{"id":144058,"date":"2026-07-26T01:28:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T01:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/144058\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T01:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T01:28:23","slug":"child-star-joins-strictly-as-professional-dancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/144058\/","title":{"rendered":"Child star joins Strictly as professional dancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A child star who played Annie in the West End musical will join four new professional dancers for Strictly&#8217;s new line-up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Maddie Ingoldsby, from Bournemouth, will join the celebrity dancing competition when it returns in September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The UK National Ballroom Champion and eight-time Amateur 10-Dance World Champion made her television debut on Strictly: It Takes Two, and has also appeared in the hit film Last Christmas, starring Emma Thompson and Emilia Clarke.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She told the BBC: &#8220;Joining Strictly as a professional dancer is truly a dream come true. My heart is so full of gratitude, excitement, and anticipation as I begin this incredible new chapter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Five dancers stand on a rooftop terrace overlooking a city centre. Office buildings, a street below and a landmark column are visible in the background.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/5274de78a7c6eb933a323570d04612a0.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Meet the five professional dancers joining Strictly in September [BBC\/Ben McElligott]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Dance has always been where I feel most myself, and to now share my heart, my creativity, and my love for it on a show that has inspired millions is an honour beyond words,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Ingoldsby was previously crowned World Rising Star and Under 21 World Ballroom Champion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She joins multiple Ukrainian National Latin Champion, Aleksandra Isaeva, and her dance partner, four-time Italian Latin Champion, Cristian Priori.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Undefeated South African Latin Champion, Lethabo Monametsi and two-time National Latin Champion in Canada, Mark Karmalita, also join the show this autumn.<\/p>\n<p>Related Links<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A child star who played Annie in the West End musical will join four new professional dancers for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,47145,47146,47144,47149,47147,47148,25333],"class_list":["post-144058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-emma-thompson","tag-maddie-ingoldsby","tag-professional-dancers","tag-rising-star","tag-strictly","tag-tomasz-reindl","tag-world-champion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}