West Midlands Strictly Come Dancing star Amy Dowden and her stage partner Carlos reveal the true power of dance

With Amy Dowden, who lives in the West Midlands and runs a dance studio in Cradley Heath, having made a return to the dancefloor following her cancer diagnosis and Carlos finding his true self in the UK, they truly feel REBORN. 

This inspirational new show, where the transformative power of dance shines through, will feature a dazzling cast of world-class dancers and vocalists. 

Taking audiences on an emotional and uplifting journey through powerful and show-stopping routines, REBORN is a testament to the joy of dancing.

Amy and her partner Ben Jones were crowned British National Latin Dance Champions in 2016, where they were the first all-British pair to win the championships in over 30 years. 

Other successes include becoming British Dance Federation Champions, English Closed Champions and Welsh Closed and Open Champions.

Amy joined Strictly Come Dancing in 2017 as a professional dancer. Undoubtedly her highlight so far is reaching the Final in 2019 with Karim Zeroual, while other partners include McFly’s Tom Fletcher and Brian Conley.

Amy won the Raising Awareness Award at the Hello! Magazine Star Women Awards 2019, received a Points of Light Award from the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street in 2023 and awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday honours in 2024 for her charity work with Crohn’s & Colitis UK.

In 2020 the BBC broadcast a documentary, Strictly Amy: Crohn’s & Me, winning a BAFTA Cymru. With her recent breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, she has worked closely with the charity CoppaFeel!. A documentary following her cancer journey will air on BBC One later this year.

Carlos is a Chinese National Champion with a wealth of dance accolades under his belt, including: multiple world semi-finalist, third place competitor at the German Open Championships, Amateur Latin Rising Star runner up at the 2017 UK Open.

Carlos joined Strictly in 2022 and with Molly Rainford made the final. Last year he partnered with Angela Scanlon and he is looking forward to joining the show for its 20th series this year. On television Carlos has been seen on It Takes Two, The Hit List and CBeebies Bedtime Stories.

Here they talk about the new venture.

Amy: It features some fabulous dancing, of course, and people who come to see it are going to learn so much more about us. We are telling our stories through dance and we’re going to take you on an emotional, uplifting journey, featuring so many different styles of dancing.

Carlos: We’re the best of friends and friendship is a big aspect of this tour, otherwise we wouldn’t be on the road together.

Amy: Totally. We’re honest with each other. We love each other. Carlos is like part of my family and we’re always loyal and trustworthy towards each other. We got each other’s back.

Carlos: We have a very deep soul connection. We know and understand each other so well. Sometimes we can comfort each other just by holding hands without having to say any words.

Carlos: Because the theme of the show is about having a new life. It’s a rebirth and a breakthrough. You go through such a difficult time, then you break through and you have a new version of yourself. 

From the beginning I had this title in my head because the show is based on my story, as well as Amy's. 

I moved to the UK from China and I changed my career from competitive dance work into the television world. When you make a big change like that you’re navigating your new life, meeting new people and you don’t know how it’s going to go. 

You don’t know whether you’re going to do well or if it’s going to go badly. Because of my sexuality, moving to the UK has definitely helped me open up myself more, and it has encouraged me to be my true self and to accept who I am. 

I’m a new, different version of myself because of the environment I’m in and because of the challenge of the work that I’m doing over here. Then I talked to Amy about the idea of doing a tour together and when I look at her she’s the perfect example of the REBORN theme. She went through the worst period of her life and she never give up. She fought back.

Amy: I had my identity stripped away from me when I had my cancer treatment. I lost my hair, I gained weight, I wasn’t able to dance and I didn’t know what my outcome was going to be. I’ve definitely become a new person because I don’t think anybody is truly the same after they’ve had cancer. 

But you know what? I’ve become a better version of myself, a warrior version of Amy, so I definitely feel reborn and I look at life differently now. I take advantage of every opportunity, every beat, every moment on stage, and every second I can get to spend with my friends or my family, because you don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring.

Amy: It features every style going, from disco to commercial, Latin, the Argentine tango, flamenco, ballroom, Fosse.... We’re covering all the bases. And with the songs there’s a wide range as well, from pop songs to Latin and Argentine tango tunes and all those favourites that everybody knows and can sing along and dance to in the audience with us.

