From a Taxi Rank to the Strictly Ballroom

Johannes Radebe grew up in South Africa and lost his father when he was 14. He told The Big Issue that he then chose to take on responsibility for his family, and at about 19 he left home to work in dance in Johannesburg. He sent money back to his relatives, which often left him with nothing for himself, and he ended up in situations he disliked.

With nowhere to live, he slept for close to a year in the dance studio where he taught. On other nights he paid minibus taxi drivers to let him sleep in their vehicles at a rank in the centre of the city, washed in basins there, and sometimes stayed on friends' sofas or in the spare rooms of older men he met at queer clubs.

Paid dance work gradually came in. At 21 he became a dancer on cruise ships, which led to travel through his twenties and then to South Africa's version of Strictly Come Dancing. From there he was noticed by the producers of the British show.

Looking back, he described that period with the words that it is transitional and will not be forever. He joined the UK's Strictly Come Dancing in 2018 as a professional. In 2021 he took part in the show's first same-sex pairing, an event that made history on British television.

By the time of the interview he had completed eight seasons of Strictly, and he was preparing to make his West End debut in March 2026, playing Lola in Kinky Boots. His story runs from a teenager sleeping in a studio and in parked taxis to one of the best-known professional dancers on British television.