James Jordan

James and Ola Jordan became famous faces and household names when they joined the professional cast of Strictly Come Dancing in 2006. James eventually left in 2013 and Ola in 2015 but, during their time on the show, they were great favourites with the viewers.

Phenomenon

Strictly really shouldn’t work. As the title suggests, its inspiration was an earlier BBC TV dance competition called Come Dancing, which ran from 1949 to 1998, thus boring a couple of generations to sleep. Those of us old enough to remember it will probably picture stiff, formally attired couples with numbers on their backs.

Today’s Strictly could hardly be more different. It is bright, sparkly and dynamic with an outstanding house band providing live music for the competition’s performances. It has transformed many people’s perceptions of dancing and dancers; it has made politicians popular and it has even given us respect for some of those more baffling celebrities, some of whom seem to be famous just for being famous. It has also shown that there is still a great deal of life left in some of the older celebs who we all thought had been put out to pasture.

Strictly has also given us a galaxy of new stars like James and Ola: amazing dancers and choreographers who, week after week, turn frogs into princes, princesses and princexes. As fans of the show, we were excited to have the chance to visit James at his home to chat about him, his career and his new plates from Regtransfers.

Early days

James began dancing when he was about nine years old but he wasn’t the first dancer in the family. “My parents used to dance. That’s how they met many, many years ago. I’ve got a sister who’s a year older than me and they took her first of all. “I would say I was kind of pushed into dancing a little bit at the beginning, but once I was about 14, I started getting interested in girls. There were two boys in the class and about 30 girls, so the odds were really good and all the girls wanted to dance with the boys. The better I got at dancing, the more girls wanted to dance with me, so, I was like, ‘Yes, this is amazing!’ While all my mates were off playing football I was waltzing with all these beautiful girls.”

James’s enthusiasm for dancing continued and he began to dance competitively. He had several partners over the years but when he was 21 he met 17-year-old Polish dancer Ola Grabowska. “My coach was teaching all around the world,” says James. “I was British champion at the time and Ola was Polish champion. He was teaching her in Poland and teaching me in England.

“I had stopped dancing with my partner, and so I was looking for another. I tried out with probably 50 different girls, you know, looking for a new partner and then flew to Poland for a tryout with Ola. I literally did three steps with her and just knew that I wanted to dance with her. Twenty-three years later, we’re still together. Oh, she’s a very lucky girl. Why are you laughing? I’m sure she’d agree if she was here.”

Opportunity knocks

Their first competitive dance in partnership was in 2000 when they danced in the Dutch Open. However, the couple subsequently moved to Hong Kong and their focus drifted from competitive dancing to teaching.

“We went back to England to do our first professional competition as pros. In our first competition at Blackpool, we came second in the Professional Rising Star and that’s where a scout from the BBC saw us. We didn’t know anything about it so we did the competition and went back to Hong Kong to continue teaching. Then we got a phone call from the BBC asking if we would consider doing Strictly. The money wasn’t very good when we started doing it but one of my students, and my parents, said to take every opportunity life throws at you. You don’t know what it will lead to.

“Ola was very much against it in the beginning because she thought she was going to struggle in front of the camera with English being her second language, but we did the first year and loved it.

“We came as a package. If they had said they only wanted one of us we wouldn’t have done it. We were doing it as a couple. I think it was much more about the couples when we did Strictly. You had Vincent and Flavia, you had Brendan and Camilla, Anton and Erin, Darren and Lilia and myself and Ola. Now I think they take people on as individuals. “We loved living in Hong Kong, loved teaching over there and we had a nice life. We did that first year, then moved back to Hong Kong. We got asked to go back a second year and that’s when we started to get a lot of work off the back of Strictly. There were lots of shows and corporate events, things like that, so we eventually decided to move back to the UK.”

Life after the show

James’s departure from Strictly Come Dancing, in 2013, wasn’t an entirely happy affair, but how does he now feel about the show and his time there?

