The dance star’s latest tour is part of the pair’s busiest ever year. The 2025 Strictly pro/celeb tour, presented by Janette, finished with husband Aljaž taking the overall crown for winning two dozen of the 35 gigs with partner Tasha Ghouri.
And no, despite the fact the two of them reached the series final, he feels no residual resentment that blind comedian Chris McCausland walked off with the top prize on the TV show.
“I’m so proud of what Tasha achieved,” he says, “and what I was able to teach her. But, in the end, Strictly is about viewers at home and they have the final say. Chris inspired so many people. He proved that you can achieve anything if you set your mind to it.
“The guy shocked me every single week with what he did. He was mesmerising, baffling. So much of dancing is visual and Chris didn’t have that. A lot of credit also goes to Dianne for what she brought out in him. So yes, he deserved to win the show, absolutely.”
But that was then and this is now. They recently packed up all their belongings and moved from Alderley Edge back down south to a new home that will better serve their many professional commitments, including their latest nationwide tour (more of which in a moment).
Aljaž’s progress to the final in 2025 was the first time he’d been back on Strictly after a two-year break. He’d won the Glitterball in 2013, his debut series, partnered with model Abbey Clancey and had never dropped out of the Top 10 since.
In 2022, after nine years on the show, he stepped away. Why? “Janette and I had wanted to start a family and were on the point of going through IVF when she finally fell pregnant.
“I very much wanted to create a full-time bond with the little one. I’d spoken to other people in the profession, to fathers, who told me their one regret was spending too little time with their kids when they were younger. It was the best decision I ever made.”
So why did he return? “Because now I’m doing it for Lyra. She loves seeing Daddy dance. Also, it was great being back: to teach, to perform. My aim has always been to make my partner feel comfortable while achieving the best they can.
“And to get all the way to the final on my return… Well, I couldn’t have wished for a better comeback.”
And now he has been confirmed as part of the Strictly line-up when the show returns in September. In the meantime, he and Janette have put together their own 19-date show, A Night To Remember, which includes the aforementioned date in Guildford.
Janette is bursting with enthusiasm at the prospect. The idea was born on a visit to Ronnie Scott’s famous jazz club in Soho when Anton Du Beke invited her on stage to sing a number with him backed by band leader and pianist, Tom Seals.
“Aljaž and I hadn’t danced to live music for ages,” she says. “It’s a completely different feeling from dancing to a backing tape. We’d never forgotten dancing in front of a 75-piece orchestra as part of the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.
“Now we’re going on the road in a show with Tom and his band. And it’s going to be a little bit different. It won’t be just about dancing although we’ll have four other professional dancers performing with us. It will also be about the music and the mood that creates.”
The show will be more intimate than anything they’ve done before. “There aren’t huge eight-minute production numbers. It will mostly be Aljaž and me dancing together, something simpler, more stripped back.”
And she couldn’t be happier at the prospect. “The fact that the two of us can still headline our own tour with people coming to see us all over the UK – and, remember, I haven’t danced on stage for a while – is so humbling.”
It doesn’t stop there. In a schedule that almost beggars belief, Janette recently landed the lead role of Roxie Hart in a six-month tour of the UK and Ireland of the musical Chicago. Having kicked off in Southend in March 3, the tour finally comes to rest in Salford at the end of August.
She can’t be in two places at once (although you wouldn’t bet against it) so how are the two projects going to dovetail successfully? “The producers of Chicago let me have four weeks off to do the Night To Remember tour,” she says.
All right but Roxie is a major singing role. “I would describe myself as a dancer and actress who can also sing. In that order. I did musical theatre as a kid back in Miami. And I was hungry to do it again.”
When she signed with her agent seven years ago, she explained that there were three things she wanted to achieve. “Dancing apart, I was keen to get into presenting and hosting.” In 2021, she took over from Zoe Ball as presenter of Strictly’s spin-off show, It Takes Two.
“I also wanted to write a book, not just an autobiography, that was meaningful and would really help people.” Last September, Tiny Dancer, Big World, part memoir, part manual, was published.
And the third ambition? “To get back into musicals. When I was offered the role in this new production, it was a real pinch-me moment. I don’t mind admitting that, when my agent told me I’d got the part, I couldn’t stop crying.
“You don’t get leading ladies like Roxie too often. She’s kind of fragile and dark and vulnerable and sexy. I’m really proud to have come full circle back to musicals.”
She is co-starring with Kevin Clifton, himself a winner of the Strictly Glitterball with Stacey Dooley (subsequently his real-life partner and mother of his daughter, Minnie) in the role of slippery lawyer, Billy Flynn, and Loose Women favourite, Brenda Edwards, as Mama Morton.
Rehearsals began while the Strictly live tour was in Nottingham and resumed in London. But what about rehearsing A Night To Remember? “When Chicago played in Cardiff at night, I rehearsed the dance show during the day.”
How on earth does she keep focused? “When I want something, I just strap on the horse blinkers and go. And you know what they say? If you want something done, ask a busy person.”
How about getting back in shape? She hadn’t danced professionally for some little while now and she’s had a baby in the meantime. She laughs. “Yes, and I’m 41! But, having a toddler, I get a daily work-out. I’ve also made the gym my friend.”
Important to keep fit and well. “Absolutely. I got a heavy cold on the Strictly tour which started with flu over Christmas. I could barely walk. By the time of the live shows, I was croaking away between doses of lemon and honey and ginger.”
But that’s a fading memory. Now, Janette must be match-fit for every performance. “Every night,” she says, “has got to be a night to remember!”
For tickets to see Aljaž & Janette: A Night To Remember at G Live in Guildford on 3rd June go to ANightToRememberShow.com