A Jersey dancer spent the start of the year touring around China in a 70s-themed dance show, performing in 27 cities to audiences of up to 3,000 people.
Lucy Livingstone retired from dancer five years ago after a knee surgery just before lockdown.
This marked the start of a long process of healing and recovery, during which Lucy moved back to Jersey – working as a personal trainer for dancers and with a musical theatre school, and starting an events company.
But when a dance company she had toured internationally with for years came knocking about a 70s-themed tour in China, Lucy came out of retirement to take on the five-week, 27-city tour.
Despite having kept busy back in Jersey, Lucy said she had missed being on stage.
The dancer previously starred in shows by the company Spirit of the Dance – known mainly for their Irish dance shows – and touring internationally and on cruise ships.
Lucy decided to join ‘The Dancing Queen’ tour, which brought a high-energy 70s disco-themed show to various across cities in China.
The ABBA hit opened the show and was followed by music by Elton John, more ABBA, Boogie Wonderland and “lots of 70s disco”.
Lucy described the tour as “really good fun” – with huge theatres that held thousands of spectators.
The tour featured four vocalists, 11 women, six men and a dance captain – who whizzed around China on bullet trains reaching 100 km/h, planes and coaches.
Once Lucy accepted the role, everything happened quickly.
The dancer was in in London for just over two-and-a-half weeks of rehearsals before arriving in China in January, staying in each city between one and three nights.
She added that Chinese audiences were used to filming during shows.
“We were all over the Chinese version of TikTok,” she said.
Lucy said her impressions of China were that it was “wild” and “almost like being in another world”.
The time was spent with a “wonderful cast, wonderful company, wonderful high-energy show”, she added, with time for sightseeing, including many towns and cities she’d never heard of before.
The historic district of Sanfang Qixiang, in the city of Fuzhou, was a favourite, along with Beijing, which Lucy said was “epic”.
Lucy recounted being treated like a celebrity by locals – including one woman who gave her a baby to hold while on the Great Wall.
She said: “Having a child passed to me while I was on one of the wonders of the world, and the family wanting a photo with me was the craziest moment of the tour.”
One family of fans presented each cast member with a hand-painted piece of traditional art at their penultimate performance.
“They were big, and they were so beautiful,” said Lucy.
The painting added to a collection of souvenirs from the 61 countries Lucy has travelled to throughout her career, and she is planning on getting it framed.
Jersey-born Lucy left the island at the age of 16 to pursue musical theatre training at Laine Theatre Arts.
She then performed with ‘Spirit of the Dance’ for around four years, travelling to over 60 countries on tours and cruise ships.
In Jersey, Lucy runs The Theatre Workshop, the app Perform Strong, and 3rd Above Entertainment.
She also works as personal trainer and pilates instructor – working with dancers on dance-specific strength training, conditioning and pilates.
“A dancer is an artistic artist,” said Lucy.
Science has evolved and also reinforces the case for good training for dancers, she aded.
Despite keeping busy in Jersey with multiple businesses, Lucy credited the training with getting her through the show’s schedule.
“My body is so much stronger and I felt like a different person,” she said.”
“That was an amazing feeling.”