Bill’s a step ahead thanks to childhood dance lessons
BILL Bailey has caused a storm after admitting to having dance lessons as a teenager.
The comedian, who grew up in Keynsham, has confessed to having “ballroom dancing lessons” as a youngster and learning “the waltz, the foxtrot and the quickstep”, according to the Daily Mirror.
He’s appearing in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, which has tough rules of all contestants being novices on the dance floor.
Writing in his new book, the 55-year-old said: “When I was a teenager I had ballroom dancing lessons.
“There was a dance school across the road from our house and I learned the waltz, the foxtrot and the quickstep.”
In previous years, Strictly had defended contestants with apparent dance experience by saying they didn’t have “ballroom or Latin” experience.
But in this case Bill is all set to compete on the BBC show, where he has been partnered with previous champion Oti Mabuse.
In his book, Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to Happiness, the star added of his lessons: “The teacher was a tiny, petite woman with a huge passion for The Dance.
“It was a marvellous and quite surreal experience to whirl around a dance hall with this ball of terpsichorean energy.
“Bless her and all those she must have enlightened to her world. I can see the appeal of the foxtrot, the tango, the rhumba, the formal nature of it all, the practised moved, the precision, but it’s not really me.”
A Strictly source defended Bill’s inclusion in the BBC show despite
having ballroom training.
The insider stressed he only had two lessons and that it was 40 years ago.
The source said: “If he was joining Strictly straight after having had ballroom lessons as a teenager, or he had a professional ballroom
background, it would have been very different. There is no hard and fast rule – it’s all on a case by case basis.”
Born in Keysham, Bill went to King Edward’s School and played his first stand-up gig as a teenager at Moles nightclub in Bath.