Strictly Come Dancing comes to Dalston

Sequins, music, and a famous dancer from a hit TV show livened up a lesson for some lucky schoolchildren at a Dalston school.

Kristina Rihanoff, who starred on the BBC1 smash Strictly Come Dancing, dropped in to visit Shacklewell Primary School during year six’s weekly personal, social and health education (PSHE) lesson on Thursday, June 16.

The Siberian-born dancer, who famously failed to teach journalist John Sergeant to boogie on the show, had more success teaching the pupils how to move. After she showed them some of her costumes and spoke to them about her life, she led the children into the hall to put them through their paces on the dance floor.

The school’s PSHE co-ordinator, Sarah Paxton, said she wanted to arrange the visit as a treat for the pupils, because they have recently finished their SATS exams and will be heading to secondary school later this year.

“It went really well,” she said, “the kids loved it. They were quite good at dancing, but she was a very good teacher. She’s done lots of teaching before apparently, and she teaches her partners on TV.”

The event was organised by the Kids Taskforce, through missdorothy.com, which runs the programme taught as part of the primary PSHE curriculum.