Latest news with #dancefloor
The Sun
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
All the celebs lined up for Strictly 2025 from Love Island winner to BBC star and hero Olympian
THE Strictly Come Dancing 2025 launch is fast approaching - and if the rumoured line-up is anything to go by, fans are in for one of the best series yet. The reigning Strictly champ is comedian Chris McCausland, who lifted the Glitter Ball trophy last year with Dianne Buswell. 8 But this year names heavily tipped to take to the dancefloor include winners of huge shows such as Love Island and I'm a Celebrity, as well as an Olympic legend. Here's all the famous faces reported to be signing up for Strictly this year. Dani Dyer 8 It's already been a huge year for Dani, 28, after she tied the knot with West Ham footballer Jarrod Bowen. But Dani, the daughter of actor Danny Dyer, is in talks to waltz onto Strictly later this year, as The Sun revealed in June. The mum-of-three is no stranger to winning reality shows, after scooping the £50,000 Love Island prize with ex-boyfriend Jack Fincham in 2018. Stefan Dennis 8 Actor Stefan, 66, will show fans a very different side to him after The Sun revealed he's signed up for Strictly. The Neighbours legend has played Ramsay Street lothario Paul Robinson since the first episode in 1985. But, after the Australian soap filmed its final episode earlier this month, Stefan is free to explore other options. Vicky Pattison 8 She's been a permanent fixture on our screens since shooting to fame on Geordie Shore in 2011. And 37-year-old Vicky 's popularity among viewers was cemented when she won the 2015 series of I'm a Celebrity. Shirley Ballas reveals Strictly's new signings and teases line-up is 'off the charts' The Sun confirmed this month how Vicky had been offered a place in this year's line-up, and she previously told us - while she'd love to do the show - she'll struggle with the dances. She said: 'I've done my fair share of reality TV and I'd never say never to anything but I'm not a dancer, at all.' Jake Brown 8 After winning series three of BBC smash The Traitors, Jake, 26, is set to put his best foot forward in the race for the Glitter Ball later this year. The Sun recently told how bosses are eyeing Jake up after waiving their 'no reality star' rule. A source told us: "Strictly bosses think Jake would be the perfect fit for this year's line-up."He's a good guy, as viewers saw by his journey on The Traitors, so he will be popular with the fanbase and they love to cross-promote with other huge BBC shows." Balvinder Sopal Actress Balvinder, 46, has become a firm soap favourite since joining EastEnders as Suki Panesar in 2020. EastEnders stars have historically done very well on Strictly and The Sun recently told how Balvinder is set to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Jamie Borthwick, Kellie Bright and Jake Wood. A source said: 'EastEnders has been a happy hunting ground for Strictly bosses since the show first aired and they believe Balvinder will be a huge hit with fans. 'She's excited by the prospect, too, as she feels viewers will see a different side to her.' Sir Mo Farah Iconic Olympian Mo, 42, is no stranger to winning after receiving four gold medals during his career. He might be quick on his feet but there's no doubt the Quickstep will be a new challenge for Mo. And he's had already had a taste of reality TV, after coming fifth in I'm A Celebrity in 2020 when it filmed in Wales because of Covid. Earlier this year he was unveiled as Giant Joel on The Masked Singer. Angellica Bell Presenter Angellica, 49, has been entertaining the nation since joining CBBC in 2000. Since then she's enjoyed a successful broadcasting career and in 2017 she won Celebrity MasterChef. After her stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house earlier this year, Angellica is now in talks to show off what she can do on the Strictly dancefloor.
CBC
4 days ago
- Lifestyle
- CBC
Hit the club and be home by 9 p.m.
Across Canada this summer, more partygoers are opting to hit the dance floor in the daylight — a trend some say tracks with society's changing lifestyle priorities.
