There are very few people who don’t enjoy a good boogie from time to time, and members of the Royal Family are no exception.
From an early age, the late Queen Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret had ballet lessons provided by London’s renowned Vacani School of Dance, which also taught a young Prince Charles years later. And in the late 70s, Diana, Princess of Wales, worked as a dance assistant at Vacani.
As a teenager, Princess Elizabeth enjoyed tap-dancing too, and her stage performance in Aladdin at Windsor Castle in December 1943 was famously watched by a young Prince Philip, who was smitten with her. After they married, the couple would regularly go dancing until the small hours, and their favourite song was People Will Say We’re In Love, from the musical Oklahoma.
The late Queen adored Highland dancing too and hosted the Ghillies’ Ball at Balmoral Castle every September. The tradition was first started by Queen Victoria, who even had a special ballroom constructed in which to host the energetic parties where staff would dance with the royals.
Former royal chef Darren McGrady explained, “The ball was a Scottish dance party held as a thank you to the staff for all their hard work. Every member of the Royal Family in residence and their guests would attend it.”
Speaking of the importance of the ball to the late Queen, former Strictly Come Dancing judge Dame Darcey Bussell once said, “Apparently she did every dance and she’d stay up late into the night and be there to just enjoy it.” One of her favourites was the eightsome reel, a dance involving four couples.
Nowadays, it is down to the King to keep the custom going, so it is just as well that Queen Camilla loves throwing shapes! She has previously been known as “the dancing duchess” and in 2020 was announced as vice-patron of the Royal Academy Of Dance.
That year, she signed up to Silver Swans, the academy’s ballet classes for over-55s, along with three “ancient friends”, saying at the time, “The four of us clatter around and when we are in London, we do it once a week. It makes all the difference.
“You might groan a bit afterwards, huff, grunt and everything else. But you do feel so much better. It’s fun.”
Michelle Thole, podcaster from Keeping Up With The Windsors, says, “It seems to be linked to her patronage of the Royal Osteoporosis Society, because her mum passed away from the disease. Ballet provides a great way to maintain healthy bones and flexibility, and it’s also a way to keep her mother’s memory alive.”
Queen Camilla counts Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood as a close friend, and when asked on Good Morning Britain in 2016 who he would like to see on the BBC series, he replied, “My best friend Camilla, darling. I think she would be great! She is a fantastic dancer. She has grace, authority, style.”
The pair met in 2009 through their involvement with the Royal Osteoporosis Society. He asked Camilla to dance the cha-cha-cha, recalling, “She was absolutely brilliant and danced like a dream. It was amazing.
“She has the best rhythm and could teach me a thing or two. I was also quite shocked, as I thought a cha-cha-cha would be totally out of character, but it turned out not [to be] for her because she’s so bubbly. We laughed so much together.”
In 2017, Camilla partnered with ballroom dancer Brendan Cole, who said afterwards, “She knows her way around a dance floor – don’t you worry about that. She was absolutely delightful. I didn’t know if I was breaking protocol or not, but I did ask her if it was OK to ask her to dance, and she said, ‘I’d love to.’”
King Charles is also known to be a Strictly fan and it was reported last summer that he and Camilla hope to host a live episode at Buckingham Palace in the future.
The King himself has tried many different moves over the decades, including samba in Rio de Janeiro in 1978, folk dancing in Romania in 2017 and swing during last June’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. He made headlines in 1985 by breakdancing at a Prince’s Trust event in West Sussex, gamely attempting the moonwalk and even dropping to his knees at one point.
Charles has also danced on many royal tours over the years, including in Fiji in 1974 and Mexico in 2014. Last May he took part in a 1,000-year-old dance in Canada, which involved a conga-style procession.
Not to be outdone, the Prince and Princess of Wales joined locals on the dance floor in Belize during their tour of the Caribbean last March, with local resident Laura Cacho saying, “They really know how to dance… I didn’t need to teach them. They’re so good at it.”
In September 2012, they donned traditional Polynesian dress while dancing at a welcoming ceremony in Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean. And in 2016, William tried body-popping at a youth centre in Battersea, London, telling the troupe, “I can never get the shoulder shiver right. There’s no pressure, because I will look ridiculous.”
Reliving his student days when he and Kate regularly went clubbing, William was spotted at London’s KOKO with friends as he celebrated his 41st birthday in June. And in May, he bopped along at the coronation concert – later joking to a fan that “dancing sober is always a bad idea.”
It appears that Prince George is also getting in on the act. Speaking at the Radio 1 Teen Awards in 2019, William revealed, “George is doing dancing as well, he loves it… My mother loved dancing. And if it’s something you love, you do what you love. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.”
The Duchess of Sussex clapped her hands and shimmied with locals while on tour in Africa with Prince Harry in September 2019. Her husband also attempted some ballet moves during a visit to the YMCA in Ealing, London, the same year, although he was gently mocked by the young participants as he tried to balance on one leg.
But perhaps the most famous image of a royal dancing happened in 1985, when Diana, Princess of Wales took the floor with Hollywood star John Travolta in Washington at a dinner hosted by President Ronald Reagan. The actor called it “one of the highlights of my life”.
Reflecting on dancing to a medley of Saturday Night Fever hits, he added, “Think of the setting. We were at the White House. It’s midnight. The stage is like a dream. I approach her, touch her elbow, invite her to dance. She spins around and gives me that captivating smile, just a little sad, and accepts my invitation. And there we were, dancing together as if it were a fairy tale.”
A magical moment indeed…
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