Another week in Strictly, another tumultuous week of tantrums, snide remarks and publicity stunts. Here’s Craig Revel-Horwood vsiting a school in Yorkshire, and there’s Graham Norton complaining about the number of reality TV shows on the Beeb (don’t tell him about the up and coming Michael Jackson dance show – according to Dancing Times).
Will we ever get tired of the Strictly saga dominating our national headlines? The government doesn’t think so – they’ve enlisted Arlene Phillips as the chief cheerleader in their national effort to get the British public off their sofas and into the dance studio in the run up to 2012 Olympics. She kicked off the mammoth endeavour this week with the launch of the campaign to boost your physical health by dancing more, with her team of Dance Champions (including Strictly contestant from last year Lisa Snowdon).
Arlene is also on the judging panel for Strictly bad-sister rival scheduled to hit a living room near you early next year – So You Think You Can Dance? Here’s one poor Guardian journalist being put through her paces in an audition and being made to feel like “an abused donkey” – all in the name of the national press.
Has the nation gone a bit Strictly mad? Probably just a bit of dance fever.
Links for the big dance stories in the national news this week:
- High School Musical reality show dances on to British TV | Media | guardian.co.uk – Not another reality TV dance show? This time for the kids
- The Stage / News / New £8.9 million dance centre opens in Ipswich – Another dance venue full of promise from DanceEast
- Postman dancing to Michael Jackson becomes YouTube hit – Telegraph – Amid a national strike, one postman is injecting the industry with a little hip-girating Jacko-inspired hop-stepping
- Strictly Come Dancing – News – Goodman defends Bellingham axe decision – Digital Spy – Len Goodman talks of his decision to eliminate Lynda Bellingham off Strictly
- Wayne McGregor: Zen and the art of dance | Judith Mackrell | Stage | The Guardian – An insight into the 39-year-old world-class choreographer
- Fairytales: The Red Shoes | Books | The Guardian – That loveable fairytale
