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Joanna Weatherill
After Faking It I went straight back to kickboxing. My mentors gave me some dancing shoes. But they're in a box in the loft. I did become more girly for the filming, but that was all a front. As soon as filming finished I was straight back in my old clothes. I haven't worn a dress or a skirt since I finished filming.
During filming my confidence grew in one direction, but shrunk in another. I stopped caring about the shame of it. I just thought, well, you'll never be able to go out again.
Faking It confirmed that I don't like dancing. It confirmed everything I'd imagined about ballroom dancing but was a hundred times worse. I think you have to love yourself to be a ballroom dancer.
Paul Harris
What's the biggest difficulty learning to be a ballroom dancer?
There is a huge range in natural talent, so it is difficult to generalise. But people who have trouble learning are generally lacking one of two things: either physical coordination (which is often twinned with trouble mentally seeing a step pattern - a sort of physical dyslexia) or musicality (in which case people have difficulty keeping the beat).
What was the biggest crisis during the four weeks?
A big crisis was Jo’s perception of ballroom dancing being campy/sexy. Initially she was very resistant to that side of it. In fact, her first comment when I took hold of her to dance was 'oh my God, I don't even stand that close to my boyfriend' - not a good starting point!
Generally in a performing arts course students have got three years to develop a creative process to help overcome the delicate emotional issues related to intimate-type performance. They have got time to explore different avenues. Jo had what amounted to 20 days of actual dancing to deal with that.
How confident were you immediately before the test?
I was very confident that she’d cope but I wasn’t confident that she’d Fake It. Unlike the other Faking Its that I have seen, this was a competition with 22 couples in it and she had to at least make the semi final before it was even worth asking the question to the spot the faker. I was worried that the adjudicators were of a very high calibre and I was worried that elements of her dancing needed more polish.
Has everyone got a ballroom dancer in them? Or was Jo special?
Jo did fantastically well in that space of time. When she started, her movement was slightly below average and her attitude quite resistant to some aspects of ballroom dancing. It is a tribute to her determination and hard work that she achieved so much.
Did you enjoy being involved in Faking It?
Very much. It was interesting being involved in a documentary, as opposed to a dance or drama programme. Also, I enjoyed putting my teaching skills to the test.
Did Faking It make you change what you think about ballroom dancing?
It strengthened my views that ballroom dancing needs to change some atitudes if it wants to appeal to young people. Ballroom dancing people see ballroom dancing as sexy for real, but outsiders see its appeal as sexy in a campy sort of way. I feel that Jo typified a lot of young people's attitudes to ballroom dancing.
Do you think you could learn to Fake It as a kick boxer?
Definitely not. As an actor, I could fake the attitude and movements, but I am a migraine suffer. If I got whacked round the head I’d have a migraine for the rest of my life.
But I do like watching boxing. There is a similar competitive element. Good boxers and good ballroom dancers both have a similar flow of movement and a similar natural sense of centre and balance.
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