THE RUNNER BEANS

Running

Active Travel

Nutrition

Family

Dancing with Darcey Bussell

Dec 14, 2014 | Uncategorized | 3 comments

Boots UK Darcey Bussell 4

Boots UK Darcey Bussell 5

Even Darcey Bussell can’t teach me to dance, although she certainly tried.

Let’s rewind. A few weeks ago I uploaded a photo of some friends and I after a Barrecore class onto Twitter using the Boots #specialbecause campaign to tell them how awesome my friends are. I didn’t think much more about it until I received a direct message from Boots on twitter asking for my email, and then an email from them telling me that my picture had been chosen and that I was in for a very special dance class.

I invited the girls along to join me but wasn’t allowed to tell them much about the class, or who was teaching us (Nadia had flown back from Florence, and Abi had travelled up from Cornwall so I’m pretty sure they knew it was going to be good!!) however I think they were all incredibly shocked when Darcey Bussell walked into the room!

I thought Darcey would be teaching us a Barre class, however she actually taught us a selection of mini routines from different genres, including 60’s, 70’s, the jive, bollywood and more. If you know me, you’ll know that this is actually my worst nightmare. I can never remember a routine and have zero dancing skills. My face must have visibly dropped as Darcey told me I looked worried, and reassured me that even her non-dancer friends enjoyed the workout.

Despite my malcoordination, and the fact that the Prima Ballerina was dancing in front of me, I had a lot of fun. Yes I got a lot wrong, and certainly never complete a full routine (there were a few moments where some of us at the back crashed into each other) but we laughed the whole way through. Photo evidence below of me doing something different to everybody else…

Boots UK Darcey Bussell 10

Boots UK Darcey Bussell 14 Darcey made the whole experience easy, giving the moves names like ‘swimming’ and the ‘John Travolta’ that were easy for us to remember. We worked up quite a sweat with the mini routines, each lasting only a few minutes, and with not too many moves in the sequence (anyone with an ounce of co-ordination would have been fine!). I have a new found respect for the Strictly contestants and will certainly be less harsh when judging them from my sofa on a Saturday night!

After the session we had a chance to quickly chat with Darcey and take some photos with her. She is exactly as she seems on Strictly, friendly, smiley and approachable. Her enthusiasm, friendliness and willingness to chat openly with us really made the evening all the more special.

I had to do a nerveracking mini interview with Boots for their campaign whilst the girls tucked into some fizz and had their feet massaged. I felt sorry for the poor girls having to touch our feet after the workout- mine aren’t pretty at the best of times.

Thank you so much to Boots for a wonderful evening and to Darcey for being a brilliant teacher despite some challenging students!

Boots UK Darcey Bussell 7

3 Comments

  1. lissy

    This is amazing!! So jealous. Darcey is an idol, I can remember going to Madame Tussauds as a child & her waxwork was the only one I wanted a photo with.

    Reply
  2. chiswickmum

    Looks super fun! Nadia and the other lady in pattern leggings look ready to join Darcy’s team! Well done moving out of your comfort zone again! x

    Reply
  3. Cathryn

    SO much envy 😉 I saw her dance so many times, I would have LOVED this. I would however have been worse than you…this is the girl who fell over in Zumba last week and twisted her ankle really badly!! No co-ordination! Did you ask her to teach you how to do Swan Lake arms? I used to practice that in the kitchen!

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *