Strictly Come Dancing Live, NEC

Feb 18 2008 By Diane Parkes

IT has been a huge hit on television and now the ballroom dancing competition is on tour.

It has all the elements we would expect - sequins and feathers, light-footed sports and soap stars, jittery contestants, po-faced judges, even the glitter ball.

Celebs such as Darren Gough, Zoe Ball, Matt Di Angelo and local girl Denise Lewis take to the floor, dancing with their professional partners for the highest score.

Each couple performs two dances then faces the judges and, just like on television, the audience can then vote for their favourites.

Strictly has proved to be a winner on the small screen and it actually translates very well to a live show.

The judges panel, made up of Arlene Philips, Craig Revel Horwood and the lovely Len Goodman, provides the bulk of the humour as they bicker over each dance and offer comments ranging from the deliriously appreciative to just plain cutting.

And with all of the dancers having reached at least the quarter finals over the past few years the standard ranges from acceptable to fantastic.

In our show Louisa Lytton, partnered with Vincent Simone, gave a fabulous tango while Denise Lewis with Matthew Cutler performed a scintillating rumba.

The difficulty is that when this show has been touring for three weeks already it does lack a little freshness.

But nothing can take away from the enormous strides all of the celebs have made in their dancing.

It runs until tomorrow.