From the sickening effects of the waltz and managing nerves, to the joy of getting on the glitz and making personal connections, Strictly Come Dancing contestant Sarah Hadland reveals all
Sarah wears dress by Anna Mason; belt by Sonia Petroff ; tights by FALKE; and shoes by GINA
With up to eight hours of Strictly Come Dancing rehearsals a day, it’s been hard finding a moment to chat to contestant Sarah Hadland – we finally manage to speak while she’s in the car to the studios on the Friday morning of week three. “I’m looking forward to today,” she tells me, excitedly. “Honestly, what is still blowing my mind is that I’ll go into costume, and they will literally, and I’m not exaggerating, be holding up pieces of fabric against me. Or maybe a skirt that they’ve bought from somewhere that they’re going to change.
And you kind of look at them, and you think, OK this is going to be live to millions of people tomorrow, and you’re holding up scraps of fabric. We rung them yesterday actually, to ask what kind of top I am having, and they said they didn’t know yet!” Seeing how exquisite the costumes look week in, week out on the show, it is incredible to think that everything is so last minute. “I think that’s part of the magic of the show, because they are doing that for 30 people. Well, 28 now…” Sarah agrees. “I cried when I first tried on my launch dress… I turned around to the mirror, and I saw this costume and it had beads on beads on beads, and it was just so completely beautiful that I burst into tears. I’ve never worn anything so beautiful. And it’s the same with the make up and hair – I won’t know how that’s going to be until tomorrow. But they’re all incredible, they are kings and queens of their game; they can just do the most unbelievable things. And if you’re like, ‘I’m not sure I like that’, they will just change it immediately. But what I’m learning is… with all of them – Vicky Gill, who is head of costume, and Lisa Armstrong who is head of make up, and Lisa Davey who does hair – you should go with what they think, because they are top of their game, so you’d be a fool to not to be steered by them.”
If Sarah’s first few performances are anything to go by, there’s no doubt that she has talent when it comes to dancing – does that come from her background in musical theatre, I ask. “At college you do a bit of jazz, bit of ballet, bit of tap, bit of contemporary, but I’d never done any ballroom. I’ve never done any Latin,” she explains. “It’s like saying you can speak French, and then somebody saying, ‘Oh well you’ll be able to speak Indian then?’. You know, it’s a completely different language, which I don’t think I had really appreciated when I had watched it before.”
Sarah wears dress by Anna Mason; belt by Sonia Petroff
Indeed, she thinks her previous professional experience might be more of a hindrance than a help when it comes to this type of dancing. “What happens is that you defer to what you know, and in musical theatre, everything is very big, and in your face, and if you’re lacking in technique you make up for it in energy and performance,” she explains. “When I did Cats and Grease in the West End 30, 35 years ago, I remember that I didn’t have as much technique as other people, who were just pure dancers, and because I was more of a musical theatre all-rounder I would make up for it by being extra big. In my first lesson with Vito, I realised that it was not going to work for this. I would throw myself into something and think, well the feet were a bit wrong, but it doesn’t matter, look, I’m doing a really big smile! And I could see he was horrified – like: ‘No, no no! Ballroom and Latin is all about detail and technique; your feet have to be exactly like this, your fingers…’ And I was like, ‘Really? Surely if I’m just doing a jolly pose, it won’t really matter?’.”
If the dances we’ve seen so far are anything to go by, Vito is getting his message across successfully, and the pair are having a lot of fun in the process. Indeed, they are such a natural looking partnership that I’m surprised to discover that he is not, in fact, the professional dancer she imagined herself with when she accepted the part on the show. “What happens is that you go to kind of like a chemistry day,” she explains. “So, the females – females, that sounds like you’re in a laboratory – the women stand in a circle around the outside, and you’re taught a very basic Salsa. Like a forward and step, and back and step, and hop and step (can you tell I am not a professional dancer?) and it’s like speed dating, you do it with one pro dancer and then they move on. And the funny thing was, I really thought I wanted to be partnered with a certain person, and I went there, and the minute I met Vito – we are both very, very high energy people, we are both like excitable puppies – instantly I was like, oh, this is the right person for me! I just thought, if I’m going to be in a room with someone eight hours a day, this is the person for me, I need to be with this person, which I really wasn’t expecting.”
