STRICTLY STAR AMY – BY HER PROUD PARENTS
Proud parents on TV hit’s Welsh pro
SHE’S the only Welsh (British, even) female professional on Strictly Come Dancing and Amy Dowden is doing a damn fine job of representing her country every Saturday night in front of millions of viewers. Her dedication, determination and sheer talent talen spills out from the screen and so does her sense of fun and down-to-earth qualities. Those last two traits are no surprise when you consider the warm and friend friendly welcome you get at the home of her parents, Gillian and Richard, within a stone’s throw of the Caerphilly’s epic castle. The couple, who have two other children, Amy’s twin sister, Rebecca, and son, Lloyd, are exceptionally proud of their daughter, who is currently paired with actor Danny John-Jules on the show that’s trouncing The X Factor in the ratings. Amy and Danny wowed judges with the their jive two weeks ago, gaining this series’ first 10 points from the judges, and the Welsh dancer and the Red Dwarf star are now in the final half of the competition. Both Both Strictly fans, Gillian and andd Richard have watched the show since s it started in 2004 but never thought their dance-loving daughter would one day be part of it. Now, as well as the pictures of the three siblings adorning ad their cosy living room, there are framed pictures of Amy and her celebrity partners, Brian Conley, from last year, and John-Jules. “We always thought, when they were younger, would the show still be going?” Gillian said, as she explained how the family would gather to watch the show every Saturday because of Amy and Rebecca’s interest in in ballroom and Latin dances. “Some of the dancers in the early years were their the idols, like Karen Hardy, Matthew and Nicole Cutler. We bought them the Burn the Floor dance video which they loved watching, so to be involved with working with them and the show later in life was a dream.”
As a child Amy was “like a bottle of pop”, according to Gillian, and could barely sit still but all that energy was about to be put to good use after she decided to enter a dance competition while the family were on a caravan holiday in Cornwall on Amy’s eighth birthday.
Gillian added: “There was the disco competition night, she went up and won and was invited back for the end of the season.
“The rest of the children had obviously been to dancing classes and were in proper costumes.
“Amy hadn’t been to any classes and wore her best outfit and she loved it. She came away that night and she said she wanted to start dancing.
“I thought it would just be an hour on the Saturday, I think after a few weeks the i teacher said to me that with the N right partner she could go to the top as she’s got something you can’t teach.”
From that point on, Amy’s life was all about dancing. She even changed schools in 2002 to attend St Cenydd’s because it had a new purpose-built dance studio, travelled to Blackpool for competitions and practised any moment she could. She and Rebecca, who went on to become a midwife, also trained at Shappelle’s Dance Studio in Ystrad Mynach.
“It took a lot of our spare time, at least three school nights and a Saturday and if there was a competition that would be on a Sunday,” Gillian said.
“She wasn’t interested in doing other activities. If there were children’s parties it never bothered her; if everyone was going swimming she’d rather be in the dance studio. She just wanted to focus on what she wanted to be doing.
“You need the talent but you also need the dedication and she had both.”
It was at her first competition in Blackpool in 1999 that Amy decided the profession was for her.
“That first day in the ballroom she said, ‘ This is what I want to do, I want to be a dancer,’” said Gillian, an accounts administrator.
“There were dancers from all over the world and they were all immaculate and I thought she’d never end up in that sort of world, it was so extreme from what she was used to.
“But she always had that dream and she followed it.”
Richard remembers that first competition well: “When she first went to Blackpool as a little girl we thought we’d support her in this, whether it takes off or not. I was amazed at all the other parents, how competitive and serious they were, it was a completely different experience from anything we’d done before.”
Amy got three As and a C at A-level but knew that her future was dancing and chose not to go to university like her siblings. Instead, she trained for competitions in the Midlands every weekend and once in the week where she danced with then partner Tom Parkes.
At the age of 21, Amy started dancing with her current partner, and fiance, Ben Jones, and they went on to win the British Championships in November 2016.
But their success wasn’t without hard graft. Amy worked part-time at an office in Caerphilly and when she eventually moved up to the Midlands she taught dance lessons at schools and zumba classes. The pair even flew to LA to be taught by respected dance teacher Richard Porter every eight weeks during training. The pair also run their own dance studio, Art in Motion Dance Academy in Dudley. But it paid off, and then some. A phone call informed her she had won a place on the Strictly professionals’ team, the show her parents had watched avidly for 14 years.
“You just can’t explain the excitement, and you know you’ve got to keep it quiet,” shared Gillian.
“It was the longest two weeks ever. I just couldn’t tell anyone. Luckily when she called I was on my own in the office.”
Richard added: “I got in the van to go onto my next job and I had quite a few missed calls from Amy and from Gillian, and then as I’m looking the phone rang and it was Amy. She told me what was going on. I did cry.”
From watching it every week on the telly, Richard and Gillian were now nipping up to London to watch the launches, where celebrities are paired with their professional partners, and sitting in the audience at live shows and mingling with famous faces backstage.
“That’s when it really hit home – we knew it was real then,” said Gillian.
“It was a surreal experience, seeing the daughter we knew in the middle of all the other professionals that had become household names. She just fitted in and absolutely loved it.”
So can Amy and Danny win? Amy’s parents won’t be drawn on giving a definite answer, but Gillian did say: “It’d be nice if she did. It would be the icing on the cake.”
Richard said: “There’s some days we have to pinch ourselves. I go to a lot of people’s homes as part of my job and it comes up in conversation and I say, ‘Oh my daughter’s on Strictly,’ and they ask what she does. I say, ‘She’s a professional dancer.’ “They reply, ‘The Welsh one?’” “It’s hard to put into words, but we’re so very proud.”