The Guardian
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘That's where I found my family': dancefloor devotees on hedonistic moves and healing grooves
Emma Warren, author of Dance Your Way Home and co-curator of the festival: I remember someone asking me, 'Where's your happy place?' I said it's in the middle of the dancefloor. They thought that was funny, as most people would think of somewhere solitary, in nature, under a tree, but I was like, no, my happy place is in the squash, surrounded by a lot of people, where your movement is connected to everybody else's. I've been on so many dancefloors. I remember a very intense drum'n'bass night in Manchester in 1996, Phenomenon One. It was tropical hot, extremely loud, and I had this whole-body experience. It's the state you reach when you've been dancing for a long time, for hours on the spot. Some people might call it trance, but I would just call it really connected, really grounded and really 'in' yourself in a collective way. Dancing is universal, and even when it's legislated against – with the Public Dance Halls Act in Ireland in the 1930s or the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act in the 1990s – people find a way. Because it's about friendship, it's about internal strength, collaboration, all those things that are as much to do with the village green as they are to do with a rave or club. It's just a really normal human thing to do. Dancing makes me feel connected to myself and the people I'm with at a time when my attention is always being drawn away by those who are being paid huge amounts of money to grab my attention. It brings me back to myself and allows me to feel what I'm feeling. And I know that after just a very short amount of time of a very simple groove, I'm going to start feeling better. Dennis Bovell, producer, DJ and musician: I had a sound system in Battersea, south-west London, between 1969 and 1974. It was around that time the Lovers Rock genre started to blossom and my generation were learning to dance with each other. I remember a song of mine called Smouche, and they did smooch, gladly! There were sound systems all over the UK – London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol – meeting each other and having what's now known as a soundclash. But they were peaceful clashes, displays of who had the danciest records, who could get more people on the dancefloor. Anyone who ever ran a sound system came up against the police, because people would complain about the noise levels. The police would come and say 'Turn it down', and you would, and then when they were gone you'd turn it back up. They weren't used to the volumes that reggae music was being played at. But look at it now. In those days, I think an amplifier would have been at most 2,000 watts, now it's 22,000 watts. My favourite dancefloor memories? As a teenager, when Freedom Street by Ken Boothe came out, it was an empowering moment to be dancing to the sounds of protest. And then Eddy Grant comes out with Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys. His band the Equals had black and white musicians, there was racial integration. I thought it was tremendous that these kind of topics had entered the dance arena and were being celebrated by people dancing. With my band Matumbi, our first gig was at the joint US-UK airbase in Alconbury. We were warned we should play soul music because these US airmen were not really into reggae. We thought, 'They should be into reggae!' So we played one soul tune to start the show and then started playing reggae. We showed them some dance moves and by the end of the evening the whole airbase was rocking with American servicemen discovering reggae from being stationed in the UK. Saskia Horton, founder of Sensoria: My background in dance is hip-hop, house, waacking and krump. My biggest learning ground were house music dance clubs in London, from around 2014 to 2019. It was like an incubator, it's really deep for me: it's where I found myself, where I found my family. What makes house so transcendental is the four to the floor, the heavy bass and consistent rhythm. Once you've lost yourself in the music, it's a journey the DJ takes you on. I'd be dancing three to four hours straight in a cypher [a circle where dancers take turns to share their moves]. I got sick in 2019 and my life changed for ever. I have a chronic illness. My company Sensoria is all about advocating for disabled and chronically ill folks to have a space in dance and music. It started from the point of me becoming sick and losing access to the spaces that I loved. We've created the Sensory Safe Cypher as a place for people with sensory difficulties, neurodiversity and various physical disabilities to get involved in cyphering. Hip-hop has a 'go hard or go home' sensibility, but with Sensoria, the values are slowness, sustainability and de-growth. It is also just about the purely logistical barriers that prevent chronically ill, disabled or neurodiverse folks from getting to mainstream dance events, whether that's access to the building, or the lack of a quiet space, or no seating. Basically, this is me finding my way back to what I held so dear. Jeremy Nedd, choreographer: I come from a formal dance training but my beginnings, my true connection to dancing, was at family events. I grew up in Brooklyn in a big Caribbean family, we would dance to Soca and a lot of the old soul hits. I felt free, no constraints, no right, no wrong. There's what the youth are now calling 'aura': when you see someone move and they have a sense of self, a kind of ownership of how they can handle a dance move and they just glow, it creates a certain energy around them. I try to carry that same feeling from those family events into what I make now. In my piece From Rock to Rock we use the Milly Rock, among other social and viral dances. It started as a joke with a couple of friends: what happens when you take a dance that is not considered rigorous or virtuosic and really start to mine it and see