Strictly Come Dancing's Kevin Clifton on fatherhood and living the dream

Kevin Clifton tells Mary Cate Smith about fatherhood, finding love on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, and playing his dream role on stage

Sun, 14 May, 2023 - 17:40

Mary Cate Smith

Strictly Come Dancing winner and new dad Kevin Clifton is reeling. His friend and mentor, the competitive dance judge and former professional, Len Goodman died suddenly on April 22.

“I didn’t even know he was poorly. It was a real shock. I’ve known him most of my life and he knew my parents from when they used to dance. He is a real legend and will be sorely missed.” A gurgle chimes in the distance and his voice lights up.

“I’m touring at the moment and Stacey and Minnie are upstairs. She’s 15 weeks old and already causing chaos.”

Clifton’s partner is the renowned documentary producer/presenter Stacey Dooley whose work runs the gamut from investigating child exploitation, domestic violence, terrorism, and climate change. The couple met on the set of Strictly Come Dancing in 2018 and by 2019, they had confirmed the rumours that they were dating. It’s a story they’ll tell Minnie when she is older, he says.

A recent Instagram post from ‘Kevin from Grimsby’ (as Bruce Forsyth cheekily called him) credited his partner Stacey for “the most wonderful past five years”, seeming to reference his mental health struggles in the past. Dancing with Stacey was “the calmest I’d felt in years”, he says.

As a new parent, Clifton is sleep deprived, but he describes his state as a good low. “The clock doesn’t exist in the same way. You’re wired from the show in the evening, but you can’t quite get to sleep straight away.”

Clifton is about to play the role of his lifetime, Scott Hastings, in the stage version of Baz Luhrmann’s directorial debut, Strictly Ballroom, an infectious romp through the world of ballroom dancing in Australia. Watching the 90s movie changed everything for Clifton who instantly fell in love with what he saw on screen. “That’s how the whole thing started for me. I was 10 years old when I saw the film and I became completely obsessed with it. There wasn’t anything else out there that felt like it was for me.”

Clifton wanted to emulate the film’s protagonist, Scott Hastings, even if it meant bending the rules.

“I wanted to be him. I started doing things on the competition floor that I knew would get a rise out of the audience, even though I knew I’d get in trouble for it with my coaches.”

STRUTTING HIS OWN STEPS

Like Hastings, Clifton was more interested in strutting his own steps than the “cut and paste” approach offered by his teachers. His 40th birthday last October was a turning point.

“It’s been this 30-year manifestation of trying to become him. He’s influenced everything I’ve done and I finally get to play Scott Hastings on stage — it’s a bucket list, a dream come true for me.”

The eternal bridesmaid of the dancefloor until he met Dooley, Clifton was the runner-up of Strictly Come Dancing four times. Known for his exuberance, “our Kev” was a stand-out performer of the professional dancers, something he credits to his dedication to the character of Hastings.

“Even when I was very young, I believed dancing was about expression and entertaining the audience and much to the annoyance of my parents and my coaches, I didn’t care about winning competitions.”

Becoming somewhat of a people’s hero, Clifton evidently is an excellent teacher and his days of being a choreographer have equipped him well. “I would always say to my celebrity partners, ‘There’s no way I can teach you to be perfect. There will be mistakes. What we have to focus on is telling a story in our dance and entertaining the audience’.”

Had Clifton become a bit jaded by the scene at all?

“The world of ballroom dancing is very prescribed. There’s lots of great dancers, but I find the longer it goes on, the more things are starting to look the same.” It’s like TikTok trends, he says.

“There’s an algorithm that says, ‘Dance in this style and you’ll get more followers’. What’s the point in that?” Clifton is vehemently against having dancing classified as a sport. “They’re trying to put it in the Olympics. I find that problematic because for me dancing is an art, it’s subjective.”

Clifton loves the songs in the play which include classics like ‘Time After Time’ as well as new songs written specifically for the musical.

“One of my favourite moments is at the end when ‘Love is in the Air’ kicks in and everyone’s dancing on stage. The audience is standing up and everyone starts dancing. It just feels so joyous, because theatre was battered for a couple of years with covid.” Maisie Smith played Clifton’s co-star in the original musical line-up of the stage adaptation directed by Craig Revel Horwood but Coronation Street’s Faye Brookes has now stepped into the role of Fran. Clifton describes his on-stage partner as “absolutely phenomenal”.

“Faye didn’t have much rehearsal time; she was kind of flung on. She’s so alive on stage — every night so far has been slightly different and she really pushes me.”

'AS UNCOOL AS YOU CAN IMAGINE'

Clifton may have loved his time on Strictly Come Dancing but when it was time to move on, he didn’t look back. “Theatre has always been such a love for me and before I was on Strictly, I had always intended to go back to it.”

Doing a show like Strictly Ballroom takes some pressure off the dancer’s competitive streak. “I loved the seven years on Strictly Come Dancing. Now that I’ve left, I still watch it and I’m still in touch with everyone — it’s like a family. But there is something different about being on stage as part of a company than going out to win the trophy.”

Clifton wants young people — especially boys — to feel proud to pursue ballroom dancing as a hobby or a career. “When I was going to school in Grimsby, it just wasn’t a ‘cool’ thing. None of my mates really understood what I was doing. I was the guy that did ballroom dancing and turned up to school on Monday with an orange neck and a white face from bad fake tan.”

While he leans into it now, he wasn’t always so proud and recalls being particularly mortified that his younger, taller sister was his dance partner.

“My mum and dad decided that the best idea was for me to have a perm. That was me at school. I had no chat. I was about as uncool as you can imagine.”

He does believe that shows like Strictly Come Dancing and Strictly Ballroom are changing perceptions of dancing for the better. “I’m still in touch with my mates from school. I’ll often get calls saying, ‘Any chance you could score some tickets to the show?’ They know all the terminology; they’ll be so invested.”

Clifton has been writing something but for now, it’s strictly hush-hush. His family won’t be joining him on tour as it coincides with Stacey’s book tour so it’s time for him to brush up on his guiltiest pleasure, which he tells me is “eight hours of sleep”.