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Strictly Come Dancing turned Flavia Cacace into a household name and delivered a husband into her arms. Jo Roberts met her ahead of her Kent show Dance ‘Til Dawn.
Most of us just can’t get enough of Strictly Come Dancing but after seven happy years with the show, newly-wed Flavia Cacace realised it had to go.
She’d been offered the chance to embark on a stunning new touring show with her long-standing dance partner and friend, Vincent Simone.
Added into the equation is the fact that her husband and former Strictly celebrity partner, Jimi Mistry, films his Coronation Street role as Khalid Nazir in Manchester and time together must be snatched where it can. For Flavia it came down to a choice between the touring show – Dance ‘Til Dawn, which comes to Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre this week – or Strictly.
“Vincent and I did a previous Olivier Award-nominated touring show, Midnight Tango, for three years and we absolutely loved that experience. Theatres are a very different world for us and we just fell in love with it all.
“It was three years of half a year touring and half a year on Strictly.
“With Strictly you have to put 110% into it and we’d done that for a long time so when we were offered this opportunity to do Dance ‘Til Dawn we wanted to put together a new challenge. That was the decision.”
The Italian dancing duo, who specialise in ballroom, Latin and tango, have been a professional pair since joining forces as teenagers in 1994.
Much was made of the demise of their own romantic relationship when Flavia was paired with former EastEnders actor Matt di Angelo in the 2007 series of Strictly and began dating Matt for a while, but that was a long time ago and the professional partnership and underlying friendship stood firm.
“We are like family, we’ve been dancing together for 20 years this year!” says Flavia, 35.
The choice to invest her time and energy in Dance ‘Til Dawn is one that Flavia is clearly happy with.
“The show is set in 1940s Hollywood and it combines beautiful theatre with dances of the era, including waltzes, the foxtrot and the Charleston, and some phenomenal singers.
“We have some superb costumes and they are very detailed – we’ve even kept the men’s suits tailored to that era. There is a little bit of narration and it is predominantly a comedy.
“Vincent and I worked our way up and have given pretty much everything to our dance career and we are still enjoying it very much – we’ll keep dancing for as long as our legs can keep up!”
Dance ‘Til Dawn is at Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre from Monday, May 19 to Saturday, May 24. Performances are at 7.30pm each day, with matinees at 2.30pm on Thursday and Saturday only. Tickets from £19.50. Call 01227 787787.