Latin American dance specialist James Jordan speaks to Lorelei Reddin about his marriage to fellow professional dancer Ola Jordan, working on TV show Strictly Come Dancing and new show Strictly Come Dancing The Professionals that comes to the BIC Bournemouth on July14-17. YOUR latest tour is just professionals. Will it be better than the celebrity Strictly tours?

“Don’t get me wrong, the celebrities get to a good standard and they get to a fairly high quality considering they’ve only been on a massive crash course in dancing. Whereas this is something we professionals have been doing all our lives. This show is basically us unrestricted. I’m dancing with (wife) Ola who I’ve been dancing with for 10 years.”

What will the show involve?

It’s pretty much the whole repertoire – rumba, cha cha and ballroom. There’s plenty of group and solo numbers and we’re all used to doing corporate events. People come to events just to see me and Ola and at this show you get all the other couples as well.You get five professional couples for the price of one! There’s loads of different styles and costume chan-ges. It’ll be pretty spectacular. All in all, it’s going to be an amazing show.”

How will playing at a venue like the BIC differ from your normal shows?

“In an arena, you play to three sides while in a theatre you just play to the front. So it just needs the choreography changing so you make sure you’re facing your audience. I think it’s better than normal this way – it’s really up close and personal. I’ve been dancing long enough to know what we need to do now. It’s going to be great with lots of costume changes, bringing a special show to the stage.”

Is there a big rivalry between the couples?

“There is a rivalry, but we all get on very well. We’re going to be with each other on the road for about 14 weeks in total, if we didn’t get on it would be a tough time. We’re all quite excited about it really.”

Will you be glad to get back to dancing with Ola?

“She’s a lucky, lucky girl, if I do say so myself! No it’s always very very different dancing with a professional than dancing with a celebrity. It’s even better as Ola and I have been dancing together for so long. It’s great working with my wife and getting to experience all these things together.”

Do you ever get fed up with working and living together?

“No, lots of people say that because for the last ten or 11 years we’ve been with each other all the time. But it works very well for us, in fact we love it. We might row about something stupid like the washing up when we’re at home, but when we go out to dance or work we leave that all at home. If you can’t do that, you’d have problems. Ola is very easy going and I’m very fiery and quite short-tempered. It works well. She wears the trousers!”

Did you ever in your wildest dreams expect Strictly Come Dancing to become the global phenomenon it has?

“If you said to me at the beginning before the first series that this show was going to be worldwide and the biggest show ever on the BBC, I would have laughed at you. I never expected it, not on your nelly – not ballroom dancing, Brucie and everything. I thought it might be a bit of a joke, but people love seeing us work celebrities hard and seeing some great dancing. That sort of thing had disappeared from our screens for 20 years after Come Dancing and it’s great to see dancing back on primetime as a big part of people’s lives.”

Has it encouraged men to take up dancing do you think?

“It’s got guys going out dancing. When you see the likes of Darren Gough and Joe Calzaghe doing it, people think it’s cool. People do have preconceived ideas of what a dancer will be like, so it’s pretty useful when a tough boxer who people look up to falls in love with dancing! Guys are definitely realising it’s not such a girlie thing and that in itself is fantastic. It’s also good for all ages – from kids to the older generation, they all watch Strictly Come Dancing. It’s a real family show!”

Can you teach anyone to dance?

“I believe I can. To what level is another matter, it depends on your natural ability. But anyone can dance. I’ve been working with some kids in wheelchairs on the TV show Dancing on Wheels and they’ve done amazingly.

How has Strictly changed your life?

“Firstly the whole thing is on live TV so there’s all the promotion and people recognise you.We do a lot more shows and are a lot more busy. Things like this tour and the celebrity tour have come up. All in all it’s been an amazing experience to be part of Strictly. It’s a great show and it doesn’t hurt anyone. I love being part of it.”

Would you go back to competition again?

“I wouldn’t compete again. Most people retire by the time they’re 35 and I’m going on 32. It takes six months training every day to get back into dancing, ready to compete. We’ve got quite different lives now and we’d like to carry on doing the shows and then have a family.

What’s next for you?

“After the tour, Strictly will start again. Ola is looking to do more modellingand I’d love to get into presenting. I did some stuff with Claudia Winkleman for BBC2 last year and found it really interesting. I’m better than that Anton (du Beke) anyway!”