WHO would have believed it but after an absence of many years, ballroom dancing is back on our screens.

And the Strictly Ballroom formula of teaming a celebrity with a professional dancer has proved a hit with TV audiences who have made this up-dated version of the old favourite Come Dancing, a Saturday night success story.

Viewers can't wait to find out who will samba and waltz to success. Will opera diva Lesley Garrett put on a stiff upper lip if she's given her marching orders from a dancing dream of a job, and is ex-rugby star Martin Offiah really romancing his dance teacher?

Maybe all that TV hype could just rub off on a production due at the Lawrence Batley Theatre.

While it isn't Strictly Ballroom, it is definitely, well - Ballroom.

Because for all the glitz and the hype, dancing is still one of those things that gets people active and can help them to meet other people.

Enter John Retallack who was inspired to write Ballroom by the stories of a lively group of tea-dancers at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea.

See the result in a new production which arrives in Huddersfield early next month. It promises something decidedly different.

It is set in a half empty dance hall where Roy, Audrey, Sylvia and Victor step out into a new phase in their lives. When they arrive , they know no one. Two hours later, they have tangoed, waltzed and cha cha cha'd their way through their past and into the future.

It's poignant, funny and is punctuated with glittering flashbacks, up-tempo dance sequences and the sound of a big band.

The blend of dialogue, dance and glitterball is created by John working with Jack Murphy and Karl James. John, who was a regular visitor in the LBT's early years with his previous company, the Oxford Stage Company, has worked on the show with director and choreographer, Jack Murphy, who has worked extensively for the Royal National Theatre and the RSC as well as film work including Sylvia and Vanity Fair.

Karl James has worked internationally and in the UK as a leading composer of music for new stage work.

The LBT will turn its main house into a ballroom for the show which opens here on July 13 and runs until July 17. So get out those dancing shoes.

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