H: Janice Vee, host
D: Darren Gough
L: Lara Robinson, dance teacher

H: Hi everyone and welcome to the live webchat today, I’m Janice Vee. Now if anyone’s ever accused you of dancing like a penguin then this might be your lucky time because Persil Non-Bio have teamed up the film Happy Feet which is a lovely little movie all about dancing penguins, and to celebrate the release of the film they are giving five children - lucky children - the chance to win their very own Little Penguins Party hosted by Strictly Come Dancing winner from last year, Darren Gough and a real life penguin! Joining me in the studio I’ve Darren Gough himself and a real life dance teacher, Lara Robinson! Hi guys, welcome

L: Hi

D: Hello

H: So Darren first of all apparently you were really embarrassed to dance weren’t you before you entered the competition Strictly Come Dancing last year?

D: Yes I still am!

H: Are you?

D: No obviously when I entered the show last year I’d never danced before, so I thought yes I’ll do it, it’s a bit of a laugh – lads – you just get up there and do something stupid and people will like it but that’s how it happened first week, big cut-off sleeveless top, sequins on the tattoos and I’d give it some John Travolta, but obviously by week 2 or 3 I thought “oh I like this” and I got into it, once I had the Robbie Williams music coming on, things I liked, tried to associate with what I liked and put a story to each dance, that was it, I was into it –

H: So when you go out now though do people say “go on Darren give us a dance, bust a move?”

D: It’s worse now because if I want to dance now and I go out there, people think “he won Strictly Come Dancing, he can dance” I’m like “oh no” so it’s even worse now

H: Lara tell us about the benefits of dancing because of course this whole movement that Persil Non-Bio doing is to encourage children to kind of get active and get moving, so tell us a little bit about the competition and why it came about

L: Yes it’s all about trying to get pre-school children to dance and to encourage their parents to dance with them, so obviously when children are very tiny they’re not very self-aware and they’re just happy to do whatever, you put some music on and they’ll start moving even when they’re tiny babies, in fact I think they start dancing in the womb really. So we’re trying to encourage pre-school children and their parents just to get moving, it’s a really good way to stay healthy, get their daily dose of exercise and burn off some excess energy which has got to be good for parents!

H: Apparently there’s – if children do an hour of dancing every day –

L: That meets the government’s requirements then for exercise, in fact it would exceed the amount that’s recommended -

H: See I didn’t know there was a requirement, I don’t think lots of people did know that actually

L: The government’s trying to recommend 5 hours of exercise a week for children, just to try and make sure they’re getting enough exercise to cancel the food they’re eating!

H: Now I see you grimace there because it’s quite – even though it’s only 5 hours it’s quite hard to actually kind of initiate your kids to dance

L: It’s 5 hours where you’re going to have to participate at some level, so that’s a really big commitment from you as well and I think that’s the thing that’s the challenge to parents, to say ok that’s going to be some time where we all dance together

D: But it could be anything from dancing, to gardening, kicking a ball with each other, there’s lots of - they could walk the dog, most people have dogs now, I’ve got 3 of them so – you could just, like I say, the parents and children participation together, that’s what they’re trying to encourage as well –

L: Yes making exercise like an everyday activity like sitting down and having a meal together

H: Yes, but to be honest you 2 are kind of involved, you’re involved in sports and you’re a dance teacher so it kind of comes naturally to you –

L: Yes

H: But what about trying to encourage parents that it doesn’t come naturally enough, the whole kind of dancing or being active?

L: That’s true; it’s really difficult to find a slot isn’t it? Sometimes at the weekends obviously people are able to take a walk maybe with their children but I agree on a daily basis it’s very difficult to ensure an hour’s exercise, and when the kids come in from school and they’re tired and want to sit down, so it’s actually about everyone making that effort to do something together, maybe walking to the shops, not driving – something like that

H: Yes

D: But the way we go around the dancing bit, as I say, everybody – some people will not dance in public, they don’t want to be embarrassed but surely you can’t be any private than in your own home, got your favourite song, you’ve got your 2 or 3 year old kid there – that’s all you have to do

H: Have a little bit of a jive!

