I’ll be honest—I’ve never watched a whole episode of Strictly Come Dancing.
I used to watch bits when my mother was alive as it was, latterly, the one thing that she still enjoyed and, like employees who don’t like football but appraise themselves of the weekend scores so that they know what mood their boss might be in on a Monday and have a nugget of information about the action to share, I kept in touch with who was being voted off, who was making people laugh, who was disgracing themselves to give us something new to talk about.
‘Have they ever asked you to go on Strictly?’ is also probably the showbiz question I get asked most regularly.
And the answer is, “Yes.”
Well, I went in for a meeting about it in 2009, or so. I was quite keen to do it then as I’d always enjoyed the very few dance routines I’d done on stage—although I am a hopeless improviser and have never in my life ‘thrown a shape’ on a dance floor, to my knowledge.
And the interview was going well, everyone was smiling and nodding and looking sideways at each other. Then, they asked me if I had any history of injuries. And, when I launched into my list of operations on knees and shoulders and back and neck injections, I saw all the faces fall in unison.
And I never regretted it. It wouldn’t have been for me, really. Dancing. And then: I met Csaba…
After a chance conversation in between the acts at a comedy night at The Brewery, Csaba Polgar was recommended to me as the man who would help with my idea of ‘Strictly Piano’, which we premiered at the LPF pop-up event in November.
He teaches practically everybody from Bewdley to Bitterley, from Bridgnorth to Blakedown how to dance ballroom—from beginners to competition finalists.
He is an absolute joy. But, in short, after bringing his Style Dance School dancers to St Laurence’s Church in November and helping the first Strictly Piano to be a huge success, my wife and I started having a few lessons with him. In Bitterley.
He is Hungarian and though his English is good I think my first joke was wasted on him.
‘I normally arrive at places a little late,’ I said ‘but, today, for some reason I’m a bit-early…’
It got nothing. Perhaps he’d heard it before.
We have had about six lessons now. And what struck me almost immediately is how undeniably romantic it is. Looking into the smiling eyes of someone you love (my wife not Csaba), hearing beautiful music and trying to be at one with it while (in Bitterley village hall, at least) looking out over the beautiful Shropshire hills usually moves me to tears at some point. Especially so when we were dancing to Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie, no 1. The performance sounded familiar and then Csaba told me it was me playing. He’d taken it from my album on Spotify. He said it was a first for him to to see someone dancing to their own music!
And at Strictly Piano on May 25th, you get the chance to watch some of Csaba’s dancers performing and to get up there yourselves.
As far as I know, no-one has put on an event like this before (except us back in November).
To hear a leading pianist (Viv McLean) playing beautiful, largely classical music (although you’ll spot the ‘Godfather’ theme and ‘Tea for Two’ and ‘Back to Black’ by Amy Winehouse—who knew that was a slow foxtrot?) and to be able to dance to it is very rare and typical of the feel and ethos of the Ludlow Piano Festival.
Come on down and listen or watch or dance. It really is three-events-in-one – and, who knows, it could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship!
