Hire Amy Dowden
The star of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, Amy Dowden started her dancing at the age of 8 but it wasn’t until after completing her A-levels that she committed to it full-time, making her rapid rise in the rankings all the more remarkable, competing against much more experienced couples. For eight years, her path to success was also blighted by misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis of a debilitating stomach complaint, which left her hospitalised at least once a month, meaning she missed out on training, key competitions and many milestones of teenage life.
Champion
Alongside her partner (both in life and on the dance floor), Ben Jones, Amy Dowden achieved her dream of becoming British National Latin Dance Champion in 2016. They were the first all-British pair to win the championships in over 30 years. Other successes include becoming British Dance Federation Champions, English Closed Champions and Welsh Closed and Open Champions.
Strictly
Amy joined Strictly Come Dancing in 2017 as the first-ever Welsh professional dancer on the show. Undoubtedly, the highlight of her time on Strictly so far was reaching the final in 2019 with celebrity partner Karim Zeroual, where they topped the leaderboard. Other fabulous celebrities she has partnered with over the past eight years include Brian Conley, Tom Fletcher, and JJ Chalmers, to name a few.
Challenges
In 2019, Amy very bravely announced that she has suffered from Crohn’s disease since she was a child. She did this in conjunction with the launch of the It Takes Guts campaign run by Crohn’s & Colitis UK, which promotes awareness of the disease and encourages sufferers to be open about their illness. For this work, Amy won the Raising Awareness Award at the Hello! Magazine Star Women Awards 2019, and in 202,3 she received a Points of Light Award from the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street. In 2020, the BBC broadcast a documentary, Strictly Amy: Crohn’s & Me.
In 2023, Amy was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, undergoing a mastectomy and a 3-month course of chemotherapy. Once again, Amy turned this experience into a positive by raising awareness of breast cancer and its treatment, working closely with the charity CoppaFeel! A documentary following Amy’s cancer journey will air on BBC One later this year.
Interests
Amy remains a fixture on the dance competition circuit and is also a highly successful tutor. With her partner Ben, she runs the Art In Motion Dance Academy in the West Midlands, which has produced several students who have competed at the national level. She is particularly passionate about working with children with special needs and learning difficulties.
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