D: That’s all you have to do, and the child will see his parent dancing and that will be it

H: Yes

D: They’ll be away because they copy their parents and whatever we do they copy. The classy one for us is Strictly Come Dancing on a Saturday night, it’s on, the children I don’t have to dance with them now they just do it, they do it in front of the TV, and all kids think they’re great dancers!

H: Well if you want to ask Lara or Darren any questions it’s really easy to do, there’s a little box at the bottom of the screen and you type in your name and your question and where you’re from and it will be here live in the studio. We’ve got a question here from Mary, she wants to know are some dances better than others to teach kids? You know e.g. Ballet or modern jazz or something

L: I think there are loads of different dance forms out there and part of the fun is experimenting with all the different ones and see which one suits you, and obviously just moving to music is something you can do without any training, doesn’t have to be any particular style at all, you just need a little bit of space and some music and some enthusiasm!

D: Well look at me, I couldn’t dance!

L: Exactly

D: The dance I found the easiest which I picked up the quickest out of all the dances in the show was the Salsa, I think they do Salsa classes now at most gyms and things, so I think the Salsa’s a very easy one if you’re not too embarrassed about using your hips. I don’t like doing the Latin kind of dances, I like the ballroom, it was more reserved and you can – I’m passionate about it but the Latin you have to really get the hips going and everything and I was a bit more

L: And freestyle a bit more as well I think as well

D: Yes obviously in Latin you can freestyle big time, obviously if you’ve not got a judge there slagging you off but during the series of Strictly, sometimes if you do a bit of freestyle you used to get – I remember when I did my what do they call it, the caterpillar? When I did my dance where I did the caterpillar, which is a kind of breakdance –

L: Yes

D: It’s a street move and I did it in a jive and Len gave me a telling off, but it went down alright –

L: Were your hips all right after that?

D: It went down well with the public; the public loved it, the caterpillar

H: Well Sarah wants to know “What is your biggest passion, dancing or cricket?”

D: Ooh, well obviously it’s got to be cricket, it’s something I’ve done all my career but I’ve never really done the dancing, like I say, that’s only become something I’ve really enjoyed over the last 12 months, and so much so now that I’ve got a book “Dazzle on the dance floor” comes out doesn’t it? So I do a book about the series and things so – dancing has become a passion and I did do it in front of 800 people the other week, which was a big surprise to me to do it again, and to a lot of people who was at the show but it was a great surprise and I actually loved it again, I enjoyed it, but cricket – oh I’ve played for my country so many times, I’ve loved every minute of it

H: And you’re using different body movements aren’t you?

D: Totally different –

H: You can incorporate some dance moves – you can make it more exciting

D: The difference is cricket – cricket is for me personally is a strength game, big arms and shoulders, it’s all about strength but when I was doing dancing it was all about being graceful and using leg muscle which I’d never really used before except for cricket, for bowling, I’ve never really used all that pressure on my legs and thinking “it can’t be that hard dancing” but it actually is, it gets you fit without you actually realising, that’s the great thing about it

H: Good for legs, tums and bums! Well Gary wants to know – keep your questions coming in by the way, we’ve got loads of questions to get through though, Gary wants to know “you really inspired me to take up Salsa with my partner but I’m so worried about looking like a fool and putting her off me. How did you go through with it and still manage to come out smiling?”

D: He has to think, if he actually goes out and does it, she’ll think more about him for trying to do something she likes –

L: Definitely

D: Than instead of saying “let’s go and watch a football match or let’s go to the cinema” but by him going with the dancing it doesn’t matter how bad he is because he will improve. It’s common sense, whatever you do, by working at it, or practising you get better and better, and Salsa is something which is, like I say it will come quite quickly to him, like I say, it’s just getting over that fear factor, that first session you go to is the biggest session –

L: And have fun with it

D: Yes have a laugh, laugh at yourself – I did. I laughed at myself for 12 weeks and I won it!

H: Yes exactly, well Harry Anthem wants to know and I think you probably answered this question but how much has dancing changed your life?”