“Oh, it was amazing. I loved Strictly. We’ve had, you know, an amazing life in the 23 years we’ve been together: competing, travelling all around the world, living in Hong Kong, doing Strictly and now having Ella [the couple’s daughter]. We’ve been through a lot with each other and yeah, it’s been very, very good memories. Really good memories.

“Ella is three and a half and we’ve not tried to push her into dancing but she just seems to love dancing all the time. Daddy’s trying to get her into golf to become a professional golfer, and then I can be her manager and take 20% and caddy, get another 10% there. So, yeah, I’m thinking about my future as well as hers. All joking aside, she does love her dancing, so maybe she will follow in our footsteps in some way, shape or form.

“It’s ten years since I stopped doing Strictly. We actually showed Ella the last time that Mummy and Daddy ever performed together on Strictly: it’s on YouTube. We did a cha-cha to Earth, Wind & Fire. They were there and we performed to them live, which was obviously amazing. Being able to show your children little things like that, nice moments … But, yeah, to think that that was 2013 and that ten years ago was the last time I ever performed on Strictly. I always joke saying that I used to be in Strictly when it was in black and white.”

The truth

Even though he no longer appears on the show, James still keeps up to date with what goes on.

“I still watch it, yeah. I’ve got a podcast on it, a weekly podcast for Hello! called Strictly the Truth. I just say what I think, you know, I don’t try to say what people want to hear. I think I’ve always been outspoken: not malicious but I just think that if you have an opinion, it’s almost like you’re supposed to just sit back and say nothing. I like to voice my opinions.”

Would he ever consider returning to the show if he were asked?

“I’m too old to do it now. I don’t think my body would take it. They work really hard, you know. I take my hat off to all the pros, but they start in August and they finish just before Christmas. If you go all the way to the final, you’re training every single day. You’ve got to put the choreography together and you’ve got to teach them. You have to travel to where they are. It’s crazy and you’re pulled from pillar to post, so it is full on. I did it for ten years and it was amazing. Would I want to do it now at 45 years old? No, thank you. I’ll let the young ones do it and watch them on TV.”

Did James have a favourite celebrity partner during his time on the show?

“I was lucky. I got on with all my partners, so it’s really hard to say. I got on really well with Alex Jones from The One Show; Pamela Stephenson, Billy Connolly’s wife; Denise van Outen; Cherie Lunghi. I had loads of really nice experiences, so it would be difficult to pick a favourite.

“I came second with Denise, third with Pamela Stephenson, fourth with Alex Jones, but I never won. Ola’s got that over me - and she had a private number plate before me as well! “But I forgot Dancing on Ice. I won that! Can you believe it? I had genuinely never, ever skated before. I think it was partly work ethic. I had to work a lot harder but once I got the skating, I enjoyed that show. A really good show.”

Still dancing

James may regard himself as too old for Strictly but he’s certainly not opting for a sedentary life. He and Ola have launched a dance exercise platform called Dance Shred.

“We both put a lot of weight on through lockdown and, obviously, with Ola having Ella. When we continued to put weight on, we decided to do something about it.

“We created this mix of dancing with functional exercises. Dances that you see on Strictly, like the pasodoble, the jive, the salsa mixed with functional exercises like lunges, all choreographed. We lost a lot of weight doing it: about seven stone between the two of us. I think I lost three and Ola lost nearly four. Something like that.

“So, we launched what we did. It seems to be going very well and people seem to love it. They are getting to learn the dances because we go through everything slowly. We’ve actually just started adding dances without the functional exercises, where we’d do a cha-cha routine that you can learn. We go into the technique and things like that so people can actually use it either as a dance platform or fitness if they want to lose weight or they’re just trying to tone up. We enjoyed creating it and it’s something that we’re quite proud of.

“We mainly dance for the Dance Shred platform now. We don’t necessarily do shows and things like that except occasionally when we get asked. I miss being young, I miss being able to do it, but I’ve been there, done it, got the t-shirt.”

