Here, Dance Informa invites Angela Rippon to share her thoughts on the formation and progress of Let’s Dance.
I have been dancing since I was about four years old. And am lucky enough to have been able to combine my passion for dance, with my profession as a broadcaster.
From presenting Come Dancing, to making documentaries about dance, healthy ageing and the importance of exercise. Culminating in competing in Strictly Come Dancing in 2023, at the age of 79, and surviving nine of the 12 weeks of competition.
It was unbelievably flattering to be told I was “inspirational,” and that gave me the courage and the determination to use that profile in a positive way.
Through my research on various programmes, I knew that dance is not just great entertainment; it’s one of the finest exercises you can do to improve and maintain the health and wellbeing of your mind and body regardless of age and physical condition. It has huge social benefits, and it’s fun.
So that was my mission. To get the nation dancing, and help save the National Health Service (NHS) a few million off their budget.
I contacted every major dance organisation and company in the country — brought them together, explained my plan, and Let’s Dance was born.
Our first National Day of Dance on March 2nd this year was a huge success throughout the four nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – and we are now building towards next year’s event on Sunday, March 8, 2026.
While individual dance teachers, schools and organisations continue to promote Let’s Dance throughout the year with a whole range of activities and events, we have built vital links with the NHS. These are leading to major projects involving GPs, nurses, doctors, surgeons and hospitals, to promote the incredible value that dance can bring to a whole range of medical conditions, including Parkinson’s, strokes, mental health, cancer and orthopaedics.
There are so many exciting projects that I will keep you in touch with as they develop.
Between now and the end of the year, I will be speaking at further major national and international conferences to promote the value of dance to general health and wellbeing. On September 28th, I have been asked to chair a debate at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool on the value of the Arts and Sport to Health. We will be working with major London Boroughs, led by Lambeth Council, to encourage greater community involvement in dance, and strengthening our commitment to charities like the Alzheimer’s Society with more Dance for Dementia; Parkinson’s UK to increase the number of Parkinson’s patients who can have access to dance; The Carers Trust, to help reduce the isolation and loneliness felt by carers; Sense, the mental health charity, to offer more patients the opportunity to ‘dance out of their darkness’.
