0:00

Professional dancer , choreographer , strictly

0:02

legend .

0:03

Ian Waite . Welcome to the show . Thank you very much

0:05

. That's a nice entrance .

0:08

Simple , but as long as it includes the word legend

0:10

.

0:10

Yeah , yeah , Actually you should say

0:12

that I'm just about to start a tour

0:15

called Legends of the Dance Floor , so

0:18

it's quite appropriate , actually Perfect .

0:21

Well , I guess we're going to be talking a lot about

0:23

dancing , so let's , uh , let's rewind to

0:25

the beginning and uh , and , and tell me how

0:27

dancing came into your life and and how

0:29

it all began yeah , I mean it's a

0:32

.

0:32

It's a funny story actually because

0:34

, um , uh

0:36

, it's when my parents got divorced

0:38

, um great story you

0:41

were so you were so happy you started

0:43

to started doing a jig .

0:44

No , my .

0:45

My parents got divorced . I was , I was 10

0:48

years old and my brother was five , and

0:51

my dad was told that there were lots of single

0:53

women at the local dance school . So

0:56

he thought , hey up , I'm gonna go along there because obviously

0:58

newly divorced um

1:00

, he started going to the local dance school and

1:03

he loved it so much he was going four or five

1:05

times a week . They had a social night

1:07

. They would go for drinks

1:09

afterwards in the pub . So he started

1:11

to get to know everybody really well and he said okay

1:14

, ian , I want you to go with your brother

1:16

to like junior classes

1:18

. And I said , dad , I'm not doing

1:20

that . I was playing rugby and football

1:23

. The last thing I wanted to do is go and dance

1:25

, because I thought my friends would take the mickey

1:27

out of me , to be quite honest . So

1:29

he said okay , well , just take your brother

1:31

, then your brother will dance and you'll just wait

1:34

there and watch him . So

1:36

I used to take my brother I

1:38

think it was like a Tuesday early evening

1:40

, like five o'clock on a Tuesday , and

1:42

so my brother used to dance and I used to watch

1:44

, and then I was there for about three weeks , got to know

1:46

people , and then one day

1:50

the teacher said right , ian

1:52

, get up and do

1:54

this . Gay Gordons , is

1:58

that where it ?

1:59

all began , and that was it .

2:00

And that was it . The rest is history . But

2:03

yeah , I sort of I

2:06

don't know whether it was straight away

2:08

it was instant that I loved the dancing

2:10

but I

2:13

started to learn and then I

2:15

started to do some competitions and

2:18

in those competitions I started to win

2:20

. Now I wasn't

2:22

sure whether it was the competitive element that I loved

2:24

because I was very sporty , or

2:26

it was actually performing in front

2:28

of an audience and getting

2:30

them cheering for you and dancing

2:32

in front of an audience , um , and

2:35

that was it . I was , I was kind of hooked

2:37

and I um , actually

2:39

then my , my dad married my

2:41

dance teacher , so so it

2:44

was cheap dance lessons after that

2:46

.

2:46

Did you still keep up with the rugby and the other sports ?

2:51

I don't think I did . I remember at one

2:53

point classes

2:55

were on a Saturday morning and

2:57

my dad had to write a letter to my PE teacher

2:59

and he wasn't very happy . Ian

3:02

won't be able to be in the rugby team or the football team because

3:04

he's got dance class on a Saturday , and he wasn't very happy . Uh , ian won't be able to be in the rugby team or the football team because he's got dance class

3:06

on a Saturday and he wasn't very happy

3:08

. I think now the teacher's

3:10

probably thinking , oh , he did all right , I suppose

3:12

yeah , and when ?

3:14

when did you start to take it like

3:16

very seriously ? And when ? When did you think this might

3:18

become a career ?

3:20

well , from a very early age , um , my

3:22

, my stepmother because she married

3:24

my dad started to take me up to London

3:27

to the top coaches in the world . I was probably

3:29

14 , 15 . And that was quite unusual

3:31

because those top coaches the

3:34

likes of Nina Hunt , bill

3:36

Irvin , walter Laird , these were like the

3:38

top coaches in the world . They

3:40

never took youth

3:43

, they never took under 16-year-olds

3:46

, they were only taking adults . So

3:48

to be taking me at the age of 14 , 15

3:50

was pretty unusual . But

3:53

what that did was I started to really

3:56

get better really quickly

3:58

and by the time I was 18 , I was European

4:00

champion . And that was all because

4:02

I'd been going to those top coaches from the age

4:04

of 14 and it wouldn't have happened if

4:06

it wasn't for my stepmother taking me up there . So

4:09

when I won the Europeans , I

4:11

was , um , uh

4:13

, I kind of thought , okay , because

4:15

I started my A-levels and

4:18

and then I was like , dad , I don't want to do this

4:20

, I , I can't , even you , you

4:23

know it's not for me doing A-levels , I'm

4:25

just going to concentrate on my dancing . I think , because I'd

4:27

just won the European . He was

4:29

like , okay , just concentrate on your dancing , you

4:32

can work for me . Because he had his own

4:34

precision engineering company , and

4:37

so I used to basically run his office

4:39

for him when I was there , because

4:42

I was dancing competitions abroad in

4:44

Germany and I was up

4:47

in London having dance lessons all the time

4:49

with the top coaches .

4:50

Hey , matt , here just interrupting myself

4:52

to say can you believe that 62%

4:55

of listeners to this podcast don't actually

4:57

subscribe ? Now , I know you like it because

4:59

you listen to it , you come back and the stats

5:01

are great , but 62% of you don't

5:03

actually subscribe . So make sure you subscribe

5:05

, whether that's on YouTube , spotify , itunes

5:08

, wherever you listen to your content or watch your

5:10

content , and make sure that you never miss

5:12

a future episode . Well , I was going to say , as a

5:14

17 , 18 year old who I guess technically

5:17

you know , would still be in in some kind of

5:19

education at this point , how time consuming

5:21

was it ? I mean , what would a , what would a typical

5:24

day or week look like in terms of training

5:27

, competitions , travel ?

5:28

I would . I would probably train about four

5:31

or five times a week , in the

5:33

evenings a couple of hours , and then , yeah

5:36

, for a couple of hours , and then in the daytime I

5:38

would have probably

5:40

two lessons in London a week in the daytime

5:42

, so that would take me away from

5:44

work , and then on the weekends

5:47

I would always be somewhere , like

5:49

representing England in the World Championships

5:52

or the European Championships in Germany

5:54

. I literally travelled from

5:56

the age of 16 till I was 21 . I

5:59

went to every country there was . I went to

6:01

Israel , I went to Finland , canada

6:04

, uh , you know . Japan , all

6:07

of these places , australia , um , representing

6:10

england , uh . So it

6:12

was an amazing time because , um

6:15

, you know , I was doing

6:17

what I loved and representing

6:19

my country . So , um , by

6:21

the time I was , I suppose I was 21

6:23

, I was in the top six in the world

6:27

in the adult , you know , because before

6:29

then , when I won the European , it was like youth , I was

6:31

under 18 .

6:33

And it was just a particular style of dancing

6:35

you were doing at this point .

6:37

Well , I focused on

6:40

originally it was 10 dance , but

6:42

I was always getting better results in the Latin because

6:44

I'm so tall . I'm six foot four

6:46

. My partner was probably

6:49

five six , so there was

6:51

quite a height difference . So when there's a height

6:53

difference like that in ballroom , it

6:55

does affect your results because it doesn't matter how

6:57

good you are , they're always going to see that

6:59

height difference . So you need to be more

7:02

closer to the same height and why

7:04

don't you switch them out for someone

7:06

well ? yes

7:08

, a good question . Good question . I

7:10

don't think there wasn't the

7:12

the dance , there wasn't the dance

7:15

partner available , okay , so there was no tall

7:17

girl to say oh you know

7:19

, I , I think I can . So I had to kind of specialize in the latin american

7:21

, because that was more acceptable , that you had a height difference , and and in terms of American

7:23

, because that was more acceptable , that you had a height

7:25

difference .

7:26

And in terms of the partner , when you

7:28

have a partner that's like it's

7:30

almost like a dance marriage , is it ? You

7:32

know , you don't chop and change . It's

7:34

not like I'm doing this competition with you , I'm doing this

7:36

with you . You pick a partner , you train

7:38

together , you compete together , you are

7:40

a team .

