The Waterfront was packed to the gills in an 80/20 split of women to men in what seemed like (at least to the people in the Waterfront hall) one of the years most anticipated events. To give some context – I was there with my mum who is a big Strictly Come Dancing fan. I however, am not particularly a fan of the show. Since the BBC’s flagship show deems not to bring its Arena tour to Belfast, this and the Anton Du Beke stop earlier in the year are as close as NI will come to seeing Strictly’s finest perform live and in person. From the very moment that ol’ swively hips Brendan takes to the stage, the 12 piece band and 2 singers belt out Boogie Wonderland, and the place is in an uproar. He and his 5 other dancers including his brother and other strictly dancers I’m not familiar with blast through a set that ranges from rumba to samba, ballroom to quick step, American smooth to Argentinian tango… as Harry Hill would say – you get the idea with that. The band are on top form, the 6 piece brass section sounded rousing and raucous enough to match the baying crowd. They go through no less than 4 James Bond themes and there’s even a Bruno Mars track thrown in for good measure. In between each song we’re told a bit of gossip about Strictly, something about Brendan’s personal life or a little story about the dance, and of course, collective “awwws” are audible when he reveals he wrote one the day his son was born.
There’s a Q & A section where it seems like every question begins with a declaration of how sexy he is, or an in indecent proposal for after the show. During this he does a dance with one lady (he was on her bucket list) and shows a few younger girls some moves – they were ’18 and legal’ apparently – to their slight dismay it was only dance moves he showed them and not the horizontal cha-cha-cha they were looking for. A boys vs girls dance off and then the penultimate number which was a full rendition of the Dirty Dancing finale, complete with lift and dancing crowd, lead us to the end of what was an eye opening and spectacular night. The dancing, much like the band and the whole production, was absolutely crisp and tight. The choreography was second to none and all in all it’s hard to argue that as far as a Saturday night extravaganza goes this was second to none – Brendon knew what the crowd wanted and he gave it to them.
As the last dance is danced (a jive) and the fireworks went off (yes indoor fireworks) Brendan thanked us for coming to see “A License to Thrill” and I have to say I think that was a license that was used on every woman (and some men) in the place. Perhaps with full houses like this the BBC would think about bringing over their Strictly tour after all.
Perfect review!