Curtis Pritchard: Superhero making a difference?
Dancing with the Stars’ Curtis Pritchard, 22, took the time to sit down and chat to me about his dancing career, along with a few other subjects close to his heart. Curtis, a professional dancer born in Stoke-on-Trent, has won multiple championships in Ballroom and Latin dancing.
When discussing Curtis’ experience so far on Dancing with the Stars, he said: "It’s a fantastic show, it’s an incredible experience and the people who work on it are amazing. Everyone’s so friendly and warm and it’s such a positive show on TV. Yes everyone is competing against one another, but that gives it a bit of spice and it’s great to be a part of."
When I asked about training for the show, Curtis works around the celebrity partner’s commitments. He said, "It varies a lot (training hours), if the celebrity’s still doing a job then obviously that comes first, so you have to find hours around that.
Or you could be lucky and they’re focusing all of their time on the dancing, it also depends how quickly people can pick up the dance and how long their concentration can last."
For most people, meeting the Queen would be the best it can get - imagine getting to do something you love in front of her? On remembrance Sunday in 2017, Curtis got the chance to dance in front of the Queen at the Royal Albert Hall, as part of the service held there to commemorate armistice day.
"Dancing at the Royal Albert Hall was incredible, it was a once in a life time experience." He enthused, "there were two shows, the first show was in the morning and the Queen wasn’t there, so that was more for the general public. That was incredible. The Royal Albert Hall is where one of the major competitions in Ballroom and Latin dancing is held, so for me to dance there was fantastic."
To see all the soldiers marching on and doing everything that they did was incredible, I got quite emotional. In the second performance at night, the Queen was there – from where we were stood, I could see her if I wanted to look up there, but I didn’t dare look whilst I was dancing, I think I would’ve got a bit star struck and forgot the dance."
It seems that when it comes to dancing, wardrobe malfunctions would be most peoples’ worst nightmare. I asked Curtis about this, however he seemed to have only had one truly memorable experience. Laughing, he recalled, "On Dancing with the Stars season 2, I was in a pair of trousers that had no stretch to them and in dancing, it’s important for them to stretch.
There was this one position in a group dance where I squatted down and I fully jumped up and I heard it rip, it was literally the whole way from the front to the back just torn. So, with a few safety pins in, we had to do it live with my ripped trousers – we didn’t see anything on TV as we were all watching for it, but it could’ve ended badly."
Following on from wardrobe disasters, Curtis went on to discuss his favourite dance and believe it or not, it’s the foxtrot! "It’s a very elegant, old-fashioned, smooth dance, that if done properly it looks like you’re gliding across the floor with ease and it looks so simple but it’s one of the hardest dances to do. It is not simple, but when done properly watching somebody do a foxtrot is fantastic" the dancer explained.
He went on to say, "I believe dance can help in many areas and I have worked with dementia patients and those suffering with mental health issues and I will continue to work in this field – my Nan’s got dementia so it’s very close to me. I loved bringing the elderly back to the age of the 50s and 60s with the old-fashioned music, ‘Unchained Melody’ and ‘Lean on me’. I just love that era.”
Having done Dancing with the Stars, I wondered if Curtis wanted to go on any other TV shows, and he certainly seemed keen to give some a try. "I would like to do the Hunted show that AJ did, I think that’d be awesome. I’d like to do Bear Grylls Island as well, maybe also I’m a Celebrity, get me out of Here later in my career; I’d like to see if I could do the challenges."
Superhero making a difference? I asked Curtis what his ambitions are for the future and in his words, he’s ‘reaching high, but not putting limitations on anything.’ "I’d love to be in a movie, like the lead role in a Marvel film would be incredible and a dream come true.
‘I’d just like to make a difference to be fair, just help people out or make them feel good – especially those who don’t always get the chance to do things, like old people for example in an old people’s home, with dementia.
When I went to the old peoples’ homes, it was one of the biggest self-rewarding things I’ve done. The first time I did it I put old-fashioned music on and they stood up to dance – these were people that couldn’t even move around.
They can be violent people at times and the music calmed them down, yet they knew all the lyrics and these people can’t even remember your name. So yeah, I’d just like to make a difference really."
Curtis was incredibly open, honest and a pleasure to interview. I would like to once again thank him for his time, I wish him all the best of luck for the future!
