Strictly Come Dancing Tour 2018 - Leeds Arena
Hey!
It has taken me so long to write this, but I've finally been able to finish it. On Thursday 25th January I took a trip to Leeds with my parents to see the Strictly Come Dancing Tour which was a great night! We left mid afternoon to ensure we would arrive in plenty of time and give us chance to get some food. The first issue we encountered we totally missed the entrance into the car park and ended up going on a massive loop to get back to where we needed to be.
As we walked up to Leeds Arena I was very impressed with the organisation for the security. The whole area around the arena was barriered off and the only way to get into that section was by showing your ticket. There was then various queues to get into the venue, before joining the queue there was bag searches and then when you got to the front of the queue they were doing body scans before you could actually enter the arena.
We sat down in our seats and looked through the programme while waiting for it to start, we were sat in Block 107 Row R it was a great view and I'd definitely sit there again, I found myself watching the actual performances rather than the screens which was great.
I don't know if it's just me but I felt that the singers were more involved than last year, having little dancing routines and performing further into the stage. The band and singers are always great, and I love that the music is performed live every night
During the night there was a few professional performances and then each couple did two routines as follows:
Alexandra and Gorka – Jive to Proud Mary and Quickstep to The Gold Diggers’ Song (We’re In The Money)
Susan and Kevin – Quickstep to Bring Me Sunshine and Samba to Wonder Woman
Davood and Nadiya – Paso Doble to Live and Let Die and Charleston to The Lambeth Walk
Gemma and Aljaz – American Smooth to Downtown and Paso Doble to Viva La Vida
Jonnie and Oti – Jive to Johnny B. Goode and American Smooth to Cry Me a River
Debbie and Giovanni – American Smooth to Memory and Salsa to I Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You
Joe and Katya – Charleston to Alexander’s Ragtime Band and Argentine Tango to Human
All of the performances were brilliant including the professional and group dances. My favourites though were probably Susan & Kevin's and Joe & Katya's, I ended up voting for Susan, Joe and Gemma as I couldn't make my mind up.
During Jonnie & Oti's American Smooth Oti's dress got caught over Jonnies head and he ended up spinning her with the dress over his head which was quite amusing, don't know if that ended up happening during any of the other nights but it seemed to make the judges chuckle.
After Joe and Katya performed their Argentine Tango, Ore persuaded Craig to perform the lift that was at the end of the routine which was great! I've loved watching everyones clips of the lift from different nights!
Near the end of the night all the judges got up and got everyone in the audience on their feet and each judge plus Ore did a count of 8 to put together a small routine that the audience then performed which was a great atmosphere.
The night eventually came to an end and after the audience voted the winner was announced as Gemma and Aliaz with Debbie and Giovanni runners up. After Gemma had performed she announced to the arena that her fellow past cast mates from Emmerdale were watching.
Overall it was a great night there was always so much going on you didn't know what to look at and I already can't wait for next year. I just wished they still made tour DVDs so I could fully relive the moment!
See below for a video of some clips I took:
Hope you enjoyed
Lyndsey
