So, the three of us (me, OH and AJ, who is 12) arrived at the Grand Opera House in York ready to enjoy ourselves. The theatre has not long re-opened after renovations and flooding, so we were hoping for a good audience. The theatre was about half full – stalls were nearly full, and the audience was loud and enthusiastic, lots of Robin fans yelling, so that was good.

The stage at the GOH is quite small, and has a rake on it, and it seemed to take the dancers a while to get going on it, they were very cramped, and although they were enthusiastic all the way through, they looked a bit nervous to start with.

I was really impressed with the musicians and singers, especially the one with the fabulous bluesy voice who sang Stormy Weather with a controlled and effective ‘crack in the bell’ on her voice. They were all fantastic, and made the show for me. I’m sorry I don’t know any names, I thought £4.50 was a bit steep for a programme, and unlike a ballet or contemporary show, they didn’t have a cast list, which surprised me, but then this is my first ballroom show, so I don’t know the form.

We were about 4 rows back in the stalls (cheapskate here), so had a good view. We were all giggling in the first few numbers though as the sparkly beads kept coming off the costumes and were flying into the orchestra pit. AJ was having a bet on which row they could get them to if they span fast enough!

The first dance that took off for me was a waltz, where the girls (is it OK to call them girls?) had blue feathery costumes. I was a bit giggly in this one as I remembered watching a small-company Swan Lake with a contempory dancer friend of mine, who has done his time in a touring ballet company. He sighed with pleasure as the girls ran on - ‘Feathers! Excellent darling! Stage will be like a hen-house!’ Which it was, and for this dance, a blue hen house!

Robin and his partner did what I think was a rhumba, which I enjoyed, and he danced with Chelsee Healey a couple of times in the first half. I don’t know what the dances were but they put a lot of energy into them and Robin was very caring with her. She is very tiny and pretty, and I was very surprised to find out she was 28 when I looked her up on Wiki, she looks much younger than that. She had the best frocks out of all the female dancers!

The first half hotted up with a set that started with a bit of American swing, which gradually morphed into a jive via (I think) a bit of Lindy Hop. The whole cast loosened up for this and it was great.

AJ says that someone sneaked into the orchestra pit to gather up all the jewelry during the interval but he may have been winding me up…

The second half started out with a bang with latin, which we all loved. The male singer came down to join in and we particularly liked one of the female dancers who could really shimmy! The second half was great in general apart from 2 dances – one where all the male dancers had bare tops, the expressions were gruesome and the dancers were a bit too loose on top and stiff in the legs and one where the males were hoisting one of the females around, inexplicably with two not working fans in front of them. I don’t know what style these were supposed to be, but to borrow from Monkseal, ‘I don’t know what that was and I don’t want to see it again’. Except we will, as we are going to Edinburgh.

Other people have talked about the clapping routine, which went wrong again, but was funny, and nobody got thwacked when they flung their arms around.

Everyone was up and boogying to the last routine (AJ loved the fringed catsuits) and the cast looked pleased – I think they had had a bit of a thin week for audiences.

So all in all we had a great time, and are looking forward to Edinburgh.