Kai Widdrington, who charmed millions as Angela Rippon’s dance partner in last year’s series, was in the island to promote the forthcoming Guernsey International Dance Sport Championships, which take place in December.
He was sporting plain white trainers, rather than his dancing shoes for a Saturday night, but under pressure from the children, he pulled out some of his best moves in a short assembly, including an impressive moonwalk.
Mr Widdrington, from Southampton, started dancing at the age of seven and has been on his feet for the past 20 years – the last four of them on Strictly.
He is also a director on the board of the British Dance Sport Association, which is organising the championships in the island from 6-8 December, which is expected to attract competitors from all over the world.
‘While I’m sitting on the board of directors as the director of education, I want to try and use my platform to try and get the younger generation dancing,’ he said.
‘I think its very important.’
Peter Nash, sports and development director for the BDSA, said it was delighted to be bringing top level dancing back to the Channel Islands after a long break. He said that the last international dance competition held locally was some 15 years ago.
‘But Guernsey’s got a rich history back to at least the 1980s – we used to have competitions here,’ he said.
‘Guernsey is very much on the radar for ballroom dancing even though its a small island off the mainland, and this international competition means that people from all over the world will be coming to Guernsey.’
The event has been supported by a tourism grant from the States. Tickets will be available for spectators for all the sessions across the three days of competition.
‘This is a big thing for us, we’ve really got behind Guernsey, and we couldn’t be more excited for the competition,’ Mr Nash added.
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