CityLife

Steppin' Out

Anton Du Beke and Erin Boag

Anton And Erin Steppin’ Out
Bridgewater Hall
January 22, 2010

THE national obsession with Strictly Come Dancing has given professional dancers a nice little line in spin-off career opportunities.

A week after Brendan Cole strutted his stuff at the Opera House, dance partners Anton Du Beke and Erin Boag cha cha cha’d into town.

It seems it’s as much about the frocks as the steps. Boag appeared in outfits that covered the full gamut of the colours to be found in a tin of Quality Street; appearing for her first outing to Irving Berlin’s Steppin’ Out With My Baby in what can only be described as ‘tangerine.’ Each costume change was followed by an entrance imbued with remarkable poise; surely in contrast to the cursing that must occur in the wings when trying to get into sequinned Lycra with only minutes to spare as the band fill in playing In The Mood.

In the main, the music was big band of the Thirties and Forties with Graham Bickley providing the singing accompaniment. Apt, as though the audience’s ages were pretty widely spread, most were of the years that enjoyed a drift across the parquet flooring in their youth.

In addition to the Forties’ nostalgia, there was a floaty Viennese waltz (in lavender, you were wondering I know), a dramatic tango (black, of course) and a Charleston (blue with fringes no less) all linked together with awed ‘oohs’ from the crowd at the next colour of the spectrum to be realised in stretch fabric, plus a bit of end of pier humour from Du Beke.