Dancer secures Take That gig

4:00pm Friday 31st October 2008

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A DANCER from west Wiltshire will be performing alongside pop band Take That just three months after competing in a Dirty Dancing themed competition on TV.

Tobias Mead, 21, of King Street, Warminster, is celebrating after he was chosen to dance on ITV with Take That in November. Details of the show have not yet been released.

“I’m really pleased about the Take That job,” said Mr Mead, who went to Kingdown School in Woodcock Road.

“I’m not a massive fan to be honest but I had to listen to their music when I was younger because my sister was their biggest fan.

“She is ecstatic because she is a massive fan of Dirty Dancing as well. She has been very supportive of me; me and my sister are very close.”

The news comes just three months after the dancing star appeared on Dirty Dancing: The Time Of Your Life, which is currently airing on Living TV, and is based on the hit 1980s classic film of the same name, starring Patrick Swayze.

The competition, held in the summer, was set in the same iconic mountain lake resort in the Catskill Mountains, New York, where Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze) danced with Baby (Jennifer Grey).

Mr Mead, who used to work at Center Parcs, said: “It was amazing because we turned up and everyone has watched the movie about 100 times and we all recognised the buildings.

“There are so many good memories of the show. I’m always going to remember being out there for my 21st birthday.

“That day I was in the bottom two and we had a dance-off but no one went home in the end.There was a feel-good vibe all night.”

The show involved 20 dancers battling it out on the dancefloor in front of three judges, TV presenter Kelly Brook, choreographer to the stars Sean Cheesman and Miranda Garrison, who starred as Vivian Pressman in the original hit film.

Mr Mead responded to flyers promoting auditions for the show in May, after they were displayed at his college, the Stella Mann Dance School in Bedford.

Filming started in May and Mr Mead was voted off seven weeks later in July - the episode was televised on Living TV last Wednesday.

“It felt like the end of an era,” said Mr Mead.

“You are living this life and had a routine spending time with the choreographer and it was weird to break out of that and not be there anymore.

“It was a little bit heart-renching but I learnt more and more there every day. It has taught me a lot about me and I have got a more positive view of things.”

There are two more episodes of the show left to show on Living TV on Wednesdays at 9pm.