STRICTLY Come Dancing couple Ian Waite and Natalie Lowe glide into York Barbican on May 23 with Somewhere In Time, An Audience with Ian Waite and Natalie Lowe.
For their second tour, Ian and Natalie have developed a show with newly choreographed routines of their favourite ballroom and Latin dances, performed to "new music developed to give you a feel-good factor with pure romance".
The 7.30pm dance showcase spectacular will "give full-on entertainment with a romantic feel and will transport you away to a place of wonderful moments, with lots of laughs and stories along the way," they say.
The professional pairing of Waite and Lowe has been a fixture on the nation's screens in BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing for eight years, and their own shows are marked by high-intensity dancing. In turn, this has led them to become family favourites for pushing the boundaries of dance to bring the best out of their partnership.
In keeping with the title of An Audience with Ian Waite and Natalie Lowe, they will not only dance but also "give a close-up history of all things related to their life."
This will be the first of two York Barbican appearances by Natalie this year after she announced her retirement from Strictly. From September 4 to October 22, she is to take part in the 42-date tour of the 1950s-themed stage show Rip It Up with 2012 Strictly champion Louis Smith and 2015 winner Jay McGuiness.
The tour will visit York on September 10, as well as the Scarborough Spa Grand Hall on September 15, with its promise to bring the fabulous soundtrack of the Fifties to life in an explosion of song and dance. This will see Natalie, Jay and Louis swing, bop, jitterbug, lindy hop, jive and ballroom dance their way through romantic ballads, crooner classics and many of the era’s defining pop and rock'n'roll hits.
Natalie Lowe, Louis Smith and Jay McGuiness in Rip It Up
The show comes from the producers and director of Remembering Fred, the Fred Astaire tribute with Strictly's Janette Manrara and Aljaz Skorjanec that plays the Grand Opera House in York tonight.
Rip It Up also features BBC Radio 2’s Leo Green and his Fifties' all-star band, along with a cast of dancers hand-picked by Natalie. "To be able to work with these two incredible Strictly champions and choreograph routines with them to the music from music’s greatest decade is something that we're all very excited to be working on," she says. "Together we will dance through some of the most fantastic songs ever created.”
Looking forward to being part of Rip It Up, The Wanted singer Jay McGuiness says: “To perform with Radio 2’s Leo Green and his band, as well as share the stage with Natalie and Louis and such a talented cast of singers and dancers, should be quite an experience. We have some great ideas and are looking forward to bringing them to the theatres around the country, singing and dancing to some of the greatest songs from one of the greatest decades.”
McGuiness partnered professional dancer dancer Aliona Vilani to Strictly success in 2015, when their jive to the Pulp Fiction-inspired medley of Chuck Berry’s You Never Can Tell and Dick Dale & His Del-Tones’ Misirlou became the show’s most watched routine ever, amassing five million hits on YouTube.
Triple Olympic medal-winning gymnast Louis Smith, who danced to victory with Flavia Cacace in the 2012 Strictly series, has a fourth medal as his target in the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2012. In the meantime, let's dance, Louis. "A lot of people think of the music of the Fifties as just rock'n'roll. While this was the decade that brought us Elvis, Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers, Little Richard and more, we'll also be celebrating the music of Sinatra, Nat King Cole and all the beautiful vocal harmony groups from that special decade.”
Among the Fifties favourites likely to feature in Rip It Up are Why Do Fools Fall In Love, La Bamba, Put Your Head On My Shoulder, Mona Lisa, Oh! Carol, Dream Lover, Reet Petite, Volare, Teenager In Love, Unchained Melody, Mambo Italiano, Heartbreak Hotel, Don’t Be Cruel, Hound Dog, Shout, Good Golly Miss Molly, Magic Moments and Unforgettable...not forgetting Rip It Up surely.
Tickets for both York shows are on sale on 0844 854 2757 or at yorkbarbican.co.uk; for Scarborough, 01723 821888 or scarboroughspa.co.uk. Tickets for Remembering Fred, 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york
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