Quotes from Arlene Phillips

When I'm offered jobs that I love to do, I think 'well, why not!?'

I've travelled pretty widely and have never taken a violent dislike to anywhere.

The only place I do avoid is Trafalgar Square on New Year's Eve. I saw in the New Year there once - it was the most terrifying experience of my life.

The scary thing is how quickly everyone's star fades. Therefore, to be a voice, you need to do television. You need to stay in the public eye for the public to care about you, to be a big enough voice to help where it is needed.

When I was teaching I'd go to some schools where no one wanted to dance - when they came into the room it was as though they were being punished. But I'd put on the loudest, the heaviest metal you could imagine and they loved it.

I have always seen myself as a choreographer first and foremost.

I have always had a full-time job. I have always worked full time.

I don't drink at all. If I'm out I'll have the occasional sip of wine just to be sociable.

In a musical, I believe that choreographers are under a great deal of pressure. There's not always the freedom to do what you want to do, because if it ends up being too long the dance breaks are the first thing that will go, because you can't make the story shorter.

I was passionate about 'Strictly.' I was passionate about it in every way, but the one thing that I always felt I did was give good advice as to how the contestants could improve.

I grew up without any money, but the one thing that we did was sit up in the gods to watch the ballet.

It took me a long time to understand that there is no amount of wanting and no amount of desire and no amount of hard work which allows you to become a classical ballerina if you're not physically given the gifts.

I couldn't have wished for a better life companion. I got extremely lucky when I met Angus.

Saturdays have become like, you know, the Boomtown Rats - 'I Don't Like Mondays.' I don't like Saturdays.

Hot Gossip were revolutionary in some of the dance they did in the 1970s.

There is absolutely nothing you can't do, see, eat or buy in Las Vegas. It is a magical wonderland where everything is possible - especially in the world of showbiz where everything feels so big, bright and spectacular.

For me just having a baby was incredible.

I was definitely a tyrant - ask any dancer I've worked with. They were surprised if I was ever nice to them. I had a terrible temper.

I was about three when my dad came home with a beautiful tin filled with chocolates. I hadn't had chocolate before, and I'll always remember it.

I'm a very generous tipper for my hairdresser and nail technician, and for staff in restaurants who have given a good service. I will always leave a tip, even for bad service.

I constantly diet. People laugh when I arrive at rehearsal with my box of sliced beetroot and bag of chicory, but if I indulge in a cupcake binge or a large bowl of pasta, it shows.

When I am in rehearsal, my tracksuits are carefully placed to disguise parts of my body. I'll think, 'My bum looks big today, so a cardigan will hide it.'

Mirrors are part of my life and an ever-changing source of delight, displeasure or even disaster, depending on which one I am looking in. I look in a magnifying mirror when I pluck my eyebrows in the morning, full-length mirrors every day in rehearsal, and I often nervously bring out a compact to check my make-up.

I hate holidays because one expects them to be perfect and so often they are not. There's the build-up, the looking forward to it and wanting everything to be right, but so many things can go wrong and then it can be such a disappointment. I find the expectation is usually bigger than the result.