Flavia Cacace's blog by Flavia_Cacace

Hello everybody! It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog as this year has been one of my busiest to date. But I promise that over the next few months I will be keeping you updated with all that’s going on in my world. First off many of you may know that for me, 2011 has been all about mine and Vincent’s show Midnight Tango. What an incredible tour it was, 18 weeks, 18 different venues, with sold out performances up and down the country. The audiences were incredible and both Vincent and I were overwhelmed by how amazing the public were in supporting us. So if you did come to see the show a big thank you from both of us! If you didn’t manage to catch it, Midnight Tango will be transferring to the West End in London at the Aldwych Theatre, Covent Garden for 10 weeks from the 20th January and then onto another nationwide tour (dates TBC) which we are both very excited about. More info about dates etc. can be found at www.midnighttango.co.uk.

After the tour finished I managed to fit in a wonderful holiday on the Greek island of Kephalonia with my other half Jimi Mistry (who I met on SCD last year). I would recommend the island to anyone, especially families. We went at the height of the season but it was quite relaxed, the weather was scorching hot and the food was delicious; the perfect time to rest those tired and aching limbs after the tour. Rest however, was short lived as I went straight into rehearsals for the new series of Strictly Come Dancing as well as moving to London. I’m so excited to be back, this will be my 6th year on the show and I think it just gets better and better. This year’s list of celebrities are a great group and everyone has been getting on behind the scenes. Also the professional dancers have been working with some great choreographers for the group numbers, so we’ve been incorporating other styles of dance into our group routines which has been a lot of fun.

Many of you may will have seen the launch show that was broadcast nearly 3 weeks ago. Like last year none of the professional dancers knew who we’d be partnered with until the show itself, which adds to the excitement. But it can be a bit nerve-racking as well, especially as I was left until the very end for the second year in a row. However I can honestly say that I am over the moon (literally) that my partner this year will be Russell Grant - you could probably tell by my reaction on the show. Russell is such a sweet man, a real hero of the group; everybody loves him and believe me he has a few moves up his sleeve as well. What’s so great about Russell is that he is taking part in Strictly for the right reasons. Many of you may know him as an astrologer, but his other big passion in life is performing and musical theatre, in fact I think he knows every word to every musical ever made!

So I think this will be a huge personal journey for him and it’s people like him that inspire me to do Strictly. I think our partnership will be one of joy, fun, laughter and showmanship, so all get behind Team Flavant and we’ll try not to disappoint! Training has been going really well, up in Snowdonia where Russell is based. He lives in this beautiful farmhouse in 45 acres of rural land which is stunning. So in between training sessions, I’ve been going on long walks and trying out my new MBT shoes, boy do they work!! It hasn’t taken me long to spot Russell’s forte which is his pure enjoyment of dance and good music, which is probably why we get on like a house on fire. We’ve got a great first song and rather fabulous outfits that will be the cherry on the cake, on the night.

Also Russell is really enjoying the exercise element of learning to dance. I know that dancing is some of the best exercise you can do and in only a short time, Russell has already lost 5-6 pounds. He’s very happy with this and looking forward to losing more, which with his hard work ethic and determination will happen sooner rather than later I think. My diet this year has been varied what with living in hotels most of the time, but what I eat during Strictly is very important to how I will perform. This year I’m very excited because I will have my own personal chef (Jimi!!) who has promised to provide me with a wholesome, home cooked and nutritious diet over the upcoming weeks.

Not only that, but he says he will be sending me along to the BBC on Fridays and Saturdays with packed lunches so I won’t have to deal with the horror of the BBC canteen. (It’s not that bad)! If he keeps to his word then I’ll share with you the lunchbox delights that will hopefully power me far in this year’s series. Well I guess I’d better get some last minute training in before the live shows this Friday and Saturday, which are on BBC 1 at 9pm and 6pm respectively. Stay tuned! Love FC x