DE: Well it’s changed my life the fact that everywhere I go everybody wants to talk about dancing rather than cricket which I find quite refreshing. I’ve talked about cricket obviously all my career, but I can now talk about something I never thought I’d be able to talk about. I say I’m the typical bloke, guy at the bar, likes a drink – look at them dancing, I can’t believe they’re dancing. But then you have too many drinks and then you get up there thinking you can dance, but the way it is now is it’s changed my view totally on dancing, the dancing world, I’ve loved every minute of it, it is different but I found it absolutely amazing and it’s become a passion, I really enjoyed it

H: Do you dance your way to the bathroom in the mornings, and dance as you get ready? Has it become part of your day-to-day life?

D: To be honest with you I find myself being critical now, when I watch the dancing now I actually look for mistakes to make rather than – so I say “oh you just made a little mistake there” and everybody’s looking at me like “what are you on about, you should be a judge.” But you do, you find yourself now actually looking at little mistakes that they do

H: Well Imogen has sent in a question, she wants to know, Lara perhaps you can answer this “what is Happy Feet?”

L: Happy Feet is a film that’s coming out which is a campaign that Persil are working on with their little penguins, and Happy Feet is about a group of penguins, one of which is a little penguin who wants to dance and managers to become a fantastic tap dancer during the course of the film and that’s our link-up, so trying to encourage all the children to have a go, as Darren did and learn to dance

H: Have you seen the film?

L: I’ve seen some extracts from the website actually –

H: Yes I’ve gone onto the website and had a look –

L: And it’s very sweet, you can kind of choreograph the penguins to dance for you and you can look at different extracts and listen to the music

H: And dance moves as well –

L: Yes

H: They can teach –

L: They show you some dance moves and you can kind of put them together and copy them, and I think that’s a lovely way to introduce dancing to children, certainly if you’ve got access to a computer at home

D: Well I danced with penguins and children this morning so, part of the thing, went along to a little nursery in London and we danced with those little children there, got them dancing and then the surprise guest came and stole the show – real life penguin

H: I know, haven’t you ever heard about not working with children and animals?

D: I know I did them both in a morning, and actually I think I came out –

L: You came out well

D: I got the kids dancing, I didn’t get the penguin dancing but I tried, I picked – they put him in my hand it was a bit like holding a baby to start with, I didn’t know what to do, but it was so well behaved, and I’m actually going to be taking the penguin to one of the parties so, I’ve got to get used to them, Charlie and Ferrari, they’re my best friends!

H: Charlie and Ferrari?

D: Yes that’s what they’re called

H: Love it. Well Louise has sent in a question, she wants to know “do you think encouraging dancing for children is an important part of combating childhood obesity?” which is a great question, Lara –

L: Yes I think that’s really important, obviously children are eating perhaps some food that we’re beginning to consider are wrong for them so it’s really really important that they have a balanced diet and alongside that they take plenty of exercise. I think dancing is something that children do automatically, you watch them do that when they’re really little and it’s just about while they have no inhibitions just encouraging them to express themselves and to play with moves and to get as much exercise as possible, so I think it’s really crucial, I’d recommend it to everybody – have confidence, you can’t get it wrong

H: Which is quite good about these parties as well I find that with my kids they like dancing when they see other kids doing it –

L: It’s a great social activity for them isn’t it?

H: Yes

L: And they can kind of you know they can learn different skills when they’re doing it like leadership skills and how to cooperate nicely with other children, so it’s great all round

H: Yes well we’re half way through so keep your questions coming in, it’s really easy, just put your name and your question, where you’re from and submit it and it will be here live in the studio, we’ve got Darren Gough who was the winner of Strictly Come Dancing and a cricketer as well on the side

D: Not bad at cricket either!

H: And dance teacher Lara Robinson as well. Now Fran wants to know “Do you think it’s a case of parents leading by example?”

L: I think that’s really important, a lot of research will suggest though that children will emulate their parents so that’s why it’s really important that parents are exercising, a child from a household where parents are exercising will always want to exercise, want to emulate – like your lads playing cricket they’ll follow in your footsteps and so you’re just making the most of that opportunity, so you’ve got to be brave for them and just go for it

H: Yes. Lara tell me a bit about yourself because you’re a dance teacher at a South West London college –

L: I teach

H: So tell me a bit about your background

L: Yes I teach dance in a secondary school, it’s a mixed school and we teach dance from 11-18 and it’s compulsory in our school as it is in many other secondary schools and the kids learn a wide variety of dance styles, so we teach them some contemporary technique but alongside that we teach them street dance, we teach them different ethnic dance styles and they really enjoy it, and obviously we’re trying to get more boys interested in dance which is where Darren comes in again, he’s a great role model and he’s going to break down the barriers for lots of lads who want to get involved