7:46

Well , you are , you are a team . Well , exactly that . I mean , we danced together for 10 years and

7:48

we were like a team , we were like brother and

7:50

sister . I mean it is , it is . I mean

7:52

, now I look back I think it's funny because

7:54

, like on strictly , everybody dances with

7:56

everybody . The pros mix around and dance

7:58

with somebody different each year and

8:01

and it's not quite so um , you

8:04

don't have to specifically dance with one

8:06

person , and a lot of the pros have tried

8:09

to do that because they tried to make their name on

8:11

their own rather than having

8:13

that dance particular dance partner

8:15

. You know , um , I've

8:18

always had quite long-term dance partners

8:20

. Um , even on strictly , I

8:23

danced with camilla Dalla up for quite a while , and

8:25

then then I danced with Natalie Lowe , and those

8:27

were my main partners , um

8:30

, so , uh , I

8:32

think it's something which you know

8:34

is from the dance world

8:36

and you don't chop and change

8:39

in the earlier days

8:41

I guess your your teenage years

8:43

and kind of coming up to being that top

8:45

six in the world how did the funding

8:47

side of it work ?

8:49

I mean , was it something expensive for

8:51

you to do , or do you get some kind of sponsorship

8:54

, or is it prize money ? How do you put yourself

8:56

through it ?

8:58

Well , I was lucky because my

9:01

dad , sort

9:03

of he , had the money to pay for my

9:05

dance lessons , um . Had

9:08

that not been available , I

9:11

don't know whether I'd be here today . But

9:14

um , and also the dance

9:16

partner that I was with , her parents were

9:18

quite well off and they were , they were happy

9:20

to pay for all the dance lessons and all the practice

9:22

and all the traveling that we were doing

9:25

. So , um , so that

9:27

was another element of it . Actually , about getting

9:29

another dance partner is whether

9:31

you can find a dance partner that can facilitate

9:33

that and and have the money to to

9:36

do it . It's not , it's not a cheap

9:38

hobby at all . You know the the dance

9:40

lessons are expensive and um

9:42

, and and if .

9:44

if someone can't afford to do it from their own family

9:46

resources , I mean , is there

9:48

sponsorship , some monies involved

9:50

, or does often

9:52

if you have money but your partner didn't

9:54

, you may fund them ?

9:56

I mean , are there any , I guess , recognised

9:58

routes that people I know in other countries

10:01

they have a lot of support if

10:04

you're quite good and quite talented . In

10:06

the UK I don't think we do . I don't think

10:08

we have much sponsorship or support

10:10

. We do have associations like

10:13

the English Amateur Association and

10:15

I think they do support the amateurs , so

10:17

there is certain funding in there for

10:21

talented people coming up

10:23

, but as far as I know we don't really

10:25

have very much sponsorship in in

10:28

ballroom dancing and that's quite an issue really

10:30

because , um , you know , other

10:32

sports do get

10:34

lots of funding for up-and-coming talent

10:37

, you know . So it's a bit of a shame

10:39

really and how slash

10:41

.

10:41

When did you become professional and when did this go

10:43

from just I guess you know fun amateur

10:45

competitions to this was your career . This

10:47

is how you're going to get paid .

10:49

So I split my long-term partner

10:52

when we were about

10:55

24 .

10:55

Why .

10:59

She got a boyfriend . Did you

11:01

get jealous ? No , I didn't get jealous

11:03

. I didn't get jealous . No , she

11:05

got a boyfriend and and they

11:07

started going out with each other . We , we were training

11:10

less , so we were only doing twice a week . And

11:13

, um , you know , when

11:15

we were 21 22 , we're in the final of

11:17

the top six and then we went out of the

11:19

final . That's very rare , nobody ever

11:21

does that . So to go out of

11:23

the final , and I , we did that for two

11:25

years and I was like I

11:27

need , we need to change something here , I need

11:29

to move on . Because you were , you , blaming her for

11:31

it . Um , I wouldn't , I wouldn't

11:33

say blaming her for it . I , I think it was just

11:36

, um , that , you know

11:38

, at that point , when we were in the final

11:40

, that's when we needed to up it . You

11:43

know , we needed to up it . We need to be training five

11:45

times a week . We needed to , you know

11:47

. And and I felt

11:49

like she decided that , oh

11:52

, you know , I don't want to do this , I've

11:54

got the boyfriend . I don't really want to

11:56

. She didn't take it seriously anymore and

11:58

that's why we went out of the final . That's why we went out

12:00

of the top six . Um , you

12:02

know , looking back , it's very

12:04

cutthroat because you just think , wow , you

12:06

know , maybe if you have had

12:08

a conversation and said , listen , you've got choice

12:10

. Either you , either we start going

12:13

for it and getting back in that final , or

12:16

I'm gonna split . But at the time I was like

12:18

, right , no , that's it , I'm , I'm going , you

12:20

know um .

12:21

Did you guys thought , did you guys maintain contact

12:24

for like ?

12:24

yeah , yeah , we're still really great friends now

12:26

. Um , there's only three days between

12:29

us in our age , um and

12:31

uh , and we've always been close

12:34

.

12:34

You know she married that guy I was gonna say did

12:36

she stay with him ?

12:37

marry with him , but then she divorced him

12:39

and now she's happily married again with

12:41

twins and stuff . So yeah

12:44

, I think she's happy

12:46

with her life choices . You know , and

12:49

although you know it probably

12:52

, you know you see me on like

12:54

Strictly and then think , oh wow , you

12:56

know , if only

12:58

I'd carried on doing it . You know in a way

13:00

, but

13:03

no , she's a great friend . But then I went

13:05

on to to dance with another girl , scottish

13:08

girl , and we were kind

13:10

of seventh . So we were on the brim of getting

13:12

into the top six . Now top six is the final

13:14

, but if you don't make the final

13:16

, you may as well be , you

13:19

know , not entering . Not entering

13:21

as far as I was concerned , because I wanted to get

13:23

back in that final . So we were sort

13:25

of seventh for like almost two years

13:27

then , like knocking on the final

13:29

. But

13:32

I , you know there's something in me that was saying this isn't

13:34

the right partnership for me and it wasn't

13:36

. You know , she

13:38

was a great girl . Anyway

13:40

, we split up after two years and

13:43

then there was the availability of dancing

13:45

with the world champion as

13:49

a pro . But I had

13:51

to decide that I was going to turn pro

13:53

. At that point I was about

13:55

25 , 26 .

13:57

So what's the difference between being

13:59

amateur and being pro ?

14:00

Well , not a lot nowadays , because

14:02

the amateurs can teach and the amateurs

14:04

can earn , and the amateurs can earn money the same as pros . So

14:07

so it's not really . But back in

14:09

those days we weren't allowed to do demonstrations

14:11

, we weren't allowed to teach , because

14:14

officially that was it .

14:16

You know , you could only do that if you turn professional

14:18

um , and with

14:20

this , with this girl being the um , the

14:22

um , the number one and the professional

14:24

, I mean , did you mean , did she immediately want

14:26

you , or did you have to kind of audition

14:29

and convince ?

14:32

I think it was a case of she'd

14:34

been looking for a partner for a while after

14:37

splitting , with her partner being

14:39

a world champion . So she'd only

14:41

been the world champion , probably like a year and

14:43

a half before that . So

14:47

she'd only been the world champion , probably like a year and a half before that . So , um , then

14:49

they , basically her partner turned pro and

14:51

he he decided to split

14:53

it and get with a new girl for the pro field

14:56

, um , and

14:58

I think she'd spent a year and a half

15:00

looking for a partner . So I think by then she was

15:02

a bit desperate . So

15:05

that's why , and um

15:07

, and so we danced

15:09

together but , uh , literally , I mean

15:11

, we did really well , we were , we were right up

15:13

there in the pro . We were about seventh in the

15:15

pro , which is , you know , to go from

15:18

the amateur seventh in the

15:20

amateur seventh in the pro is pretty amazing

15:22

, um , but

15:24

I have to say it was the

15:27

hardest time of my life because , it

15:29

was so stressful dancing with her . She

15:31

was , she was very demanding um

15:34

, and I've got nothing

15:37

against germans , but she

15:39

was very german . Do you know what I mean ? Precise

15:42

and precise um was

15:48

very german . Do you know I mean precise and precise um .

15:49

Uh , but you know , like it was , that's her way and um so I think it's interesting you

15:51

say the demanding thing because I was going to ask

15:53

um , obviously

15:55

I have a lot of , uh , sports stars

15:57

on the , on the podcast , you know athletes

16:00

and all I guess all kinds of different sporting

16:02

careers , and we talk analogies between

16:04

sports and business and

16:06

I guess where mindset

16:08

and the other non-talent

16:11

things come into play , because I guess

16:13

at that top level everybody probably

16:15

has talent at a similar level but

16:17

what makes the number one , what

16:20

makes the professional difference

16:22

? Does that kind of stuff come

16:24

into play ? A lot with dancing , you know mindset

16:27

and stress and mental health and

16:29

discipline I think it all does .

