She may have turned 80 last year, but if there’s one thing that keeps Dame Arlene Phillips feeling young, it’s her two granddaughters. “There’s no game I won’t play – even if it involves crawling under the table,” the celebrated choreographer – grandmother to Lila, five, and Emme, three – exclusively tells hello!.
“They never stop dancing around. They say: ‘Watch me, Grandma!’ I love them so much,” she adds of her daughter Alana’s two girls. But it’s not just the little ones in her life helping Arlene stay full of energy.
“Work definitely keeps me trying to feel young,” laughs the star, who has spent her career crafting routines for A-listers from Sir Elton John to Tina Turner; she met her longterm partner Angus Ion on the set of Freddie Mercury’s I Was Born to Love You video in 1985.
Still as sparky as ever, it’s clear the former Strictly Come Dancing judge does not intend to slow down at all. She’s juggling a number of projects: the highly anticipated revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express
(opening in London in June), the hit London revival of Guys & Dolls and the UK and Ireland tour of Grease, which kicks off on 12 April at Bromley’s Churchill Theatre.
“This is the real story to Grease – it’s an all-singing, alldancing return to the original production,” says Arlene of the musical, which stars Marley Fenton as Danny and Hope Dawe as Sandy. “There’s a lot of edginess to this show. But all the big hits are there too.”
The star has a special link to Grease, having worked with Dame Olivia Newton-John, who played Sandy in the 1978 film.
“Olivia was a beautiful human being,” says Arlene, who choreographed the music videos for the singer and actress’s songs Dangerous Times and Twist of Fate in the 1980s. “One time, I had my daughter Alana with me. Olivia was wonderful with her. She was so sweet, kind and caring.
“What a lot of people don’t know is that, in many ways, she was responsible for my US career. She came to a live show that my dance group Hot Gossip were doing [in the late 1970s] and fell in love with them.
“She told me she was going to make a film with [US producer] Allan Carr – and that ‘he needs to see this’. She showed Allan a video of our show. I later got a call to ask if I’d be interested in going to Hollywood to choreograph his [1980] film Can’t Stop the Music,” says Arlene, who went on to work with directors including Clint Eastwood and Ridley Scott.
REVIVING A CLASSIC
She also worked on the 1993 West End production of Grease, as well as its revivals in 2007 and 2022 – and the latest cast is “fantastic”, she says. “I’ve seen it happen before, where certain cast members have a magnetism and the audience cannot take their eyes off them. Without question, Marley, our Danny, is going to be a magnet. He is captivating.”
Arlene is also directing and choreographing With All Our Hearts, an all-star West End gala, taking place on 9 April at London’s Adelphi Theatre, to celebrate 75 years of the NHS and raise money for NHS Charities Together.
Hosted by Oti Mabuse and Dr Ranj Singh and featuring theatre stars including Marisha Wallace and Kerry Ellis, the production “is going to be one very special night”, she says.
It has been 16 years since Arlene was a judge on Strictly, having left in 2008 after four years. Does she still tune in?
“I only really watch the dancing. For me, Strictly is about the dancers and the partnerships,” says the star, who is pleased that former professional dancer Anton Du Beke is on the panel. “Anton is lovely. He was destined to be a judge.”
Although her sparkling career has earnt her accolades including a damehood and a Special Recognition prize at the Olivier Awards, Arlene’s feet are still firmly on the ground.
“The moment you get those awards, you’re glowing, but life carries on,” she tells us. “In the bigger picture, it doesn’t change anything. I’ll always be down to earth.”
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