VIDEO INTERVIEW: Strictly Star Karen Hauer is on the road with FIREDANCE

Dates include February 26, Brighton Theatre Royal; March 1, Eastbourne Congress Theatre; March 3, Guildford G Live; and March 28, Portsmouth Guildhall. Tickets available from firedancelive.co.uk. They are promising a captivating dance-off inspired by the timeless movie blockbusters including Romeo & Juliet, Moulin Rouge, Carmen and West Side Story, soundtracked by a live band.

“It is fantastic to come back for the third time and to go on tour and to be able to create a show”, Karen says. “We are bringing the backbone of the show we had and we are adding in some more ingredients. We like to bring in new songs and new choreography and it just feels really important for us to feel that we are always evolving. We want it to feel like a new show for us and that's why we have all the extra ingredients that we've got this time. Gorka came into Strictly in 2016 and we've been friends since then. We partnered up in 2019 for FIREDANCE and we did six shows and then we had to stop for the pandemic but the fact that we get on so well and that we're such good friends and that we respect each other is what it is all about and it kind of feels like we are a Latin Fred and Ginger! We do have a little similarities. We both have that Latin feel and we both love trying to bring in new things. Everybody expects the same Latin and the same ballroom but we give something extra that we bring to it from our contemporary backgrounds and our own commercial backgrounds. We like to bring new styles and we like to mix and match.”

And of course, the tour is different to the TV show: “First of all you're not dancing with a celebrity. You know there's two professional dancers going full out. You know as a professional dancer you are able to have the platform and to be able to do a show like Strictly and then to be able to take yourself on tour with your own passions and your own drive. And working with someone like Gorka, you know the professionalism behind it; you know the beauty that people love about it and you know it's amazing to hear people go wow ‘I didn't know you could dance like that.” As for the success of Strictly: “Well, you know it's like a blanket that you've grown up with. I have got young adults now actually who were babies when they first started watching the show when I first joined and they were like ‘Oh my God, I grew up watching you.’ It's really heartwarming to know that people grow up with a show like Strictly and go through the ups and downs of life with this show and that’s why it never gets tired; it always seems fresh every year. It's from generation to generation and it's always better and bigger and stronger and more heartfelt and I think that's the beauty of it, that it's so emotional and beautiful and happy. There's not a bad bone in it.”