The Keep Dancing Podcast

The Keep Dancing Podcast is back to bring you a moderately-informed run down of the 2021 cohort on Strictly Come Dancing. Your host Ellie is joined by AJ, Ann, Elliot and Meg to preview all the pairings. Who is already communicating joy, who reads Prima and who has a tragic allergy to buttons? If you’d like to enter our Every Strictly Result Ever tea towel competition, send us a dancing lady emoji...

Episode 10: The Show Must Go On Ellie is joined by Elliot, Meg, Vikki, AJ, Milly and Ann (plus special guests) to squeal inaudibly about the Strictly Grand Final. Topics include: - A tree topping angel or the queen that doesn’t sew? - The Strictly Final as a dance CV - A comparison to a piece of modern art - Brief diversion into the Lando Norris pitman - Hearteyes all round for Jamie - Fifteen min...

Ellie is joined by Elliot, Meg, Ann and AJ to review the Strictly Semi Final and look forward to one of the weirdest finals ever. Topics include: - Outdoor socially distant salsa parties - West Country accent lols - Appropriate songs to dedicate to your Nan - Is Countryfile the new One Show? - Things which could have been A Lot Worse - Problems with dancing to Black Sabbath - A little bit of advic...

Ellie is joined by Vikki, Meg, Emily and AJ to try and enjoy some musical theatre in trying circumstances. Topics include: - What is and is not a waste of license payers money - We’re all Team Filth, where it comes to rumbas - Maisie’s Pygmalion storyline is nearly complete - Worst case scenario Lloyd-Webber Argentine tangos? - General praise for Fun Karen Enter the Every Strictly Ever poster cont...

Episode 7: BTEC Flailing Ellie is joined by AJ and Emily (with interjections from a remote, delayed Elliot) to survey the post-Blackpool reset wreckage. Note: we lost some of the tracks of the recording, we’ve pieced the conversation back together as best we can! Elliot isn't even in the room at the time! Topics include: - What are we going to do about Couple’s Choice? - A place to jive that isn’t...

Episode 6: Dancing On The Edge Ellie is joined by Ann, AJ, Meg, Emily and Vikki to ponder a trip to an imaginary Blackpool. Topics include: - Is Bill subverting the paradigm? - Sad news about the Winner Track - ‘Likability’ and media sexism - A true Scotsman dances to… - Tasteful and appropriate AR! - I’m fairly sure we’re using ‘narrative’ to mean something else now Enter the Every Strictly Ever...

Episode 5: Sucker for a Pinstripe Ellie is joined by Ann, AJ, Meg and Emily to scream defiance in the face of Coronavirus. And review some dances? We ponder over: - Who is providing little more than rotary motion? - Are there any phone boxes near you? Have they got phones in or something else? - How JJ could play The Scottish Card - Creepy dolls vs creepy puppets - Johannes is an actual gentleman...

ITTC 1: It Takes (At Least) Two Cynics Amidst a coronavirus news storm, Ellie meets up with a team of experts to try and work out what Strictly 2020 actually *means*. On the panel are: Ariadne Griffin @ariadne_griffin https://ariadnereviews.com/ Rob Furber @entertainmentodds https://entertainmentodds.com/ Ewan Spence @ewan https://escinsight.com/

Episode 4: A Series of Really Cool TikToks Ellie is joined by Ann, Meg and Elliot at the movies (or is it Musical Week Part 1?) where weirdness reigned and nothing made vast amounts of sense. Topics tackled: - A lengthy diversion in general praise of drag kings - Are the AR graphics a treat or a punishment? - Is Luba Santa? - We get distracted and think about a totally different cha cha https://ww...

Ellie is joined by AJ, Emily and Elliot to talk about the second competitive week of Strictly. - Max Wanted can finally be his own, wholesome man - Elliot reacts live to the potential horrors of Movie Week - James Clerk Maxwell, the musical? - Sleeves and collars in ballroom wear: a conspiracy theory - A little bit of the theory of pedagogy as it relates to Anton’s partners - Complete meltdown ove...

Ellie is joined (even more remotely than usual) by AJ, Emily, Elliot and Meg to talk about the first competitive week of Strictly. We’ve had a bit of an epic technical fail so the format is a bit less interactive, but we’re still here to get judgey about the judging, praise our faves, declare our inexplicable grudges and work out who wore the Frock of the Week. Enter the contest by sending us a Da...

Ellie is joined by Anne, AJ, Emily, Elliott and Meg to cast their eye over our twelve brand pairs competing for the sanitised, socially-distant 2020 glitterball. Our predictions are historically entertainingly wrong, but we’re making them anyway. Also in this show: - Hug Curtains, how and why? - Has Men Behaving Badly aged well? No. - Please yeet responsibly - Who’s sharing a box of white toner? -...

