Review: Burn The Floor, Grand Opera House, York, May 1

THE last time a prize was flashed so exuberantly on a Yorkshire stage, Robbie Williams had revealed two BRITs from within his flasher mac in Hull.

Now it was "Kevin from Grimsby", as a fellow dancer sashayed across the stage with his Strictly Glitterball, a champion at the sixth attempt with frontline documentary maker Stacey Dooley.

In tails and top hat, he thanked Stacey, the only mention Clifton squeezed in all night for all the intense (social) media tittle-tattle, instead turning the spotlight on his fellow Burn The Floor ballroom and Latin American dancers. In particular, Strictly's two newest male professionals, Sicilian stallion Graziano Di Prima and elegant South African Johannes Radebe, both towering over the champ, who is a dancer more in the Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly mould.

Clifton left the flashing of torsos to the young bucks, leading the show as more of a song and dance and chat man, whether performing Mr Bojangles or Let Me Entertain You, revealing that the aforementioned Robbie was among his heroes.

He talked too of how Burn The Floor had been his resurrection in 2008 when he had quit dancing, weary of the championship circuit. International hit Burn The Floor is in its 20th year, Clifton back in its ranks in a break from playing damaged rock god Stacee Jaxx in Rock Of Ages.

How he, Di Prima, Radebe, Victoria Martin, Nancy Ku, Giada Lini, singers Mikee Introna, Chase Kamata and Tyler Azzopardi and a hot, hot band revelled in never letting up, from Happy, through Carmen and Stairway To Heaven to Ballroom Blitz.

And yes, Kevin will be back on Strictly, he confirmed, and so will Graz and Johannes, burning that floor too. Charles Hutchinson