The Strictly Experience
Ed Balls, Louise Rainbow and Chris McCluskey

• Saturday 10 June 2017, 1.30PM to 3pm
• Free admission
  Booking required
• Department of Theatre, Film and Television, University of York (map|getting to campus)
• Wheelchair accessible

Event details

Ever wondered how Strictly Come Dancing gets made? Or what it’s like to take part? Join the show’s Executive Producer Louise Rainbow, its Communications Manager Chris McCluskey and former contestant Ed Balls to find out.

From the inspiration for the content, through costume fittings and training sessions, here’s your chance to learn the secrets behind the show’s glittering success. How are celebrities partnered up, and how do they and their professional dancing partners cope with all the attention that the show generates?

Learn about some of the routines, from the original idea through to the performance, and watch recorded clips of individual and group dances – including some of Ed’s own show-stopping routines.

About the speakers

Ed Balls is a former MP, Cabinet Minister and Treasury Chief Economic Adviser. From 2011 to 2015 he was the Shadow Chancellor. He is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center, Visiting Professor to the Policy Institute at King’s College London, and Chairman of Norwich City FC. He is married to Yvette Cooper MP and they have three children. He is also a cook, pianist and economist.

Ed partnered professional dancer Katya Jones during the 2016 series of Strictly Come Dancing.

Louise Rainbow has been the Executive Producer of Strictly Come Dancing since 2013. During THIS TIME, Strictly has won a BAFTA for Best Entertainment Show, two National Television Awards, plus various other industry accolades, including a Royal Television Society nomination for best Entertainment show.

Prior to Strictly, Louise’s main credits include Executive Producing Let’s Sing and Dance for Comic Relief, Kitchen Wars with Marco Pierre White, Tonight’s the Night with John Barrowman and Comic Relief Does Fame Academy. Louise began her career as a secretary in the Props Department at the BBC and progressed, via Channel Four and various independent production companies, to her current role at the BBC. She is originally from York, where she attended the Bar Grammar School, going on to Manchester University, graduating with a degree in Politics and Modern History.

Chris  McCluskey has worked at the BBC for 15 years, working across Marketing and Communications and has been involved with Strictly Come Dancing for the last four years. Upon joining the BBC in 2002, he worked in the marketing department at in-house charity Children in Need before moving into press and communications on the television side of the business. Initially he spent time working on teatime favourites such as Springwatch, Autumnwatch and The One Show, plus oversaw press and publicity on the popular BBC One medical drama Holby City.

Since joining the entertainment team, Chris has led PR campaigns on a wide range of both comedy and entertainment programmes including Dragons’ Den, W1A, Top Gear and Red Nose Day. For the last two years he has been the Head of Press for the UK delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest and Communications Manager for the 2015 and 2016 series of Strictly Come Dancing.

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