Queen Camilla surprised with special gift and promise from Strictly star

02 February 2024 , 15:18

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Queen Camilla surprised with special gift and promise from Strictly star

Queen Camilla has vowed to take up tap dancing after being presented with a special set of bronze shoes by Strictly star Johannes Radebe.

The champion dancer, known as Jojo, has promised to give the Queen a private lesson after she described herself as "Strictly's biggest fan". "I will be there. I will be there. I'll come. Definitely," he told Camilla. She watched Jojo, 36, and former Love Island contestant Tasha Ghouri teach tap and the cha-cha-cha to a Royal Voluntary Service beginners class today at a community centre in Cambridge. Her foot tapped along to the rhythm but Camilla, 76, decided not to join in despite admitting afterwards that she would have liked to have got involved.

Camilla meet Johannes as well as Love Island star Tasha Ghouri at the newly opened Meadows Community Centre in Cambridge (PA)

She told Jojo of her love of dancing and promised to use her new tap shoes. "I'd love to do it because I have always wanted to tap dance," she said. "In my dotage, it's perhaps something I could take up." The Queen, surrounded by Royal Voluntary Service volunteers and clients on the edge of the dance floor at the Meadows Community Centre in Cambridge, said: "Having seen everybody here dancing away happily, it's the best exercise and it's, you know, for everybody. It's a wonderful way of just enjoying yourself."

Jojo, who had spent the morning teaching a class of volunteers and people using RVS services the rudiments of tap and the cha-cha-cha, told Camilla: "I'm still beside myself that you watch Strictly Come Dancing." She replied: "We watch it. I'm one of Strictly's greatest fans."

Camilla spent almost an hour meeting volunteers and touring the community centre, which opened in April 2023 and contains a performance centre, a nursery space, meeting rooms, and a cafe run by the Royal Voluntary Service. One young fan, Rebecca Tessinari, aged three, gave her a big hug when she stopped to say hello to members of a nursery class at the centre.

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Camilla enjoys a cup of tea during her visit (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

In the main performance hall, the Queen, currently the most senior royal on public duty with King Charles and Princess of Wales off work because of hospital treatment, was introduced to Jojo and Tasha, a dancer, model, television personality, and social influencer who made her name appearing in the eighth series of Love Island.

Tasha, 25, acknowledged that she appealed to a different demographic than Jojo, her favourite dancer. She told the Queen that she imagined she had not watched Love Island. "She said she hadn’t watched it but she thought her children might," Tasha said afterwards.

The former Love Island star works as an ambassador for the RVS and has also volunteered previously. "I think everyone should have a go at volunteering and have the opportunity to see the power it has, not just for your cause or the people you support but for your own wellbeing and happiness," she said.

Camilla gets a hug from three-year-old Rebecca Tessinari (PA)

Camilla accepts get well cards for the King from children (UK Press via Getty Images)

After watching the pair of professional dancers put the beginner's class through their paces, Camilla told them both: "That was a brilliant cha-cha-cha." She apologised for not joining in but recalled trying it with Strictly judge Craig Revel-Horwood and on other occasions when she was younger. "It's a dance I did a long time ago," she said.

In the cafe downstairs, Camilla gratefully accepted a cup of tea - milk and one sugar - from Eleanor Witter, 82, who had volunteered for the RVS for 34 years - and unveiled a plaque to mark her visit. She told her hosts: "Having watched the dance class, it's rather sad that I didn’t join in."

Russell Myers