Here come the gırls!
Before they light up theatres with their new dance extravaganza, Strictly’s Katya, Nadiya and Janette say they’re out to prove it’s not just the boys who can pull in the crowds...
A nything the Strictly boys can do, the
Strictly girls can do too. Last year saw the hugely successful Here
Come The Boys tour featuring Aljaz Skorjanec, Giovanni Pernice and Gorka Marquez. Now it’s the turn of their female fellow pros as Janette Manrara, Nadiya Bychkova and Katya Jones embark on a roadshow in a brand new song-anddance spectacular called Viva La
Divas.
The show is a collaboration with
the original producers of Viva La
Diva, in which former Strictly judge Darcey Bussell and Katherine Jenkins paid tribute to their heroines such as Maria Callas, Edith Piaf and Doris Day through opera and ballet on a sell-out 17-date tour in 2007. In the sparkling new production the three
Strictly girls will celebrate their favourite divas from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Broadway and West End musical theatre, as well as chart-topping modern pop icons, through dance.
Janette, Nadiya and Katya will perform alongside a female singer and six male dancers, paying homage to the likes of Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Madonna, Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and more. ‘You’re going to see us dancing to the music associated with these fabulous women, such as a routine inspired by Audrey Hepburn — my personal style icon — to the music of
Moon River from Breakfast At Tiffany’s,’ says Janette, 36. ‘You’ll also learn about each of our personal stories, all told through song and dance.’
She believes the new show will debunk the theory that the Strictly women don’t get on behind the scenes. ‘For a long time I had this ambition to team up with other female dancers. I hate the idea that we’re seen as competitive,’ she says. ‘The women on Strictly are quite a special group, we’re genuine friends who look out for each other. There’s a feeling of sisterhood, something that Darcey recognised.
‘I’m a massive fan of Darcey, she’s always supported any shows that Aljaz and I have done. Now our challenge is to do the same thing as she and Katherine Jenkins did in the original show, but on a dance level. And Darcey is 100 per cent behind it.
‘I think there’s an audience out there for us, and probably a slightly different one from the people who come and see the Strictly tour. Teenage girls want to see us performing, and that excites me.’
Katya agrees, and says she sees it as a way for young women to connect with the three stars on stage. ‘We want them to see that any one of them could be like any one of us, that it’s possible to achieve your dream.’
‘The boys on the show are so popular,’ adds Nadiya. ‘But now we’re ready to demonstrate what we can do, that we can be just as strong.’
It took a while for the idea to get off the ground, though, until one night the three of them went out to dinner together. ‘And the more we talked about showing the world what the female pro dancers are capable of, the more we realised we didn’t need to look any further,’ says Katya. ‘Why didn’t the three of us put together a show and tour it?’
The appetite for all things Strictly seems bottomless, but do they ever worry they’re in danger of killing the goose that laid the golden egg? Unsurprisingly, Janette thinks not. ‘The beauty of
Strictly is that it’s so big, so popular,’ she says. ‘There’s an audience for every single one of us. I’ve done four tours in the last six years. We went to Dublin with the latest
Strictly tour, the first time it’s been there for eight years, and I have never in my life heard the roar that greeted us when we walked out on stage. The appetite is still there all right.’
Two things quickly become clear when you meet these three women together. There is clearly genuine affection and respect for each other, yet individually they could scarcely be more dissimilar. Miami-born Janette, whose family came from Cuba, is tiny, but with enough natural energy to power the country, so it’s perhaps unsurprising she’s known as the Pocket Rocket. She’s married to fellow professional Aljaz, with whom she joined Strictly in 2013.
The statuesque and blonde
Nadiya Bychkova is Ukrainian by birth but moved to Slovenia when she was 14 with her mother because the dance facilities were so much better there. She was at the same school in Ljubljana as Aljaz. ‘We trained together and travelled to the same competitions, but we never competed against each other,’ she recalls. ‘We were really good friends. So it was nice when I joined Strictly in 2017 and he was there. He made me feel very welcome.
‘It also meant there was someone I could talk to in Slovenian, although I was also able to chat to Katya in Russian. What I need to do now is learn Spanish so I can talk to Janette without other people knowing what we’re on about!’