D: Hopefully

H: And also films like Billy Elliot as well, that was great –

L: Absolutely

D: Great film

L: Every boy that takes dance becomes the next Billy Elliot and I’m sure you know it’s really helped, it’s a positive role model of someone whose done very well in another field and is transferring their skills, and that’s something that we’re trying to say to boys especially, that to be an all-round athlete you need to develop all your different types of fitness and dance will give you great core strength which every athlete needs and the ability to be balanced and coordinated, and that’s something that every single sport is crucial, so it’s got a real role to play in developing the whole athlete

H: It’s interesting you say about especially teenager’s kind of getting involved in the dance kind of movement because when I was growing up we didn’t have dance, it wasn’t compulsory

L: No

H: And trying to do sports was for a lot of people just pretty boring and –

L: It’s a great alternative

H: You kind of just did it because it was an easy get-out to do just a maths class or something. So do you think by doing dance and just different form of dance is actually quite good for teenagers especially?

L: It’s great and of course you say to them the most important thing is it gives them the opportunity to not only be creative and to express themselves but also to get important exercise and they know that’s really important, they’re at a crucial stage of developing their bodies and that’s really going to help them develop the bodies that they want to have as adults

H: Yes what about your kids –

D: Yes they love dancing

H: Are they secondary school age or –

D: They love dancing, 11 and 8 so they loved it, they loved the show and they actually got Len from the show to come into their school and he taught them to do a quick step and all the boys did it, we didn’t have any girls we just had boys doing this to try and encourage the boys, and they all were dressed up in black penguin suits –

H: Great

D: And they bought some girls in from the local school and they were away dancing, absolutely loved it

H: And the boys didn’t feel embarrassed at all?

D: They did to start with, but 5, 10 minutes they were away, didn’t even think, they were that determined to get it right. But like you were saying about teenage boys though, I remember being a teenager and what happens with teenage boys is they might make out to their mum and dad they don’t dance because their mum and dad might slightly take the Mickey out of them, but when they’re in a group of boys on their own and they go to the youth club, they’re the first on the dance floor

L: Kids are dancing all the time aren’t they, they just don’t see it the same way

D: Yes

L: They’re not calling it dancing they’re calling it clubbing or whatever they’re kind of hanging out with their friends, but always music’s part of the mix and nearly always movement is and I teach our year 11s to ballroom dance for their graduation ball as it were at the end of their GCSEs and we start off with all the lads being a little bit tentative and –

H: Giggling in the corner

L: Yes not much sure and then the girls are like “no, come on let’s get in there and get on with it” and it’s wonderful to see them develop over the process of the training programme, by the night of the ball they all look beautiful

D: And they’re all arguing which girl they get

H: And then they’ve got a social skill as well

L: Yes that’s right, they’ve got that skill for life

H: Well Warren from Osterley has sent in a question “he says do you think sports people really believe dance helps their balance and poise?” which you’ve probably answered in a core strength –

D: Yes course they do, yes like I said it’s a totally different thing, I mean when I did the dance and they asked me to do it I didn’t think it helped my fitness whatsoever, I thought “it can’t be hard this, it’s dancing” you know what I mean I thought I play sport, I play at the highest level, I play for my country, I bowl 20 overs a day at 6 bowls, I lift weights in the gym, I thought this can’t help my fitness, dancing – and by the end of it I was, first thing I only did 2 hours the first day, I had to stop, I was sweating, my leg was aching, I thought “I can’t do this” but by the end of it I was doing 5 and 6 hours a day and it was absolutely brilliant, I just improved so quickly in my leg strength, in my poise, my balance – everything about dancing helped and I’m sure Mark, Mark Ramprakash the cricketer comes off the show he’ll say exactly the same

H: Yes

D: You can’t believe – James Martin last year, the chef lost over 2 stone in 8 weeks

L: It is amazing actually because the strength that it does give you because as you said it’s kind of like inner strength that you’re kind of working with as well –

