Brendan Cole

Brendan Cole (born 23 April 1976) is a ballroom dancer specialising in Latin American dancing. He is most famous for appearing on the BBC show Strictly Come Dancing, a dance contest in which a professional ballroom dancer is partnered with a celebrity amateur dancer. He has also judged New Zealand's own version of the show, Dancing with the Stars.

Early life and career

Cole was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has danced since he was six, and moved to the United Kingdom when he was eighteen. Before becoming a professional dancer Cole was a builder and roof layer, having left school at 17.

He danced with Camilla Dallerup, a fellow contestant on the BBC's earlier long-running show Come Dancing, as amateurs from 1996, and from 2002-2004 as professionals. They competed for New Zealand: Camilla Dallerup is Danish-born. In 2003 Dallerup and Cole were placed 3rd for Latin American at the UK Closed Championships.

In the winter of 2004 he had his first acting experience featuring in the UK feature film Everything To Dance For alongside Sasha Jackson, Travis Oliver and Sally Reeve.

In October 2009 Cole appeared on the New Zealand travel show Intrepid Journeys. During a hunting lesson filmed in Vanuatu he was shown killing and eating a chicken, prompting international news coverage.^[1]

Personal life

Before he danced with Natasha Kaplinsky, in the first series of Strictly Come Dancing, Camilla and Brendan were engaged, but she broke it off, claiming, "I'd been with Brendan almost every day, all the time, for more than eight years and then he changed overnight. I think he was starstruck ... everything changed because of her (Natasha Kaplinsky)." ^{[citation needed]}

Brendan's previous relationships have included Shelly Ross, Abi Titmuss, Lady Victoria Hervey, Martine McCutcheon, Adele Silva and Emma Gray.^{[citation needed]}

He is now married to Zoe Hobbs, a British model, ^[2] who gave birth to their first child, a baby girl Aurelia, on Christmas Day 2012.

Cole lives in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

Televised competitions

In summer 2006, he joined ITV's Love Island and became the runner-up when the show ended on August 28, 2006. Also in that year, he appeared as guest judge on fourth episode of Britain's Next Top Model, Cycle 2 where he worked with the remaining 10 contestants to teach ballroom dancing prior to judging.

In January 2007, Cole appeared on the BBC's duet show Just the Two of Us as a celebrity, with Beverley Knight as his professional partner. They came second.

Brendan represented the United Kingdom at the first Eurovision Dance Contest in September 2007. His dance partner was Camilla Dallerup. The couple were highly praised by British judges yet only managed to finish fifteenth out of the sixteen entrants.

In 2010 he was a celebrity guest team captain on What Do Kids Know? along with Rufus Hound, Joe Swash and Sara Cox on Watch.

Dancing with the Stars (NZ)

Cole has judged New Zealand's version of Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing with the Stars, 2005–2009. In the years when Craig Revel Horwood was one of the other judges the two men's opinions and scores were frequently markedly different.

Strictly Come Dancing

Cole has appeared on all eleven series to date of BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing. Particularly in the third, fourth and fifth series, he has often clashed with the judges over their scoring and comments on his performances. He has on occasion deliberately broken the rules by incorporating illegal lifts into his choreography, and as a result has often been dubbed the "bad boy of Strictly". Although he is nominally a Latin specialist, he is regarded by many as the best in the show at the ballroom dances (waltz, foxtrot etc.), particularly when he partnered Lisa Snowdon on the sixth series in 2008.

Charity work

Cole has supported several charity functions including children's anti-bullying campaigning group Act Against Bullying.^[3] Brendan was recently a celebrity judge at "Dancing with Sky stars" alongside Arlene Phillips which was hosted at Silverstone Circuit

References

External links

• BBC website for Strictly Come Dancing
• Brendan Cole's website