STRICTLY STAR
Angela Rippon says Strictly has “scratched that itch” she had to be a dancer, while also proving that age should not be a barrier to following your dreams.
Rather than taking a rest after a busy end to 2023, the 79-year-old has been in rehearsals this month and is going out on the road with the hit BBC show.
Ahead of the start of the Strictly tour, the TV presenter said: “I suppose the thing I’m looking forward to most is the fact that I can keep dancing.
“I stopped going to dance classes when I was 17. I stopped because I had to knuckle down to my exams. I’ve only done sort of party tricks since.
“Doing Strictly for five months reawakened in me how much I love to dance. And to have the chance to do something I haven’t done for 60 years, I’ve just enjoyed so much.
“When they invited me on tour, I thought, ‘If I can go on dancing for a few more weeks, that’s what I’m going to do’.
“There’s a stereotype that when you get to my age you just stop... and that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“I’ve had people stop me in the street and say, ‘You’ve inspired me. I’m taking up Pilates now’. Or, ‘My wife and I are going to do ballroom lessons every week’. The fact that doing what I’m doing has inspired others to think they can try something new, that’s great.”
Angela, the eighth star voted off the recent Strictly series alongside her dance partner Kai Widdrington, 28, added: “From when they asked me to do [the tour], I mentioned it to Kai and he said, ‘You’ve got to do it’.
“His description was, ‘You will never hear anything quite like the sound of an arena’. I think the biggest audience I’ve ever done anything live to is about 3,000 when I’ve chaired conferences.
“Or when I did Eurovision, because that’s how many were in the auditorium. The [TV] audience was 186 million, but you never see them.
“And all the outside broadcasts I’ve done where there’s like 23 million, 26 million people watching... But to be in an arena where there will be more than 10,000 people is just incredible.”
Angela said another of the Strictly pro dancers, Neil Jones, has found a chilly way for them to reduce the risk of injury on tour.
In places such as Glasgow, Newcastle and Liverpool, the pair will be plunging to temperatures even colder than the ones outside.
Angela said: “I’ll be keeping up my cryotherapy which I started during the series. Neil and I are very keen cryotherapy advocates.
“He’s located as many [cryotherapy venues] as he can in the cities we’re going to... That and retail therapy will keep me going!
“I found during the show that the more cryotherapy I did the less I needed to rely on ibuprofen and Voltarol. It really does keep the aches and pains at
There’s a stereotype that when you get to my age you just stop
bay.” She added: “I didn’t become a dancer because 60 years ago there was never the option really.
“But it makes you think... do I wish that at some point I’d said, ‘I can always go back to being a reporter. I want to dance’? And I’m doing it now.
“I don’t care how late it’s come in my career. I’m loving it. So many people go through life with a ‘what