16:32

I think all of that comes into play because

16:34

when you're competitive

16:36

dancer , it's the same as any competitive

16:38

sport . You , you have to do it at

16:40

such a high level that your , your

16:42

mindset is just you

16:44

know , training , eating

16:47

right lifestyle , um

16:50

, and , and , and it's all organized

16:52

around you being the perfect athlete

16:54

, really , and , and I know , as a

16:57

dancer , we're exactly the same and and

16:59

so is there a lot of , let's say , other

17:01

fitness that that comes into your

17:04

daily life as a professional dancer , like

17:06

you're hitting the gym , you're running , you're eating

17:08

right , you're sleeping right , you know .

17:10

It's just I guess . I don't know much about

17:12

dancing so I kind of I can't really . I just imagine

17:14

the the bit on the saturday night

17:16

where you're on the dance floor and you , you can't

17:18

kind of see the hour , the hours of training , or you

17:20

know , eating , eating the broccoli and avoiding

17:23

the chocolate , but all that very

17:25

much comes into it , doesn't it .

17:26

I think if you're dancing 24-7 , you can probably

17:28

eat a bit of chocolate actually for the energy

17:30

. But I mean

17:32

, you know , I certainly do . But

17:35

I think it's something inbuilt

17:37

in athletes as well , Having

17:39

done a sort of a retreat

17:42

recently with some Olympians , they're

17:44

still super fit , they still eat

17:47

whole foods and they're still really healthy

17:49

and and I think it's that

17:51

you know , when you've trained like that for 20

17:53

years , um , it

17:55

just that's your lifestyle . So

17:57

it doesn't . It doesn't really change . You

17:59

know , unless somebody completely changes their

18:01

lifestyle and goes off the rails and he's

18:04

drinking all the time and stuff like that

18:06

, then then yeah you're , it

18:08

changes . But I must admit , from

18:10

my own point of view , even

18:13

though I've stopped competing many

18:15

, many years ago , I still

18:17

look at my training in the gym as

18:21

as my training and keeping

18:23

my body fit . And I

18:25

mean , you know , all

18:27

right , I've probably done it a bit too

18:29

much over the last year and a half , but you

18:31

know , I got divorced the year before and

18:34

I think it

18:36

kind of changes your mindset a little bit

18:39

. You think , okay , right , I'm going to get fit now and

18:41

I'm going to be in the gym . Back on the scene , I'm like literally

18:43

five days a week in the gym

18:45

and I , you know

18:47

, and I feel great for it . And

18:50

now I'm kind of obsessed . If I don't

18:52

get my five times a week , I'm

18:55

like , okay , when am I going to , you know ? But

18:59

I think even when I was competing

19:01

, I was in the gym as well and

19:03

I think I'm quite lean

19:05

and skinny . So I was always trying

19:07

to be bigger , bulkier

19:10

, just to look sort of stronger

19:12

on the dance floor , because you have other people who

19:14

are quite muscular , who look strong straight away

19:16

, whereas I was always looking a

19:18

little bit weak compared to those because I had

19:20

this slender , slim sort

19:22

of look , you know . So

19:25

that's kind of also built in my brain

19:27

I need to get bigger , I need to look

19:29

bigger , although I don't think I'm never

19:31

going to look like a bodybuilder , but

19:34

you know , being six foot four and skinny , it's

19:37

not going to happen . But at least if I can

19:39

just look a little bit sort of athletic , it's better

19:41

.

19:42

So how did Strictly come about ?

19:48

little bit sort of athletics better . So how did strictly come about ? So , um , I um , after

19:51

that partnership with the world champion , uh , which was a disaster , seven

19:53

months we did really well , but it was . It

19:55

was like hell on earth for me . I

19:58

, um , I was looking for a partner

20:01

and we kind of because it's very

20:03

small world , I was looking for a partner anywhere in

20:05

the . Because it's very small world , I was looking for a partner anywhere in the

20:07

world . And I remember I had , I had

20:09

, about 11 000 pounds in the bank and I said to my

20:11

dad , I've seen this house

20:13

down the road . I said , um , I

20:16

, I think I want to buy it . It's like semi-detached

20:18

, it's near , near gran's house . He said . He

20:20

said , no , you don't know what you're doing with your dance career

20:22

. Don't spend it

20:24

on a house , because then you'll be committed to a house . So

20:28

I didn't . I bought a sports car instead . I

20:30

had an amazing time in the sports car and

20:34

I found a dance partner in Holland . She

20:37

was Ukrainian , she'd got a Dutch

20:39

passport , she'd been living there for 10 years , she

20:42

was a great dancer . So I started

20:44

like travelling over there and

20:46

we decided we were going to be a dance partnership

20:49

. In the beginning I was like travelling back and

20:51

forwards to Rotterdam .

20:52

I was going to say when you're looking around the world

20:54

for these partners , how do you end up training

20:56

with them ? Do you have to go like I'll come to Spain for

20:58

a month and hang out with you ?

21:00

you come to Englandland , exactly that , exactly

21:02

that , or you , one of you , decides to relocate

21:04

and that's what happened in the end . We were doing it for six months

21:07

and they said do you know what ? If you can get me some

21:09

work here , I'm going to relocate

21:11

to rotterdam . And

21:13

then , every two weeks , I was flying home and teaching

21:15

for a day on a saturday and

21:18

I was teaching the whole day because I had I had

21:20

, you know , 30 , 40 hours of teaching because

21:22

my stepmother had a dancing school . So

21:27

I was going over to Holland

21:30

and I became Dutch champion in that time

21:32

. I became , then I split

21:34

with a Dutch girl and I started dancing

21:36

with a Belgian girl , became Belgian champion

21:38

, second in the European show

21:41

dance , and

21:43

I'd literally in December I'd

21:46

come second in the European show dance . But in my back of my head I was

21:48

like , you know , I've been here for seven

21:50

years in Holland and

21:53

I didn't have any money . I hadn't saved

21:55

anything up . I was 33 years old and

21:58

I thought I just I don't need to move home

22:00

. I need to move back and start teaching

22:03

full time and saving

22:05

some money and buying a house , you know , because

22:07

I'm 33 . And

22:10

in the last month that I was in Holland I had to

22:12

borrow money off my dad to pay my rent . So

22:15

anyway , I decided

22:17

to move back . I moved back in the April

22:19

and during when I

22:21

moved back , I heard

22:23

about this show , strictly Come Dancing Bearing

22:27

in mind I'd been on Come Dancing the original

22:29

Come Dancing many years before and

22:33

I heard about this and I was like , oh , how

22:35

are they going to get celebrities , beginners

22:37

, to dance like us in a few

22:40

weeks ? It's not going to be possible . It'd be ridiculous

22:42

. I mean , it's a stupid idea . Saturday

22:49

night live entertainment Well , well , I started watching it . I moved back in the april . I started watching

22:52

it and I was like bloody hell , actually , they're performing amazing

22:54

dances . They did have , uh , chris parker

22:57

, who was who made the final and he was terrible

22:59

but people kept voting for him so he kept

23:01

getting back in but he was hilarious because he was so

23:03

bad and , um and

23:06

and like captivated the audience

23:08

in the first series with brendan

23:10

cole and natasha kapolinski . Um

23:13

, and what happened was I was in blackpool

23:15

. I'd I'd put an advert in

23:18

. It's like the biggest competition in the

23:20

world blackpool , winter gardens Gardens

23:22

it's the Open British Championship

23:25

. I

23:27

put an advert in there saying I was back in the UK and Camilla

23:30

Dallarup , who was Brendan Cole's partner

23:32

, dance partner and fiance

23:34

, saw it

23:36

. Anyway , we bumped into each other

23:39

at a party there and

23:43

she said to me oh , you know , I've split up with Brendan , maybe we can get

23:45

together sometime , dance together . So I was

23:47

like , yeah , yeah , sure . Anyway

23:49

, I was on holiday at the time in

23:51

the June and she rang me and she said listen

23:53

, why don't we get together and talk about

23:55

dancing together ? We

23:58

met up , we decided

24:00

we were going to dance together and then she said oh , by the way , the BBC are looking for

24:02

new dancers for the second

24:04

series of Strictly Come Dancing and

24:06

they're having another one in September , another

24:09

series . This was in the first

24:11

year of Strictly 2004 . And

24:14

I said , yeah , sure , put me forward . Well

24:16

, I had four auditions . And I remember I

24:18

was on the beach in Ibiza partying

24:21

and I got this phone call and

24:23

it was from a producer in in London

24:26

from Strictly , saying um

24:28

, we've done all your auditions , it's great , but we've got

24:30

nothing up to date from you . And I

24:32

thought , well , I'd just just come runner up in

24:34

the European show dance in

24:37

um in in France

24:39

. So I rang my dad up and it

24:41

was in the days of cassette recorders . I

24:44

mean , can you believe it ? And I said , dad , I've

24:46

got a cassette recorder at home . Can

24:48

you put it to where our show dance is

24:50

and send it to the BBC ? So

24:53

, unbeknownst to me , he gets it and he sends

24:55

it via courier like bike

24:57

. And an hour later

25:00

they rang me up and they said yeah , ian , we've seen your

25:02

video , you're in . So you're in this

25:04

season of Strictly . So that was

25:06

my introduction into the second

25:08

series of Strictly .

