Anton du Beke

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Anton du Beke and Erin Boag at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham (January 2008)

Anton du Beke (born Anthony Beke^[1]) is a professional ballroom dancer. His dance partner since 1997 has been Erin Boag. With Boag, he won the IDTA Classic in England in November 2003.

His reasonably late entry to dancing began at 14, when he stumbled across his local dance hall. He had gone to collect his sister, Veronica from her dance class and reportedly was encouraged to join, there being only one other boy in the class.

He left school at 16 to follow an amateur dancing career. At 17 he decided to specialize in ballroom.

His personal life (and indeed his age) are closely guarded. His only apparent long-term relationship with presenter Caroline Feraday has not yet been followed by another. He maintains that he does not have the time for a relationship.

He has appeared in all five series of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. In the first series, he danced with singer Lesley Garrett and finished in third place. For the second series, he partnered presenter Esther Rantzen; they were eliminated in the third week. He danced with actress Patsy Palmer for the third series and finished in fifth place. In the fourth series, he danced with actress and impressionist Jan Ravens but was eliminated in week 5 of the competition. His partner for the fifth series was TV presenter Kate Garraway; the couple was voted out in week 7.

There are a lot of comments made on the Strictly Come Dancing series about his resemblance to Bruce Forsyth, and he is is also frequently mistaken for comedian Rob Brydon.

In March 2007 du Beke was a contestant on the BBC Two series The Underdog Show and was paired with homeless dog Ginger, they were eliminated in week three of the competition.

Du Beke has just released a new book called 'Anton's Dance Class', which is currently serialised in the Mail on Sunday. * Anton's Book.

1 Quotes
- 1.1 About Anton
- 1.2 By Anton
2 References
3 External links

[edit] Quotes

[edit] About Anton

"Every woman in the world should have half an hour with Anton Du Beke." - Famous opera singer, Leslie Garrett
"If ballroom dancing is the new sex, then Anton is its Dr Alex Comfort."

[edit] By Anton

"There are not many days when I don't dance," he says. "It sounds so blah, but it gives me a sense of fullness and purpose. There's nothing I can do that's better than dancing, and I'm pretty good at most things. It's even better than sex. It's electricity, really. You have this feeling of being alive."
"We have a problem in this country. We are experiencing a social breakdown that has resulted in a society in which people don't know how to behave and are unable to interact politely and properly with each other."
"If people learn to dance they learn to interact in a gracious way involving certain rules of etiquette."
"I get a lot of attention from women, and because I am a bit tactile and I give them a kiss and say 'you look lovely' it can make girlfriends a bit jealous."
"My father didn't live to see my success – he would have hated it anyway, would have been vile to me about it. And I am fine with that."
"I have never really wanted marriage and a family – although you should never say never. But then I don't need to be married, do I? I've got Erin…"