So it’s mostly about the fitness now?

“Yeah. We have to be conscious that, when you’re younger, you naturally have a faster metabolism. As you get older, it slows down anyway. You stop producing testosterone as men, so it’s harder to keep muscle and things like that. For us it was a little bit about educating ourselves as well.

“People think because you’re a dancer, it’s easy for you, but we have to work just as hard. I think that’s sometimes an excuse that people make. Someone wants to lose weight but doesn’t necessarily work as hard as they should, or maybe they’re consuming more calories than they should. You know, it’s really that simple. People that say, oh, I’ve got a slow metabolism might have to work a little bit harder. I think sometimes people make excuses instead of just cracking on.

“I think that is the difference. I know what it takes to become a professional dancer. I know I’ve got to put the time in and it’s the same if you’re trying to lose weight: it won’t magically just happen. You can join the gym, but you have to actually go there. Or you can join Dance Shred, but you have to actually physically do it.

“It’s a combination of everything. It’s a lifestyle change, really, isn’t it? It’s a mindset. Some people are lucky that they can consume loads more calories than other people. But, generally if you don’t move and you eat too much, you’re going to put on weight. There you go, everyone.”

Leisure

Dance Shred takes a lot of work and the couple add content to the platform weekly, but are things easier now the competitive dancing is in the past?

“It’s tricky, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think anyone who has children would realise that you can’t just do things off the cuff as you have to think about your child. We do lots of things together as a family, but we need to still make sure we do date nights. We do occasionally, but we need to make more mummy and daddy time when we can go to nice restaurants and things like that.”

When he does get time to himself, James is quite the car fan.

“I love my cars. I’ve had a lot of cars over the years but, recently, I’ve had one car the longest I’ve ever had one. We had a Range Rover Sport and we just loved the comfort of it, so we kept it for eight years and only recently sold it. I replaced that with a Mercedes GLE.

“My very first proper car was a black Ford Escort LX. I think it was a 1.6 engine. I loved it: it was a really nice car. That was my first proper car and before that I was driving old bangers. I had a Citroen Saxo VTR and then then a VTS. The reason I went for those was because you got free insurance. I was 19 when I bought my VTR so a year’s free insurance was amazing.

“Then I moved up. I like fast cars, so I had a Mercedes C63 AMG and that was amazing. The V8 engine, I just loved it. That was a really amazing car.

“Then I had two Nissan GTRs. Actually, they were Ola’s and she had her private plate on them. I get all these cars and then she nicks them off me. I’m like, ‘Oh, I’ve always wanted a Nissan GTR’, and then, suddenly, she’s driving it. I’m like, ‘How come you’re driving that? I bought that for me,’ and she says ‘But I really like it. I feel safer in it. It’s better for me.’

“So we had two of those. Not at the same time but I liked it so much that I bought another one. What else did I have? We had an Audi TTS and Ola loved that. Then I bought the Alfa [Romeo] Stelvio Quadrifoglio, which has a Ferrari California engine in it. They took away two cylinders and put in two turbos so it’s a meaty engine. I think it’s one of the fastest small SUVs out there. It does 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds, I think.

“So I’m very excited to finally have my own private number plate. Ola, and everyone will be like, ‘Look, there goes little dancer boy.’ Everyone around here knows what I do, so it kind of works for me and it works for Ola as well. See, everything’s about Ola still! She can drive either car and it looks like it’s her private number plate now, doesn’t it? Yeah, it’s always been about Ola. Even when I was on Strictly, it was like Ola Jordan and her husband.” But James’s tongue is firmly in cheek as he says it. The enthusiasm for his new plate, however, is genuine.

“I’ve always wanted to have a personal plate and Regtransfers have been fantastic. I think it’s quite apt. It’s something that I could one day pass down to my daughter if she becomes a dancer too.”