Dancing queen steps back to Fuengirola

Robbie Williams' performance at Marenostrum Fuengirola next week will be a special occasion for his thousands of fans on the Costa del Sol. But it may not be as special as it will be for one of his dancers, a former resident of Fuengirola whose parents still live on the coast. Lianne Northcott, known professionally as Lianne Lee May, was brought up in Fuengirola and went to school and studied dancing in Mijas Costa.

Born in Nottingham in 1986, Lianne came to live in Fuengirola with her parents when she was just two months old. She left Spain at the age of 16 to study dance and choreography in London. Having been accepted into Laines Theatre Performing Arts School in Epsom, and gaining her degree in the performing arts, she decided to remain in London to continue with her career as a dancer and choreographer.

"I started dancing at a local academy in Fuengirola at the age of four, and so dance has always been part of my life. My grandmother and my aunt were both dancers, and they run a dance school in Blackpool, which is where my dad grew up. My dad loves jazz and he understands rhythm, so he taught me how to listen to music," the 36-year-old dancer tells SUR in English.

Throughout her successful career, Lianne, who appeared in many musical productions at the Salón Varietés Theatre, has danced for numerous stars, such as Tom Jones, Cliff Richards and Katie Perry.

During her early 20s, Lianne auditioned for Australian choreographer Ashley Wallen and she has been working with him ever since on different shows and films. It was through Wallen that she was invited on a tour with Kylie Minogue, a period which she describes as one of the highlights of her career, and a time she believed she "had really made it".

"I have many highlights in my career, one of which was performing in Hyde Park with Kylie Minogue in 2015. We had been touring around Europe, but playing in London felt very special, especially seeing my parents' faces in a crowd of 15,000 people," she says.

However, her career was about to step up another gear when she was contracted to dance at a string of shows with Robbie Williams in Las Vegas in 2017; this was to be the start of a long association with the world-famous star, known as the bad boy of pop.

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"I got to live in Las Vegas for more than two months. After this, I performed with Robbie Williams when he opened the World Cup in Russia in 2018. I remember at the start of the show we had to run to the centre mark of the pitch to start performing. The adrenaline rush this produced, especially knowing there were a billion people watching it live, was a rush I'd never experienced," Lianne explains.

However, although Lianne has enjoyed travelling the globe in the fast lane of the world of music and entertainment, she says that coming "home" to perform in Fuengirola "feels incredibly special". She says she "sometimes" misses the simple life on the coast, but knows she would also miss her busy life; however there are many days she says she wishes she could "pop home for dinner with my family".

"It feels great to be performing in Fuengirola. I remember growing up there and it always felt so very small. When I heard they had built a festival stage, I thought it was a wonderful thing. Now, 20 years after leaving Fuengirola in the hope of becoming a professional dancer, not really knowing what that meant at the time, I now feel I have achieved more than I set out to do," she says.

Of course, Lianne's proud parents, Mei Lee and Robert, will be in the front row on Thursday night, but Lianne claims that this will not affect her performance with one of pop music's top selling artists, because nerves are not something that concern her.

"Coming back to Fuengirola means I get to perform in front of friends who have never seen me perform live. I don't get nervous performing with a big star, but I do experience excited nervous feelings. If those feelings weren't there anymore, I know it would be time to call it quits," she concludes.