Raising the bar

At DSI London, we love a good old-fashioned costume change (as you may have spotted on a Strictly number or two this year), so it was a delight to work with a pair of the ballroom world’s best loved performers, the Sugar Dandies, to orchestrate just such a surprise.

Updating their classic showdance to “You Raise Me Up”, which they performed in front of millions on Britain’s Got Talent in 2012, they came to DSI for help. “We decided to rework the entire piece for 2017, not just the choreography but the whole show to achieve the magical effects we wanted for it,” they explain.

“It has always been an emotional and joyous piece, and we have had the privilege to dance it hundreds of times for audiences worldwide. However, there was always more we wanted to do with it one day.”

The showdance, which you can see here on YouTube, sees a costume change from simple men’s tailoring to flowing white outfits in the blink of an eye. Fitting the white costumes under the suits and working out the mechanics of the instant change was a challenge for the whole DSI team, led by Mike Delicata, and Soren and Bradley also had help from costume designer and dance coach Lemington Ridley.

As for the costumes themselves, the Sugar Dandies explain, “We chose the change from black to white because it was the most dramatic visual transition possible. Symbolically, the shape of the ‘wings’ matches the theme of ‘You Raise Me Up’. It is a piece about being light, about flying, and about being in love — all of which require wings.”

The audience loves the reworking of the 10-year-old showdance. “You can literally hear a collective gasp in the hall when the costume changes happen,” say the Sugar Dandies. “And the judges seem to have liked our 2017 version of ‘You Raise Me Up’ as well – this year we won Miami (the unofficial world championships after the OutGames were cancelled), the European Championships in Berlin, and the USA Championships in Provincetown.”