The Strictly Come Dancing dancers have cancelled fan meet and greets during the live The Professionals tour, reportedly due to exhaustion.
Fans who shelled out £95 for VIP tickets have been disappointed to find their scheduled meet ups with their favourite Strictly stars have been cancelled.
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The VIP passes had promised pre-show meet and greets with the dancers – but organisers have cancelled them at the last minute.
The Mirror reports that ticket holders were sent an email advising them that the show had to prioritise the health of the dancers.
The email said that due to the “huge intensity” of the show “the dancers need as much rest as possible between each performance.”
It then claimed they were cancelling out of concern for the dancers, saying “This is to ensure the health and wellbeing of the performers. A duty of care to the performers and the tour must come first.”
The Strictly cast have been put through a vigorous promotional stint for the show, including photo-calls and TV appearances, that ran right up to the tour’s first dates.
The Mirror spoke to ticket holders, who claimed that the organisers should have known earlier that the dancers would be too tired.
A tour spokesperson told The Mirror that the organisers regretted having to cancell the meet and greets, and said that fans could get refunds for that portion of the ticket price.
“Unfortunately, the meet and greet offered as part of the VIP ticket will no longer go ahead,” they said.
“The producers of the tour apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, and will issue ticket holders a refund for the meet and greet element of their ticket. They will also receive a VIP goody bag.”
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The two-hour show features more than 50 dance numbers, with Strictly pros including Pasha Kovalev, AJ Pritchard, Gorka Marquez, Karen Clifton, Katya Jones and Oti Mabuse taking part.
The tour kicked of in Salford on Friday night and wraps up on June 2 in Sunderland.
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