Strictly star heads for Eastbourne gala night

This year she’s back as the star attraction in a night of dancing at Royal Hippodrome Theatre on May 11, with all profits going to St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Eastbourne.

Amy loved it last year: “My students performed at the charity event and I ended up going on stage as well. I just really enjoyed it so much. It was a really lovely night with a really lovely atmosphere and the performers and everybody just enjoyed it so much. Now this year I'm going to be dancing with my husband. I think we will be doing things like rumba for sure and jive for sure. It will be fabulous.”

Born in Caerphilly, Amy started her dancing journey aged eight when she entered a campsite competition and hasn’t looked back since. She was the 2017 British National Champion and remains one of the highest ranking ballroom and Latin professional dancers in the UK. Amy is also a four-time British national finalist and in 2015 she reached the semi-final of the world championship. Amy joined Strictly in 2017 and made history as first-ever Welsh professional to enter the ballroom. Her celebrity partners have included Brian Conley, Karim Zeroual with whom she reached the final, J J Chalmers, Tom Fletcher and James Bye.

“I have done six seasons and hopefully I will be back. I think it is just such a great family show. People love the music and they love the celebrities and they love watching the professionals. It's just a show the whole family can enjoy.” And for Amy, it's a platform that helps her raise awareness of Crohn's disease from which she has suffered since childhood: “I just don't think enough people know about it. People don't like talking about bowels and guts and toilets but I think we've just got to break through that stigma. It's more the men really. They really don't like talking about it and some of them end up with mental health issues as a result. It helps so much to talk about it and since I spoke out and did my documentary, it has really felt like ripping a plaster off and I now feel free. It has really really helped me.”

As she says, people see her on Strictly with the most beautiful and glamorous dresses, fake tan, the best hair and make-up and think what's she got to complain about?

But the fact is that she deals Crohn's disease daily and has “days when I go into hospital when I'm the furthest from the Amy you see on the telly. I've been dancing since I was eight years old and dance is part of who I am but so too is Crohn's, which I've had since I was 11.”

Amy performed in the Strictly Christmas Special Show 2022 and will performing in the Strictly live tour 2023. Amy will also be starring in a new series called Dare To Dance on BBC Wales.

For Eastbourne, Amy will be supported by some of her students from the Art in Motion Dance Academy she runs in the West Midlands plus Shining Stars Dance Academy, East Sussex Dance and Ratton School Irish Dancers.