CAROLYN SMITH
Dance is life and joy! and I cannot live without it.
For 45 years, I breath every form of dance and sports: ballet, modern, jazz, tap, gymnastics, dance, Latin American etc etc.
I Started to dance even before I was born. The first dance lesson, I had about a 3/4 years, TipTap, because as soon as I heard the music I began immediately to dance. Everyone in my family danced. It was the first thing that I heard in the morning, when I woke up “music”.
I started ballet at 5/6 years. I was very unhappy because I could not get up to the Ballet Bar because I was so tiny and I wanted to put the pointy shoes immediately!
I was very good at gymnastics for those times because I used the dance a lot to help me. I continued till I was 16 years old and also studied , athletic gymnastics and dancing, until I had a big problem with my back due to too much exercise, which inevitably compromise everything else. I had to leave the gymnastics and, little by little, even athletics. Also in my dancing my back continued to suffer a lot of pain and I it regularly blocked, and from that moment that I became a fanatic of technique and a perfection freak .. I was forced to do things right so that my problem would not get worse, or I would risk being paralysed before the age of 21.
While I was studying in college, I entered in the national travel competition (all GB) for “Business studies, travel and tourism” and I won. I started working in the best travel agency in Scotland. In a short time I received various promotions, but my love for dance was getting stronger than everything else. Later on I had to make a choice: my job or continue studying dance? I chose the dancing, because I was getting good results and I felt that that was my world.
I did not stopped working, but I did many small jobs to earn money to continue studying and to help my parents.
I worked in a bakery, as a dressmaker, insurance company and a job center. I was always traveling all over the world, for competitions .. It ‘hard to list them all, because they were many. I can only say that the first result at international level was the 1976 “European Championship” in Torino, Italy, I was 15. Came 7th and won the public over. There was a good feeling immediately with the Italians. I do not know whether it was fate or not, but after 7 years after that event, I married an Italian (who participated in the European Championship) and I lived in Torino!
In the dancing, I won, of course, the Scottish Nationals, British Closed Championships, a finalist for years in the circuit Grand Slam dance (Wolds, European, UK, Blackpool Open, International).
Unfortunately I had to quit from the competitions due to problems with the meniscus of both knees. An operation for the knees, in London, kept me out of action for about 6 months. I rebuilt my work up in a hurry, always taking so many couples to world level.
In 2007 I started my great and wonderful experience with Dancing with the Stars Italy. I will never stop thanking Milly Carlucci for the incredible opportunity. It was not easy to convince me to do the show and especially the commitments of my work around the world. But today I’m really happy to be part of this big family. I am very extravagant and I like to show my liveliness and energy even in my constant changes of ” look”. It ‘a way to invite people to always be careful and look and never take anything for granted.
I like to live a very simple life. I love my privacy when needed. Are altruistic to 100%,others before myself.
I have 9 tattoo’s, each of them has a great meaning for me. I have a “motto” for my life. One is on the right wrist tattuatto “Believe in yourself. Do not give up“!
SAMUEL PERON
Samuel Peron started dancing when he was only 4. Graduated at the Institute of Art as a designer, he graduated in 2015 in Motor Sciences at the San Raffaele University of Rome. He has always loved to dance different style: from ballroom dances to the standard ones, from Latin American to funky, from contemporary to modern dance. His desire to try new styles never stops, today he studies: tip tap and Argentine tango and other disciplines.
He took his first steps in the world of entertainment at the age of 10 participating in 1991 to Cristina D’Avena’s chorus on the television show “Sabato al Circo” conducted by Jerry Scotti and in 1992 he danced in the show “Bravo Bravissimo” conducted by Mike Bongiorno. Samuel alternates his television commitments to competitions and in 2001, he ranks third in the Italian amateurs league A1 Latin American dances.
The great popularity arrives in 2005 when he is cast for the Italian “Dancing with the stars” conducted by Milly Carlucci on Rai Uno. He participates since then in all the show editions, soon becoming one of the most popular faces and followed professional dancers of the show. In the 4th edition of the show he wins with the actress Maria Elena Vandone.
Complete and eclectic artist, over the years he cultivates with perseverance and determination: acting, conducting, writing and social commitment. In fact, in 2005/2006 he played Cesàr in the musical “Saturday Night Fever” directed by Massimo Romeo Piparo, former producer of Dancing with the stars. In 2008, he became promoter of “Sballando Ballando”, a project to prevent alcoholism among young people through dance, in which he took an active role in each edition.