Shirley Ballas has given facts of scandalous times in her dancing career that caused her “jaws hit the ground.”
The Strictly Come Dancing judge, 62, began dancing at the age of seven and went on to become a professional dancer before becoming a dance instructor and judge.
Then, in 2017, she joined the BBC dance series, taking over as chief judge from Len Goodman.
While Shirley’s 2020 autobiography, Behind the Sequins, revealed anecdotes from her whole career, she has now revealed that her new fiction book has allowed some of her more raunchy experiences to make it to paper.
Murder on the Dance Floor, her debut novel, will be released in October and chronicles the story of a promising young performer who dies mysteriously during Blackpool Tower Ballroom’s famed Dance Festival.
Shirley has now disclosed how some of the basis for her novel’s stories were once deemed too controversial to mention in her biography.
‘When I was writing my autobiography, there were a lot of stories from my dance career that I couldn’t use – but when I shared them with people, their jaws hit the ground,’ she explained.
‘So, I asked the publishers if I could write a fiction book based on these experiences, and they loved the idea.
‘I’ve worked with a brilliant writer called Sheila McClure and we’ve covered it all – bullying, backstabbing, dancers having sex in broom cupboards – all these things that I’ve seen, heard or witnessed,’ she added when speaking to Good Housekeeping.
She continued: ‘Don’t be fooled into thinking the dance industry is all baubles, bangles and beads!’
Shirley previously stated that “about 90%” of the erotic sequences in her novel were inspired by her personal experiences, and that they would “curl your toes.”
‘It’s loosely based on every story that I’ve witnessed that’s gone on in my industry, but with fictitious characters. Some of it’s fun, some of it’s really intriguing, very sensual…,’ she said while appearing on The Jonathan Ross Show.
She then described how her’very critical’ mother read the book in one sitting.
The Sequin Mysteries is the title of the first book in a detective series.
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC later this year.
