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From West End musicals to Strictly Come Dancing, Dame Arlene Phillips has always been a woman with the right moves. And while the world-renowned choreographer is now 82, she remains a force on the dance floor as one of the creative forces behind a stunning new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express.
And for a woman steeped in dance, she never stops.
“I recently choreographed a wedding dance for two friends and I couldn’t help but get up on the dance floor and join them even though my knees are ruined from years of dancing,” she chuckles. “Dancing makes you feel good and it has given me an amazing life working with some incredible people.”
Dance not only keeps Arlene mentally and physically fit, it’s long been a form of escape during some of the most difficult and challenging times of her life.
These include tirelessly caring for her late parents, Rita and Abraham, who died of leukaemia and Alzheimer’s respectively. New research reveals the UK’s 5.8 million unpaid caregivers are facing a hidden health crisis themselves, with more than half reporting a decline in their physical (52%) or mental health (53%) due to their responsibilities.
Worryingly, more than half (55%) said they feel guilty if they prioritise their own wellbeing with 58% saying they miss out on significant events, such as birthdays and weddings, due to their caregiving responsibilities.
And that’s why Arlene is encouraging all carers to prioritise their own health for the first Caring for Caregivers Week.
“Caring for a loved one is one of the most difficult roles anyone can take on, both mentally and physically,” she says. “Millions of unpaid carers work tirelessly, sacrificing their own needs to care for others, forfeiting sleep, their own hobbies and socialising due to their responsibilities.”
The daughter of a barber and a housewife, Arlene began dancing as a young girl in Prestwich, Lancashire, and always harboured ambitions to become a ballet dancer.
“I came from a very poor background and was the middle child with my older brother Ian and younger sister Karen,” she recalls. “When I was 15, my mum got leukaemia at a time when nobody seemed to know what it really was and in between going to hospital for blood transfusions she wanted me to stay off school to look after her. My dad wasn’t well at the time, and my brother was studying so I took care of mum, washed her and looked after the house. I found it hard going back to school because I’d missed so much. I was lost.”
Arlene paid for her own dance classes with money earned doing a paper round and was adamant she should keep Saturdays for herself. But one day her mother asked her to miss her dance class to look after her, a request Arlene ended up refusing.
“I didn’t want to miss dancing and so I said one of the others had to do it,” she says. “That guilt, which so many carers feel, has stayed with me to this day. There are so many child carers in the UK and for a while I was one of them.”
Rita died aged 43, just three months after her diagnosis. Arlene wasn’t allowed to attend her funeral and was sent straight back to school.
But despite this, she found herself in the role of carer once again as an adult when her father Abraham, who had been unwell with blood clots when her mum was dying, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He eventually died aged 89 after battling the disease for more than a decade.
“He didn’t want anyone coming in the flat to look after him apart from me,” says Arlene.
“People with dementia can be very frightened. He always thought people were breaking into his home. I organised things like meals on wheels but he wouldn’t let them in. So it all fell on me to do everything for him as it often does with so many people looking after relatives with dementia who only trust their loved ones to care for them. I did it for 10 years, determined not to put him in a care home but eventually I had to.
“I was exhausted and broken by it and, again, there is that guilt carers feel.”
Now finally she recognises the importance of looking after oneself.
“It is so important to take time to care for yourself when you are caring for a parent or a son or daughter,” she says. “With early-onset dementia you have elderly parents caring for their adult children.”
Among the health issues carers face are exhaustion, fatigue or poor sleep, anxiety, stress or feeling overwhelmed, depression, guilt and in terms of their physical health back, joint or muscle pain is all too common. The new research, commissioned by supplement brand GOPO® Joint Health found one in six carers say they have given up dancing, which they previously did for fun.
“We know that engaging in movement or dance, even just putting on your favourite song and moving around to it, improves your well-being,” says Arlene.
“It certainly always has done for me.”
She first made her name as a founding member and choreographer of sexy dance troupe Hot Gossip in the seventies.
During her six-decade career, she went on to choreograph routines for pop stars like Elton John, Cher and Diana Ross. But the West End has always been a favourite destination professionally. “Andrew Lloyd Webber is my favourite person I’ve ever worked with,” she smiles.
The pair worked together on the original Starlight Express, where Phillips served as the choreographer for the first London and Broadway productions.
Arlene has since directed and choreographed various revivals and tours of the musical, including the long-running German production and a UK tour in 2012.
Although she has no plans to retire, she wants to spend more time with her two young granddaughters Lila Primrose, six, and Emme Bow, four.
Their mother is her eldest daughter Alana from Arlene’s first marriage to fashion designer Danny Noble, whom she wed in 1971 and divorced seven years later.
Her second daughter Abi was born when Arlene was 47. Her father is Angus Ion, a set builder, whom Arlene has been with since 1985.
They first met on the set of the music video for the Freddie Mercury song I Was Born To Love You.
It wasn’t until Arlene was 60 that she became a household name as a judge on the first series of Strictly Come Dancing. She remained on the show for five years until being replaced by Alesha Dixon, 35 years her junior.
Now, as well concentrating on granny duties, Arlene wants to focus on the Caring for Caregivers campaign.
“My hope is that Caring for Caregivers Week will help to raise awareness for the incredible work that unpaid carers do whilst, at the same time, encourage them to take positive action to improve their own physical and emotional wellbeing,” she says.
With such a stellar career and a happy family life Arlene has come through some difficult times as a carer and survived but her success is ultimately tinged with regret.
“I do wish my mum had been here to see my success,” she adds. “Because it was her own passion for dance that inspired me to dance in the first place.”
No doubt if she could, she would award Arlene a perfect 10.
GOPO® Joint Health is available from independent chemists and retailers nationwide, visit gopo.co.uk