After that, it was a case of crossing fingers and hoping that the production team came to the same conclusion. “You can say you have a preference, but it doesn’t necessarily happen, which I was really aware of,” Sarah tells me. “I think it’s on a combination of things, I think height is a big thing, because I couldn’t be paired with someone like JoJo, who is really tall. And then obviously they are watching the… I’m loathed to use the word celebrity, but I don’t know what other word to use. Whatever we are, we have to get taught by the pros, so I think they’re watching to see how you pick it up from different dancers. So, I think they are looking at all those elements, and I am obviously really grateful, because, like I say, you can’t demand who you want, so I was so thrilled when it was him.”
“They’re all INCREDIBLE, they are kings and queens of their GAME; they can just do the most UNBELIEVABLE things. And if you’re like, ‘I’m not sure I like that’, they will just CHANGE it immediately”
Sarah wears fur coat by Charlotte Simone; hotpants by H&M; tights by FALKE; and shoes by GINA
How is Sarah coping with the hours and hours of rehearsals every week? “I am quite a high energy person. And I am always quite active,” she says. “And as an actor, if you are filming, you might get picked up at 5am in the morning, you might be filming until late, you might be doing night shoots. So, I am quite used to managing energy levels, but I suppose the difference with this is, like I say, and I can’t emphasise this enough, the intricacy, the detail is unbelievable. What Vito likes to do on a Thursday is run through it ten times, back-to- back. And the detail is so important! For a second you stop concentrating, you forget a finger or something, and apparently Shirley is looking for that finger! I have never been so conscious of my fingers in my life!” Sarah laughs.
This week in particular has been even more challenging. “We are doing the Viennese Waltz, and that has been very problematic, because it makes me feel sick, because of all the spinning. We’ve worked out that I do 40 spins. And so, I’ve been taking travel sickness pills! The woman in the shop was like, ‘What is it for?’. And I was like, ‘Well it’s for spinning’. And she went, ‘Right, where are you spinning?’. And I was like, ‘Around the room’. And she was like, ‘Well is there a need to do that?’. And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m doing a dance’. And she was like, ‘Well, just don’t do the dance’. And I was like, ‘Well, I kind of have to’. And then she looked at me and it twigged, and she was like ‘Ohhhhh…’! And it actually works. It really does. I genuinely panicked when I could not find my packet this morning.”
This added worry certainly can’t help the nerves. On which note, I’m surprised to find that it is not the millions and millions of people watching at home, but rather the studio audience that makes Sarah more nervous. “I have done a lot of studio sitcoms. I’ve done a lot of sketch shows where you have an audience. I was in Mitchell and Webb for years, where you have a studio audience, and obviously Miranda had a studio audience, so I’m used to that,” she tells me. “But when you are a performer, the minute you see people, you instantly kick into performance mode. And that’s what Vito has had to help me manage, because when I’m performing in front of a live audience, I have to ramp it up a gear! Also, I am very easily distracted, so I’ll be walking to the dance floor going, ‘Oh hi, thank you, I know, I love these shoes’, and Vito will be like, ‘You must focus!’. That is our word: focus. And he helps me to get into a space where I’m very calm and very concentrated and very focused. He calls me Trilly, which is the Italian for Tinkerbell. He’s like, ‘You are here, there, everywhere, you are never where you need to be, so I call you Trilly. So, we are Trilly and Vito, and we just concentrate!’.”
Sarah wears jumpsuit by Zeynep Kartal; tights by FALKE; and shoes by GINA
And holding that focus can be especially tough when there is a long wait to get out on the floor. “You’ve really got to hold your nerve; last week I was last. I was like, this is long!” Sarah admits. “I kept thinking I needed the toilet. And because I had been stitched into my costume, people had to cut me out, and I had a wee and then they had to sew me back in. And then ten minutes later, I was like, ‘I’m so sorry, I definitely need another wee’. And they were like, ‘OK’, and they cut me out again! And I went and had a wee and they sewed me back in, and they were like, ‘OK, no more!’. And then Vito was amazing, he told me to be calm, breathe, just concentrate. He said, ‘You have to just be in this space and get into your character’. That’s something that I think really helps, because when you are thinking about being in character, you are that person, you’re in a different place, you’re not yourself, and that’s really, really helpful.”
