Camilla Dallerup tells Viv Hardwick why she’d have loved to have partnered boxer Joe Calzaghe in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.

DANCER Camilla Dallerup doesn’t see herself as one of the victims of the curse of BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing – losing a real life partner to another contestant – until you point out that her relationship with dancer Brendan Cole foundered over those tabloid allegations involving his celebrity partner Natasha Kaplinsky.

Danish-born Dallerup, who quit Strictly after winning last year’s TV event with actor Tom Chambers, says: “My mamma always taught me to leave a party when I was having a good time and I couldn’t get any better than first.

“Everyone knows I’ve been through a massive personal journey and the five years of Strictly has turned my life inside out. That was another reason I chose to move on and I’ve been doing other TV programmes during the past year.” The performer met current fiance Kevin Sacre, the Hollyoaks actor, while filming the TV series The Underdog Show and acknowledges that dancing intimately under the Strictly spotlight puts pressure on couples and the media.

“Sometimes it is there, but other times it is like imagining a couple who make a film are an item in real life,” Dallerup explains.

As for dodging the paparazzi these days, she jokes: “We’re quite good at looking unrecognisable by putting on our wellies and going for a walk.”

She dances professionally with Ian Waite and they run the Truly Fabulous Events company. Next month she’s set to perform at the Dance Against Hunger charity ball on Saturday, November 21, at the Royal York Hotel where her partner will be ITV’s Grease Is The Word’s Danny Bayne.

In addition to supporting a fund-raising auction, Dallerup will be casting her judging eye over 12 Yorkshire couples who will be competing to be the charity champion after just six weeks of training.

That, of course, leads to me asking her for a view on Alesha Dixon who controversially replaced Arlene Phillips on the Strictly judging panel this year.

“I did say that the judging should be about entertainment because it’s not a world championship. So there should always be room for someone like John Sergeant and Tom Chambers in the final. I think controversy follows Strictly around because it’s one of the biggest shows on TV,” she says and follows the BBC recommended media response formula of saying she’s friends with both Alesha and Arelene and that Arelene is a hard act to follow.

So would she liked to have been judged by Alesha this year?

“People fell in love with Alesha when she was dancing on the show so I’m sure equally people will love her as a judge.

It’s not really for me to comment. I’ve left the show,”

replies Dallerup, dodging a question about whether it’s fair of the BBC to ask an amateur to pass judgement on professional dancers.

Of the current contestants she feels the right people have been voted off apart from Joe Calzaghe, who Dallerup admits she’d have chosen as her partner for 2009.

“I felt terrible for Joe because he was a favourite and then everyone says ‘he can’t dance’… well what did they expect?

“It’s a really tough competition this year because in other years you had three or four couples who could have made the final. This time you’ve got around seven couples who could make the final for different reasons. With Phil Tufnell you just want to watch his journey, then you’ve got the excellent ones like Jade Johnson, Zoe Lucker, Ali Bastian and Ricky Whittle. This year I can’t tell you who I think will win. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Phil Tufnell in that final,” she says.

Her outsider is Natalie Cassidy “who is dancing every little girls’ dream”.

I point out to the blond beauty that her run of partners in Strictly included heart-throbs Roger Black, James Martin, Ray Fearon and Gethin Jones – plus Chambers – which meant she always stood a good chance with the phone voters.

“You say that, but James Martin was not a natural dancer at all and I’m proudest of his journey because he couldn’t dance at all in the beginning.

Tom Chambers told me it was his dream to reach the final and create a dance just like something from the old black and white movies, like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I thought ‘oh dear, the pressure is really on because I have to fulfil his dreams’.” she says.

■ The glittering black-tie Action Against Hunger event on Saturday, November 21, includes a gourmet three-course gala dinner. Tickets cost £50. To book contact Aimee Hayhurst on 020- 8293-6138/07956-826895 or email a.hayhurst@aahuk.org.

For more information about Action Against Hunger go to actionagainsthunger.org.uk