H: Yes

L: And I think with sports it’s quite different because it’s almost like a strain on lots of your joints whereas dancing is not so much a strain

D: Not a strain whatsoever, no

L: You can choose a dance style that suits you

D: And you learn to stand properly, your posture because like I say we all sit with the –

H: I know I’m just watching you two at the moment, I’m going to sit straight

D: But to be honest I said to you earlier didn’t I that this year, since the dancing, I started working when I go to the gym I work with a ball now –

L: The Swiss ball

D: Yes and I’ve never ever used the Swiss ball –

L: That’s really good for core strength

D: But since the dancing that’s the kind of posture I’m trying to keep up since I finished the dancing, I’m trying to use the Swiss ball to do my training and that’s one thing I learned from the show

L: Dance is very broad and it embraces things like yoga and pilates and Tai Chi, and a lot of the kind of dance training that I teach draws on a really wide spectrum from kind of martial arts to street style, and all of them bring something different and will actually help you increase a different area of your fitness so it might help your stamina or your flexibility or your strength, so it really, you can sell it to kids in many different guises, that it will complement the things that they’re doing already as well as being you know an opportunity for them to be creative and artistic which is something we haven’t talked so much about, but that chance to communicate. Some children don’t find it so easy to communicate on paper let’s say, but dance is an opportunity to show their ideas and feelings in a different format, and that’s really valuable for many children who perhaps don’t excel in other areas –

H: And get them together so that they can come up with dance routines for themselves as well

L: It’s great the cooperation and the leadership and the creative element of that is really really important skills for young people, for children to learn

H: Yes definitely which is – it’s good to start them from a really young age then

L: You’ve got no resistance they just naturally want to copy what you do and so you want to just sort of harness that enjoyment of it and there’s never a stage then when you try and kind of get in at a different level and you meet that kind of resistance to anything because they don’t want to come out of their comfort zone. You know little children are just bursting with energy and so it’s great to be able to find a way of channelling it isn’t it?

D: Well when you put on a TV program you remember when you were kids, they get to about 1 – soon as you put the TV on, remember Tinky Winky, you put it on TV and the babies are there, dancing in front of the TV, so they naturally want to do it from nearly a year so –

L: They’re kind of hard wired to a beat aren’t they?

D: They definitely want to do it they just want to dance, they just want to move – we’re born to do it but we just forget to do it

H: And some parents -

L: We become self-conscious don’t we?

D: Put them in a swing –

L: You don’t need to know a routine, you don’t need to know the moves, it’s just a human thing to do, I mean when babies are little we probably all rocked our babies automatically, that’s dancing. You’re beginning from something really tiny and that’s how I’ve got my little son to sleep while he’s been little, I’ve just held him and I’ve put some music on and we’ve just danced around the living room, and it’s been a great way to get him to go to sleep and you know make us both feel really good, so I’d really recommend it

D: Get him some earphones –

H: Well Harry from Rugby wants to know “can you really teach anyone to dance, even him who has two left feet?”

D: Been there

L: I think anyone who has the ability to dance –

H: But I think you must have some natural rhythm anyway

D: I must have had –

H: To win a big show like Strictly Come Dancing –

D: It must have been in there somewhere but the one person that I put towards that, Bill Turnball who was on the show last year, if anybody had two left feet he was the one, when I first saw him dance I thought there’s no chance I’m going to get knocked out before him, and that’s my only thing – and I’ll tell you want Bill turned himself into a very very good dancer. He was out in about week 7, and he was an excellent dancer, he surprised himself, it gave him so much confidence in himself and like I say he had 2 left feet and everybody thought “it’s just going to be comical” and he turned himself into a good dancer

L: There are two things really that I think makes someone a fantastic dancer, and it’s not going to be your technique and your skill level, it’s about the amount of focus that you exercise into the piece. If you really find a piece of focus within yourself about performing and you give it everything you’ve got and you’re really dynamic and a positive presence then people will look at your face –

D: Personality

L: And look at what you’re communicating and they won’t focus on how fabulous your footwork is

H: Come on though, you must have taught some people that just have absolutely no rhythm whatsoever?

