Strictly Come Dancing stars in Sunderland for final dance tour

The duo, who shot to fame on the hit show Strictly Come Dancing, are in Sunderland this weekend for their final dance tour.

Following on from their two previous theatre shows, Midnight Tango and Dance ‘Til Dawn, The Last Tango is their final tour as a dazzling duo.

To mark their swansong show, the pair met up with Sunderland Empire’s Movers group to pass on some of their moves.

Vincent said: “When we did Midnight Tango it was our first proper taste of theatre. We’re not musical theatre people, we had no experience of being on stage or being part of a musical.

“But we fell in love with the whole story, the beginning, the middle, the end, the lighting, the world you can create on stage.

“We always felt it should be a trilogy, a box set of three shows. It’s a hybrid of our world and the musical theatre world.

“With the second show, Dance ’Til Dawn, we really pushed the boundaries and we loved it so much we wanted to come back and do a little more of a tango feel, but show our other styles as well as a way of telling the story.”

Twenty years of dancing together has seen Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace become Strictly Come Dancing favourites, World Argentine Tango Champions, and create and star in their own Olivier Award-nominated West End productions.

They shared some of their trademark dances with the Movers group, a weekly group based at the Sunderland Empire which gives people aged 65 and over the chance to improve fitness and strength through traditional and contemporary dance techniques.

Participants, including Iris McCabe, Jackie Wayman, Marie Elliot, Anne Magog, Eileen Anderson and Chloe Taylor, leapt at the chance to learn some tricks of the trade from the inspirational pair.

•The Last Tango is at Sunderland Empire until Saturday. For tickets, Tel. 0844 871 3022. Read our review here.