Many of them are songs that have helped us personally or have played a significant part in our lives. For example, we’re featuring I Didn’t Know My Own Strength, which is the song that I rang the bell to at the end of my chemotherapy treatment.

Carlos: We’ve spent so much time on sorting out the music because it is so important. If you get the music right then half of the show is done. I’m a huge Bob Fosse fan, I adore him, so there’s a Fosse-style surprise on the tour too. 

I’m not going to spoil the surprise, but let’s just say that I’m going to be doing some other type of performance instead of just dancing. 

As well as ourselves, we have some fantastic dancers in the show and live singers to give it that real, passionate feeling. 

And as Amy says, it’s a really authentic, original, powerful journey that not only offers amazing dancing but which also takes people on a journey through the narrative of our personal stories.

Amy: For me, it’s my life. It’s been my saviour through the hardest of times.

When I was told ‘Sorry Amy, you've got cancer’ my passion and drive to be back on the dance floor was what kept me going when I was at my lowest of points and didn’t know if I was going to be able to get out of bed.

Dance has also given me my husband, who was my dance partner, and it has given me friends like Carlos, who is now like family. I am so lucky to have found dance because it has given me everything in my life.

​Carlos: I think my passion for dancing is pretty much similar to Amy’s.

Dancing is my life and it feels like it’s my peace too. Only when I'm dancing do I feel like I don’t have any troubles. Life’s problems don’t exist when you’re dancing.

It'’s like a pure and peaceful place where you can do whatever you want, where you can express yourself, and I feel like I express myself more through dancing than in any other form.

Amy: We both come from the competitive world, so we share the same beliefs and the same passions for the techniques and the values of dance. We used to compete against each other, so I think that’'s what draws us together as dance partners. And because we’re such good friends we can be honest with one another.

Carlos: I agree. We’re both strict as well. In dance if you want to produce something good you have to be strict about what you want and what you don't want. We want to make a good show together and we have the same goal when it comes to that, so we have to be very strict with each other. Coming from the same background, it’s also easier for us to talk things through.

​You’ve both won numerous trophies and honours. Which ones mean the most to you?

Amy: Winning the British Championships is something I am very proud of, and I got to win it with my now-husband. There’s only one winner every year and I get to have that next to my name as former British Champion for the rest of my life.

​Carlos: For me becoming Chinese National Champion is a huge honour because we have so many dancers in China. I think we have, like, 60 million people doing ballroom and Latin, around 20 million of which are doing it at a competitive level. That means that we have to work extremely hard in order to get ahead, so winning my first Chinese championship was a big deal for me, especially because I honestly didn’t expect to win it.

Amy: I hope that they can take away the message that at any point in your life you can turn to friends, to family, you can change as a person and you should never give up on your dreams. ‘Don't get bitter, get better’, ‘This too shall pass’ and ‘Stay true to yourself’ are quotes that I always use. Never stop dreaming, never stop pushing, never stop trying to become the best version of you.

Carlos: I hope that they get to learn more about us as people. On TV we tend to be always positive and happy, but we're only human and there are so many complex emotions there.

But it’s a positive message because we’re funny, powerful and strong. And the dancing in the show offers so much more than people have seen from us before.

Amy: Obviously Cardiff is a very special one for me - to be able to go and do a double-show day with a noisy Welsh audience and my family and friends. I think for them it is going to be a big moment as well, after everything they've been through with me and now to be there and see me perform again. But everywhere we go on the tour is special to me, getting to travel around the country and meeting all our fans. 

There are a lot of places Carlos hasn’t been to before, so I can’t wait to show him around somewhere like Bath and visit the Roman spa together. Everywhere we go we’re going to try and do something, even if it’s just taking a walk around the town.

Carlos: I’ve been to a few places around the UK on the Strictly live tours but I’ve only lived in this country for three years, so there’s so much more for me to discover. I’ve never been to Bath, for example, but I’ve heard so much about it and I can’t wait to be there with Amy as my tour guide. And we’re performing in the West End. That’s a big box ticked!

See Amy Dowden & Carlos Gu: REBORN at Birmingham: Symphony Hall on March 10. For tickets visit https://www.amyandcarlostour.co.uk