Flavia Cacace

Flavia Cacace (born 13 March 1979) is a British-based  Italian professional  dancer. Her professional dance partner is  Vincent Simone (they are branded when performing together as 'Vincent and Flavia'), and both regularly appear on the  BBC's  Strictly Come Dancing.

Biography
She was born in Naples, the youngest of six children, to a chef father, and came to the United Kingdom with her family at the age of four when her father moved for a job. She attended St. Peter's Catholic School in Guildford, and left in 1995.

[edit] Dancing career
Her mother insisted that all the children should have an activity, so she and her eldest sister joined the local ballroom dancing class when Flavia was 6. After partnerships with two dance partners, Cacace and Simone (who had the same dance teacher in London) were both looking for partners. They decided to try out in 1994, and they have been dancing together ever since.[1]

[edit] Strictly Come Dancing
In 2006 she appeared in 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, because of medical advice which Tarbuck had been given.

Cacace was back dancing in the fifth series of Strictly Come Dancing, partnered by EastEnders star Matt Di Angelo. They got the only perfect score of the main series with their waltz in the final. For three years a relationship existed between them which ended in 2010. They reached the final of the show, but were beaten by Alesha Dixon and her professional partner Matthew Cutler. She also took part in the 2007 Christmas special dancing the rumba with partner Matt, and achieved a score of 39. 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).

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

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

She also took part in the 2009 SCD Live tour partnering former Strictly Come Dancing semi-finalist Gethin Jones. They went on to win 6 shows out of 45 in total, coming second to her professional partner Vincent Simone and Rachel Stevens.

Cacace returned to Strictly Come Dancing for the seventh series in 2009, partnering Coronation Street and Queer as Folk actor Craig Kelly. The couple were in the bottom two in the second week against Lilia Kopylova and Richard Dunwoody, and were forced to perform their tango again. They won votes from three of the four judges and consequently made it through to the third week of the competition. They were also in the bottom two in week 4, against Darren Bennett and Lynda Bellingham. They went through to the next week on the casting vote of head judge Len Goodman. In week 5 they received 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. They were eliminated in Week 8 of the competition, when the show went to Blackpool, after performing a cha-cha-cha.

Cacace then went on to dance once more with her tour partner of the previous year Gethin Jones in the 2009 Christmas special. They danced an American smooth to "Baby It's Cold Outside" and achieved a score of 38. She then created choreography for Gethin's Cinderella panto which ran at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in her home town of Guildford and had a small guest appearance in the final show.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">She featured in the eighth series of the show, where her celebrity partner was Jimi Mistry. In the first week, their dance was given a score of 26 and they went on to make it to week 6 where they were knocked out by Michelle Williams and Brendan Cole, in a result that was widely seen as surprising.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">In the ninth series, her partner was astrologer Russell Grant and they were the seventh couple to be eliminated.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Louis Smith was Cacace's partner in the 10th season of the programme. They won the series on 22 December 2012.

[edit] Other appearances
<p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">In January 2012, Cacace appeared on the BBC TV series The Magicians.

Personal life
<p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">She currently resides in Crouch End, London with her ex-Strictly Come Dancing contestant Jimi Mistry.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px;">She announced on Twitter on the 5th January 2013 that they are engaged.