Flirty Dancing’s sweet relief
While meeting a potential love interest through a choreographed dance on television sounds like hell, these Flirty Dancing folks positively beam, writes Anna Murray.
Idon’t want to sound like a Smug Married but it has been a long time since I have been in the dating game. I am led to believe it is quite the hellscape these days. And it does not help that TV networks have been gleefully adding to the humiliating and/or horrific ways in which we try to find a significant other. We have had the Bachelor and Bachelorette franchises that have chewed up and spat out a slew of romantic hopefuls.
The likes of Love Island and Heartbreak Island have given us brutal, live-action Tinder sequences. And Naked Attraction has seen contestants choosing a date based on a quick once-over of their potential partner’s nether regions.
But the latest dating show experiment to arrive at Three – Flirty Dancing – does not dabble in such cruel practices. In fact, it might just be the sweetest (and silliest) take on the genre yet.
Premiering in New Zealand later this month, the British series takes the concept of a couple’s first dance to a whole new level. Each episode sees a pair of hopeful singletons separately learning the steps to the same dance over four days.
They then meet for the first time in some beautiful public spot to perform the dance they have learned – and are not allowed to speak a word to each other throughout.
Holding the singles’ hands throughout this whole crazy process is presenter Ashley Banjo, a man who became a household name in Britain after his dance group, Diversity, won Britain’s Got Talent.
As well as choreographing a dance for a couple of strangers to perform together, Banjo is patient and kind as he guides his nervous singletons towards love (hopefully).
In Flirty Dancing’s first episode he tries to find that special dance partner for two of England’s more judgmental 30-somethings, as well as for two men who have been single for years but still have hopes of finding Mr Right.
While quick-to-judge ‘‘couple’’ Hannah and James prepare for an ever-so-slightlyawkward routine on a Bristol rooftop, Luke and Dan are given an energetic and undeniably fun dance number in a London art gallery to work with.
Each contestant gamely commits to learning their dance. Even more remarkably, they actually turn up on the big day to perform it with a complete stranger.
And while meeting a potential love interest through a choreographed dance on TV sounds like my own personal nightmare, these Flirty Dancing folks positively beam through the whole experience.
You might say any feelings these duos have towards each other during their dance could just be a bonding over the shared trauma of the whole experience.
It is certainly something for each participant to weigh up as they decide whether to meet (and actually talk to) their dance partner again for a more traditional date later on in the show.
So, will it be love at first dance?
Who knows but these wallflowers are certainly giving it their best – and most charming – shot.