In the early series at any rate, you'd get about 20 (possibly more) hours a week of one-on-one training from national ballroom or Latin champions. (I pay £40 an hour for my private lessons, and thats with a partner, so £20 each).
Those sequinned leotard? One of the leading Dancesport brands, about £3000 new, made to fit you perfectly. At least two pairs of dance shoes, probably more to match dresses/keep looking vaguely nice at about £80 a pair.
That’s exactly my point, though. The pp I was responding to queried why Strictly wasn’t attracting more ‘names’. Yes, in the early series the credentials of the pros, the standard of teaching and the quality of the costumes were higher. But now you’ve got non 10-dance pros and tacky gimmicks, and Chrisanne stopped providing the dresses a long time ago.
If you were a big star and your career was soaring, why would you go on Strictly? The fee wouldn’t be significant to you, if you wanted private lessons with a world champion dance pro you could easily afford the £300 lesson fee, and you could buy yourself far better dresses than Vicky Giggles is capable of knocking up.
Throw in the salacious tabloid fabrications, and it’s no great mystery why bigger names aren’t interested.