Gráinne Seoige says she hopes to bring a bit of sparkle to her rumba to Diamonds Are Forever on tonight's episode of Dancing With The Stars.
The Spiddal native will be raising the heat under the glitter ball with her professional dance partner John Nolan and the choice of song chimes nicely with her new career running a diamond and gemstone business with her husband, former South African rugby coach Leon Jordaan.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment fresh - or not so fresh - from another day of rehearsals and practise, the former broadcaster said, "I didn’t pick tonight’s song but I’m delighted with it so we worked really, really hard on the rumba.
"It’s incredibly technical, it’s a slow dance, it’s the dance I’ve always loved and they call it the woman’s dance.
"Like the waltz I did in week one, there’s an incredible amount of work that goes into making it look easy," she added. "We worked really, really hard on technique, technique and technique."
Gráinne, who began her broadcasting career in 1996 on TG4 before going on to work for TV3, Sky News, RTÉ, ITV and BBC, recently moved to back to Galway from South Africa to focus on her new business.
She’s cut quite a figure so far on DWTS, but she laughs off suggestions that her job every Sunday evening is to make a lot of hard work look easy and graceful.
"My job every week is to make it look passable," she says. "Great ease of movement only comes after many years. The man who is teaching me has 25 years’ experience. I have 25 days.
"We work really, really hard. John pours all his knowledge and expertise into me and every Sunday, we turn it out for the delectation of the entire nation and three judges pass judgement on us. It’s wonderful, it’s scary, it’s fun, exciting, and exhilarating. It’s like a great funfair or joyride."
Not that she ever considered herself a bit of a mover before she took up the offer of competing on this year’s show.
"No. I had no dance experience whatsoever and that’s something I had on my bucket list for years - learn to dance so when this opportunity came along, . . . " Gráinne says.
"I was asked last September against the backdrop of very stringent pandemic restrictions and at the time getting out of the house and exercising wasn’t that easy.
"So, I took my time to think about it and decided to go ahead because I really feel these things only come along once in a while and you’ll regret not taking the chance and I’m really having a lot of fun."
Gráinne’s sister, fellow broadcaster Síle, really urged her to take part. "Like myself, she has so many years of broadcasting experience and she’d know how I view the world.
"She said, `You should do it. You’ve always wanted to learn to dance and now you can learn to dance’. So, I said yes, you’re right."
Gráinne adds that husband Leon has been hugely supportive and has been in the DWTS audience for all of her spins under the glitter ball.
"He’s very proud. He’s a former rugby coach so he has a lot of experience of psychology, but he doesn’t impart too much to me because he knows I like to find things out myself," she says.
"But he does see that I’m breaking down barriers that I may have constructed for myself over the years or boxes I may have been put in in terms of how I was seen. That’s really freeing and wonderful."
Last week’s show saw the first elimination of the new season when author Cathy Kelly bowed out. "I was shocked to see Cathy go," says Gráinne.
"We got on really well, I thought she was a really smashing dancer. I will miss her when I walk in tonight."
As for her chances of winning, Gráinne is philosophical. "We’d all love to hold the glitter ball trophy in a few weeks’ time but this is a winding road, it’s not a straight line. It’s not a sprint, it is a marathon."
Gráinne has been out of broadcasting for a while, but now that’s she back in front of the cameras, is she tempted to get back into tv again?
"I love live tv," she says. "It’s where I cut my teeth in news in 1996 and it’s where I continued all the way through, so I love the buzz you get when the light on top of the camera goes red and you’re on.
"I love that. So, who knows what’s going to happen? Nobody can tell the future so if the right opportunity came along, I would definitely look at it.
"I have other passions now so it would have to be something that worked. It wouldn’t be a case of taking anything that was offered. It would have to work with my life."
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
Dancing With The Stars continues on RTÉ One on Sundays at 6.30pm
