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Power Couple Energy

There's something glorious about watching a married couple dancing in sync. It's the shared looks, smiles, in-jokes and sense of being completely intuitive, working in symbiosis. Few dancing couples have the charisma, wit and raw talent of husband and wife duo, Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara from the iconic BBC hit TV show, Strictly Come Dancing. They are icons for a good reason: they make any dance look absolutely effortless. They've been together since meeting at auditions for “Burn The Floor” in 2010, and married in 2017. Their first child Lyra Rose was born in 2023.

Performance

Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara: “Let's Face the Music and Dance!”  

Place

Perth Concert Hall, Perth, Scotland, April 25, 2026

Words

Lorna Irvine

Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara in “Let's Face the Music and Dance!” Photograph by Carys Griffiths

So it is with this, their final touring show before a brief hiatus to focus on their daughter's first school days. It isn't so much a linear tribute, as celebration of composers, singers, songwriters and choreographers. It's a little iconoclastic at times, but always fun and frothy. There's no subtext here, just sheer entertainment, with a few zingers thrown in for good measure.

Doug Cairns' gorgeous, jazz club style set—which could have come straight from a Blue Note album sleeve—is where the couple emerge from, to general crowd hysteria. They're surfing on  a wave of bonhomie, such is the widespread affection for the couple. The first pas de deux to “Night and Day” is a butter-smooth tangle of limbs, wherein Aljaž almost drapes Janette around him like a mink stole. It beautifully invokes Hollywood melodrama and sets the scene for dancing that never feels like pastiche.

Essentially, tonight's divertissements and routines are set out in little chapters, providing insights into different decades of inspiration for the duo. Tom Seale's Big Band are impressive, sweeping through genres, but for me singer Jill Marie Cooper's vocals somewhat overpowers much of the material. Less can be more. Still, she has a powerful range.

Four younger dancers provide a small superb team, with props going to pocket rocket Kiera Brunton, whose exquisite vaudeville tap routines fuse eloquently with slinky Latin phrasing. Squint and she could be a Funny Face era Audrey Hepburn. She's magnetic.

As for the dynamic couple, they are at their most breathtakingly beautiful when performing ballroom. Manrara also has a beautiful singing voice, performing a fabulous “Too Darn Hot.” This is contrasted with Škorjanec's game attempt at a solo chanson. As he starts “They Can't Take That Away From Me,” apparently, they can—the microphone is briefly whisked away. Arf! 

My absolute standout moment is the tip of the tilted fedora to Kander and Ebb and Bob Fosse. Manrara unleashes her inner Sally Bowles, with a lightning “Cabaret” homage, full of high kicks and struts. One inspired piece of choreography inverts the “Two Ladies” routine with Manrara sandwiched between two male dancers, moving as one unit. Poor gal, my heart breaks for her! It's very cheeky, and more than  a little risqué. Her cover of “Mein Herr” is very sassy, and on point. I'm sure Liza would approve.

Aljaž Škorjanec, Janette Manrara withTom Seale's Big Band in “Let's Face the Music and Dance!” Photograph by Carys Griffiths

Aljaž Škorjanec, Janette Manrara withTom Seale's Big Band in “Let's Face the Music and Dance!” Photograph by Carys Griffiths

This is where the show excels, playing with the tropes and archetypes of musical theatre. The Great American Songbook is served well. The cast does however come a little unstuck when performing a tribute to Chic. It's far more Vegas residency than Studio 54. Death drops and twenty-first century snake-hipped undulations feel too contemporary for the Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers decade of flares, cocaine, glitter and disco. 

No matter. It's but a blip tonight. There's a nice, even pace to the evening, as we're taken through multiple genres. Another big standout is, as expected, the Gershwin homage. This is when Chris Davidson's witty monochrome costumes are best deployed: At one stage genders are blurred, when Manrara dons a forties gangster costume, complete with spats. In another sequence, Škorjanec's black bodyhugging waistcoat accentuates his incredible muscles, while Manrara wows in a white ruffled evening gown that ripples like ice cream as she is whirled around the dancefloor. It's mind boggling just how two dancers with such a height difference can seamlessly melt into routines which require such speed and technical skill, as quickstep and any American smooth.  

The monochrome magic is occasionally put on pause, in order to give the dancers time to recuperate, but this doesn't disrupt the flow at all. Instead, Škorjanec swaps gags with bandleader Seale,  attempts to teach him some new steps, and intriguingly, teases the possibility of Manrara becoming the new Strictly UK host. The audience roars its approval, and after all, she hosts its sister show, It Takes Two. Could this be a hint? I'm in. She'd be perfect. After all, she's a real triple threat. Have we all been let in on a BBC secret? Time will tell.

Lorna Irvine


Based in Glasgow, Lorna was delightfully corrupted by the work of Michael Clark in her early teens, and has never looked back. Passionate about dance, music, and theatre she writes regularly for the List, Across the Arts and Exeunt. She also wrote on dance, drama and whatever particular obsession she had that week for the Shimmy, the Skinny and TLG and has contributed to Mslexia, TYCI and the Vile Blog.

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