The Divas Tribute: Fire & Rain Showdance

SUPERNOVA✹✹✹

The Showdance offered the perfect setting for Oti to push beyond the limits and Danny Mac was her willing accomplice. The routine was a veritable star burst!

This magnificent showdance surpassed, in our view, the usual Strictly free-style portrayal of the celeb’s journey from novice at the beginning of the Show to accomplished dancer by the end. This was Danny Mac the supernova - the explosion of a star!

A supernova is the largest explosion that takes place in space. It happens where there is a change in the core or centre of a star. A new star flares in the firmament and we are held spell bound, mesmerised by it's brilliance.

Major change has occurred at the very core of Danny Mac. He will never be the same again. And it will be the ‘Last Time’...actually, it is the first and last time...we see the Star Burst on stage in this form.

Stunningly vivid, the stage lighting enhanced the re-telling of the story of Danny's journey. A dual splay of red and blue, the two colours leaping and twisting in sync with each character, representing the elemental personality of the Piscean novice and the fiery professional lioness, and symbolic of the innate nature of Oti Mabuse and Danny Mac.

Gratifyingly, and exactly as we expected, the Showdance was a thrilling display of the fiery tension that sat at the heart of the partnership’s collaborative artistry. It showcased the fire, passion and intensity this particular duo brought to our screens. The leaps were heart-stopping. The story of Danny’s journey, vibrant in its fluency was unmistakeable. The inner dancer stood with confidence in the full glare of the spotlights.

Initially the shy, hesitant Piscean peers just a little fearfully through the large looking glass at the fiery lioness. Hey, she says, I’ve been waiting for you, come over here. No, I’m not ready responds the novice dancer.

The lioness grabs the watery Piscean and pulls him over to her side but he cartwheels away terrified. She leaps through the mirror and chases after him.

Eventually the novice dancer tentatively engages in some discernible routine steps, and as his confidence grows they leap together into the flames and once again blaze a trail of splendour.

As the climax to the dance builds, the miror through which the novice peered with anxiety and uncertainty falls away as if struck by a clap of thunder. Simultaneously She, [Oti now symbolizing the inner dancer] leaps through the tumbling mirror and is caught and embraced in all her resplendent glory: the duality has become the singularity.

Once again, a nanosecond of stunned silence precedes a burst of thunderous applause: a standing ovation. Our team has set the dance floor alight, literally, with an unbelievable Showdance that contained moments of magic. The perfect score was never in doubt as we marvelled at the stunning transformation of a shy anxiety-ridden actor who in the end dominated the Strictly ballroom.

Danny Mac the actor was enthused and caught fire in the sparkling glow of Oti Mabuse’s ‘dance power’. His inner dancer was revealed and released by her invitation to 'come out and show us the star that you are'. The results were spectacular. Together they created a joyful and uplifting experience. They enchanted us.

For Love of Dance & Dancers - a personal tribute from another #TeamDoti follower:

“I cannot find adequate words to fully express my appreciation of the gifts of joyfulness and beauty that Oti Mabuse and Danny Mac brought to Strictly Come Dancing 2016. I can only turn to the words of Virginia Johnson founding dancer and later Artistic Director of The Dance Theatre of Harlem:

Dancers are such extraordinary people – they have real inner strength, real commitment, real focus. They are about doing the impossible, not for the sake of ego, but to bring something of beauty to the world.

That, I believe, is precisely what those two individuals known as #TeamDoti did in that Strictly moment, and hopefully will continue to do as individuals in the future: that is, "bring something of beauty to the world".