25:14

For the auditioning process . Was it all dance related or did they do a lot of kind of testing

25:16

for your personality and banter and stuff in

25:18

general , or is it more

25:20

?

25:21

I think most of it is personality

25:23

, most of it's that I

25:27

had about two or three interviews with different

25:29

producers . The last

25:31

one , I went into the office and

25:35

I was interviewed by the exec producers and

25:37

it was videoed and

25:40

so that was quite like , you

25:42

know , intimidating , a bit like this , no

25:44

, no , no . And

25:47

also I had to teach a couple . So I

25:49

was in the studio . They filmed a bit of me

25:51

teaching another couple so that

25:53

they knew that I could teach . Obviously

25:56

, you know , if other pros

25:59

are recommending me , they know my stature

26:01

and it was kind of the

26:03

perfect step for me because I kind of finished

26:05

my competitive career , yeah , and

26:08

I was used to teaching beginners because of my

26:10

parents' dancing school and

26:12

I was used to teaching show dances , which

26:14

is what they are . On Strictly , every dance

26:16

is a show dance . On Strictly , let's face it , you

26:18

have a beginning , a middle and end , you have highlights , you

26:20

have lifts and it's not like , oh

26:23

, we're going to do a cha-cha-cha , it's not like that

26:25

, it's a show dance and

26:27

that's what I'd just done . So it was kind

26:29

of the perfect way into Strictly

26:32

Come Dancing .

26:33

And you talk about the teaching . So what

26:35

is the setup ? Does a choreographer

26:37

pick a dance for you and

26:40

then it's down for you to teach it to your partner

26:42

?

26:44

The producers decide . So

26:47

they choose who you're dancing with also obviously

26:50

the producers of the show , and then they

26:53

will give everybody

26:55

a different dance every week . So it's

26:57

very rare that they have two of the same dances on

26:59

um , they'll just change

27:02

it up as much as possible and

27:04

um , and basically

27:06

I think the first three

27:08

weeks you get to

27:10

work on the first two weeks of the dances

27:13

, but then from week

27:15

three you're given your

27:17

dance and you're told what you're doing next you

27:19

could be told the dance that you're doing

27:21

in , uh , a

27:23

few weeks before , but you're not really

27:26

given your music . So you

27:28

can't choreograph anything until

27:30

you've got that music in your hands because of the edit

27:32

, because they'll edit it down to a

27:34

minute and a half , and so then you

27:37

have to choreograph it . So then from week three

27:39

it's probably you have one week to

27:42

get them , to teach them to choreograph

27:44

it . You choreograph it on a Sunday morning or Sunday

27:46

sometime . Go in the studio on Monday

27:48

, and then you have Monday , tuesday , wednesday , thursday

27:50

, thursday you're in the studio , monday , and you have monday , tuesday

27:52

, wednesday , thursday thursday , you're in the studio

27:55

. Or friday , you're in the studio , strictly studio . So so you don't have

27:57

many days to get that

27:59

celebrity and and those days

28:01

that you're training with that what they're ? eight hour

28:04

days , nine , just yeah I

28:06

mean , it depends where you are . Um

28:08

in the uk they're doing

28:11

eight to ten hours and I think

28:13

it's like expected of you . If you're not doing

28:15

that , then it's , and it's kind of it's got

28:17

like that . In my day it wasn't like that

28:19

. Like back in the day it was like

28:21

, you know , the celebs were told that they

28:23

had to do at least 12 hours a week . Well

28:26

, it's not like that anymore . It's like it's

28:28

like 20 to 30 , 30 to

28:30

40 hours a week .

28:31

I mean , if you've never danced before , that can't possibly

28:34

be enough time to learn .

28:37

Well , the 12 hours that is yeah

28:39

, but you can learn a lot , right , you can

28:41

learn a lot in 40 hours in a week , or , let's

28:44

say , I don't know 30 hours a week .

28:46

Yeah , no , but I meant the 12 hours that you

28:48

were saying in the beginning and

28:51

you did seven hours . Sorry , seven hours . You

28:53

did seven years of Strictly .

28:55

Yes , yes , I did so . I

28:57

did six years as

28:59

a pro dancer and

29:03

then , oh , the seventh year was as a pro dancer . I was in the show

29:05

dancers , but then that

29:07

year I transitioned into it Takes

29:09

Two and I was presenting

29:12

my own slot on it Takes Two

29:14

called Waits Warm Up , where

29:17

I basically

29:20

critiqued all of the rehearsals

29:22

that they were doing , all the couples rehearsals

29:24

, basically to say what they could do

29:26

better before the show

29:28

on Sunday or Saturday . And

29:32

that was my slot on a Wednesday afternoon

29:34

, which was , yeah

29:36

, it was great to go from that and

29:39

I mean , I'll be honest , you know , when I was

29:41

dropped from Strictly , I was pretty devastated

29:43

. You know it took a lot of time

29:45

to get over that , probably about two years

29:47

.

29:47

Why were you ?

29:48

dropped . Why was I dropped

29:50

? I don't really know

29:52

. I don't really know . I don't really know . I know

29:55

that , like , at that time , I'd

29:57

been doing the show , I'd been touring

30:00

with the pro

30:02

dancers on Strictly

30:04

, I'd been doing all the pro

30:06

, all the arena tours

30:08

as well . So I was pretty

30:10

exhausted . It was sort of seven it

30:12

. It was six , seven years of doing that

30:14

and I probably

30:17

went into my interview

30:21

with my new

30:23

producer and probably

30:26

didn't give the right impression . Do you

30:28

know what I mean ? Yeah , I was just tired

30:30

and and exhausted and

30:33

, um , just needed a bit of a break

30:35

. I probably could have had a year off and I'd come

30:37

back like , like a new person . But , um

30:40

, yeah , it was just one of those things . Um

30:43

, I absolutely gutted

30:45

at the time , but I do feel

30:47

like , um , you

30:50

know I was , I was also

30:52

, it

30:54

was , I was given this

30:56

uh opportunity to become

30:58

a presenter as well at the same time . On

31:00

, it takes two , so , uh

31:03

, to do that for 10 years afterwards . It

31:05

kept me part of the strictly family

31:07

. It kept me , um

31:09

, kept me doing what I

31:11

, which was touring my own shows . And

31:17

, yeah , it was a

31:19

hard transition and in the beginning

31:21

I was like , oh my God , I don't

31:23

do this . I don't talk for a living , I

31:26

dance for a living . You know it was a hard transition

31:28

to make .

31:29

And in terms of the six or seven years that you

31:31

, that you were doing strictly for , uh , I

31:33

mean , was it , was it highs

31:35

and lows , or was it always the best

31:37

experience ever ? You know , give me , give me some juicy

31:40

gossip . Your favorite celebs it

31:42

was .

31:42

It was definitely highs and lows and in those

31:45

days they showed them right , because nowadays

31:47

they don't show the highs and lows so much . It's

31:50

more about all the happy , fluffy stuff

31:52

and and you know , um

31:54

. But in those days , you know , we

31:57

used to go through weeks where

31:59

it was really hard . You know this

32:09

dance , you know , like with zoe ball zoe , I see her

32:11

very , very recently . Um

32:13

, penny lancaster uh

32:17

, we've stayed in great contact

32:19

, you know , um . But

32:21

but yes , in those days we did have

32:23

highs and lows and I have to say

32:25

, you know , to

32:28

be a good teacher , you've

32:31

got to be able to adapt to your pupil

32:33

and they

32:35

were all very different personalities

32:37

. You know , denise was very

32:39

laid back , not

32:41

particularly hardworking , which you would be

32:44

surprised at , but on

32:46

a live show she was like

32:49

focused , unbelievable

32:51

focused , and you could understand why . You

32:53

know , as an Olympian , they

32:55

have to be like that . When they need to deliver

32:58

, they focus and they deliver

33:00

their best performance . Do you know

33:02

what I mean ? So she was like that on a

33:04

live show she would produce . I'd be

33:06

in rehearsals , I'd be like , oh my God , I don't know

33:08

how this is going to go , get to the live show and

33:17

she would be amazing on the live show . She would . She would do her best performance

33:19

. Um . Zoe was totally different . Zoe was very emotional . You know , one minute she'd be up , next

33:22

minute she'd be down .

