Let’s dance in the new decade!
Cheryl and her co-judges (and there’s a very colourful new one) aim to banish those post-Christmas blues with a new series of The Greatest Dancer - and this time they say the standard's even higher
Cheryl’s got a new BFF, and she’s very excited. ‘Oh my God, I am
obsessed with Todrick,’ she says of the new dance captain joining the panel on the BBC’s talent show The Greatest Dancer. ‘He’s a lot of fun. He’s choreographed a Beyoncé video and worked with Ariana Grande. I screamed when I found out he was joining us.’
To those without their fingers on the pulse of youth culture, Todrick Hall might sound like a quaint wedding venue. But actually Todrick, who first found fame on American Idol, is a Texan-born singer, songwriter, dancer, actor, director, choreographer and YouTube influencer. Have we left anything out? Oh yes, he’s also a friend to the stars.
One of his best mates is Taylor Swift. On the day he met her, he persuaded her to do the splits for their obligatory selfie shot. He’s that sort of guy. ‘I was surprised
‘I’m the happiest I’ve been for a lot of years’ CHERYL
she did it,’ he chuckles. ‘She had a show that day and she could’ve pulled something.’
Cheryl and Todrick had never met before being introduced on the set of The Greatest Dancer, which launched last year and is now back for a second series. The show is designed to find star dancers in much the same way that The X Factor finds singers, and the concept is that the auditionees dance behind a two-way mirror, with the judges and the audience watching on. The members of the audience can turn a light on if they rate the act, and if 75% cent of the lights go on they’ve passed and the mirrored doors open. Last year the three judges, or ‘dance captains’, were Cheryl, Strictly’s Oti Mabuse and Glee star Matthew Morrison.
Reviews of the show were mixed, but it clearly had its charms. And it did produce a rather stunning winner in Ellie Fergusson. The shy 14year-old from
Edinburgh scooped the top prize, £50,000 and an appearance on Strictly, leaving the seasoned professionals in awe of her flexibility and the audience moved to tears. Ellie recently cashed in the Strictly part of her prize, which offered a neat crossover for her mentor Oti, who afterwards ran to hug her. ‘I felt like a mum standing on the sides, happy my daughter was doing so well,’ Oti tells me. ‘To have played a part in her success, even just encouraging her to believe in herself, was amazing. When Ellie dances she takes you away. It’s mesmerising, and to find such an emotional dancer is rare.’
This year the producers have brought Todrick into the line-up to inject some more fun and draw in a younger demographic. Off-the-scale camp (he’s been resident choreographer and guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race), he’s definitely a character, a man whose dress and demeanour suggest he was born to be on the stage. His telling of the story of how he met Cheryl for the first time is certainly theatrical. ‘I had never met
Cheryl before, but I first saw her backstage in a stairwell. OMG! She was beautiful. I think it’s possibly the first girl crush I ever had.
She was so chatty. In no time at all it felt like we were back at high school, hanging out, to the point where I thought we were going to get in trouble with the producers.
‘We were giggling. Filming would have to pause because we were laughing so much. It was insane to think I’d just met her. We were like brother and sister in no time. She’s pretty cool too. She’s so iconic and she’s experienced so much in this industry.’
I mention that her Geordie accent can be quite tricky on the ear for Americans, and he readily agrees. ‘Yeah, well sometimes I don’t understand things even more when she says them. If she has a Newcastle accent then I want an Oldcastle accent. The opposite of what she has, because I cannot understand her. But I love her anyway.’
Todrick might just be what this show needs. He’s a passionate dancer, first going to Tip Tap Toes classes (‘cutest name for a dance school ever,’ he says) from the age of five. A shy child who did not fit in at school (he came out as gay in his teens), dancing saved his life, pretty much. ‘I was the only boy. I thought that to be part of a team it had to be a baseball or a football team. For the first time I felt I belonged, with my dance peers. I dread to think what would’ve happened without it. Now being able to inspire young people is incredible.’
Not that it’s just young people auditioning this time. The star of the first episode will doubtless be a 98-year-old dancer who, by all
accounts, left the four experts punching the air. ‘It was amazing to see her,’ says Cheryl. ‘She was doing tap for us. It’s incredible to see someone like that and realise how much dance can shape someone’s world. It goes beyond the actual dance. It’s something people do for the sheer love of it, not for monetary gain. I love it.’
What’s the standard like, in general? Matthew says it’s much higher than last year. ‘This series has a lot more energy and the standard is higher. Maybe last year, because it was new, people were waiting to see. Now we’ve proved ourselves, highly trained dancers want to join in.’
All four of the captains are very different characters. Cheryl is often presented as the star of the show, but Oti – riding high this year after her victory with Kelvin Fletcher on Strictly – is perhaps the most talented dancer. Todrick seems to want her as a BFF too. ‘I didn’t know her at all but at the first audition she got up on stage and danced. She was like Michelle Obama on fast-forward!’
Is there competition between them? After all, they do have to battle to claim the dancers they want to mentor. ‘Definitely,’ says Matthew. ‘We look at all the photos of the contestants on a table and Oti hides them. You can see people’s true colours. Cheryl had some games going on too, manipulation games. She’s good! But they’re wonderful ladies. Last time none of us knew each other, but now the rapport is there. It’s like going back to see your friends.’
The banter factor has been high, he says. During the auditions Matthew was sporting a dubious moustache (from an acting role), and got some ribbing for it. ‘There were a lot of jokes, and a bit of a critique from Cheryl and Oti,’ he admits. ‘But I’m a big boy. I can handle it.’
Last year’s series was regarded as Cheryl’s big TV return, and pulled in a respectable 4.7 million viewers over in the UK. So was it everything she’d hoped for? ‘The show was brand new, so I didn’t have any expectations and I don’t get involved in the ratings side,’ she says. ‘I was just pleased to be part of it. There have been a few tweaks. I think Todrick is the star now, but I love giving the contestants that platform. And the prize money is £50,000. That’s a big incentive –dancers don’t get paid that much.’
She talks about seeing the young performers blossom on stage in a nurturing environment. Her entry into showbiz, as part of Girls Aloud, was a bit more brutal. It does stunt development, she agrees. ‘I was a teenager. It’s not even something you can relate to with other people, there is a lot of normality taken out of your life. Then you start to search for it, you want to find it, but you can’t because it’s such a contradiction.’
Much has been made of her turbulent relationship history but, now 36, she insists she’s happy. ‘I’m the happiest I’ve been in a lot of years. I’m at a nice stage in life where I’ve grown enough to know you can be happy. My 20s were very stressful.’
She rubbishes the idea that all the dance captains clash (there were rumours about how she and Oti did not get on during filming of the first series, although she has known Alesha Dixon, who co-presents with Jordan Banjo, for years). So are they all friends? ‘I do class them as friends. Alesha more so. We climbed Kilimanjaro together in 2009 for Comic Relief and we shared a tent, so we have a bond. I’ll do things with her and the kids. I love Oti, but our relationship is new.
‘I’ve been involved with shows where I’ve felt a lot of pressure. The nature of this is different. You’re dealing with trained dancers so they’re used to being critiqued. You don’t feel you’re going to ruin their lives if you say something critical.’
Matthew agrees. ‘We don’t have to be critical to them. If they don’t go through, the mirrors don’t open. They just walk off.’
No Mr or Mrs Nasty required then? ‘No, it’s not that sort of show, that’s why I love it,’ says Cheryl.
The Greatest Dancer, Saturday 4 January, 7pm, BBC1.
‘Oti dances like Michelle Obama on fast-forward’ TODRICK HALL