When she looks back on her incredible life and career, powerhouse choreographer Dame Arlene Phillips is in a reflective mood.
The first lady of dance turned 80 two weeks ago and yet has the stamina, vitality and flexibility of a woman half her age.
“I’m like a Duracell bunny,” she says. “It feels quite bonkers to me that I’m 80.
“My birthday was wonderful. Family came from all around the country to my house and we had amazing food and I felt surrounded by love.
“I’ve had an incredible life. I’m a bon viveur and I’m doing a series of dinner parties over the next year – small gatherings so I can actually talk to everyone I want to say thank you to; friends, assistants, directors, producers, people who have helped to make my life what it is.
“I’m doing one dinner a month. Otherwise there would be so many people, it would be one big crowd.”
So there is no sign of Dame Arlene slowing down.
She has choreographed or directed four current big shows; Grease The Musical at the Dominion in London; The Cher Show which has been touring; What’s New Pussycat; and an acclaimed revival of Guys And Dolls at the Bridge Theatre.
Her sexy flamenco and contemporary dance fusion show House of Flamenka has been at Sadler’s Wells Peacock Theatre.
“I cannot believe that little girl from Lancashire became me,” says Dame Arlene.
But there is a hint of regret too. Despite her phenomenal achievements, she confesses in recent years she has been thinking about lost opportunities to spend time with her two growing daughters.
She frequently worked long hours away from home choreographing shows, pop videos and films all over the world.
“I’ve started to look back and really think about my family and did I do the right thing for them?” she says.
“Did I feel assured – because they were always being well cared for – that I had fulfilled the needs of my daughters emotionally and being there? Because I wasn’t always there.
“My eldest daughter was a bridesmaid at the wedding of our nanny and I didn’t go. Was that harmful?”
Her eldest daughter, Alana, 43, mother to her two adored little granddaughters, Lila, four, and Emme Bow, two, is a stay-at-home mum and lives nearby. Dame Arlene spends every spare moment with them.
She continues: “I see Alana bringing up her two little children with so much love and care and I think, ‘Well yes, I got something right’. But you never know. Is there a missing piece of not having a mum there every day?
“My daughters had an incredible life and they travelled and went to places, and had opportunities, but I always think, ‘Is the most important in life to be there? To give your kids a hug when they need it? To be just be the mum that’s there, not the mum that’s not there?’. I have regrets. A little bit.
“But they have never said anything to me and we are very close.”
Dame Arlene lives in north London with partner Angus Ion and the couple have a daughter Abigail, 32 who was born when she was 47. Previously, she was married, divorced and later had Alana from a brief relationship.
And she relishes her role as grandmother. “I love spending time with my daughters and my two young granddaughters,” she says with a smile. “They are my everything. They are truly my oxygen.
“When I see them running up to me, saying ‘Grandma, Grandma’, I will do anything for them. Crawl on the floor? Sure. Hide under the table? Whatever you want. Dance with you? I’ll dance nonstop.
“My family all spoilt me with beautiful, touching gifts on my birthday but they also arranged for our former nanny Simone to
fly over from New Zealand to surprise me. She was with us for 14 years as the girls’ nanny and then as my PA and was one of the family and my girls adore her.
“I wept when I saw her, I was so overwhelmed. I still feel close to tears thinking about it.”
She met Angus, who is 11 years her junior, in 1985 on the shoot of a Freddie Mercury video for “I Was Born to Love You” where he was a set builder.
The octogenarian says: “He’s more serious than me, and quieter. When he met me he liked the fact I don’t mince my words. From the moment I met him, we’ve never stopped talking. We are still talking now nearly 40 years later.
“Our happiest times are at home together in London or at our place in Herefordshire reading or walking.
“We both love the theatre. Plays for him, and musicals for me.”
The celebrated choreographer has come a long way from her poverty-stricken Manchester roots. She has worked as a dance teacher, started the troupe Hot Gossip and was a judge on Strictly Come Dancing from 2004 to 2009.
She recalls: “My parents cultivated my love of dance. I started dance classes when I was three.
“When I first saw a Russian ballet at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, I knew that dance was all I wanted to do which turned to choreography which is now my life.”
She went to ballet lessons and, when she got a job as a dance teacher in London in the 1970s, she never looked back, eventually choreographing hit pop videos with superstars like Elton John, Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin.
She recalls working with Tina Turner, who died last week at 83, on her iconic Private Dancer video.
“Working with her was a day and a night I’ll never forget, just because of her remarkable presence,” says Dame Arlene.
“The Rivoli Ballroom where we filmed the video, was condemned the day before we made Private Dancer because it had asbestos in the roof, and all we had were little wooden boxes to sit on.
“She sat talking about her life to all the dancers and was so interested in them – where they came from, where they had trained.”
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Dame Arlene is also behind Hollywood films such as Annie, and huge productions in the West End and on Broadway, including Starlight Express, Grease, Saturday Night Fever and We Will Rock You.
But as she gets older, she thinks about her childhood more.
“My mum passed away from leukaemia at the age of 43 when I was 15 and my dad, Abraham, brought up me, my brother Ian and sister Karen alone,” she says.
“Money was difficult to come by when I was growing up as my dad, who was a barber, was often ill. He had blood clots in his arms and sometimes he couldn’t work.
“That makes you put your feet on the ground and know that you have to get on with life, make the most of it, and work hard. I appreciate everything I have. I feel very lucky.”
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