Entertainment

Dancers Aljaz and Janette on a Strictly return and their new tour

The couple said they have not yet received ‘the phone call’ asking them to return to the BBC One series.
The couple said they have not yet received ‘the phone call’ asking them to return to the BBC One series. The couple said they have not yet received ‘the phone call’ asking them to return to the BBC One series.

Strictly Come Dancing professional Aljaz Skorjanec has said last year’s instalment of the dancing series was “special” for both him and his professional dancer wife, Janette Manrara.

Skorjanec and his celebrity partner Gemma Atkinson made the top four, while Manrara and her celebrity partner, former JLS star Aston Merrygold, were the sixth couple to leave the series in a shock result.

Strictly Come Dancing Launch 2017 – London
Strictly Come Dancing Launch 2017 – London Janette Manrara and Aljaz Skorjanec at the launch of Strictly Come Dancing 2017 (PA)

Merrygold, who was a frontrunner and early bookies’ favourite to win the series, went home after losing in a dance-off against The Saturdays singer Mollie King.

Skorjanec and Manrara, who tied the knot last year, have kicked off a 46-date tour of their theatre show titled Remembering Fred.

Asked if they would be returning to Strictly this year, Skorjanec said they had not yet received “the phone call”, adding: “We don’t know yet, it’s very exciting to be waiting to be brought back, if we’re brought back, but in the meantime Remembering Fred is keeping us so busy.

“For both of us Strictly last year was very special, we had an amazing series.”

The tour, which sees them performing routines to hit songs from Fred Astaire and other famous musicians such as Cole Porter, is a tribute to Astaire.

Skorjanec said: “We just loved it so much (the tour) the first time around, it was so much fun doing it last year and it’s such an honour to pay tribute to someone like Fred Astaire and to be doing it again, dancing in front of people that love watching us on Strictly and that love dance, and to dance with the beautiful music of Fred Astaire, it’s really special.”

Talking about their wedding last year, the couple revealed they danced their first dance to a song sung for them by Manrara’s father.

Skorjanec said: “We danced to a song by Michael Buble called You And I. Janette’s dad actually recorded himself singing it, so we danced to that, but we didn’t do any choreography together.

“It was just the two of us having a lovely dance. We didn’t feel under pressure – it was a wedding, not a gig. It was a lovely, intimate moment more than anything.”

The couple will tour the country through April and May, with the final performance taking place in Portsmouth on May 28.