The Queen said we’re cool but I don’t know if she voted, says Strictly’s Angela Rippon ahead of mission with partner Kai

WHEN seasoned newsreader Angela Rippon and dancer Kai Widdrington performed a gravity-defying splits manoeuvre during their stint connected Strictly, it rapidly became 1 of the show’s astir celebrated moments.

Jaws dropped astatine the thought that the show’s oldest-ever contestant inactive possessed the flexibility to rise her limb arsenic precocious arsenic her ear.

Just implicit a twelvemonth connected from competing, Angela, 80, and 29-year-old Kai person go improbable champion pals and are inactive capable to recreate their show-stopping splits connected demand.

Indeed, they bash truthful earlier my precise eyes, without truthful overmuch arsenic breaking a sweat, erstwhile I interrogation them successful a creation workplace successful North London.

Torvill and Dean whitethorn person the Bolero but Angela and Kai person their lasting splits . . . 

Angela has popped successful to spot her mate Kai during his luncheon interruption from rehearsals for the Strictly Come Dancing tour.

Despite an property spread of much than fractional a century, Angela said: “We unrecorded 5 minutes from 1 different and we talk astir days.”

On her caller milestone birthday, Kai amazed her with a clump of flowers and took her for a drink.

He besides travelled to Blackpool wherever she was collecting an award

‘Everyone tin dance’

Their intergenerational relationship is touching to watch.

They decorativeness each other’s sentences and astatine lunchtime Kai adjacent divided his sandwich with “Ange”, arsenic helium calls her.

Of people Kai wasn’t adjacent calved erstwhile Angela performed her iconic astonishment crook connected the Morecambe And Wise Christmas peculiar successful 1976, wherever she astonished the federation by stepping retired from down a newsreader’s table and high-kicked her mode done Let’s Face The Music And Dance with those ­perfect pins.

Kai said: “In existent information my dada Tommy was lone 5 years aged erstwhile the Morecambe And Wise peculiar aired. But helium knew astir it and it was Dad who told maine to ticker it erstwhile I was partnered with Angela connected Strictly. I had ne'er adjacent heard of it.

“I americium astir apt the lone idiosyncratic to person watched it for the archetypal clip with Angela Rippon.

“I saw these pins spell up by her ears and I turned to her and said, ‘Can you inactive bash that?’ She said, ‘Let’s find out.’

“Our archetypal regular was to Get This Party Started by Shirley Bassey and for the agelong enactment I started lifting her limb and said, ‘Does it spell immoderate higher?’ And she said, ‘Let’s find out’.”

Angela said: “That is however we would enactment each week. He would say, ‘Can you bash this?’ And I would say, ‘Let’s find out’. That’s however I ended up doing the treble splits successful the rhumba.”

Their ambitious routines won the brace a legion of fans erstwhile they were connected the show, including nary different than Her Majesty the Queen.
Camilla is known to beryllium a large Strictly instrumentality and already knew Angela done her foundation work.

Angela said: “The Queen said we were cool.”

Did she ballot for them though?

“I don’t know,” replies Angela with a coy twinkle that suggests she successful information knows precise good otherwise.

Audiences were astonished by Angela’s flexibility, thing she has maintained, she says, by performing a ten-minute stretching regular each day. The splits are often a diagnostic and she besides takes ballet classes erstwhile she can.

This is precisely the crushed wherefore Angela has launched a one-woman crusade to get the federation connected its feet, immoderate their age, successful the anticipation that similar her, radical volition acquisition the wellness and societal benefits of dance.

Angela said: “Everyone tin dance, adjacent radical who accidental they can’t.

“Just ticker babies from the clip they tin locomotion — play euphony and they automatically determination to it.

“Even if you are successful your sixties, seventies oregon eighties, you tin inactive creation — you tin creation from a chair.

“This each started due to the fact that I had truthful overmuch feedback from radical aft I did Strictly and they were inspired by what I did connected the show.

“I started ballet erstwhile I was 5 and danced until I was 17. Revisiting my roots successful creation years aboriginal erstwhile I took portion successful Strictly, I felt the tremendous benefits myself. And it sparked my mission.”

Her wingman successful that ngo is Strictly pro Kai, who had agelong been passionate astir encouraging those astatine the younger extremity of the property spectrum into dance.

Together the brace person persuaded studios each implicit the state to propulsion unfastened their doors for Let’s Dance! — the biggest nationwide creation lawsuit ever held.

On March 2, it volition spot creation teachers and studios connection taster classes successful everything from ballroom and ballet to thoroughfare dance.

Seasoned writer Angela inactive has an unthinkable representation for facts.

She said: “I person each these statistic bursting successful my head: 1.6million radical implicit 60 person a autumn each year, and it is costing the NHS successful excess of £4billion, positive a further cardinal successful societal services for those radical who suffer their assurance erstwhile they travel retired of hospital.

“Well, if you tin get to the constituent wherever you’ve got radical of 60 who person got halfway spot — that’s over-60s with halfway spot and equilibrium — they’re little apt to person a fall. And, of course, determination is simply a fantastic societal facet to creation that helps combat loneliness. It is intolerable to creation and consciousness isolated.”

The creation sessions volition besides beryllium hosted successful attraction homes and offices, and Angela adjacent has plans to get MPs successful Westminster dancing.

Such is the star’s zeal she has adjacent managed to motion up Health Secretary Wes Streeting to instrumentality portion successful a Let’s Dance! league connected March 3.

‘Like a small Billy Elliot’

More importantly, impressed with her persuasive arguments astir the wellness benefits of dance, Streeting has besides agreed to see it successful his ­ambitious ten-year program for the NHS.

She said: “In galore ways this started for maine erstwhile I was listening to Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty connected the radio. He said we’ve each got to instrumentality much work for our ain wellness and bash things ourselves that volition assistance us. Eat well, workout well

“He said, play football, spell to a gym, dance. And I past spoke to him afterwards and said, well, I deliberation arsenic pensioners we tin each bash our bit.

“It’s grown into this tsunami present wherever the World Health Organization is ­following what we’re doing and wants to cognize what we’re doing.

“There are groups progressive successful this inaugural who usage creation to assistance ­people with Parkinson’s, changeable victims, dementia and adjacent radical recovering from cancer.”

Meanwhile Kai is passionate astir getting much creation into schools and utilizing it to prosecute kids much successful PE lessons.

He and Angela are presently moving connected a aviator to instrumentality creation into 34 schools successful Suffolk.

Kai is perfectly placed to animate kids, particularly boys, to dance.

His dad, Tommy Widdrington, 53, is simply a erstwhile Premier League footballer for Southampton, with Kai besides ­showing large committedness successful the crippled arsenic a youngster.

But his parents besides sent him to their next-door-neighbour’s creation schoolhouse successful Stoke-on-Trent.

He said: “I didn’t similar it initially. But I loved listening to the euphony my dada would play successful the car, similar Michael Jackson and Luther Vandross, and successful my caput I would beryllium moving retired what dances I could bash to what songs.

“At 12 I was offered a accidental to motion for Southampton but the British creation champion besides wanted to creation with me. So I had a determination to make.

“I ended up telling my Geordie dada I wanted to creation — similar a small Billy Elliot. Within 4 years I was satellite champion successful ballroom.

“Boys tin interest astir having the mickey taken retired of them. But I did ballroom dancing and I was the skipper of the shot squad and the fastest runner.

“So they didn’t cognize what to marque of me.

“I would promote boys to springiness it a go. It’s large that truthful galore radical enjoyed watching Angela and maine connected Strictly but we privation radical to cognize creation isn’t conscionable thing you ticker connected the telly connected a Saturday night.”