what else is there? The Milly Rock was created by the rapper 2Milly: it's essentially a gesture where you swipe side to side, and it got caught up in a court case with the video game Fortnite, around copyrighting movement and intellectual property. Who can own a dance movement? There's a whole history of appropriation where folks aren't getting their dues from things they created. Especially when they come from black spaces of creativity. The dancefloor is a beautiful space, a space to be in exchange, to share energy and joy. But the dancefloor is very digital now. Milly Rock comes from Brooklyn but I've watched people gives tutorials on it in eastern Europe, and they acknowledge where it comes from. Linett Kamala, DJ, academic and interdisciplinary artist: I was the first woman to DJ at Notting Hill carnival – I was actually a girl at the time, 15, in 1985. I was born in Harlesden to Jamaican parents, and grew up around sound system culture. I was the type of girl who was like, 'Why can't I do that?' I remember saying 'Make some noise!' on the mic, and they cheered and blew their whistles. And when the bass dropped, that's when the crowd were like, 'OK, she knows.' I just grew in confidence from that very moment. Even though I've been doing it for 40 years, I never take it for granted. I call myself the People's DJ. I will look at my crowd and be like, 'OK, let's feel the vibe here.' I am there to make sure you have the most incredible time. I have an audience from little ones to people in their 80s. I used to be a headteacher, I was super-strict in a grey suit, turning around these tough schools in London. My students would come to carnival and nearly pass out when they saw me behind the decks. Now I'm one of the organisers at Notting Hill, and I run South Kilburn carnival. I'm playing at the Grief Rave at the Southbank. To me, a Grief Rave is not unusual because we have 'nine nights' in Jamaican culture, where we celebrate someone's life, play the music that they loved, and there's a party atmosphere. If you're going through a tough moment, a tune can come on that makes you want to cry your heart out, or it can trigger so many interesting, incredible memories. I think the power of sonic healing is not to be underestimated. It goes back to the heartbeat of the mother in the womb, the vibrational element, and that's why on the dancefloor we all feel so connected. Dance Your Way Home is at the Southbank Centre, London, from 23 July to 29 August
Daily Mail
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Shock video shows MAFS star Billy Belcher kissing a busty blonde in Bali just days after rumoured girlfriend Awhina Rutene returned to Perth following a holiday together
Married At First Sight's Billy Belcher has been filmed kissing a busty blonde in Bali, just days after his rumoured girlfriend Awhina Rutene jetted home to Perth from the island. Awhina had been staying with the 32-year-old tattooed tradie in a luxury villa where they celebrated his birthday. Billy was spotted packing on the PDA with a mystery blonde at a local Bali nightclub over the weekend. In footage obtained by Daily Mail Australia, the English groom was seen grinding and cuddling up to the leggy partygoer inside a dimly lit club. Wearing a red and white oversized jersey with the number '07' and a backwards cap, Billy danced, held hands and leaned in close to the blonde, who wore a revealing backless black dress. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. At one point, the pair appeared to share a kiss on the dancefloor. An onlooker told Daily Mail Australia: 'They were all over each other. No attempt to hide it.' When approached for comment, Awhina played down any romantic interest in Billy, telling Daily Mail Australia that the pair were 'just friends.' The pair also released a video confirming they are enjoying a 'close friendship' and no longer romantically linked. During the show, Awhina and Billy bonded over their emotional turmoil during the infamously dramatic 'wife swap' scandal, which saw her partner Adrian and his spouse Sierah entangled in secret flirtations. Their friendship deepened post‑show, and the duo were photographed holding hands on a Valentine's beach walk. Billy also attended Awhina's 31st birthday alongside her twin Cleo, and they enjoyed several dates in Perth. Despite this, Awhina repeatedly described the relationship as 'purely platonic'. Yet in early June, the pair soft‑launched their relationship by posting a cosy Instagram carousel captioned: 'I'll keep this one.' They officially went public soon after. Awhina then introduced Billy to her son Landon - an important step, given she met him during filming. Many viewers had long suspected Awhina and Billy's chemistry, noting that the MAFS experts got it wrong by not pairing them in the first place. But it seems the pair have now moved on and are single again.
The Sun
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Neighbours legend becomes latest star to sign for Strictly Come Dancing after soap's end leaves him free to take part
NEIGHBOURS favourite Stefan Dennis has signed for the new series of Strictly. The actor, 66, has played six-times married Ramsay Street lothario Paul Robinson since the first episode in 1985. The soap's final episode filmed at Nunawading Studios in Australia on Friday, and will air on Amazon Prime in December. It leaves Stefan free to take to the dancefloor this autumn to impress actress wife Gail Easdale, 52, and their three children. A source said: ' Stefan is a huge character on the soap and is sure to be a hit with Strictly fans. ' BBC bosses are confident Stefan will bring in the ratings. 'He has made no secret of the fact that he would love to star on Strictly and will put his all into the training.' Paul Robinson's biggest storyline was in 2005 for the 20th anniversary when he was shoved from a mezzanine — leading to the 'Who Pushed P.R?' mystery. As a singer, Stefan also reached No16 in the UK singles chart with 1989's Don't It Make You Feel Good.