L: I think that again is a lack of confidence, everybody in the womb hears the heart rate, hears the heart beat and will respond to it and I think we can become a little bit helpless in terms of rhythm, I think it’s about having the confidence to respond to it, I think people kind of hold back a little bit and are a little bit nervous of it – if you can give in to it, everyone can move, at different levels

D: That was the thing for me, getting past the first show, I turned up at the first show and I was just like ice, and you do you just don’t want to let yourself go, you’re just scared to let yourself go because people say “oh he’s enjoying it too much so he must be good” and then you’re not good –

L: Cocky yes

D: Yes, but once I got past week one I thought “I actually like this, I’m just going to go for it” and from that Robbie Williams, Let me Entertain You, and I had the quick step, it was a quick dance, I could let my personality take over and I just went, and from then on my personality – in every dance I did from then – I worked more on my personality than on my footwork, I knew my footwork wasn’t going to be like a professional dancer –

L: Because it’s the presence that you bought to the stage, you were dynamic and that’s what made it

D: Although – I will, I tried to work other things with my personality, my facial expressions, my little movements. I did things what your normal dancer wouldn’t do, and that’s what, like I say you’ve got to put your own little stamp on it

H: So it’s releasing – it helps to release a lot of inhibitions then?

L: If you can let it go –

H: If you can yes

L: If you can manage to get to that point and you’ve got enough help and support to do that, which is why your own living room’s a really good place to start, then you will actually find that everyone’s got their own certain style and you can really just go with the flow. It will make you feel a much more confident person afterwards, you know after that first class you’ve felt very nervous and you’ve got yourself along there, look at children I mean they’re just openly enjoying things without any inhibitions or concern about people judging them, you have to try and find that childlike quality of playing with the idea of dance, and then you know making it a social enjoyable activity with no pressure to yourself, and you know I know that even with two left feet, there’s a dance out there that’s made for just going left!

D: The birdie song!

L: Play to your strengths, yes exactly

H: Or you sit on the floor – what is that song where you just go backwards and forwards?

D: Hokey kokey?

H: Sounds like row row row the boat!

D: That’s it it is!

L: That’s ok, we can all manage that!

H: Exactly just sit on the floor and move your arms. Well Kitty has sent in a question, she wants to know “if you could teach any cricketer to dance who would it be?”

D: Well I could tell you one guy whose just can’t dance, he came on the show last year as a guest, he was running around me, he’s captain at Essex, he’s shocking, but he actually thinks he can dance and that’s the funny thing, but he’s so passionate about it, and after he came on the show last year, BBC2 we went on it and he came on it, and he’s had lessons, he’s passionate about dancing, and now pre-season he wanted to go to a proper dance school and have the lads do it, he’s so passionate about dance and he’s the classic one, can you teach someone with two left feet? He’s working on it –

L: If you’ve got the commitment you can do anything

D: His wife loves it and she drags him along and he absolutely loves it, he talks about it all the time, you can’t shut him up!

H: There are some professions where your physique is not kind of appropriate really to be a dancer, I don’t know if that hinders you or –

L: I don’t think that’s true, and I think you can be many different shapes and many different types of dancing, just because some people, when you say dance, they see this image of a ballerina whose very honed, very sculptured or you see an image of somebody who has a very specific body shape, we do a lot –

H: WWF Wrestler or something –

L: Yes

D: Well look at the Roly Polys, they dance and they’re very good

L: I think it’s really important that dance is for everybody, irrespective of ability. I mean the chap that says he’s got 2 left feet, you know he’s got 2 legs – I’ve taught children to dance in wheelchairs and they’ve got as much ability to express from their bodies, it doesn’t matter how hampered you are or how able bodied you are, you can still communicate with dance, you can still give it everything you’ve got and you’ll find your way of working with those ideas and body shape shouldn’t come into it, and no one should ever feel they can’t participate in dance because of that. There’s a lot of work going on in the dance world now to try and address this because it’s so important that young dancers eat properly. It’s very tempting for them to see an image and just try and work towards that image and I think we’re really aware in schools now that we’re trying to develop a healthy dancer – you’ve got to fuel that body, I expect you needed to eat really well to do 5 hours training, that’s the equivalent of being in the Royal Ballet and you need to eat to fuel your body, your body is your tool and if you don’t give it the right nutrition you won’t get the performance out of it, and it’s not about weight or the ideal shape, it’s again about the dynamic energy and the confidence that you put forward and that becomes the dance, not – you know you can be as thin as you like but if you don’t have dynamic attack to your dancing, you’re not going to make it

