Gráinne Seoige: 'I’m out of my comfort zone, to put it mildly'
Gráinne Seoige is a contender in this year's Dancing with the Stars Ireland
Gráinne Seoige is terrified. No really, she is, she laughs, over a Wednesday morning tête-à-tête. She’s back on Irish television you see, returning to our screens for the first time in some 12 years — except in previous times, she says, the possibility of falling on her face was pretty low.
“I’m used to being the one standing there, asking questions to people about how they’re feeling. Now I’m the one saying my nerves are shot! Face planting is also a possibility, so to say I’m out of my comfort zone is, to put it mildly."
“But you know what, what’s getting me through is the reaction I’m getting from everyone as I walk through Dublin or Galway City,” where she and husband Leon Jordaan are based.
“It’s been so gorgeous. I think people know this January will be tough, as the Christmas decorations will come down but COVID will still be here. So if watching us all making exhibitions of ourselves in glamorous outfits will guarantee a bit of laughter and joy, then I’m here for it!” Seoige is, of course, one of Ireland’s foremost and distinguished journalists and broadcasters.
Born in 1974 in Spiddal, County Galway, she first took to our screens on Halloween night, 1996, with the launch of Teilifís na Gaeilge (now TG4) anchoring the 10pm news bulletin with Gillian Ní Cheallaigh. She stayed at TG4 until 1998 when she was asked to be launch anchor with independent broadcaster TV3 and presented TV3's 5:30pm News (also known as First Edition) and 6:30pm News with Alan Cantwell.
From here, she went to News Tonight, Ireland AM, Sky News Ireland and a myriad of other chat shows — one of which named Seoige, which she presented with sister Síle — including ITV’s Daybreak, GMTV Breakfast and BBC One’s That’s Britain.
She’s also great craic. No stranger to laughing at herself, Seoige has appeared on Pat Shortt’s infamous (“I only watched the episode the other day, I was the niece of the woman who says “now I’m not in the habit of repeating myself”!); gone toe-to-toe with Mairéad Ronan (then Farrell) on RTÉ’s well-loved comedy show and taken up Hector Ó hEochagáin on several chances to have the craic on a myriad of TG4 endeavours.
These days, however, you’re more likely to find the Connemara native sourcing diamonds than crediting sources, as her latest venture ‘Grace Diamonds’, a bespoke diamond dealing business, has kicked off somewhat impressively. It’s a labour of love, she says.
“It all kicked off, really, when Leon (Seoige’s South African husband, and a former rugby coach) proposed. He had the ring made for me over there and designed it. I thought you walked into a shop and somebody showed you a tray and you pick one.”
Ever since then, it’s been all systems go, she admits, which had led to her somewhat double-jobbing while lacing her heels on the dance floor. “This time of year is obviously incredibly busy for the jewellery industry,” she says, “so I’m getting up extra early to send emails and chat to designers, and the laptop doesn’t leave my side — even when rehearsing. I think everyone is in the same boat doing this though, it’s kind of a dance in its own way — simply trying to keep your head above water while also learning your steps.”
Seoige joins a slew of other famous faces headed up to dance for our pleasure — former RTÉ presenter Aengus Mac Grianna, Paralympian Ellen Keane and comedian Neil Delamere among them. The show returns to screens every Sunday night from January 9 through March. Each week, she and each of the other celebrities will team up with a professional dancer to perform a live routine, something which fills the 47-year-old with nervous laughter, existential dread, and disbelief at every turn.
“The whole thing is so mentally and physically taxing, rehearsal has me in bed so early every night,” she laughs. “You’re being hit with so much technical information, just so much to take on board, by people who have taken years to perfect their skills. Then there’s foot placement and movement and how to carry yourself — and that changes for every dance!"
“The only thing I can liken it to is learning how to drive; you’re looking at each mirror, and the road, and the speedometer, and the lights and about 50 other things at once. The human brain obviously has the capacity for so much but every so often you just need a tea break to get your head wrapped around it all. Thankfully, our pro-dancers are great at spotting when that glazed look comes over your face, and are well able to build us back up when we need to go back out again!”
This year’s cast and crew have all met at this stage, Seoige tells me, but with COVID restrictions firmly in place, the production team’s determination to maintain safe pod and bubble status keeps them from peeking at each other’s moves. They’re all novices, however. “We’re all in solidarity with each other — and we’re most definitely feeling each other’s pain,” she laughs.
This is, genuinely, Gráinne’s first endeavour into the dance world — “unless you count the haon, dó trí, dó, dó, trís we all learned in primary school” — but, despite this, she was indeed thrilled to get the call. “I did take a while to think about it,” she laughs, “but dancing is something I’ve always wanted to learn to do. I’ve always watched , and despite being away [in Jordaan’s hometown of Pretoria] for the past few years, I always checked up on the clips and photos and just thought it looked beautiful. The standard of the show in production terms is just so high, and it’s just such a privilege to be taught by world champions.”
But despite her ingénue status, Seoige has emerged as the bookies’ early favourite to lift this year’s trophy. The odds — stabilising at around 4/1 for the Galwegian — are baffling, to say the least, says she. “Well, how the hell do you manage that?” she grins, as her charmingly modest manner is wont to do, “no one has seen me do anything! For most of my career, in fact, I was behind a desk, and you couldn’t even tell I had legs!"
“I think when that was announced, my name was one of only few that was released,” she smiles, wryly. “Now all 12 names have been unveiled, it’s a very different story. I can assure you those odds were based on neither research nor fact!”
Gráinne herself — whose surname is synonymous with Irish broadcasting — is, of course, unique in Ireland as she is the only broadcaster to not only have worked with all four Irish TV channels RTÉ, TV3, TG4 and SKY, but was also the original news anchor who launched three of those channels: TG4 in 1996; TV3 in 1998 and Sky News Ireland in 2004.
She is a previous IFTA nominee for the award of TV Personality of the Year and boasts top dog status both here and across the pond. She’s known, of course, for her impressive command of the Irish language, having grown up in a bilingual household in the Connemara Gaeltacht.
But will she be bringing that Irish influence to her steps on the dancefloor? “It’s something I’d love to do,” she says, “but obviously so much goes into the dances and the picking of the music. It would be something I’d love to inject into it, but it would have to be right for the movement. Saying that, look what Riverdance did — they managed to blend a number of different styles and cultures, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
Presenters Jennifer Zamparelli and Nicky Byrne will be back at the helm when all things DWTS kick off in January, with judges Loraine Barry and Brian Redmond also returning to the judging panel. Joining them, replacing talent agent and choreographer Julian Benson — whose battle with Cystic Fibrosis has resulted in his cocooning most of the previous two years — will be dancer and acclaimed choreographer, Arthur Gourounlian, alongside at least five new faces on the professional dancing panel.
“The new members on board with us this time definitely makes things easier,” Seoige says, “at the minute we’re just trying to get used to the idea that we’re going to feel chuffed with ourselves on Sundays but have two left feet on Mondays, as we’ve to kickstart the whole process of learning again. But the injection of new glamour and fun, especially at a time when we most need it, is so appreciated. I think we’re all just rearing to get started!”
- Dancing with the Stars returns to RTÉ One on Sunday, January 9.
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