Why the BBC strictly dances stars choose to dance on football

Alex McIntyre

BBC News, West Midlands

Lee Blackman

BBC Radio Stoke

Kai Widdrington has been a strict dance professional for four years

As the son of a beloved football player, strict dance star Kai Widdrington seems destined to follow in his father's footsteps.

The professional dancer lives in Trentham in Stoke-on-Trent, Trent, and spent most of his father, Tommy Widdrington, and the current manager of Aldershot Town FC, played for Port Vale FC.

While in the city, Wadelington (Kay) joined the club’s academy and said he wanted to be a “star footballer” like his father.

But the trajectory changed when his parents decided on their son, and they admitted that they were a “overactive” young man who needed another outlet.

Widdrington told BBC Radio Stoke that he lives next door to some banquet hall dance teachers and he joined their class, but it took him a while to fall in love with it.

"I really don't like it until they got me a partner and we started playing so there was a competitive side," he said.

Kai Widdrington says he spent most of his childhood in Stoke, Trent

A light brown haired man scratched, wearing a brown leather jacket and a light brown shirt with the top buttons cancelled. He smiled on the camera. — Kai Widdrington says he spent most of his childhood in Stoke, Trent

This competitive motivation overcomes any potential inhibitory effect he might feel when “wearing sparks or Cuban heels.”

He explained: "I need to do the victory I need to do. It's winning for me."

Weedlington said the “light bulb” moment was when he listened to his father’s music on the way to soccer practice, thinking about the dance of each song.

He added: “Although my football career was really promising when I was a teenager, I just liked it more, even though I had a very promising football career.”

After the family moved back to Southampton, where he was born, Wardlington competed with future Premier League stars, including Luke Shaw and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

But he gave up on his potential future location at Southampton Football Club and chose to pursue a career as a professional dancer.

Widdrington's father Tommy now manages Aldershot Town FC

PA Media Media is a man with short white hair, blue and red striped tie, blue blazer and a white shirt, standing behind him on a football field. The crowd blurred in the stands behind him. — Widdrington's father Tommy now manages Aldershot Town FC

Weedlington said he had spent his time there in Stoke-on-Trent in Trent in elementary school.

"I have great memories of Stoke," he said. "It's so funny. I have good friends and the childhood I grew up there was great."

Widdrington is currently visiting his dance performance Evolution and will return to strict dance later this year as a professional dancer.

His time on the BBC's show said: "It's life-changing, but especially the young British guys who grew up in Stoke-on-Trent.

He added: “It was a really complete moment for me.”