Erin Boag has been part of the Strictly Come Dancing family since the show was launched. From 2004 until 2012, the 42-year-old tripped the light fantastic across the Strictly ballroom with a host of celebrity partners including Julian Clarey, Colin Jackson, Austin Healey and Ricky Groves, taking part in 10 series and six Christmas special, before leaving the show to focus on family.
Although she no longer takes part in the main Strictly Come Dancing show, Erin still keeps her eye on what is going on in the TV ballroom and has been a guest critic in Choreography Corner on the spin-off BBC Two show, It Takes Two, twice this series and is set to return again in a couple of weeks.
Born in New Zealand, Erin started dancing at three. She moved to Australia at 18 to pursue her dancing ambitions and by 1996 Erin had moved to the UK to follow her dream and soon started her dance partnership with Strictly Come Dancing professional veteran Anton Du Beke. They went on to win many international competitions, including titles in the UK, New Zealand and Canada.
Erin gave up Strictly after the 2012 series to concentrate more on family, she married businessman Peter O' Dowd in 2009, giving birth to her son Ewan in spring 2014.
She continues to tour with professional partner and Strictly professional veteran Anton du Beke and will be 'taking to the dancefloor' next year in a stunning new theatre production – Broadway to Hollywood Celebrating a Decade of Dance.
The show will include sensational choreography, sparkling costumes and a musical score which will include such classics as 'Somewhere in Time', 'Cry Me a River', 'Mr Bojangles', 'Downtown', 'This Nearly Was Mine', 'New York, New York', 'Couple of Swells' and 'Libertango' promise a performance befitting the King and Queen of the ballroom. The show will also feature the very popular 'Q and A' section providing some fun interaction with the audience.
They will be joined by a stellar supporting cast including star vocalist six world-class ensemble dancers, the 25-piece London Concert Orchestra conducted by Richard Balcombe and Strictly Come Dancing regular vocalist Lance Ellington who, this weekend, will be off with the Strictly team to Blackpool. Yes, Blackpool baby!
Although the Lancashire town may not be on everyone’s radar for a summer holiday, in the world of ballroom it is the 'the business'.
Unfortunately, Erin’s professional partner Anton Du Beke won’t be competing at The Tower Ballroom as he and his celebrity partner, Ruth Langsford, lost out in last week’s dance-off to Jonnie Peacock and Oti Mabuse.
So what makes the ballrooms in Blackpool so special?
Erin said: "The Tower Ballroom and the Winter Gardens are a thing of beauty and when you walk inside they take your breath away. It's the fourth year I've been away from Strictly and my memories of the show at Blackpool are ones of walking down the stairs and seeing former presenter, the late Bruce (Forsyth) waiting at the bottom.
"You can fill the Tower Ballroom with more people which makes it incredibly exciting. In the studio there is around 200 people for the live show and around 10 million viewers at home, but in Blackpool the live audience is bigger – and of course you have the theme tune and all the fantastic colours."
Designed by Frank Matcham, the Tower Ballroom opened in 1899 and measures 120 feet by 120 feet and is made up of more than 30,000 separate blocks of mahogany, oak and walnut.
"Everything about the show at the Tower Ballroom is magical and amazing," said Erin. "It has an incredible sprung floor – I’ve never know anything like it. You can be standing 50 feet away from someone and still feel the bounce when they are dancing."
For Erin, Blackpool has always meant dancing rather than holidaymaking, and she has competed on many occasions with professional partner Anton du Beke.
The Winter Gardens host the British Open Championships, in May, and the competition is ballroom dancing's equivalent to tennis' Wimbledon.
The Junior British Open and the British National Dance Championships, formerly the British Closed Championships, are held at The Tower Ballroom with the latter taking place until tomorrow, Saturday, November 18, and so, along coupled with the Strictly dancers and crew in the town for the weekend, Blackpool will be awash with rhinestones and sequins for the next couple of days.
"There's going to be a lot of fake tan in Blackpool this weekend," said Erin. "And sparkles, and spangles, and eyelashes! It's going to be amazing."
Dancing really puts Blackpool on the map and is hailed the Holy Grail of Ballroom, and thousands of people make a pilgrimage to the town each year.
Said Erin: "Anyone who has competed at top level will have danced in Blackpool. It is one of the few places in the country which can hold the amount of dancers and people watching the competitions – along with the hundreds of hotels and B&B’s to accommodate visitors.
"If you have a 1,000 couples come over to compete at the British Open you have to accommodate them, plus their family and friends, so thousands of beds are needed. Where else in the country could you find that? Maybe London but they don’t have the ballrooms. The Royal Dance Championships are held at the Royal Albert Hall but it is really expensive to stay in the city so a lot of competitors travel to the venue each day from out of town.
"Over the past few years Blackpool has been given a makeover the promenade is beautiful. A good job has been made and it's a fun place to be."
Erin has excellent insider knowledge of what the professionals - and their partners - will be feeling at this stage of the competition.
She said: "At this point of the series they will be getting really tired. The celebrities may be physically fit but they will have become mentally tired. I remember having a word with my partners at this stage of the competition telling them they’d got to hold it together and get as much sleep as possible.
"I am loving this season of Strictly. I love it every year. It's great to see the relationships between the celebrities and professionals develop and watch the personalities blossom.
"There are some really talented couples on the show. I love Alexandra Burke, and it's great to see the likes of Davood (Ghadami) and Joe (McFadden) come through, who probably weren't so good at the beginning. Joe reminds me a little bit of Chris Hollins."
And we all know what happened to him don't we?
Broadway to Hollywood Celebrating a Decade of Dance begins at 7.30pm on Friday, January 19 at Northampton’s Derngate Theatre and will waltz into Birmingham’s Symphony Hall at 2.30pm and 7.30pm on Saturday, January 27 and Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall at 7.30pm on Thursday, February 1.
Further information and tickets are available via the website at www.raymondgubbay.co.uk or by calling the national ticket hotline: on 0844 847 2319.
