On a quick-step to Christmas... and they love it, actually
STRICTLY’S MARRIED COUPLE ALJAŽ ŠKORJANEC AND JANETTE MANRARA TELL MARION MCMULLEN HOW THEY’RE GETTING EXCITED FOR THE FESTIVITIES
Are you getting in the festive spirit for your new tour A Christmas To Remember?
Janette: I almost put my Christmas jumper on for today. I was trying to find it.
Aljaž: (laughs) Hearing the first Christmas song for the show at the end of August was a strange experience.
Janette: We are huge Christmas fans. I think because we are so far away from our families it is important to us to celebrate, so we do one year in Slovenia with Aljaž’s family and one year in Miami with mine. We try to get out and see our families for as long as we can. It means a lot to us.
Aljaž: Whenever we do any tour they all love to come. I think our parents would love to see all 14 shows on this tour. Hopefully we can make it work with one of the shows. Being a Christmas show it is all about the family celebrating. It is what we love so much.
Are you enjoying dancing together again?
Aljaž: Of course, especially for Christmas. We’ve never done it at Christmas before ... only at home with no one watching, to a Christmas carol. Now we are going to do it on stage.
For every tour we kind of have my pool of songs, Janette has her pool of songs and then there is the producer and director and we come together and find a happy medium. (Laughs) But the important thing is that we do all the songs that Janette wants to do anyway. I like my steps, I like my physical stuff, but Janette is very creative. Janette: Everybody’s favourite song is All I Want For Christmas by Mariah Carey. I think you have a lovely relationship with that song at Christmas. You get excited when you hear it every year for the first time. It’s a classic and I think that’s going to be in our show. One of Aljaž’s favourite songs is in there as well.
Aljaž: I was adamant about including the Home Alone theme song. I love it. It’s just a beautiful piece of music when you hear it on its own.
Obviously the film is brilliant. I think it’s one of those tracks that everyone recognises instantly. You see the film once and you are going to remember that song. I was really happy that we managed to squeeze it into the show.
Do you enjoy watching films on Christmas Day?
Aljaž: We are such film buffs and it is one of the things, when we have free time that we enjoy doing the most.
We are creatives at the end of the day and films and music inspire you. I think watching a great film, especially over the holidays, you do want to watch something that makes you feel lovely and warm. Films are a massive part of our Christmas.
Janette: We love Home Alone. Aljaž: ... Elf.
Janette: Love Actually. The Holiday and anything from Disney. It just makes me feel like a kid again. Frozen feels like Christmas to me. It’s set in winter. I love watching
Frozen during December.
Do you have any special Christmas traditions?
Janette: We have very different Christmases with our families. With Aljaž’s family it is very intimate and warm and it’s just us with his parents, his sister and his nieces by the fire because it’s cold in
Slovenia. But in
Miami it is the complete opposite.
You can’t get more people in my parents’ house. It’s loud and it’s hot and we dance and we play Christmas games. We are very lucky that we get a bit of both in our lives. Aljaž: And, of course, eating is a big part of Christmas and we are mentally preparing our bodies and out minds for it. I am looking forward to seven days of pretty much constant eating.
Janette: (laughs) We’ll get in tiptop shape for the show and then eat over Christmas.
You were both a big part of Strictly Come Dancing.
Was it hard to leave?
Aljaž: It was always going to be a difficult decision to leave. You work somewhere for eight, nine years and it becomes a part of you, especially when you care about what you do.
I’m always going to be a part of Strictly and Strictly is always going to be a part of me, but I have to say the new professionals are just immense. The quality they bring to the line-up of professionals... I went to see the show for the first time the other week and I was not sad, but proud. I’ve made so many memories on that dance floor with so many beautiful people.
Janette, you are now presenting Strictly Come Dancing’s spin-off show It Takes Too on BBC 2. How are you fitting everything in?
I am looking forward to seven days of pretty much constant eating. Aljaž loves Christmas food
Janette: (laughs) I’m a bit of a workaholic and It Takes Two is two days a week and it takes up half my day, so I have the other days of the week to rehearse and train and get ready for the show. When we are on tour we are not doing shows on the days I do It Takes Two. Creating the schedule was a bit tricky.
There were so many cities we would have loved to have gone to, but it was just impossible with me doing the TV. But we are going to make sure the ones we do get to we give the best, best possible show that we can.
I think lots of sleep, lots of coffee, that is how I am going to get by.
■ Janette and Aljaž’s 13-date A Christmas To Remember Tour runs until December 18. Go to achristmastoremember.co.uk for tour dates and booking details.