Blazing back live on stage - Strictly's Gorka Marquez and Karen Hauer in Firedance

Stricly dancers on fire

Back on our screens and soon to be Back Live On SaGe! Strictly Come Dancing's Karen Hauer and Gorka Marquez are finally able to bring their Latin spectacular Firedance to a stage near you in 2022.

How did Firedance come about?

Gorka: "Karen is Venezuelan, and I am Spanish, so we both come from a similar culture and have similar personalities, so we have always got on really well and connected with each other when we dance, so we were really keen to do our own show together. I completely trust her, and I think she trusts me just as much."

Karen: "There’s very few times in your life that you find another artist that you connect to on a level that Gorka and I have.

"We work perfectly as a partnership both on and off the stage. We have the same ideas, the same flows, the same energy and I love the way that he interprets things, which I learn a lot from. He’s from Spain and I’m from Venezuela, so we both have that fire and heat within us, which I think is what makes us exciting to see onstage together.

"It’s quite an explosive partnership that we have, but it’s very tender too. He’s like a brother to me, so the fact I get to share the stage with him is something I’m so grateful for."

What can you tell us about the show itself?

Karen: "Gorka and I got together a couple of years ago after working on Strictly for a while before that, as we thought it would be a good idea to team up and do something new and exciting.

"Firedance is something that we are both really passionate about, because it has all the dances that people love and we know that people will gravitate to quickly, like the tangos, the salsas, the paso dobles and so on.

"All those fiery dances that have a lot of heart and a lot of heat behind them!"

Gorka: "There’s zero chit-chat in it too, so it’s 90 minutes of pure intense dancing that I know people will love.

"You won’t see us getting on the mike and talking about ourselves or anything like that. It’s dance show, not a musical or an interview.

"There’s a very light storyline though, which is told purely through the choreography and music. It’s about two lovers and it has a Carmen/West Side Story feel to it, but it’s all told through dance and the better you dance, the better people can understand the story.

"We’re communicating with our bodies. The passion that we have for what we do is already in us, so to be able to put that onstage, exactly the way we want it, is really amazing."

Karen: We didn’t want to press pause at any point, so once the show starts, it just goes. We are feeding you dance 100 per cent at 100 miles an hour.

"For me that’s beautiful, as that’s what we love to do, just express ourselves through our dancing, so we can tell the story without having to touch the microphone once."

It sounds like Firedance is giving you the opportunity to throw off the constraints of the ballroom and just cut loose?

Karen: "Absolutely. Nothing is holding us back when it comes to choreography, themes or just what we feel comfortable with as professional dancers.