Queen taps into her inner Strictly fan as she meets Johannes
"I've always wanted to tap dance, and in my dotage perhaps it's something I could take up," said Queen Camilla, when she met Johannes Radebe from the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing show.
The dancer gave the Queen a pair of tap shoes on a visit to Cambridge.
The Queen and the Strictly star attended a community centre which holds dance classes for beginners.
“We all watch it. I’m one of Strictly’s greatest fans,” the Queen told Johannes about her TV viewing.
“She adores the show and never misses it,” said Johannes after meeting his royal visitor.
“I didn’t know she was a lover of tap as well. I do know that she loves Strictly Come Dancing,” said the South African dance star.
Johannes, who with John Whaite appeared as the first male same-sex couple in the TV dancing competition, said the royal endorsement for the show “makes me happy as an artist”.
The visit was supporting the work of the Royal Voluntary Service, which runs projects at the Meadows Community Centre in Arbury, Cambridge.
Dancing is seen as a way of helping people’s health and bringing them together, and the Queen was shown a dance studio where beginners can try out their footwork, although she resisted the temptation to join in.
The Queen was seen giggling as she met Johannes and Love Island contestant and dancer Tasha Ghouri and then watched them lead a dance class.
However, it sounded as though the Queen had not been such a regular watcher of the Love Island dating show.
“I guess you haven’t watched Love Island,” said Tasha about her conversation with the Queen. “She said: ‘No, but I think my children might have’.”
The visit continues the Queen’s connections with Strictly. She previously revealed she had voted for Rose Ayling-Ellis, the show’s first deaf contestant, who won the dancing competition in 2021.
With the King recuperating from a prostate procedure and Prince William helping his wife Catherine after her abdominal surgery, Queen Camilla is currently the most senior royal carrying out engagements.
She has carried out a series of solo public events this week, including a visit to a cancer support centre in London, where she was asked about the King’s recovery.
“He’s getting on, doing his best,” said the Queen.
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