It’s the Keep Dancing Podcast preview of the 2020 series of Strictly Come Dancing. Ellie is joined by the full pod roster of Ann, Elliot, Milly, Meg and Vikki and we have a lot of questions, including: - How does perfect pitch help you find the groove? - Has Max been to America? - Who is now as relevant as a tamagotchi? - Who should dance with our fave, Nicola Adams? - How have Strictlies around t...

The finale of Sewing Bee contains some incredible sewing, dizzying heights of embellishment and significant others. 
The finale of Keep Sewing contains incredible chat, dizzying heights of double entendre and significant digressions. - The nicest fabric Ellie ever touched - Maths anxiety and dyscalculia - The most disgusting tartans - Esme’s impressive name drop - ’That sweaty leatherette feeling’...

Film week seems to have not been a terrific box office hit, but there’s always something to discuss. Ellie is joined by Meg and Milly to talk screen lewks. Featuring: - Milly has fantastic fabric facts! - What underwear do you wear with the 7 year itch dress - Hunting through Dad’s garage, but make it fashion! - Ellie recommends the film Paradise Heights - The very first Pun Run in Keep Dancing Po...

The loosely themed ‘international’ week provides plenty of cause for digression. Join Ellie, Meg and Milly to talk about another week of the Sewing Bee! Includes: - Would we prefer technique based themes? - What does Imelda Marcos have to do with it? - Upholstery fabric syndrome - The ration book sewing challenge - Words finally fail Ellie - And a mouse For Karie Westermann’s newsletter, here’s he...

Ellie, Milly and Meg go back to the Imaginary Eighties, where everyone is a power suited capitalist monster. - A mathematical description of a tailors ham - What are the washing instructions on a PVC blazer? - When did fashion start repeating itself? We investigate - Acid house: the genre that apparently isn’t allowed to be described - It’s always gussets with us - A lengthy digression about the L...

Ellie and Meg try to make something new out of a bag of old bits in Reduce Reuse Recycle week. Featuring: - Varying levels of nostalgia for charity shops - We’re living for small, peculiar insights into the inner life of Patrick Grant - We would not like to comment on Therese’s buttons - The joy and thrill of recreational steeking! - A lengthy diversion into wild early 90s knitwear magazines - A s...

It’s lingerie week and Ellie, Milly and Meg have loaded up our massive brassiere cannon with double entendres for you to enjoy. This episode contains: - A brief foray into the fashion welding on the Big Flower Fight - Were those upholstery fabrics? - The genuinely grim nighties and their clashing Jim-jam pals - Could we get a quick tutorial on Nicole’s dungarees transformation? - The topological d...

We’re making masks alongside our regular sewing! Mask patterns available from: Hobbycraft https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/ideas/sewing/how-to-make-a-face-mask Big community sew https://www.bigcommunitysew.co.uk/ Curved face mask https://www.craftpassion.com/face-mask-sewing-pattern/#face-mask-tutorial We’re thinking about: - Sewing patterns instructions are just hard sometimes! You should mark your p...

Children’s week shows who’s got precision and detail and who just rips the arms off the doll when faced with a challenging fit. - They’ve run out of pom pom trim! - Ellie hates mustard (the colour) but has collar advice! - The ideological status of smock dresses - Some very upsetting marabou trim - Fancy dress tales of yore - Did you not have enough fabric to cut an extra pocket? Oh, and the Stric...

Keep Sewing 2: I Think It’s To Do With Your Sewing It’s holiday sewing! Loud patterns and towelling and unwise decisions regarding pockets - Palazzo pants: there’s a but there, and it’s a big but - We’re loving Clare’s Instagram - Do those hammam towels actually get you dry? - Pattern matching horror stories - Fiona’s pockets of doom

The Keep Dancing Podcast crew celebrate Achievement In Frocks by examining the BBC’s new series of Sewing Bee. Ellie is joined by Emily, Elliot and Meg to judge the seams. - Wrap skirts and flagship university buildings: why both of them have wind problems - When you can’t help but go for the metallics - Is the transformation challenge a good way of showing sewists skills? - Who’s going down to Ea...

The Keep Dancing Podcast crew convene in their separate living rooms to keep you company. Ellie, Anne, Elliot and Vikki are in varying degrees of isolation and have gone varying degrees of stir crazy. - If AJ & Kevin aren’t going to be there, what will we even talk about next series? - Should the 2020 season of Strictly be more like Fame Academy? - Is Mr Motivator keeping well? - What hot 2020 pop...

It’s been a long old Q4 but finally we end up back where we began: Kelvin and Oti’s victory makes this the season of The Samba. Ellie is joined by Emily, Elliot, Meg, Vikki and Anne to wrap it all up in a bow. What else have we learned? - Will’s ACL is getting better! - The winner isn’t dancing with their partner on the tour. AGAIN. - A recommendation to watch Top Hat - Sometimes you just have to...