Strictly Ballroom Dancing
By Donald Hutera for The Times


As someone for whom television’s Strictly Come Dancing or Strictly Dance Fever means next to nothing, I may have been in a minority at the first performance of Strictly Ballroom Dancing. Choreographed by Erin Boag and Anton Du Beke, the headliners of Strictly Come Dancing, the director Alan Harding’s show is touring heavily in the UK until the end of November. It is, like the bulk of boob tube fodder, a diversion aimed squarely at the undemanding masses. Accept it on that level, and it delivers exactly what it says on the tin.

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Strictly Ballroom Dancing
By Sylvia Boerner for Dancing Times

This two and a quarter hour long spectacular is made up of a combination of dance and/or singing numbers connected by some short and some rather long pre-scripted chit chats between hosts Lionel Blair and Jane McDonald trying to evoke some sort of audience involvement — emphasis is on “trying”. I found it staged and unfunny.

The choreography by Anton Du Beke and Erin Boag, who came to fame through BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing and who have become household names since, is fluent and inventive throughout, combining solo couples with group interaction.

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