'I was living my Dirty Dancing dream': On board P&O's Strictly-themed cruise

When Stacey Dooley raised the glitterball trophy at the end of the last series of Strictly Come Dancing it was particularly inspiring. Not just because her Charleston was brilliant, but because she was one of the few contestants never to have danced before.

When, several months later, I boarded P&O’s Britannia halfway through a two-week Portugal and Canary Islands Strictly-themed cruise, Dooley’s win gave me courage, which meant there was hope for a novice like me with two left feet.

While P&O’s partnership with the BBC show is in its ninth year, the ship has recently updated its on-board experience. Guests can now book a private dinner with one of the show’s pros, or a one-to-one dance lesson (£175).

Soon after boarding I learnt that my 45-minute lesson was the next day, which sent me into a sartorial flap. Shoes or trainers? Ponytail or bun? Concerns about clothing masked the real worry: would I make a total fool of myself?

Enter Australian pro-dancer Trent Whiddon. Whiddon, who partnered singer Pixie Lott in 2014, had a twinkle in his eye and a cheeky grin. I giggled nervously as we ran through the dance options. We decided on the cha-cha-cha and began with basics. First, how to point toes properly (it hurt). Mastering the “rock” and “step” of the cha-cha isn’t easy. Straight legs, feet on floor (no tiptoes), and that’s before we even thought about hips.

“Try to keep your feet in line with mine, so when we get close we don’t step on the other’s toes,” said Trent. What I hadn’t bargained for was how ‘close’ Trent’s hold would be. At first I was rigid, but KC and The Sunshine Band’s Boogie Shoes loosened my limbs and frame. Yes, I trod on Trent’s foot a couple of times (his smile never wavered) and my steps weren’t perfect, but after a few minutes I felt I was actually dancing the cha-cha. Eureka! I even felt slightly seductive.

“It is sexy,” Trent agreed. “These dances are about a man and a woman falling in love.” Aha, the “Strictly curse”.

We added a spin and a move called the ‘New Yorker’ (releasing a hand so we could turn out, arm outstretched), and then someone clapped her approval. It was Amy Dowden, who partnered Red Dwarf’s Danny John-Jules in the last series of Strictly, and Brian Conley the year before. She watched us dance and critiqued my hands. “You need to make them look prettier – naughty finger down!” Problem was, by concentrating on “naughty finger down” the legs went wrong. There’s a lot to think about. Kudos to the celebs learning a routine each week to perform in front of 13 million viewers.

What I love watching most on the show, are the lifts. Dare I? Amy demonstrated, I hesitated for a nanosecond, and then I copied her – leaping into Trent’s arms. I’d naively imagined the man did all the work. Not so. Being hoisted, swung and swirled requires a woman to push down and hold her core tighter than a washboard. But it’s worth every last muscle flex. It felt like flying. I was living my Dirty Dancing dream.

This was as good a point as any, I reckoned, to ask Trent: “How much better was Pixie Lott?”

“I taught her the same thing. You were just as good. You’ve got potential – you must keep it up.”

The beauty of this themed cruise is that it’s easy to do just that. The next day Amy ran a free samba masterclass; the day after Trent ran one on the rumba. And at night I could practise my moves at some of Britannia’s live music venues.

Strictly ensured there was always a buzz on board. Long-standing dancer Giovanni had been on the ship a week earlier, hosting the “private dinner with a pro”, and had apparently charmed the sequined pants off everybody. Strictly star Gorka Márquez had been there too, and one lady we met said he’d cured her sea sickness immediately.

The final highlight of my cruise was a wardrobe experience. As well as getting the lowdown on how each dress is handmade in three days (including the application of thousands of stones and feathers), I got to try on the one Dooley wore to dance the Charleston.

Later, I watched and re-watched a video of my cha-cha and lift and longed to do it all over again. If I ‘keeeeep dancing’, surely anything is possible.