Claire's Review—An Evening With Kristina and Tristan

Photo Courtesy of Kristina Rihanoff Twitter

  An Evening with Kristina and Tristan, hosted by Mark Read
The Mill Theatre, Dundrum, Dublin - 14th November 2017

We had great seats in the centre of the 3rd row. The theatre is very small and intimate, seating about 200. The setting felt even more intimate when the curtain went up to reveal Mark  no stage just a floor, so close to everyone, the front row could have touched them as they danced past. All very up close and personal.

Throughout the show Mark would start a song and Kristina and Tristan would come on stage about half way through the song.  This enabled them to do their costume changes, as apart from about 3 numbers where Mark sang with no dancing, we were able to enjoy lots of dancing by Kristina and Tristan.

I can't remember the exact order of how things went or which songs—I should have made notes ha-ha!! The first dance was a Quickstep to "I've got Rhythm", what an opening number! Then Tristan changed out of his tails and came on stage and sat and had a chat with Mark (to get his breath back he said!) They chatted about Tristan returning to Ireland and how he was loving dancing in his home country and finally in his home town—Bray is just down the road. He admitted he was a bad Irishman in that he hadn't really ever left Bray and hadn't seen much of Ireland before, and was enjoying driving around with his family seeing the sights and pretending he knew everything when in fact he was just reading the signs. They also covered what Tristan had been doing since leaving Strictly and that he was continuing with Mrs. Brown's Boys after the tour ended. Oh, and Tristan's Auntie was sitting in the front row, and she had a little dance with Mark during one of his songs.

So, as Tristan was now in a vest we had a fast number, Salsa or Samba—can't remember if this was before or after the chat, but after he joked about dripping sweat on the front row as they were so close. They also danced a beautiful Rumba to "Imagine" and a brilliant Charleston.

Mark introduced Kristina, again talking about what she has been up to since Strictly, her little girl, Mila, and her new tour starting in the new year. She also said that she is so happy that she managed to persuade Tristan to take to the dance floor again with her after 2 years, and it took ALOT of persuading. Thank you Kristina!!

There is an audience participation part—4 volunteers from the audience go on stage and the rest of the audience also get to learn all the arm and hand moves to the dance. This was funny when Tristan got embarrassed about having to put the microphone in his pocket to free up his arms to demonstrate some moves —'I'm not putting that in my pocket in front of Auntie', so he moved to other side of the stage to demonstrate along with the 'hip rotation' which caused lots of oohs and ahhs. They divided the audience in half, Kristina V Tristan, and Tristan's side won.

There was a delightful dance by 6 local children from Xquisite Dance School.  The youngest pair were 8, another couple 10/11 and the 3rd couple I guess around 16. This girl's Mum used to go to dance lessons with Tristan's Mum which is how they knew him—definitely stars of the future.

As I mentioned earlier, I can't remember the order or what songs were used for all the dances, but they did everything! Apart from the dances I have already mentioned, we had Waltz, Foxtrot and Cha Cha—but the Contemporary dance they did to "Wicked Game" was incredible as was the Argentine Tango/Paso fusion. The finale was the Jive to "Don't Stop Me Now", and the sparkly shirt made an appearance to loud cheers, another incredible dance.

There was a Q and A, and here are some of the things that were said.  If I misquote anything, my apologies, this is all from memory!

Tristan has hardly danced for 2 years and now only wants to do it on his terms.

There was a comment about his shoes, from which he said they were I think 15 years old, and proceeded to show the holes in them, but that doesn't matter he said, 'It lets the smell out!' Re Strictly, he didn't like being told to get a fake tan and shave his chest, which he refused to do, or wearing sparkly shirts. "That's why I left."  He joked about Anton being the hairiest person ever, and they would both hide to avoid the shaving!  H

He doesn't watch Strictly at all, but did talk about DWTS Ireland, what a great show it is and everyone should watch it and get behind it as they have fabulous pro dancers. Kristina also mentioned the new signing Robert Rowinski, who she has danced with in her previous show, an amazing dancer.

During the Q and A, Tristan excused himself and disappeared off stage, returning shortly after to explain that his knee cap had popped out and he had gone to sort it out!! Amazingly he then managed to dance that incredible Jive!!

There were obviously questions about the current series of Strictly— one being Len V's Shirley. Kristina talked about how she loved Len and always respected his comments when she was on the show. She liked the way he always added a touch of humour to his critique without being nasty and there was always something positive. She could see why the public were saying what they were about Shirley, but she knows her stuff and will probably grow into the role like Darcy who also had a difficult 1st series. As for Bruno, she doesn't know what he's on!! She said she wished the judges would be less negative and give the celebs something positive to work on instead of demoralising them. As a pro she would go into the training room on a Monday morning and often her celeb would just want to walk out as they felt so bad after Saturday's comments. Tristan said on Len V's Shirley, he would always take a positive comment from Shirley over one from Len.......

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It was an brilliant and enjoyable show. The way Mark linked it all together with his chat and singing— excellent vocals btw—and his version of "Take on Me" was fab.  As I have said, so much dancing from Kristina and Tristan, quick costume changes, such a great partnership and of course the humour...

I am so grateful to Kristina for convincing Tristan to get back on the dance floor and tour! Even though I had to travel to Dublin to see them as there was nothing local to where I live, it was worth it. I really hope that Kristina and Tristan can do another show/tour, maybe covering the areas of the UK they missed this time. The ticket sales speak for themselves, I believe nearly all venues were sold out.