At 80, the broadcaster and Strictly star has begun a campaign to show that ballet, ballroom and bhangra can improve mental and physical fitness
Angela Rippon may be unflappable, but even she has woken at 4am fretting about the plans she is trying to pull off to get the nation dancing.
The trailblazing broadcaster, 80, who became the oldest contestant on Strictly Come Dancing in 2023, has brought together dance teachers and clubs, health charities, the NHS and the government for the first National Dance Day on Sunday, March 2.
It is part of a wider initiative, Let’s Dance!, which she is spearheading to get people of all ages moving and grooving to improve their physical and mental fitness, and to see dance recognised as proper exercise.
• Rippon: I’m always dancing round the house
“The public image of dance is as this fluffy thing that we watch on TV and it’s all sequins,” Rippon said. “But when you look at the research, much of it says that dance is the best form of exercise. Babies dance and you can do it at 90. It exercises every part of your body and brain. It releases endorphins and combats loneliness. And while you don’t see people coming out of the gym smiling after an hour on the treadmill, they are smiling after a dance class.”
She does not think every older dancer needs to have her skills, though: “Men often say ‘I’m rubbish at dance, I have two left feet’ but you don’t need to win the Glitterball [the Strictly winner’s trophy]! Do it for the sheer enjoyment!”
Rippon had the idea in October when she appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Todayprogramme after Professor Sir Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, who was discussing the financial pressures on the NHS. Rippon was talking about her experiences on Strictly. “He said we could all help by taking more responsibility for our own health: go to the gym, play football, dance.” she recalled. “So when I started talking to Justin [Webb, the Today co-presenter], I said: ‘Well this is one pensioner who is trying to do my bit for the NHS.’”
Afterwards, she rang Whitty and he gave his immediate backing for her campaign. The health secretary, Wes Streeting, and Sir Gregor Smith, the chief medical officer for Scotland, have also given their support. The idea has mushroomed, with events on March 2 around the country showcasing all forms of dance, from ballet and ballroom to bhangra. Venues involved include the Eden Project in Cornwall, Dumfries House in Scotland and Bournemouth Winter Gardens, while the Royal Ballet School in London’s Covent Garden will open its doors to the public for the first time, hosting free classes.
Her initiative will also include dancers who have suffered a stroke or have Parkinson’s or dementia, which are all conditions where research shows movement can help.
“I was carried forward on this wave of enthusiasm,” said Rippon. “If we can get a generation that goes into their sixties and seventies being flexible and upright, then imagine what a difference that could make for the nation’s health. I say to young people: ‘Think of this as making an investment in your wellbeing pension plan. The reason I can still do the splits is that all my life, I’ve kept fit, a strong core, good balance and flexible.’”
That commitment to fitness came from an interview Rippon did in her twenties with Eileen Fowler, a fitness instructor who had encouraged women in the Second World War to exercise. “She told me to remember your body is a machine, and it has thousands of moving parts,” Rippon recalled. “If you don’t oil the moving parts of a machine regularly, it will rust. Your body is the same: if you keep the parts moving, you’ll be fit and supple all your life. My body’s not a Formula 1 car any more, but I do think it’s a reasonably well-preserved classic car.”
Rippon does Pilates, cycles, plays tennis and used to ride, but dancing has been her lifelong love. She started ballet classes at five, and is a “silver swans” ambassador for the Royal Academy of Dance, where her role is to encourage the over-55s to try ballet, also championed by the Queen, who is the academy’s patron.
Since appearing on Strictly, Rippon has had regular cryotherapy treatments in which she is blasted with minus 120C air for about three minutes. The treatment — which is also popular with the actor Daniel Craig and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo — is said to improve circulation and provide relief from joint pain, and Rippon credited it with keeping her injury-free during her run on the series.
“I’ve always been aware how brilliant dance is as an exercise,” she said. “And when I did Strictly, people were so generous in saying that I had been an inspiration to them.” A taxi driver told her recently that his wife had made him buy her a pair of dancing shoes, saying: “If Ange can do it at 79, so can I.”
Even so, when she was first asked to do Strictly in 2023, Rippon, who had presented its earlier iteration Come Dancing in 1988, initially replied that she was too old. “I knew the level of ability that was required not to make you look like an idiot,” she recalled. “I finally said yes, thinking I would only last a couple of weeks.” There were still age-related struggles, though: “As you get older, your inner ear doesn’t help you balance in the same way, so I had to work really hard at the turns.”
Rippon came seventh, did the Strictly tour afterwards, and remains close to her professional partner Kai Widdrington, 29, with whom she danced the Argentine tango on Saturday morning to promote Let’s Dance! “Despite the 51-year age gap, we’ve become great mates,” she said. “He’s an old head on young shoulders. When I had a complete meltdown on the tour, he was fantastic.”
Before their first dance on the show, the cha-cha-cha, Widdrington settled Rippon’s nerves by putting his hands on her shoulders, and saying: “You know the routine, you can do it, the dance floor is yours. Angela — will you dance with me?”
That cha-cha-cha ended with a jaw-dropping moment when Rippon did a high kick and Widdrington lifted her leg higher and higher, in a nod to moves Rippon had performed on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show in 1976. “Kai’s father [former footballer Tommy] was only six when I did that, but he told Kai to look at it,” she recalled.
Rippon, who was the first female journalist with a permanent role reading the BBC national TV news and appeared in the first edition of Top Gear in 1977, has had a career spanning 59 years. “I hope I can make it to 60 years,” she said. “I like to keep the little grey cells working.”
As well as being able to bounce back, her on-screen longevity stems from pure joy in the job. “I’ve loved every minute of it,” she said. “I covered Princess Anne’s wedding, and I was in the grounds of Buckingham Palace and saw someone walking towards me mumbling: it was the Prince of Wales [now the King] rehearsing his speech. What a privilege to have this extraordinary window on the past 59 years.”