Having danced ballet before uni, I was missing it desperately during my time in Newcastle. But I didn’t have a ton of time to fit regular practices into my schedule, so when the dance club’s page popped up on my Insta feed, I jumped at the opportunity to get back on stage. Looking at former years, I knew there was a huge range of styles the club covered. Something like contemporary would fit well with my existing skill set, but I think I would have been too comfortable. Bollywood has turned out to be a brilliant choice as I get to be out of my comfort zone and channel more energy into the choreography, yet less intimidating than street or freestyle that I dare not touch with a ten-foot pole. Maybe next year?
The first step to my ‘celebrity’ journey - which sounds odd out of context - was meeting my ‘professional’, Anusha. I was immediately comfortable with her from the first rehearsal but definitely not unchallenged, and Anusha was great at walking me through the bits I was struggling with. She split the routine into three main parts with a medley of three songs: Sun Saathiya, Radha, and Nagada Nagada. (Four rehearsals later and it now plays in my dreams on repeat.)
I learned the dance over three rehearsals, spending about an hour on each section. Anusha also decided to incorporate some of my ballet training in Sun Saathiya to give it a bit of a fusion style. Out of the three, Radha took the most time and was the hardest one to remember, but it actually ended up my favourite part! Then we had a session to clean up the routine, with a dress rehearsal to sort out costumes. We landed on a sparkly top and long skirt that Anusha borrowed from the Bollywood Society. Most of the dress rehearsal was actually spent trying not to step on the dress or practising the fastest way to whip it off - spoiler for our costume change!
Then came the day of the show, a mere 3 weeks later. By then, I was feeling surprisingly confident, but as 6:30 crept closer the nervous energy built up. We were given 15 minutes per dancing pair to practice on stage and block out positions for the dance. A big surprise we got when we arrived was seeing the judges' table on stage, but all teams made it work and no judges were harmed over the course of the night.
Anusha and I shared a dressing room with Dahna and Ellie, the freestyle pair. I also got to chat with a couple of the other dancers, like Sabrina and Rachel for Mongolian dance. Everyone backstage was pumped for their performance, and the cheers from the waiting dancers were just as loud as the crowd. Intro videos played before each performance, with a couple of clips recorded from rehearsal. Particularly exciting performances included a musical theatre number to Greased Lightning (complete with leather jacket), a Samba piece with Shakira blasting from the speakers, and a Charleston number with a flip that got everyone clapping.
As the last duo of the night, the pressure was on Anusha and me to give a great show to wrap up the night. It was so much fun to be back on a stage, and as Anusha advised me, I worried less about perfect choreography and focused on giving good energy to the crowd. The highlights of our routine were definitely Anusha’s cartwheel and the costume change, and it all paid off when we received two 10s out of the four judges. After that, we had a break for the audience to vote for their favourite couple.
Voting was completed through donations into buckets that corresponded with each pair. As a collaboration between the dance club and the RAG Society, all the proceeds from the votes, entry prices and extra raffle tickets would go towards the Dragonfly Cancer Trust. One of the judges present was Sarah Hogg, their Senior Fundraiser. The trust offers support to patients in palliative care under the age of 25 and does many things such as keepsakes, memory-making experiences and creative therapy activities. Over the night, we raised hundreds of pounds, which was a huge achievement that all the organisers should be extremely proud of.
The winners of the night were Imogen and James, the Charleston duo, and they performed an encore to a standing ovation. Overall it was a very successful night with hosts Owen and Watson keeping the energy up throughout the show. A big shoutout to Tarryn and the organisers, and everyone who helped out backstage as well! And obviously, a very well done to all the ‘celebrities’ who worked hard to learn everything and the ‘professionals’ who choreographed all the brilliant routines.