What a feeling! Flashdance at the Liverpool Empire

Her welding technique may not have impressed Dave the steelworker-turned-stripper in The Full Monty. But her dance moves certainly did.

Flashdance, the hit 1983 film starring Jennifer Beals as teenage Pittsburgh welder by day, dancer by night, spawned one of the most famous film sequences of the decade.

And you can see exactly the same moves on stage at the Empire next week when Flashdance arrives in Liverpool as part of a tour by Selladoor Worldwide – the company set up by a pair of former LIPA undergraduates.

It’s the second visit to the Lime Street theatre this year for champion Strictly pro Joanne Clifton, who played the titular heroine in Thoroughly Modern Millie back in February.

This time she swaps 20s bob for shaggy 80s perm, and dons the washed out baggy denim trousers and leg warmers to play Alexandra ‘Alex’ Owens.

She says: “I think everyone in the world whether dancer or non-dancer, as soon as they hear What a Feeling, remember that iconic scene at the end of the film and I'm so incredibly lucky that I get to do that every night in a UK tour along with fabulous numbers like She's a Maniac.

“I'm over the moon!”

The cast also includes Ben Adams as Nick Hurley. Adams was head chorister at St Margaret’s, Westminster Abbey, singing for royalty and the pope before joining pop group A1 when he was 16 and enjoying two number ones, 10 million record sales and touring the world. Now he is a successful songwriter and producer, won Celebrity Big Brother and has penned a musical.

Flashdance is at the Liverpool Empire from October 16-21. Tickets from the website HERE.