BBC NEWS | England | Dancing steps up pupils' fitness

BBC NEWS | England | Dancing steps up pupils' fitness

Although I normally roll my eyes at the endless stream of reality TV shows, including Strictly Come Dancing, I have to admit that if they make dancing acceptable enough to be learned at school then some good has come from them.

Not only is it good for your physical fitness and great fun, but when boys and girls get to that difficult age when they might want to ask someone to dance, heck, they might have the confidence to go and do it.

The one and only...

I'm not a great fan of reality TV shows. In fact, as a forty-something man I feel it is my right - nay, duty! - to rant about the cheap, tawdry nature of these shows.

Or at least it was until two weeks ago when Oliver caught sight of BBC1's "The One and Only" and decided it was the best thing he'd seen since the time he walked into Somerfiled and was confronted by a whole shelf full of Barney DVDs. The little man now struts around the living room with his toy microphone and sings his renditions of "Stop in the name of Love" by Diana Ross with all the appropriate choreography. He also does a mean "Son of a Preacher Man" by Dusty Springfield and "Delilah" by Tom Jones. Watch this blog for me to catch him video.

Dancing (or not)

Lucy. Pretty in pink. Prepared for any weather.

Hayley took Oliver and Lucy to the Lowry Centre today for a special music and dance session. Oliver loves dancing so he seemed pretty excited about it yesterday when we told him. But today when he got there (and Hayley had paid for him to go in) he decided he didn't want to get up and dance at all and spent the whole session on his Mum's knee watching. Perhaps he wanted to take it all in first. Perhaps he was overawed by all the others there. Perhaps he's a free spirit who shares his father's healthy mistrust of any mass orchestrated dancing.

Whatever the reason, he had a good time anyway. Here he is pictured with Cara and Jessica who also attended.