Giovanni Pernice: Dance Is Life, Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury - review
On an unusually warm February day in Shropshire, Strictly Come Dancing's Giovanni Pernice took the temperature up another few degrees with a sizzling, sensational show of speedy footwork in his own star vehicle, Dance Is Life.
Joined by professional dance partner and fellow Strictly pro, Luba Mushtuk, and three other champion dance couples, Strictly's favourite Italian dancer (sorry Bruno Tonioli, judges don't count) put on a two-hour show that brought the glitz and glamour of Strictly to the stage with a distinctly Italian flavour.
Giovanni has competed in four consecutive series of Strictly and three times reached the final - finishing runner-up with Faye Tozer last December - but is yet to win, as he was reminded by 29-year-old Russian dancer Luba, who pointed out that she lifted the prized glitterball as winner of the 2018 Children in Need Strictly special with Shane Lynch.
Giovanni may not have won the coveted glitterball yet but the 28-year-old from Sicily has already got a big fan club. He can certainly turn on the charm, wooing his mostly female audience with self-deprecating humour about his vanity and his sharp eye for the ladies. He could get away with this, he confided in us, as his girlfriend (former Strictly celebrity finalist Ashley Roberts, from The Pussycat Dolls) was not in the audience on Sunday night.
He played on his rogueish image by bringing a young lady out of the audience and onto the stage for a romantic dinner, pretending to order a pizza (the cheapest) and getting it brought to the stage by a delivery man who got a handshake rather than the anticipated tip.
Jokes aside, it was dance all the way and highlights in the 'molto Italiano' first half included up-tempo routines with Giovanni performing those lightning quick flicks and kicks in Charleston and jive routines culminating in the exhilarating 'Americano' nightclub routine.
The second half told a love story, which gave the opportunity for slower and more expressive routines which gave the elegant Luba a chance to shine. Throughout the night she and her fellow female dancers got through a wardrobe of dazzling frocks.
Based on his grandparents' tempestuous romance, the love story series of dances gave Giovanni the chance to strut his stuff with tango moves, ripping open his shirt to an appreciative gasp from the audience.
Credit must be given to choreographer Jason Gilkison, creative director on TV's Strictly Come Dancing, and also to Giovanni and Luba's troupe of dancers. They are Polish champions Krystian Radziejowski and Sylwia Radziejowska, former UK Latin champion Stephen Vincent and South African Latin specialist Kylee Vincent, former Strictly pro Trent Whiddon and his wife, four-time British finalist Gordana Grandosek Whiddon.
Shropshire audiences get a second chance to catch Giovanni's Dance Is Life show when it is staged at The Place at Oakengates Theatre on April 1.
