WAYNE SLEEP
ON THE FRIENDSHIP THAT BLOSSOMED AFTER HIS SECRET DANCE WITH DIANA
She adored dancing and, if she had lived to celebrate her 60th birthday, Diana, Princess of Wales would still be indulging that passion, her friend Wayne Sleep believes.
Diana and the ballet star got to know each other after she contacted him to coach her for a surprise performance at London’s Royal Opera House in December 1985. They forged a close bond over their shared sense of humour and a love of dance he says would still be a part of her life.
“Oh yes, definitely,” Wayne tells hello! in this exclusive interview. “She’d probably be teaching me how to keep my shoulders down and would be looking on Google to see what I was up to and if I was being naughty.”
The dancer and choreographer, who is also an expert in jazz, tap and contemporary dance, became Diana’s teacher after she persuaded him to give her clandestine lessons so she could slip on stage during a Royal Ballet gala event and surprise her husband the Prince of Wales.
“I walked in and I looked up at this towering sort of goddess above me and I thought: “This isn’t going to work; it’ll be hysterically funny,’” says Wayne, who was nine inches shorter than Diana. “Then I said: ‘You know, I’ve been up very late last night. Do you mind if I sit down?’ And she said:
‘The audience gasped; they were frozen. It took a while for them to actually believe it was really her’
‘ No, not at all, you naughty boy.’ From that moment, we started giggling and laughing.
“We had the same schoolboy humour. I was her sort-of jester, in a way, but we did get on incredibly well. We had something that clicked.
“She had natural style. She could do the high kick, she could do a pirouette and she had lovely swinging hips. She had that thing called charisma. She was charismatic and even when she spoke with that very quiet voice, it was something that pulled you in and you just wanted to embrace her all the time.”
A ROYAL PERFORMANCE
Nobody was allowed in the studio for the pair’s top-secret rehearsals and when Diana slipped out of the royal box to join Wayne on stage for their performance to Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl – Diana’s choice of music – the audience was stunned.
“They gasped; they were frozen,” Wayne says. “It took a while for them to actually believe it was really her.”
After her star turn, Diana remained friends with Wayne and used to visit for dinner and call him regularly for a chat.
“She used to come to my house and I’d cook trout in almonds,” he says. “Every birthday I used to send a silly present for the boys to the Palace. I think what I care most about is the boys, not being able to grow up with their mum.”
More than 30 years later, 72-year-old Wayne, who danced with the Royal Ballet company and has starred in West End productions including Cats as well as TV shows such as ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, BBC1’s Strictly Dance Fever and Channel 4’s Big Ballet, is still teaching dance via Goldster, a first-of-its-kind platform for the over-50s that offers live virtual classes designed to aid healthy ageing.
“I’d put on a bit of weight so Goldster is my way of getting back into the fitness regime as well as teaching other people,” he says. “I thought: ‘Let’s do it together.’”
Meanwhile, his memories of that dance with Diana will last a lifetime.
“This three-and-a-half-minute dance she decided to do just for one evening has lasted all my life,” he says.
“And I’m proud of it.”
For more information about Goldster, visit goldster.co.uk.
‘Diana had natural style. She could do the high kick, a pirouette and she had lovely swinging hips’