Keeeeeeeeeeep Dancing!

The favourite: Denise Van Outen with dance partner James

As the cold winter nights roll in, there’s no better way to to pass a Saturday evening than to tune in to one of Britain’s most popular reality TV shows, BBC’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. The show started back in 2004 and has gone from strength to strength. It now attracts a whopping 10 million viewers every Saturday evening!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show ,(where have you been hiding?) , it is a ballroom dancing competition where professional dancers are paired with well-known British celebrities. The professionals train the celebrities and perform with them on live television every Saturday night. They perform the Waltz, Cha Cha Cha, Quickstep, Rumba, Tango, Jive, Foxtrot, Paso Doble, Samba and many more. Each celebrity and professional pair is then given a score by a panel of judges, all of whom are ballroom dancing experts. Finally the public vote for the pair they would like to stay in the competition, as one pair is eliminated each week. This year the show has had a great variety of celebrity contestants, including two British Olympic medalists, two pop stars and an ex - English cricketer.

Of course the popularity of ballroom dancing goes all the way back to the early 1900’s in Britain. However, as the years went by, its popularity dwindled and it is only since the arrival of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ onto our screens that its appeal has skyrocketed, with many fans of the show taking classes to learn the steps they see being performed every Saturday. Many of our students are familiar with the show before they arrive in Britain, as the show now has versions in over 40 different countries. And of course the show is a great inspiration to language learners, as one of the judges is Italian. Bruno Tonioli is a great model of a non-native speaker who has a achieved a great level of English, an inspiration to all language students.

The competition is now reaching a climax, with only seven celebrities remaining. Denise Van Outen is the clear favourite, having topped the judges leader board for the past few weeks. However, as we have seen in previous years, there is no telling what will happen in the coming weeks. One slip or sprained ankle could mean the end for any of the couples. It is because of this excitement that ‘Strictly’ has become a global success story and will continue to be the hot topic of conversation here in the OISE Oxford office every Monday morning in the lead up to Christmas.