Arlene Phillips is a excellent 70

They say the best revenge is to reside nicely, I prompt. Phillips smiles serenely.

As properly she may well. Her diary at the moment resembles a Southern belle’s dance card, and we meet at the crack of dawn, the only time she has free of charge. In man or woman she is affable, girly and conspiratorial, although nonetheless retaining a single eye on the clock. She excuses this habit, saying she is “stupidly busy… it is why I’m so completely OCD about almost everything and keep countless ‘to do’ lists, yellow stickies all over the place. It’s what takes place when you don’t have a 9-to-five occupation and when you’re not positive the place you will be from one particular week to the subsequent. It’s a way of trying to keep control of your life”.

At the moment, the lists of this former dancer, founding member of Seventies dance troupe Scorching Gossip and now a planet-renowned choreographer, revolve all around her involvement with two new tasks: the Monty Python reunion display that comes to the O2 Arena this summer, and a celebration of Brazilian song and dance that Phillips is operating on with Pamela Stephenson and taking to the Edinburgh Festival.

Both tasks are primarily based in Britain. For the duration of the previous two many years, while other individuals her age may possibly be making use of their bus pass, Phillips has identified herself taking planes. “I was in Canada for 4 months choreographing The Wizard of Oz, then Hong Kong, New York, Baltimore… It’s a relief to be back house for a whilst, although I will be going to Las Vegas with Eric Idle up coming week. We’re watching two shows a evening. It is always good to see what the competition is undertaking.”

She describes the Monty Python reunion as “a terrific show with plenty of humorous sketches and some big song-and-dance numbers. I’m choreographing these and working closely with Eric, who’s directing the display. I’m completely loving it.”

She goes back a extended way with the Monty Python crew, when she choreographed their 1983 film, The Which means of Life. “We’re all previous mates.”

Without a doubt, there aren’t several folks in the company whom Phillips hasn’t worked with. She started out in her early twenties, when she subsidised her dance classes by operating as Ridley Scott’s housekeeper. “It was the tidiest, most stunning residence I’d ever been in. Every little thing had a spot. I undoubtedly caught my need for full purchase from Ridley.”

Right after forming Hot Gossip, she became the choregrapher of choice for several Eighties bands, operating on pop video clips for Duran Duran, Elton John and Queen, exactly where she met her lengthy-term spouse Angus Ion, a set designer.

They’ve by no means married but, in spite of the age gap – Angus is 11 many years younger – have been together nearly 25 many years. Just before him, Phillips had had a failed marriage and a daughter, Alana, to a guy she has never ever named.

“I’d been in and out of relationships, never ever extremely efficiently. Then, when I met Angus, I found somebody who also grew to become my very best buddy in the planet. And as soon as you have someone who you want to be with and share things with, it is great. He’s the complete opposite of me, but somehow with each other we are like one particular total man or woman.”

It was not prolonged following they got together that Phillips discovered, at the age of 47, that she was pregnant once again. Her obstetrician informed her she was the oldest mother he’d ever dealt with. “I’ve always been a late-developer,” she laughs. “But, nevertheless, it was a complete shock. I considered I was going via an early menopause.”

She describes her younger daughter, Abi, as “such a great, beautiful person. Emotionally, she’s a great deal like Angus. She’s exceptionally gentle. Alana, my eldest, is more like me and I know her within out. We’re a lot more dramatic, a lot more very strung. I do seem at the two of them and feel: ‘No matter what I have attained in my career, my daughters are the very best point I have ever designed.’ No competitors at all, genuinely.”

As a single mom, she admits that she was far tougher on her first daughter, who is now 25 and working as a make-up artist, than on her second, who’s 22 and operates for Selfridges.

Phillips’s cuddly side was never considerably in proof when she was a judge on Strictly Come Dancing, though. There have been some cutting place-downs. Fiona Phillips had “not 1 naturally moving bone in her body” Carol Vorderman was “emotionless”.

“When dancing’s involved, I can be really challenging. You want to push your self – and other folks – to be the quite ideal. If not, how will anybody get far better?”

