Reality TV Online Blog

Len Goodman is the older, head judge who sits between Carrie Ann and Bruno on ABC “Dancing with the Stars.”  Len can be nice and offer the celebrity dancers praise, but he can also be cutting with his remarks at times.  Len was born in Bethnal Green in 1944.  He attended normal school until the age of 15, at which time he became an apprentice engineer.  At the age of 21, he began dancing and discovered his life’s calling.  He got into dancing quite by accident.  He had hurt his foot playing football and when it did not improve, he visited a doctor.  The doctor told him either ballroom dancing or swimming would help work the muscles of his foot and improve the injury.  His girlfriend booked him for ballroom dancing lessons and almost had to drag him to them.  He said that after the first couple of weeks, he fell in love with dancing. 

He quickly turned professional at the age of 23.  After winning various competitions, including the British Championships in his late twenties, Len decided to retire from dancing and set up his own dance studio.  He married his partner Cherry, but the two later divorced.  They had one son, James, who carries on his parents dancing tradition by touring as a dancer and singer with the musical Annie.

Although Len is in his sixties, he keeps a very busy schedule.  He is the head judge on both “Dancing with the Stars” and series from which it was derived, “Strictly Come Dancing.”  The BBC show “Strictly Come Dancing” has been airing on Saturday nights since 2004 and regularly draws in 9 millions viewers each week.  “Dancing with the Stars” premiered in 2005.  Over the summer, the show reached #1, attracting 23 million viewers per episode and remains one of the highest rated shows on ABC.  At one point, Len and Bruno Tonioli (also a judge on “Strictly Come Dancing”) were filming both dancing shows at the same time and had to fly back and forth across the Atlantic twice a week for most of the season.

When Len is not busy with “Strictly Come Dancing” and “Dancing with the Stars,” he makes regular appearances on “Strictly Come Dancing: It Take Two” (a companion show) and also shows up on the “Strictly Come Dancing” Christmas specials.  Len also has a DVD out called “Dancing with Len Goodman.”  It teaches the basic steps of ballroom (including the Quickstep, Foxtrot, Waltz and Tango) and Latin American dances such as the Cha Cha Cha, the Samba, the Rumba, and the Jive.

Len still teaches ballroom and Latin dancing at his dance studio in Dartford, Kent.  While he can be strict with the celebrities, his philosophy for his dance studio students is to always have fun.  He feels he has done his job if the dancers have a good time – if they learn to dance that is just an added bonus.

Read these other great entries

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 9:13 pm and is filed under Reality TV Stars.