What a feeling!
Strictly star Jo all set to steal the show in Flashdance
WHEN dancer Jo Clifton decided to leave Strictly Come Dancing, she was determined to go out on a high. And after winning the Ballroom and Latin Dancing World, British and European championships in previous years, Jo left the beloved BBC series in 2017 with the best-known accolade of all, Strictly’s glitterball trophy, under her arm.
‘I think after Ore (Aduba, her dance partner) and I won, I had made up my mind almost straight away and I stuck by it,’ she says.
‘There have been moments where I’ve been like “Awww”… because it is like one of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make.’
Not that Jo had much time to sit around and enjoy any downtime. Within a day of leaving the show, it was announced that she would take the lead role of Alex in a touring production of Flashdance.
The pace of life on the show, which rolls into the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre from June 11 until 16, is even more hectic than being on Strictly.
Jo admits: ‘I’d say this is a lot more demanding, personally. Strictly was a seven-days-a-week job, but you’re teaching for a heck of a lot of the time.
‘This show is two-and-a-half hours, and so much fun but really full on.’
Fans of the original 1980s film Flashdance have been hoping for a musical adaptation for years, and the production doesn’t disappoint.
Alex’s tale of being a welder by day and dancer by night has evolved into a longer show than the original movie’s 97-minute run, but the original anthems — ‘Gloria’, ‘I Love Rock’n’Roll’, ‘Maniac’ and ‘What A Feeling’ — are very much present and correct.
Also in the mix is former A1 boybander Ben Adams, who plays Alex’s love interest Nick.
Reviews so far have observed the pair’s dynamic onstage chemistry, and Jo says it all works because they are firm platonic pals.
‘When I was told I was working with your man from A1 I was like, “Could you not get the guy from Westlife?”’ she jokes.
‘Every so often I get tweets from A1 fans saying how jealous they are that I’m kissing him. He’s really brilliant, he’s like the male version of me. If we didn’t get on, it would be a disaster.’
MOVING into musical theatre is a dream for Jo, who grew up in one of Britain’s foremost ballroom dancing families. Her grandparents were competitive dancers, and her parents Keith and Judy still run a successful dance school in Grimsby. Her older brother Kevin is another Strictly Come Dancing favourite.
‘Whatever Kevin did, I copied,’ says Jo. ‘Our parents didn’t push us into dance because they didn’t like the politics and how much you had to spend to make it happen.
‘I used to tell people I wanted to be a lorry driver when I grew up. But Kevin joined [the school] and I copied him.
‘So my parents were like, “oh no, here we go”. I wanted to do musical theatre as a kid but Mum sat me down and said, ‘We can carry on paying for your dancing or pay for you to go to theatre school, but not both”. I decided to stick with dancing because it was what I knew and it felt safer.’
At 17, Jo trained in the renowned Team Diablo school in Bologna as a competitive dancer. When she retired from ballroom dancing in 2013, she and her brother toured the world with Burn The Floor Dance company. Strictly fans have been flocking to see Jo in Flashdance in their droves, and it’s easy for her to see the evergreen appeal of the show. ‘I think it’s that we love seeing celebs doing something outside of their comfort zone, or that you get to see politicians wearing sequins,’ she says. ‘More than anything, the show appeals to every single age group. We get videos of twoyear-olds who are dancing the moves along with us.’ To any celebrity mulling over the offer of appearing on Strictly or Dancing With The Stars Ireland, she adds: ‘I’d say embrace and enjoy it. If you go on Dancing With The Stars, you know you’ll have to be wearing sequins and frills and bright colours.
‘If you’re not ready for that, don’t do it.
‘But otherwise, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing for celebrities and if they really go for it, they have a blooming great time.’
The Strictly door has been left ajar for Jo, but for now she feels as though she has very much found her groove in musicals.
‘I’m taking TV acting classes during the day, and I’m writing something with my co-star Ben — all will be revealed there soon,’ she adds.
‘I love singing, dancing and acting and getting to put it all together.
‘When I’m older, I want to play Mama Rose in Gypsy. I saw Imelda Staunton do the role recently and ever since then it’s become one of my big goals.’
As much as she loves working in a whole new style of dance in Flashdance, there is one part of the show — the iconic moment where Alex is drenched in water — that Jo would be ‘glad to get rid of ’.
‘I’m used to it now but I’ve been told that the water has to be kept freezing cold in order for [the onstage mechanism] to be activated properly,’ she explains.
‘Well, that’s what the crew told me anyway!’
Flashdance is at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin from June 11-16. Tickets are available from €21. See bordgaisenergytheatre.ie