She didn’t get in which she is these days with no being tough on herself, too. And if her life appears like a fairy tale – which, she says, it certainly did when she picked up the CBE from the Queen final 12 months – it has been challenging-earned.

A single of 3 young children, Phillips grew up in Prestwich, Lancashire, in a functioning-class household. Her father was a barber, her mom – who died from leukaemia when Arlene was just 15 – a dinner lady. “We were undoubtedly not wealthy – I really don’t know how my dad and mom ever paid for my dance lessons when I was minor. We even had to line our shoes with newspaper when there have been holes in them simply because we couldn’t afford to get them soled.

“I feel back to people times, which have been all the more tragic due to the fact I misplaced my mum who I loved so much, and I think: ‘Where on earth did that small ball of grim determination that lived within me come from, that point that stored whispering in my ear: Don’t give up, really do not give in?’.”

Unsurprisingly, retirement is far from her mind. She keeps her physique fine-tuned, hasn’t drunk alcohol for many years, doesn’t smoke, swims a couple of times a week, and has just lately taken up “water jogging”.

Her weight, she says, goes up and down. “I’m 5ft 2in and sturdily created – I might as nicely make a necklace out of roast potatoes and wear them, as they’ll just attach themselves to my physique as body fat.”

She has admitted in the past to obtaining Botox, though these days she says she’s a devotee of the non-surgical facelift, in which an electrical existing is employed to stimulate facial muscles. She also requires supplements specially vitamin D and GOPO – a brand for which she is a spokeswoman – to support with the arthritis in her correct knee. “It’s created from rosehip. About a month in from making use of it, I found that the ache had eased so a lot that I was hardly even considering about it. Just before, if I got down on my knees to pick one thing up, for instance, I’d struggle to get back up due to the fact the pain was quite poor. But now I can even do this,” she says, out of the blue raising her leg from a sitting place to someplace over her head.

She held a huge bash for her 70th at the Bloomsbury Ballroom. Notable absences were Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli, her Strictly pals, who were judging the American version of the show at the time. “But they did send a video link. And yes, we are nonetheless wonderful mates.”

For years, she and Tonioli shared an agent, Michael Summerton, and his death from cancer shortly following she finished Strictly left her devastated – and ever a lot more determined to see life as a gift. “Hitting 70 when so numerous of your close friends really don’t make it can make you value that it’s a result in for celebration.”

She has been pondering, as well, if now may be the appropriate time to write an autobiography. “I’ve had a roller-coaster life. But you feel: ‘What ought to I put in and what must I depart out?’ There are people I must protect and items I have by no means spoken about.”

Put it all in, I suggest.

“Perhaps, I will!” she laughs, wickedly.

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ARLENE’S Tips FOR STAYING AGELESS:

“Don’t consider also considerably about your age. It is a amount. Especially do not feel: ‘In 10 many years time, I’ll be 80!’. Don’t search backwards and really don’t search forwards. I’m quite a lot a reside-in-the-second variety of particular person.”

“Stay physically strong and, especially, build your core strength by means of exercising like Pilates. Having a powerful core is the very best way to steer clear of turning into frail and infirm – your entire body will consider you on far longer walks with a sturdy inner core.”

“Retain your inner youth. You really do not have to sit on the sofa and view Tv all day. There is a entire world out there to be explored, and that remains true whether you are 17 or 70.”

“Keep your brain active. My father developed Alzheimer’s in his seventies and I’m now a patron for the charity. I’m not saying that it can be prevented but it’s such a very good idea to preserve the grey matter as match as your physique. If you can not do crosswords, educate your self. Play those childhood pat-a-cake games with any person who’ll play with you – or perform with the wall. It will genuinely maintain your co-ordination sharp.”

“Live and let reside. Personally, I’d never judge a person who’s had cosmetic surgical treatment. It’s your entire body and your encounter. Every single person should be allowed to do what they want to with it. It’s no one’s selection but your very own.”

Arlene Phillips is a excellent 70