Dance To The Music's Glasgow show fell pretty much mid-way in this UK tour of the entire 15-piece Strictly Come Dancing band, led by musical director Dave Arch – and the fun and rapport that has been built on their pretty gruelling schedule was impressive.
More of a showcase for the band (and an opportunity to sell some CDs in the foyer) than a full-on dance performance, though this did not greatly diminish the impact of the show. Three of Strictly's professional dancers (Artem Chigvintsev, Kristina Rihanoff and Robin Windsor) were joined by Kara Tointon, a former celebrity champion, who managed to hold her own alongsde the fierce talent she was lining up with. Rihanoff should have a licence for most of her moves and Windsor played up his cheeky chappie factor to maximum effect too.
Musically, it was a night of populist treats. From Eva Cassidy's Somewhere Over The Rainbow to a stunning new arrangement of My Girl, the four vocalists looked like they were enjoying every minute of their stage time. The audience participation in the second half was suitably cringeworthy and, in true BBC style, no participant left without a gift bag (and a hug from their Strictly dance partner).
A fantastic jive cover version of Bruno Mars' Runaway Baby led into a disco finale section, which featured Chigvintsev and Windsor in crowd-pleasing kilts.
While very different from the Strictly tour, which involves a heady dose of pantomime fervour from the judges, this pared-down and musically-focused show got everyone up on their feet or seat bopping along. Dance To The Music? Job done.
HHHH
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article