Since joining Strictly Nadiya’s been based mostly in the UK, although she goes back to Slovenia as often as possible. She’s the only mother among the
Strictly females and her daughter Mila, by her partner, professional footballer Matija Skarabot, will be four in
June. Her mother Larisa is often on hand in both countries to help look after Mila while Nadiya is working.
She finished sixth with her first partner, EastEnders actor Davood Ghadami, but was voted off in the second week of eliminations the following year with Lee Ryan from the boyband Blue. And last year she was paired with former England goalkeeper David James, who as well as not being blessed with natural rhythm is very tall. ‘I’m tall and I was wearing heels, but even so my arms and shoulders would ache whenever we did a ballroom dance,’ she laughs. ‘He was a very willing student, though.’
After she joined the show, much was made of the fact that she’d posed naked for Playboy magazine in 2015, but Nadiya is unrepentant.
I HATE THE IDEA THAT WE’RE SEEN AS COMPETITIVE. THE STRICTLY WOMEN ARE FRIENDS WHO LOOK OUT FOR EACH OTHER JANETTE I ONLY SAID YES TO POSING FOR PLAYBOY AFTER I’D ACHIEVED MY AMBITION – TO BECOME WORLD DANCE CHAMPION NADIYA
I DON’T HAVE TO JUSTIFY MYSELF, IT’S MY LIFE. WHAT HAPPENED WITH SEANN MADE ME REALISE WHAT I’M MADE OF KATYA
‘The same photographer asked me again and again if I’d do it and I always said no,’ she explains. ‘My sole ambition was to become world dance champion. When I was lucky enough to have achieved that, I finally said yes, and I’m proud of the pictures he took. We searched Cuba for the best locations and I think they’re beautiful.’
Katya Jones, nee Sokolova, was born and raised in Russia but moved to England in 2008 to pursue her love of competitive dance. She worked with the same coach as Neil Jones, who partnered ex-footballer Alex Scott in last year’s show, and when he put the two of them together a winning partnership was born. ‘Neil and I were four times British
National Ballroom champions, three times World Latin champions. And yet outside the world of dance, no one knew who we were,’ she says. They married in 2013 and in 2016 they both joined Strictly,
Katya partnered with Ed Balls and Neil was part of the ensemble. In her second year she won the show with Joe McFadden, but an illicit kiss with her partner Seann Walsh in 2018 saw her splashed all over the papers. She and Neil formally parted last August and Katya now lives alone, although they still dance together.
‘We know each other inside out,’ she says. ‘It could have been awkward but we came to the realisation that we were better off as friends. Would we have got to the point of parting anyway? Who knows? But I think we were drifting apart romantically speaking, so perhaps yes.’
Looking back now, how does she feel about being front page news for all the wrong reasons? ‘It was unnecessary. It was overwhelming. But you know what? What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ So no regrets? ‘Whatever happened, happened. I don’t have to justify myself. It’s my life, my business. It made me realise who I am, what I’m made of.’
What about the internet trolls who attacked her at the time? ‘What about them?’ she says. ‘My partner last year Mike Bushell got trolls telling him he was a dead man if he didn’t leave Strictly.
They’re cowards who hide behind their anonymity. But I challenged each and every one of them if I could. You can either become the victim of a situation or you can grow from it. And I grew.’
Is she still in touch with him? ‘With Seann?’ She snorts. ‘No, I’m no longer in touch with Seann.’ And there’s no man in her life right now? ‘Neil and I had such a long relationship that it’s quite hard to move on that quickly.’
Janette chips in. ‘Everything in life happens for a reason, although that reason isn’t always clear at the time. But being one of Katya’s best friends, I think I can say I’ve never seen her in a better place emotionally. She’s dancing better than ever.’ So, hand on heart, is Janette absolutely sure that her two fellow professionals will be greeted with open arms by audiences? ‘I did ask myself those questions before I agreed to do the tour,’ she replies. ‘But why is posing for Playboy a bad thing? It shouldn’t be looked down upon. And yes, Katya had a hard time as a result of what she did. But I really admire and respect both of them for holding their heads up high and being resilient. The three of us are united. And now we’re going to have a ball!’