33:23

Um and managing

33:25

because she was doing some bad

33:27

dancing in practice and getting stressed with it

33:29

, or she struggled with the dance .

33:31

You know , one week she thought it was easy and

33:34

then the next week she thought it was really difficult

33:36

. And so we did go through that

33:38

rollercoaster of emotions

33:40

and

33:42

whereas I could really push Denise with

33:44

Zoe , I felt as

33:46

though she worked with affirmation , positive

33:49

affirmation , all the time . So if I

33:51

said to Zoe , yeah , yeah , you got your head out really

33:53

good , even if she didn't , she

33:56

would think , ah , he

33:59

likes the way I put my head out , I'm going to do it even more

34:01

. Do you know what I mean ? So it would be like

34:04

the more I encouraged her , the more I gave

34:06

her credit , the better

34:08

she got and the more confidence

34:11

. So it's more confidence building with zoe

34:13

. Um , and then

34:15

you know , I had amazing uh , like penny

34:18

lancaster was was very

34:20

, very motherly . She would invite me

34:22

home to her and rod's place for dinner

34:24

afterwards after every practice

34:26

. Um , I mean , rod got a bit fed

34:29

up in the end . He , he was like , oh God , you

34:31

again . And

34:33

I've stayed really good friends with them . And

34:36

Jodie Kidd , see , I used to get all

34:38

the really tall ones because I'm 6'4" . They

34:40

were all 6 foot , you know , they're

34:43

all like 5'11" , 5'10"

34:45

, 6 foot . Jodie

34:48

Kidd was amazing , she

34:51

was so funny I

34:53

wouldn't say she was particularly hardworking

34:56

, but she's

34:59

just hilarious we used to have such

35:01

a laugh We'd do an hour and a half , and then she'd

35:03

say should we go to the pub ? Let's have a pint

35:05

, shall we ? So it would be very

35:07

mates and fun , yeah

35:09

.

35:10

That practice time that you're together . Is that

35:13

for you to work out between you , kind of as

35:15

in you know , you're told

35:17

, right , you're performing on Saturday , for example

35:20

, you've got Monday to Friday to

35:22

get on with it and you know you and your partner

35:24

pick up the phone and go right

35:27

, I'll see you in the dance practice room

35:29

at nine o'clock tomorrow morning . For

35:36

example , if they say , say , oh , I can't be arsed coming to 11 , that's down for you and them to sort it

35:38

out , is it ?

35:38

and for you to give them some shit and say , I mean , I'd never had any dance partners that were

35:40

like that , that turned up late or

35:42

anything like that . They were always really

35:45

on time and I'm

35:47

glad about that because who

35:50

were some bad ones for other people oh Well , I'm

35:52

not going to say I'm not going to say but . I think

35:54

that you know

35:57

there's a lot

35:59

to do in that time . You

36:03

think , oh , you know , eight , ten hours a day , you've

36:05

got loads of time to teach this celeb

36:07

to do that . But actually there's

36:10

a lot to learn . And

36:15

I did have one dance partner who , um , I'd be working on the hips , okay . So , like we're working

36:17

on the hips , okay , now we're going to work on foot action

36:19

, leg . I could no , I can't do

36:21

that . I've only just done the hips . I

36:23

said , yeah , but we may have to move on . Once

36:25

we've done it , we have to move on . She

36:28

was arguing that that she didn't want to go on to

36:30

that because she'd only just learned to do that

36:33

part of the . I was like , no , like we

36:35

have , we don't have enough time . We

36:37

have to . We have to get on and do these

36:39

, tick these boxes

36:42

and get them done , or else you're not going to be ready

36:44

for Saturday , you know . So

36:46

it is a little bit . You

36:48

know , you do have a in the back of your

36:50

head . You're

36:54

thinking time's ticking and I we've got to be good enough so that , like by Wednesday

36:56

, thursday , you want to be running the dance and

36:59

you want them to know everything , and

37:01

you're just running it and practicing

37:03

the performance . That's what you want to be

37:06

, so that when you go live on a Saturday

37:08

, it's just your

37:10

body's done it so many times that it's just

37:12

spontaneous . This is what it's going to do . You

37:15

don't have to think about the routine . You've done

37:17

it so many times , you're just going to do it .

37:21

Would you ever still get nervous doing

37:24

the performances , the live performances , for

37:26

Strictly , or was it I'm

37:29

trying the words , not

37:31

a lower level , but because you're not

37:33

doing your world-class , competing

37:36

, you know , with a world-class partner against

37:38

other world-class people ? Was

37:41

it quite a chilled thing for you where you're

37:44

just out there and going through the motions

37:46

, or was it still , you know

37:48

, concentrating , hard work , stress

37:50

?

37:50

It definitely wasn't chilled . I

37:53

can remember my legs shaking

37:55

at times going on because you don't really

37:57

know they're beginners .

37:58

Well , I was going to say what do you worry more , about yourself

38:00

or about your partner fucking up ?

38:02

I think you're more worried about the partner , but

38:04

also you're going live to like 12 million people

38:06

. That's scary . I don't care who

38:08

you are . It doesn't matter what you're doing

38:10

and how much you know about the subject

38:12

You're going to be . I

38:15

was going to swear then , but you're going to be cacking

38:17

yourself because you're about to go live

38:20

to 12 million people , so

38:23

anything can happen , it's

38:26

scary .

38:28

Did you have any particularly bad mishaps ?

38:31

Well , yeah , only once , but we'd

38:33

already . When I danced the final

38:35

with Zoe Ball , we

38:38

were announced as third , but we were able

38:40

to dance our show dance Because

38:42

in those days you could . And

38:45

so we danced our show dance . And

38:47

we were like , right , let's prove to them that we

38:49

should never have come third . And we danced

38:52

the show dance . And it was America

38:54

from West

38:56

Side Story . I want to be in America

38:59

. Oh yeah , A singer .

39:03

Not just a dancer , but a singer too .

39:06

Well , I've done a bit of panto . Oh , no , you

39:09

haven't . And

39:13

at the beginning of this number

39:15

she has a fan . She's a Spanish dress and

39:17

she has a fan and she's doing all the slow moves

39:19

with the fan and then she's supposed to throw the fan

39:22

off the floor right , but

39:24

she throws it not off the floor , still

39:27

on the floor . Okay , so we're

39:29

doing the dance , we're great , and at one point we walk away from each

39:31

other and do one point . We walk away from each other and do this big

39:33

grand circle away from each other and

39:36

of course , I

39:38

stand on the on the um the fan

39:41

and fall over . Anyway

39:43

, one of the things with Zoe is

39:45

I could never let go of her because

39:47

she would either go off time or do

39:49

the wrong steps . So I always had to be

39:52

holding on to her and all I remember is

39:54

being on the floor and her looking down at me just

39:56

laughing , and

39:58

I thought don't laugh , keep going keep going , so

40:01

I had to quickly jump up and carry

40:03

on with the dance . But yeah , I

40:05

think that's one of the only times a

40:07

pro dancer has fallen over and

40:10

that happened while you were live , yeah , live , live

40:13

to the nation .

40:16

There's been some strictly scandals recently

40:18

, very recently . I'm

40:21

terrible with the names Giovanni Panisse

40:23

and Graziano Di Prima

40:25

. Yeah , do you know those

40:27

guys ? Well , there's a link they're both Italian

40:29

.