What about the judges – do the high scores she achieved in the first couple of weeks make it easier facing them, or more difficult? “I had braced myself for criticism, so I was not prepared for the lovely comments. Or the scores,” she admits.“ Vito had said, ‘This is a competition, and they might say some not very nice things, and we have to be ready for that’. And then… it’s classic, isn’t it? I was like, well what’s going to happen next week now? So that did add to the pressure. Vito says the only people we are competing against is ourselves. It means that you can watch all the other dancers and enjoy it. So last Saturday, I just watched everyone else, I really enjoyed it, and then I was like, OK, now we are just going to go and do our best. And that’s all we can do. I mean, it is pretty terrifying. But it is (I hate to use the J word!) a journey, and there are going to be dances that aren’t going to get a high score, and aren’t going to get good comments, and you just have to go, well, that’s OK. I mean, that’s what you teach kids, isn’t it? That it’s OK not doing great, as long as you tried your best, that’s the most important thing. But yeah, I mean, eeeee, I was so grateful when we got four eights the first week!”
As a self-confessed super fan, are there any dances Sarah is particularly looking forward to? “I’m really looking forward to the Charleston, and I am really looking forward to the Jive,” she exclaims, clearly having already given the question some thought. “I like quick things. I like fast things, I think they will suit my personality, and they will allow me to be quite big and quite high energy. I am really, really not looking forward to the Samba and the Rumba. Those weird waltz things in the Samba, what’s going on there? Going forward and then back, I mean, no, I’m worried about that! And also, the Rumba, with the funny little feet, and the fiddle-de-fiddle-des terrify me. But equally, I am desperately hoping that I am still in to do them, because, I mean, I want to try them.”
“I’d NEVER done any BALLROOM. I’ve never done any LATIN… You know, it’s a completely DIFFERENT language, which I don’t think I had really APPRECIATED when I had watched it before”
Sarah wears: dress by Zenep Kartal; and shoes by GINA
And there’s the rub, with Strictly Come Dancing, nothing is guaranteed, and how long Sarah stays in the competition remains to be seen. “It is quite a weird thing – you can say, I am really looking forward to doing it, but you might not get to do it!” she agrees. “That is the thing that has always surprised me, there are people who leave the show, and you are absolutely gobsmacked, and there are people who stay and you are equally gobsmacked! And it’s an incredible show because of that. I love the balance of the judges’ vote and the audience vote – it makes it so thrilling, because you never know what is going to happen.”
Will she carry on dancing after the show? “The Viennese Waltz, I don’t think I could afford the amount of Kwells I would need to buy. I know other travel sickness pills are available… ” she laughs. “So, maybe not the spinny one. But I tell you what I did enjoy, which I didn’t think I would, is that within the Viennese Waltz is a thing called a fleckle, and for some reason that doesn’t make me dizzy, and I really enjoy that. And I am never going to stop doing the fleckle, I am going to break that out at every disco I ever go to! And there is just something really special about being so connected to somebody else while you are dancing together. I want to say that it is a holistic experience, it’s a whole experience, which again I was quite surprised by. What an amazing feeling that is, that you’re completely in tune and you’re really focusing on somebody else, at the same time as all the details, it’s quite an amazing sensation, and I love that.”
Fleckling at all those Christmas parties aside, what do the coming months hold for Sarah, once the Strictly Come Dancing ride is over? “We have the second series of Daddy Issues, which I am super excited about,” she reveals. “I’m hoping that Rita, well, I’ve been told that Rita is going to have some nice storylines involving David Morrissey’s character Malcolm. And I am super excited about working with Aimee Lou Wood again. And also, I have a writing project on the go with Paul Coleman, who wrote Car Share. We have a project in with Tiger Aspect, with the BBC, so we are hoping that there might be some news on that. So, I’m very excited for next year.” There is, undoubtedly, lots to be excited about.
