Connell Cruise in love with dance
Fleet-footed singer Connell Cruise has a new dance partner: his wife, Sarah!
IT’S the start of a whole new journey – one that will hopefully see him and the love of his life foxtrotting and tangoing their way around professional ballroom dance floors of the world. This, Connell Cruise says, is his goal after his victorious stint in Dancing with the Stars SA left him well and truly bitten by the dancing bug. The 30-year-old singer and his dance partner, Marcella Solimeo, won the debut season of the hit show after an epic three-round dance-off, and Connell is still pinching himself to make sure he isn’t dreaming.
“It’s surreal,” he says. “I keep looking at my Twitter and Instagram feeds just to believe it happened.”
Week after week the pair practised their moves for up to 12 hours a day, and Sunday after Sunday they waltzed and cha-cha’d their way into the hearts of the judges and voting public.
But Marcella wasn’t the only woman who helped him emerge victorious, Connell says. His wife and No 1 fan, Sarah Kingsburgh (29), wasn’t only behind him every step of the way, she helped him perfect those all-important steps too.
“I practised a lot of my moves after rehearsals at home with Sarah,” Connell says.
“Yeah, a lot of it happened in the kitchen,” Sarah adds.
As soon as the show was over, Connell booked a few days in a spa for him and Sarah and they’re now looking forward to making up for the time they spent apart because of his punishing dance schedule.
“We’re going to drink a lot of wine, sit around and relax,” he says. “We sacrificed a lot and I know it was tough for her. Now we’re sitting at the end of the four months with a trophy in our apartment and with so much love from South Africans. I couldn’t have asked for a better ending.”
Yet dancing isn’t all Connell wants to talk about today. He loves nothing more than sharing the story of how he met his American wife and how he proposed.
Sarah, he says, is one star he wants to dance with in every sphere of life for all eternity.
THE couple are chatting to us in their stylish flat in Northcliff, Johannesburg, with the smooth sounds of Miles Davis playing in the background. The walls of their home are lined with photographs and paintings, and from their herb-filled balcony they’re spoilt with beautiful views of the city.
A painting of Chinatown in New York takes pride of place in one corner of the lounge. It depicts the exact spot where the lovebirds met three years ago.
“It’s funny,” Sarah says. “We were walking through a market in New York one day and came across this painting and I said to Connell, ‘Isn’t that the street where we met?’ And I knew we had to get it.”
Connell and Sarah met in 2015 via the dating app Bumble. He was in New York at the time, having signed with Island Records, and Sarah, who’s from New York, was working as a publicist at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
She concedes she had her reservations when she was matched with Connell but decided to “give him a try” and they met for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Chinatown.
“I told my friends where I was going to be, his name, his telephone number – because with dating apps you never know what you’re going to get,” she says.
But they hit it off immediately and Connell knew from the get-go that Sarah was special. “Here’s this South African in New York City and I saw this beautiful girl who wanted to go on a date with me. It was magic,” he says.
They hit it off instantly – but three months into dating Connell had to go on a radio tour across the USA. So he started writing to Sarah the old-fashioned way – on postcards – and nine months later they met up in SAa to spend time with Connell’s family.
“I thought about her all the time,” he says. “I told my mom that Sarah was the woman I wanted to marry. Soon after I started looking at rings. On 5 August she flew to SA – a year to the day after we’d met.”
Sarah knew a proposal was coming when she realised one of her rings was missing from her jewellery box. Connell had “borrowed” it to size an engagement ring and on the last night of their weeklong stay in South Africa he proposed under the stars at Madikwe Safari Lodge.
Their wedding was as unconventional as their courtship. A month after the proposal they decided they wanted to get married without frills or fuss, so they contacted their families – Connell’s parents and brother in SA and Sarah’s family in Long Island, New York – and closest friends, and they all travelled to New York City to witness the couple exchange vows at City Hall in Manhattan.
“We gave our loved ones a week’s notice to just come and be with us,” Sarah recalls.
She bought her wedding dress at New York’s Macy’s department store and after the formalities the party headed to an Italian restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper East Side where they celebrated with food, wine, cake – and a first dance.
MR AND Mrs Kingsburgh – which is Connell’s real surname – returned in August last year to SA, where they had a white wedding at the Red Ivory lodge in Pilanesberg, North West, before settling in Jozi.
“I love where we’re at,” Sarah says, gazing at her husband. “I just want to eat good food, drink good wine, travel around and be with you.”
“We’re really very happy,” he adds. “We want kids for sure.”
Sarah works as a yoga instructor at various studios around town, while Connell immerses himself in music.
It was hard to find time to make music when he was on Dancing with the Stars, he says, but he wouldn’t have had it any other way. “Marcella was a fantastic partner and teacher,” he says. “She inspired me. We had a great work ethic and great chemistry. We knew when to have fun and when to get down to work.”
Marcella has won many regional titles and represented SA in the Blackpool British Open Dance Festival, danced in the US in the live dance show Burn the Floor and reached the top 24 of So You Think You Can Dance SA.
As for Connell, before the TV show his only experience was tap dancing at school and trying flamenco dancing, which his grandmother taught him as a little boy. Now no step is too difficult for twinkle-toed Connell and he plans to expand his skills beyond the ballroom floor.
“I was recently nominated for a South African Music Award [Sama] for my album Barely Breathing,” he says. The awards ceremony is in June. “I want to start working on my next album now and come up with a music video in which Marcella dances.”
Right now everyone wants a piece of TV’s award-winning dance duo. “People have been calling my agent to book Marcella and me to dance,” Connell says. “I keep having to remind my agent that I’m a singer. It’s so awesome.”
The next step is for Marcella to teach Connell and Sarah everything she knows “so we can go pro”, he says excitedly.
“This is just the beginning.”
‘We’re going to drink a lot of wine, sit around and relax. We sacrificed a lot’