40:32

A little bit of advice't don't book

40:34

italians anymore I

40:36

mean did , did you know them personally

40:39

? or yeah , I know both

40:41

of them . Uh , I mean , I'll

40:43

be honest , it's quite a shock and

40:45

surprise that that these allegations

40:48

have been thrown around , because , certainly

40:51

in my time on , strictly , I never experienced , I never experienced

40:53

anything like that . You know

40:55

, we , I mean , there was times when

40:57

I fell out with my partner , yes , and

40:59

there was times when there

41:03

was even like a lot of shouting

41:05

matches going on , but it was for good reason

41:08

. There was no , it wasn't . You know , but

41:10

I think you

41:12

know it's , it's In

41:15

any work situation . It doesn't matter what

41:17

it is , even if it's TV or

41:19

whatever . There has to be a

41:21

level of of Respect

41:25

and and

41:28

there's certain lines that have to be drawn

41:30

. Surely I think one of the problems

41:32

here is that , as

41:35

a pro dancer , we

41:37

certainly weren't given all of the safeguarding

41:40

rules or the rules that

41:42

we should be sticking to as far

41:44

as with our celebrities .

41:46

How to behave .

41:47

Yeah , how to behave . I mean , I

41:50

know how to behave , but

41:56

if you're not given safeguarding , rules and all of those

41:58

things , then then how are they know how much to

42:00

push them ? What ? What is ? What

42:03

is , uh , offensive or abusive

42:06

if ? If you're pushing your celebrity

42:08

to do something , how hard are you able

42:10

to push them ? Um , because obviously

42:12

there's been in the past . I have pushed

42:14

celebrities , and

42:18

that's just to get the best out of them . But I

42:20

would say that was it was done in

42:22

a way which was just , to

42:25

, you know , bring out the best

42:27

in them . You know , and

42:29

I mean some people

42:32

will say the way the

42:34

pro talks to their celebrity , but it

42:36

is . It is like a teacher pupil scenario

42:38

. At the end of the day , you know

42:40

, and , um , I suppose

42:43

it's just , uh , you know , now that

42:45

situation has arised , then

42:48

obviously there's got to be a lot more

42:50

safeguarding and a lot more .

42:54

We need to know what the rules are , and

42:57

when these kind of situations occur

42:59

, how do Strictly and the producers

43:02

or the people behind the scenes deal with it

43:04

? Because I know one of the two guys

43:06

I mentioned there's like an ongoing investigation

43:08

at the moment isn't there . I mean , how do they conduct

43:10

these investigations , Is it , I

43:13

guess , like you're doing a corporate

43:15

business where they get the different celebs

43:17

and get the different dancers ?

43:18

they would interview them , interview , ask questions

43:21

, I would presume . I

43:23

mean , unless it's

43:25

all filmed , it's your

43:27

word against theirs , really isn't it ? But

43:29

if there's a , if there's a running theme

43:31

throughout all of those celebs , then

43:34

you know it's , it's quite you

43:36

know . But then you know if you've

43:38

got somebody , if that's pro

43:41

has got somebody who's really good , and

43:43

then they've got somebody who's really bad , the , the

43:45

teaching method is going to be very

43:47

different , because one gets it

43:49

in five minutes , the other one takes five days

43:51

to get it .

43:52

You know , and that's hard , that's harder

43:54

to to cope with , but

43:56

I guess it's the way you cope with them does

43:59

having a bad celeb or a bad partner

44:01

impact on your chances

44:03

of being getting rehired for next

44:05

season as well ?

44:06

oh , definitely , definitely . It

44:09

makes a big difference who you get , and

44:13

that's kind of beholden to the producers

44:15

as well . And I

44:17

will say it's

44:20

a tough show , especially

44:22

if you've come on the show and you've been given

44:25

great celebs in your first few years

44:27

and you've done really well

44:29

, made the final , made the semifinal , and

44:32

then all of a sudden you start to

44:34

get given , you

44:36

know , like

44:40

Anton sometimes , and maybe the older ones or the ones that aren't going to

44:42

be as good , then that's harder , it is

44:44

harder and

44:46

it is kind of down to well

44:49

. You know , at the end of the day it's a great show to

44:51

be on , whether you're , you know , whether

44:53

you're dancing with somebody who's not as good a dancer

44:56

or a great dancer , it's still great

44:58

fun to be doing so so after

45:00

after the show finished , so well , after after

45:02

after you you finished on the show , uh

45:05

, you were doing your .

45:06

It takes two yeah and and um

45:08

talk to me what else has been going on since

45:10

then and what , what ? I guess what doors

45:13

were opened to you from

45:15

that strictly ?

45:15

opportunity , yeah . So

45:18

, yeah , I started it Takes Two , I

45:20

think in 2011 . And

45:25

we carried on doing that with Zoe and

45:27

I did it with Zoe Ball , and

45:29

I think one of the reasons I

45:31

got the job is because me means that we have such

45:33

a great chemistry and so

45:36

we had such a great online sort

45:38

of chemistry that that , uh

45:40

, it was undeniable really . We always

45:42

used to have such a laugh and it was

45:44

very natural . To be honest , it wasn't . You

45:46

know , I never looked at it as a job , it was more

45:48

. It was more me having a laugh with

45:50

my mate and on

45:53

screen and just making TV magic

45:56

really . But it

45:58

was a lovely job to have , and what that facilitated

46:01

for me was also

46:03

touring . So I started

46:05

to do my own theatre tours

46:07

. I think I did an arena tour

46:10

in 2012 . I think

46:12

I did an arena tour in 2012 . Then I started

46:14

with my own theatre tours

46:16

in 2015-16

46:18

. When you say your own , it's

46:21

literally just you , so just me , with

46:23

my dance partner . I

46:26

started off with Camilla Dallarup , actually , and

46:28

she'd already left Strictly , but

46:31

we did our first tour together and

46:33

then then I toured with natalie

46:35

low , who was still on the show , so

46:38

she was , you know a current

46:40

pro on the show . Uh , we

46:42

did some tours together we

46:44

, we wrote them , we choreographed

46:46

them and uh

46:48

, so they were very successful . Then

46:53

Natalie

46:55

decided to stop and have babies and

46:59

leave the show and

47:01

I partnered up with Oti

47:03

Mabuse , who became

47:05

mega famous after that . That was in 2018

47:08

. And then , all of a sudden , she was a judge

47:10

on the Greatest Dancer Did

47:16

so brilliantly . Then

47:18

she was a judge on um , uh , the , the

47:21

mass , mass , dancer , mass . Then

47:23

she's been a judge on dancing

47:25

on ice . I mean , she's

47:27

done a phenomenal job and I think any

47:30

of the pros that have diversified and gone off

47:32

and done stuff like that is just it's

47:34

great for us because it leaves

47:36

the door open for us to do other things rather

47:39

than just be a dancer , and

47:41

I think up until these

47:43

dancers , like Anton

47:45

as well , started to break off and do other

47:47

things , it's given it's

47:49

opened the door for all of us , which is great

47:51

. So we did that in 2018

47:54

. Then

47:56

, 2019 , I started

47:58

a show with Vincent Simone called

48:00

the Ballroom Boys Hugely

48:03

successful show . We

48:06

did our first tour sold out

48:08

. We went to do our second tour

48:11

and that was at the beginning of

48:13

covid . So we

48:15

got all the rehearsals done , we had

48:17

all the routines ready , we were

48:19

about to go live on the 19th

48:21

of march and

48:23

then everything closed down on the 18th

48:25

of march . So we literally

48:27

were rehearsing our

48:31

dress run in a

48:33

theatre and then we couldn't open

48:35

because of COVID , because everything shut down . Did

48:40

you ever get to bring that ?

48:41

show .

48:42

Yeah , so we waited a year and a half and

48:44

then we brought it back in the autumn of 2021

48:46

. So it was a year

48:49

and a half after the same

48:51

show , I think we changed

48:53

a girl , one of the girls changed because they

48:55

weren't available , so

48:57

that was the only thing about that , but

49:00

it meant that we were able to tour

49:02

that show again and we toured that show carried

49:04

on until June , actually the year

49:06

after that . Um

49:10

, and then what's

49:13

gonna say , what else did we do ? And

49:15

then I didn't tour after that for a while . Um

49:18

, I think we did a third tour together

49:20

, me and vince yeah , we did . We did a short another

49:22

tour together . Um

49:25

, so we've worked a lot together , me

49:27

and vince . We are like we

49:29

are like the dancing Morecambe

49:32

and Wise or the dancing

49:34

Two Ronners . It's a bit like

49:36

that because Vincent's very small . He's only about

49:38

5'7" and I'm 6'4"

49:41

, so us two on stage together

49:43

. He's very funny as well

49:45

, you know .

49:47

So we dance . You don't just

49:49

dance , you'll talk and interact .

