Five former Strictly Come Dancing professionals are bringing a Las Vegas dance show to Swansea this Friday.
Brendan Cole, James Jordan, Pasha Kovalev, Vincent Simone and Ian Waite play Swansea Building Society Arena on 9 October with Vegas: After Hours.
Between them they have two Glitterballs: Cole won the very first series in 2004 with Natasha Kaplinsky, and Kovalev lifted the trophy in 2014.
They arrive with Strictly back on BBC One, and this year’s series brought a Swansea name to the ballroom.
Melanie Walters, Gwen in Gavin & Stacey, was paired with Aljaž Škorjanec at the launch.
From Celine Dion to Sinatra, with James Bond themes thrown in
The show runs for two and a half hours, Kovalev said, set to the music of stars who have played Las Vegas, Celine Dion and Elton John to Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.
Cole will dance the rumba and the paso doble, and he hinted at the soundtrack: “Let’s just say that a few epic James Bond film themes might be involved.”
He went further than that. “This tour promises to be the raunchiest yet,” he said.
Waite has a solo spot to the music of Sammy Davis Jr, dancing “a quickstep and a slow dramatic waltz”. “No jiving for me!” he said.
For Simone, it is the Argentine tango, which he called his speciality.
“They wish we were still on Strictly”: why the fans keep coming back
This is their third tour in three years, after Legends of The Dance Floor in 2024 and The Return of The Legends in 2025.
Jordan, who finished runner-up with Denise Van Outen in 2012, puts it down to nostalgia.
Fans tell them so all the time, he said: “I can’t count the number of times people say to me, and the others, that they wish we were still on Strictly.”
That, he believes, is “why they keep coming back to see us”.
All five are “either side of 50 now”, he said, and he feels it: “I struggle with my body and particularly my back, my shoulder, my hips, my knees.”
Waite, in his mid-50s, thought he would “be sitting on a beach somewhere by this stage”, he said.
Instead he points to one of this year’s Strictly judges: “Anton Du Beke is five years older than me and he’s still dancing. He’s such a legend, and an inspiration, too.”
Kovalev met his wife, Countdown’s Rachel Riley, on Strictly, and said she and their two daughters will be in the audience for one of the shows.
Tickets for Swansea Arena on Friday 9 October
Swansea is the sixth night of a 31-date tour that opened in Fareham on Saturday and finishes at Cardiff’s New Theatre on 8 November.
Tickets start at £35.20, plus a £3.95 transaction fee, through the arena.
Three days later, Harry Enfield brings his first solo tour to the arena.
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