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Flavia Cacace (born 13th March, 1980 in Naples), is an Italian professional dancer. Her professional dance partner is Vincent Simone, and both regularly appear on the BBCs Strictly Come Dancing.

Biography

Born in Naples, the youngest of six children to a chef father, she came to England with her family at the age of four when her father moved for a job. She attended St. Peter's School, Guildford and left in 1995.

Dancing career

At her mother's behest that all the children should have an activity, she and her eldest sister joined the local ballroom dancing class aged 6. She had had two previous dance partners, and Cacace and Simone had the same dance teacher in London and both looking for partners, they decided to try out in 1994 - they have been dancing together ever since.^[1]

Strictly Come Dancing

In 2006, she appeared on the fourth series of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. Her celebrity dancing partner for the show was Jimmy Tarbuck. However, the couple withdrew after only one show, due to reasons concerning Jimmy's health.^[2]

Flavia was back dancing in the fifth series of Strictly, partnered with EastEnders star Matt Di Angelo. They got the only perfect score of the main series with their waltz in the semi final. They reached the final of the show, but were beaten by Alesha Dixon and her professional partner Matthew Cutler. Cacace and Di Angelo also competed together in the live tour of Strictly Come Dancing in January and February 2008. They won more shows than any other couple, coming first overall sixteen times and second a further ten times (out of a total of forty shows).

Flavia took part in the sixth series of Strictly Come Dancing, partnering actor Phil Daniels who was eliminated in the first week after a dance-off against Don Warrington despite Gary Rhodes being bottom after the judges' scores.

In late 2008, Flavia decided to take part in a Strictly Come Dancing special for Children in Need 2008 where she partnered the presenter Terry Wogan against Tess Daly, partnered by Anton Du Beke, who ended up as the winners.

Flavia returned to Strictly Come Dancing for the seventh series in 2009, partnering Coronation Street and Queer as Folk actor, Craig Kelly. Flavia and Craig found themselves in the bottom two in second week against Lilia Kopylova and Richard Dunwoody, and were forced to perform their tango again. They won judges votes from 3 of the 4 judges, and consequently have made it through to the third week of competition. They were also in the bottom two in week 4 against Darren Bennett and Lynda Bellingham. Two judges saved them and as Len Goodman had the deciding vote they went through to the next week. In week 5 they got their lowest score of the competition so far and were at the bottom of the leaderboard. However, they were saved from the dance off by the public.

Personal life

Cacace was in a relationship with her dance partner Vincent Simone for 11 years, but is now dating her former celebrity partner, Matt Di Angelo, with whom she has been in a relationship with since they appeared on the show together in 2007. Controversy surrounded the relationship as it was constantly rumoured that Cacace and Di Angelo,^[3] were involved whilst Cacace was still with Simone, however both parties denied this. After the 2007 series ended, Di Angelo moved into Flavia's house in Surrey.^[4]

Titles

Career titles Flavia Cacace has earned from competitions, with her professional partner Vincent Simone:

• UK Professional Ten Dance Champions 2002-2006
• UK Professional Showdance Champions 2003-2006
• Negracha club UK Argentine Tango Champions, 2006
• IDO World Argentine Tango Finalists, 2005/2006 (3rd place overall - winners, Show Tango section)
• UK Ballroom Champions
• World and European Ten Dance and Showdance finalists 2002-2006

References

External links

• Official website
• Flavia Cacace at the Internet Movie Database