49:51

Yeah , we do a lot of talking , so we've got

49:53

a lot of . We do a lot of talking , so

49:58

we've got a lot of jokes , a lot

50:00

of fun stories from Strictly . You

50:05

know , I talk about fun stories , like when I did a cha-cha demonstration with

50:07

Camilla Daller up and ripped my trousers right at the front and

50:09

I had this and I couldn't understand

50:12

. I was dancing with her , the cha-cha-cha , and I couldn't understand . I was dancing with her , the cha-cha-cha

50:14

, and I couldn't understand why the audience was laughing hysterically

50:17

. You don't expect that when you're doing demonstration

50:19

maybe a clap here and a whoop there , but but

50:21

not laughing hysterically . I thought this is odd

50:23

. Anyway , we finished the dance , she looked at me

50:25

and she pointed down at my trousers

50:27

and I looked down and I'd split

50:30

the trousers right at the front of

50:32

my crotch . But that wasn't the bad thing . The bad thing

50:34

was that I had a flesh-coloured shirt

50:36

on and part of it was poking out the bottom . Well

50:39

, I wouldn't mind , but it was only two inches . So

50:43

I asked in the audience . I said has anybody got

50:45

a needle in cotton ? And this old lady said yes

50:47

, I have dear . She came down with

50:50

a needle and she was like shaking , like that she

50:53

started to sew and then I said it's all right

50:55

, I'll bite the cotton , thank you . So

51:00

yeah , we used to just tell fun stories

51:02

from Strictly . Also , you

51:05

know , I used to share a dressing room with Anton

51:07

and Brendan , so

51:09

Brendan was very competitive

51:12

and very like in the zone

51:14

on a Saturday , like with the shows , and

51:16

Anton was always joking

51:18

I mean me and Anton were like bantering

51:20

all the time having a laugh . And I

51:23

remember once we

51:26

were sat there bantering , laughing , knock , knock , knock

51:28

on the door and I opened the door and it's my mum and

51:30

her best friend and I'm like hi , how are you ? And

51:32

then they both went like that . The

51:35

mouse dropped and I turned around

51:37

and Brenda was in the mirror , okay

51:39

, bending over doing his hair with just

51:41

a jockstrap on . My

51:47

mum dines out on that she always tells

51:49

that story where she saw Brendan

51:51

Cole's bottom . Yeah

51:54

, but yeah . So we did that tour

51:56

and

51:58

then , of course , we had COVID . I did another

52:00

short tour after that . Then

52:03

, basically , I got divorced and

52:05

it's kind of bringing

52:07

us up to current

52:10

day . How

52:13

did the divorce affect you ? Do you know ? It had

52:15

been coming for a long time , so

52:18

I was ready for it . I

52:21

think he'd met somebody

52:23

else and so I was kind of ready

52:25

for I was ready

52:27

to step

52:29

away from the relationship . So

52:34

when it came to it , I was like

52:36

, right , okay , yes , I

52:38

was like I've got some direction

52:40

, I know what I want to do , but

52:43

I think , affecting

52:46

me , my self-esteem

52:48

was a lot lower and I had lost

52:50

a lot of confidence .

52:51

What had caused him to get with someone else Was

52:53

that you were travelling too much , working too much

52:55

so he was an airline pilot .

52:57

Okay , and I think that says it

52:59

all . You know

53:01

Italians

53:04

and airline pilots . Long

53:06

haul , long haul . I mean it's like you know

53:08

. But anyway , you

53:10

know I had lost a lot of self-esteem

53:13

and you know I've lost a lot of self

53:15

esteem and I , you know I've been really lucky in my career

53:17

. You know that I've been busy for

53:19

many years and what

53:21

happened was then , just after that happened

53:24

, we decided to split up . It

53:26

was like in the January

53:29

2023 . It's on my birthday actually . Nice

53:32

day , great day

53:34

. But just after that , my dance

53:37

partner , natalie Lowe . She relocated

53:39

to Australia . She was Australian , she'd

53:42

had kids . Her

53:45

first son is my godson Jack

53:47

and she rang me and she said guess where

53:50

I am ? And I said where are you ? She said I'm on

53:52

my way to meet my celeb . I said what are

53:54

you talking about ? You just had a baby , like 10 months

53:56

ago . I said are you doing Dancing with

53:58

the Stars Australia ? She said yes . I said

54:00

oh my God , that's amazing . She

54:03

said anyway , the reason I'm ringing is I was in a

54:05

production meeting with them and they are looking

54:07

for a tall pro

54:09

dancer , so I put your name

54:11

forward . I hope you don't mind . I'm like

54:13

well , when is it ? I said I might be busy . She

54:16

said it's like April , may

54:18

, uh , this year . So

54:21

I was like , okay . I said , well , I've

54:23

got a couple of things , but I probably could move

54:25

them . She said , okay , would you have a zoom

54:28

with the exec producer ? So I said

54:30

okay . So I had a zoom on the Sunday with the exec

54:32

producer . So I said okay . So I had a Zoom on the Sunday with the exec producer

54:34

and he was like we're so happy

54:36

to have you on board , ian , somebody

54:39

of your calibre . We can't

54:41

wait to get you started

54:43

on the show . I haven't even said yes

54:45

yet , but do

54:47

you know what I thought ? Like two months

54:49

in Australia , why not ? They did a shortened

54:51

down version because ever since COVID , they

54:54

made this shortened down version , so it was

54:56

a bit easier and pre-recorded . So

54:59

it was all done over seven weeks , eight weeks . And

55:01

what year was that ? So that was 2023

55:04

, last year , and

55:06

I loved it so much . I had such

55:08

a great time . Made the final . My

55:10

celeb was amazing . She was an actress

55:12

, virginia Gaye . I

55:15

loved her , we were like best mates . And

55:19

then I wasn't

55:22

sure whether I'd do it again , because I thought

55:24

it was a great time to step away and be

55:26

myself and find

55:28

my purpose again , because being Ian

55:30

Waite , the Strictly

55:33

Come Dancing . Dancing with the Stars star

55:35

on TV was was where

55:37

I was most comfortable and where I I

55:39

, you know I kind of um

55:42

, I shone really so um . So

55:44

to do that again brought back my confidence

55:46

. So I wasn't sure whether I'd do

55:48

it again . And then the producers rang me up and

55:50

they said we'd really like you back , um

55:52

, channel 7 would love you back , which

55:55

was the channel that did it in Australia

55:57

. And it's January , february

55:59

and I thought January , february is

56:01

summer in Australia . Why

56:04

do I want to stay here in

56:06

the terrible weather in the UK ? Why

56:08

don't I just go to Australia and do that for

56:10

two months ? So

56:12

I thought , yes , I'm going to go out there . Well , the first

56:14

month was in Melbourne , which

56:17

I was a bit gutted because my dance

56:19

partner , natalie , was in Sydney . So I thought

56:22

, well , I won't see her in the first month . But then the second

56:24

month was in Sydney . So

56:26

I thought , well , I'll see her in the second month and I'll see

56:28

my godson . They

56:35

gave me an amazing partner , lisa McCune , who is like a , like a national treasure out there . She's like

56:38

one of their best actresses in their dramas out there . She's won four

56:40

golden logos , which is like their equivalent

56:43

to our BAFTAs . Um , so

56:45

she was much loved by the

56:47

public . Um , anyway

56:49

, we pre-recorded that filming and

56:52

, um , we made the top

56:54

two . Now the top two . They both get filmed

56:57

winning because it's pre-recorded . Both

56:59

get recorded winning the trophy with

57:01

your winning speeches and you

57:03

don't know who wins until

57:05

it comes out on the tv . So

57:08

I didn't find out until the 12th of august this

57:10

year that I actually won it . So

57:12

finally , after 20 years

57:14

, I actually won the Mirabal trophy .

57:16

Congratulations .

57:17

Thank you .

57:19

This was the same season Aunt Middleton was on , wasn't it ? Yes

57:21

, so Aunt Middleton was third , so

57:23

Aunt's a friend of mine back in

57:25

Dubai , Ah

57:28

she lives in Dubai , doesn't she ? Yeah , so we actually met

57:30

on the podcast and he was moving out

57:32

to Dubai literally just after

57:34

we'd been on the podcast . So we hang

57:36

out with the family and stuff over there and

57:39

he showed me . I never obviously got to watch it on the telly

57:41

, but when he'd come back to Dubai from Australia

57:44

we were out for the day and

57:46

he was showing me his little dance moves . He did pretty

57:48

amazing . I

57:53

mean I couldn't believe it . I mean he looked and , and because he doesn't look

57:55

like a dancer , does he ? You know ? And ? But the way they came together , not

57:57

just the dancing but the whole production , you know , I

57:59

remember the like the danny zucco

58:01

grease type thing he did and everything very , very

58:04

cool I mean he was , he was a revelation

58:06

really , because this , this guy

58:08

you don't expect to be

58:10

, he could literally do anything really

58:13

.

