 5h5 hours ago

If you wrote to us interested in lessons, @AljazSkorjanec will be deciding the week next year for all of them. Stay tuned the next few days!

It always amuses me even the most inexperienced ballroom dancers can use both feet, whereas many highly paid footballers are "one footed."