H: It’s interesting you’re talking about dancing and a healthy diet as well, because I did dancing for years –

L: I think the two are so linked

H: Yes and it was kind of almost fashionable not to eat or to kind of just pretend that you’ve eaten something and you haven’t eaten and then go on –

L: Absolutely

H: Stage and it was really –

L: You’re running on nothing then

H: And it was kind of popular to say “oh I haven’t eaten anything” and look at me, how thin and agile I am –

D: Well I can assure you, I eat, I love eating

L: Athletes, yes I do too, athletes need to eat, need to eat to fuel your body and your body will never perform effectively if you’re running on starvation mode, you feel faint and sick and now actually a lot of companies have a practice where if their dancers go below their lowest body mass index, recommended, they actually are prevented from performing until they go back to an acceptable weight because they know it’s such an important thing, so I think the two messages have got to really go side by side that we need to exercise as much as possible, we need to be aware that we’re fuelling the body which is a kind of dance tool, and I think the two things are really really crucial

H: Yes definitely, I think so too, now tell us more about how people can get more information about the Little Penguins party –

L: Yes

H: With Darren Gough appearing live and a live penguin as well – you’ve got two penguins with you?

D: I did have this morning, I don’t know if they’ll be at the party, I’m sure they will be, I’m sure they’ll be two because they like to travel don’t they, they like to travel together?

H: So how –

D: Another thing I found out this morning

H: Do they?

D: They’re like swans

H: In pairs? Oh I didn’t know that, you learn something new –

D: I found out this morning

H: So tell us how people can –

L: Darren’s going to host a party so they have to go on the website and say a bit about that, how they’re going to get you to come along –

D: I’ll give you this, www.little-penguin.co.uk

H: Is it penguin or penguins?

D: Penguins

H: Let me have a look – penguins. www.little-penguins.co.uk

D: Yes that’s it

H: And if you go on there will it give you more info about the Persil Non-Bio and the party and how to enter?

D: Yes, you can enter up to – I think it’s up to 30th November 2006, and then I will come in mid-December ish, come to the party, bring my penguins and we’re there

H: Will you be dressed up like a penguin?

D: Well I hope not, I hope I can just dress as normal – I had a penguin suit on this morning, but the penguins is a treat, I think it’s not so much me, I think the penguins is the treat, real-life penguins in your house. And don’t worry they’re well trained!

H: Oh the mums will like it

D: Honestly they’re superb, honestly I’d love it for my kids for their birthday. The penguins were magnificent, to have real penguins –

H: And you can get a limited edition Mumble, the main character in the Happy Feet film you can –

L:Yes it’s a sweet little a hatchling, which it comes like an egg and you can open it up and then the little penguin comes out, so it really is very sweet and it comes in every single box of Persil Non-Bio, it will be coming out in the shops, just look for the special promotion –

D: Coming out in the next 2 months I think that is, yes

H: Oh ok well I will be going out and getting mine I think – anonymous wants to know “hi Darren, I’m your biggest fan, would you go out with me I love you?”

D: Thanks Jenny

H: Jenny said that

D: Thanks Jenny

H: You can answer that now

D: Oh well

H: He’s all embarrassed

D: We’ll get the address later

H: And that’s it I think no more questions asking you out Darren, sorry about that. But you see how popular you’ve become from your Strictly Come Dancing –

D: Yes it’s amazing like I said ladies love the show but I tell you what it’s been mixed what people have come up to me, a lot of men have actually come up to me and said, blamed me for their wives actually taking them to dancing or buying them dance lessons for last years’ Christmas present which seems to be popular. This year maybe they’ll go out and buy my Dance book or my sports video, I’ve got coming out, I’ve got a couple of things, so hopefully they’ll do stuff like that

H: That’s a good idea actually buy some dancing classes for your partner for Christmas, and some dancing shoes

D: That will really annoy your husband!

H: Well Darren thank you so much for coming in, good luck with the penguins and the parties and everything and Lara thanks so much for coming in

L: Thanks

H: And thank you guys for all your questions as well today