I still love dancing but I’ll stay Strictly on the sidelines for now
TV PRESENTER ON WHY THERE’S NO CHA-CHANCE HE’LL GET BACK UNDER THE FAMOUS GLITTERBALL Show’s 2016 winner is happy to sit out waltzes and host the live tour
As the first live shows of Strictly Come Dancing get under way, it would be no surprise if reigning champion Ore Oduba’s feet were itching to be back on the dancefloor.
The TV presenter upset bookmakers’ predictions to waltz off with the glitterball trophy last year when he and his professional partner, Joanne Clifton, beat former Eternal singer Louise Redknapp and Hollyoaks actor Danny Mac in a finale watched by 13.1million viewers. But returning to the dance floor for the launch show a fortnight ago, repeating their winning jive to Runaway Baby by Bruno Mars, was quite enough for the 31-year-old. He said: “Would I go back and do it again? No. A definite no. I gave that show so much last year, I just don’t think I would have it in me to do it again. I was texting Danny Mac just the other day and he was saying exactly the same thing. It took out so much. We’ve got no energy left for it. We’re happy to sit back and watch. “When we did the launch show, it was such an honour. You rewind 12 months and look at the new cast and you know what it is like to be that anxious and that nervous but who knows where you can go from there? We were there doing one of our favourite dances again, for pleasure. “When we walked off the f loor having passed the baton over, I said, ‘ You know what, the whole experience could not have gone any better.’ I can put a pin in that and say thank you so much.” He met this year’s crop of celebrities – who include Scots
Susan Calman and Joe McFadden, Sunday Mail Great Scot supporter Gemma Atkinson, the Reverend Richard Coles, chef Simon Rimmer, magician’s assistant Debbie McGee and singer Alexandra Burke – at the launch.
But having walked and danced in their shoes 12 months ago, he won’t pick favourites.
He said: “Names are not a help because I know when names come up in a sentence and it’s reported in the press, you can’t help but notice and then they say something good or bad and you go, ‘Ooh, that’s pressure.’
“Just let them dance and then we can start picking out names. I think they all have a lot of potential. You can see that from the group dance. I’ve spent a bit of time with them at the launch show and what’s fun for me is they have this opportunity to really push themselves and they have no idea where that could lead them. That’s exciting.”
Ore is the perfect example of what can happen. He’s now part of the Strictly set-up and will present the first official BBC Strictly Come Dancing podcast to accompany this year’s show.
The free 13-part podcast will be released every Monday, starting tomorrow, and promises to provide fans with a backstage pass to the show including interviews with contestants, professional dancers, judges, experts, fans and those working behind the scenes. He’s also just been announced as the host of the Strictly Come Dancing Live UK tour, which is swinging back on the road in January for 30 arena shows across the country, including Glasgow’s SSE Hydro.
He said: “This show has become my life. Maybe my wife didn’t realise that, when we signed up for a four- month show which finished in December 2016, we were still going to be talking about it in December 2018. But I am genuinely so excited about it.
“Winning the series in 2016, I felt like Charlie from the chocolate factory with my golden ticket. It was the most unforgettable experience and a dream come true. I’m so thrilled that I get to keep that dream alive and take part in the Strictly live tour once again, this time as host.”
Strictly has had a major impact on his life, not least that he has taken the catchphrase of former judge Len Goodman – “keep dancing” – to heart. He’s going to classes at Pineapple Studios, initially with Jo Clifton and now on his own.
He said: “I always said when the show was going from week to week, it would be such a shame if you learned to dance from the best in the world and you were to discontinue it.
“But the show came and went, the live tour ended and dancing became less easy to do. You don’t have the partner, you don’t have the ballroom, you don’tdon t have the training facilities, you’ve got nothing.ng. People were asking me if I was still dancing andnd I was getting fed up with myself saying no. I thought, ‘ This isn’t right.’ So I was hanging out with Jo in Manchester when she was doing Thoroughly Modern Millie and I said it was really starting to get to me and she said, ‘ Well we’ve got to go to something about it.’
“Next week, we went to a dance class and then she had to carry on with her work and sort of took the stabilisers off and there I was, in a dance class in central London learning all these new styles of dancing I have not done before.
“It was like going back to the start, the whole intimidatory feeling that I had when I started Strictly, going back to the fundamentals and really starting the dancing again but I have been going every week pretty much.
“What is great about dance, about these studios as well, is you are just part of a group. Everybody has a respect for everybody else and that is the thing about dance, it just unites people. Everybody wants everybody else to do a good number.
“Strictly hasn’t put any extra pressure on me, I just want to get better myself. Having said that, maybe I do occasionally go to the back of class with a cap on just in case that spin to the left goes a little bit awry. There’s just a chance there is someone saying, ‘ That’s theteguywguywhoowowon Strictly Stcty – seriously?’”seousy? The e platform Strictly has given him has led to new opportunities. Ore, who started off presenting Newsround and has hosted coverage of the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, will also be presenting the star-studded National Lottery awards on BBC1 on Wednesday.
If the impact on him has been overwhelmingly positive, he’s also aware that it has at times not been easy for his wife, Portia, who is pregnant with their first child.
The families and friends of the current crop of Strictly contestants will be as exhausted as their partners doing the dancing, if not more so.
He said: “Even the word ‘ dance’ is probably enough to bring Portia out in cold sweats. It is actually harder for friends and family, I think. It is out of their control. You are sitting there for hours on end. Your guy or gal is out there and you are just hoping they don’t muck it up, slip or fall over but you can’t do anything about it.
“Portia needed a holiday more than I did by the end. All of our family and friends got taken on this rollercoaster and they just have to hold on. I think she is just getting over that.
“But still, I come home from a class and I might just pick her up and twirl her around. I don’t necessarily know what I’m doing but we do move around the house from time to time.” Strictly Come Dancing The Live Tour 2017 is at Glasgow SSE Hydro, February 2-4, 2018. To book tickets contactc the venue or call 0844 875 8758.
I’m so thrilled I get to keep that dream alive and take part in the live tour