58:13

I mean the lift work that he did was insane

58:15

. I mean stuff like standing on the shoulders

58:17

. I mean who who puts your partner ? And standing

58:19

on the shoulders I mean it's like ridiculous

58:22

. Um , but I did love and

58:24

you know he , we had a special bond

58:26

as well because obviously we're both british , so

58:28

, um , so we were the two Brits

58:31

on the show and everybody else was Australian

58:33

and

58:35

he was just an all-round

58:37

brilliant , brilliant guy and I

58:39

loved him and really inspirational

58:42

as well because he sort of stepped out of his

58:44

comfort zone and just

58:46

, I think the thing with Dancing With the Stars

58:48

or Strictly Come Dancing as

58:51

a celeb you've got to just say

58:54

I'm going to give everything to this , I'm not

58:56

going to hold back . I'm not going to think , oh , I can't

58:58

do that because it's got rhinestones on

59:00

it , or I can't do that because it looks

59:02

you know . You just got to say , okay

59:04

, I'm going to do whatever you tell me to do and

59:07

do it at my best . And that's what he did . He

59:09

did it 100% and thankfully

59:12

he was third Because

59:14

I did worry about him . I thought he could win this

59:16

. He could definitely win this . Are

59:20

you going to be going back for another year ? It

59:22

is later in the year , I think next

59:25

year . So I don't know . I

59:27

don't know . I think you know

59:29

part of me thinks okay , I've won it now

59:31

. I've been doing it for 20 years uh

59:33

, probably the longest serving pro dancer

59:36

. I'm 53 , the oldest person to

59:38

ever win it in the world , probably , um

59:40

, do I really want to

59:42

go back as a dancer ? You know , I'd love

59:44

to go back as a , as a judge or as a

59:47

presenter in some way . Um

59:49

, I don't know whether that's

59:51

, that's in my stars

59:54

at all , um , but

59:56

um , I mean it

59:58

would be nice to go back as , uh

1:00:01

, the current reigning champion . Do

1:00:03

you know what I mean ?

1:00:04

so then the pressure's on . Yeah

1:00:07

, finish on a high yeah , yeah

1:00:09

, that's .

1:00:09

That's the issue . Really , it would be nice

1:00:11

to finish on a high , but

1:00:15

it is fun out there . It's lovely to go out there and

1:00:17

work for two months . So he wouldn't want to work

1:00:20

in the sun in

1:00:22

Australia for two months . It's just great

1:00:24

.

1:00:25

What is your ?

1:00:25

FitSteps program Ah

1:00:28

, fitsteps . You

1:00:30

know this is funny . I was talking about writing my

1:00:32

book the other day and I've

1:00:34

got somebody helping me and

1:00:39

I went through all of the stuff . You know my whole life and I'd forgotten about FitSteps , which

1:00:41

is such a massive part , 11

1:00:44

years ago . I'd

1:00:47

started this many years , like when I was living

1:00:49

in Holland . I remember going past fitness

1:00:52

classes like Les Mills and

1:00:54

thinking , oh , you know

1:00:56

, these classes

1:00:58

are great , but my ballroom dancing

1:01:01

keeps me in a really fit

1:01:03

shape , so why can't there be

1:01:05

a class , some sort of class , which is ballroom

1:01:07

based or ballroom and Latin American based

1:01:09

? And so I

1:01:11

had that in the back of my head and obviously Zumba

1:01:13

was very big at the time as well . It was massive

1:01:16

. So I thought

1:01:18

, well , I'll become a Zumba instructor

1:01:20

. So I learned that when I kind

1:01:22

of left Strictly and

1:01:24

I taught that a bit and

1:01:27

I loved it . But

1:01:29

I thought you know , ballroom dancing is so

1:01:31

different to this . So I went

1:01:33

about creating my own ballroom Latin-based

1:01:36

dance fitness program Then

1:01:38

. So I'd done that and I started

1:01:41

teaching it quite a bit . It was very successful

1:01:43

. And then I got approached

1:01:45

by Natalie Lowe , my dance partner

1:01:47

, and Mark Foster , the Olympic

1:01:50

swimmer and

1:01:53

that said to me listen , mark's got this idea

1:01:55

about a dance fitness program . He's

1:01:57

got some friends who are in that business

1:02:00

, in the fitness world , who could run

1:02:02

the business . We

1:02:04

just got to create it . Would

1:02:07

you be interested ? Because I'd like to do it with you , because I know

1:02:09

you're doing something like that already . So I said

1:02:11

, yeah , sure , why not ? So

1:02:14

we spent a year creating

1:02:17

FitSteps and then

1:02:19

we launched it about 10

1:02:21

years ago , 10 and a half years ago , and

1:02:25

yeah , it's been amazing . We've got 1,000

1:02:27

instructors across the UK and across the world

1:02:29

, the

1:02:39

uk and across the world , um , and we have about 850 subscribers

1:02:41

to our , our app , which we created during covid because we knew there was a market

1:02:43

for it and , um , kind of flew . So

1:02:45

, uh , you know

1:02:47

, it's great . Really . We want to emulate that in

1:02:50

other countries . So that's what we're trying to

1:02:52

do and we have , like instructors

1:02:55

popping up everywhere in the world because we have

1:02:57

an online training program to

1:02:59

be an instructor . So you can literally learn

1:03:01

it online from anywhere

1:03:03

in the world and become an instructor . So

1:03:06

, yeah , so it's what

1:03:09

it's done is it's kept me fit as well , because

1:03:11

, you know , I'm 53 . And I'm

1:03:14

still doing the classes myself . I've got a class tonight

1:03:17

, actually in Wokingham , and

1:03:19

, yeah , I love it , and the fact that

1:03:22

I can do a class which is boring

1:03:24

Latin bass , which is what I do , which is

1:03:26

what my body knows is

1:03:29

amazing for me and people love

1:03:31

it because it's like , strictly , any

1:03:35

lady can do

1:03:37

this dance , get fit

1:03:39

, do all the moves off of Strictly and

1:03:42

it's like you don't need a partner , so

1:03:44

it's perfect .

1:03:46

Fantastic .

1:03:47

Yeah .

1:03:48

Well , listen , it's been a pleasure talking to you

1:03:50

and I guess in the well

1:03:52

, I was going to say 20 plus , I

1:03:55

mean like 30 years really , since a

1:03:57

professional dance life began for you it's

1:04:00

been a whirlwind of stories and experiences

1:04:02

and fantastic success . I mean

1:04:05

, what have we got to look forward to ? Are they coming

1:04:07

out soon , or where's the next five or 10

1:04:09

years of being going to be who

1:04:11

?

1:04:11

knows , I do think you know I'm

1:04:14

doing a course of NLP later on this year so

1:04:16

hopefully that will give me some

1:04:18

sort of clarity as to what I'm going to do in the future

1:04:21

. But over the next couple

1:04:23

of months I'm rehearsing and I've

1:04:25

got this tour , legends of the

1:04:27

Dance Floor , which I said at the beginning

1:04:29

with Brendan Cole , Vincent

1:04:31

Simone , Pasha , Kovalev

1:04:34

, James Jordan , the five of us .

1:04:35

People listening or watching . They

1:04:38

can buy tickets for that . Now they can Google it

1:04:40

, they can buy tickets .

1:04:41

I know we're probably doing a show next year as well

1:04:44

. I

1:04:47

know pretty much the tickets sold out within a week of going on

1:04:49

sale , so we had to include

1:04:51

matinees . So we've

1:04:53

added six matinees , so hopefully

1:04:55

you'll be able to get a ticket . Fantastic

1:04:58

, fingers crossed well .

1:05:00

Thanks a lot again for being here , but it's been a pleasure and

1:05:02

I look forward to keeping in touch . Thank you , matt

1:05:04

, it's brilliant . Hey , matt here , thanks

1:05:06

for listening to stripping off with matt haycox , but

1:05:08

did you also know I've got another podcast

1:05:11

, no bollocks , with Matt Haycox both

1:05:13

of these very different . If you're enjoying

1:05:15

the deep dives with the guests that I have every

1:05:17

week on Stripping Off , then you're going to love

1:05:19

the quick , short business tips , strategies

1:05:22

and tactics I give you on no Bollocks . This

1:05:24

comes out nearly every day . Make sure you go and check

1:05:26

it out on iTunes , spotify , youtube , wherever

1:05:28

you listen to your content , and I'll see you in a future episode

1:05:31

.