Coffee Break With One of the UK’s Most Famous Dancers – Ola Jordan! Gabija Coffee Break With Share: Link copy Ola Jordan is one of the UK’s most famous dancers, having spent a decade as a professional on the hugely popular show Strictly Come Dancing – as well as being a television personality, going into the jungle for I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in 2016. Ola was born in Poland and began dancing at the age of 10 at her school. When still a teenager, she partnered with her husband James Jordan – another Strictly professional – and began to compete all over the world, winning many championships and becoming one of the top 12 dance couples on the planet. After getting married in October 2003, James and Ola entered BBC1 Strictly Come Dancing series 4 in 2006 and have never looked back. Ola won the show in 2009 with Chris Hollins and left in 2015, after which she has become a dance judge on various shows and continued to appear on TV. Ola is a huge coffee fan – more so now she has welcomed her baby daughter Ella into the world last year – and discussed a wide range of topics in this Coffee Break blog… Ola Jordan: I love coffee, it’s one of my favourite drinks – I need that buzz even more so now I have a baby! “I love my coffee, it’s one of my favourite drinks. But I keep it simple. Among the so many kinds of coffee drinks I drink it black without milk! I never grew up with coffee in Poland, but I just love normal black coffee, usually instant coffee. It has kept me going for years.  “It certainly powered me through the early mornings when I was on Strictly and I missed it when I was in the Jungle.  “It makes me much more alert and with it – while most gym-goers may have an energy drink before going to the gym, I drink a cup of coffee. It gives me energy and a bit of a buzz – I find it the best thing you can drink before exercise.  “I couldn’t live without my coffee before I had my daughter Ella, but my love for it is even greater now she keeps me awake and on my toes for so long. She’s a little bundle of energy and I need all the boosts I can get being a new mum.  “My husband James (Jordan) is also a coffee lover, especially when you wake up at 6am with two hours sleep because he has been up in the middle of the night with the baby. There’s never a shortage of coffee around our house!” Ola Jordan: It’s been so tough not having my parents around during lockdown – but my sister living close to me is a godsend “It is the things that have provided a nice escape during lockdowns and everything going on in the family. We have our favourite little coffee house in Kings Hill where my sister lives, which we stop and go to on our walks with Ella.  “Family is so important. My sister has lived in England for about seven years now, she is a pharmacist and has two young children settled in the area. It’s lovely to have her close to me in Kent, it makes me so happy to have some family here – and they have met Ella which is really important.  “Normally when you give birth for the first time, you’d have your family around you supporting you and giving you tips – but I have not been able to have that. They were meant to come over last year but have been stuck in Poland and only one of my parents has been vaccinated. I have not seen my mum and dad for nearly two years which is really hard, knowing they are there with nobody around to look after them. Suddenly we had this baby and it was just us and Google! “It’s tough that my mum and dad have not met my baby yet, but I am hoping to be able to get Ella used to my sister more and more as she grows a bit older so I can maybe leave her with her so I can go out. “We’ve been at home a lot in the last year. When we went into the first lockdown, I had Ella three weeks before so I had to stay at home with her. So even when you could go out, I hardly did. It was nothing new for me!  “You can’t do a lot but at least we have our garden and have been going on lots of nice long walks around Kent. It’s good to be rural, much more than living in a big city. Ola Jordan: “I can’t wait to introduce my daughter to other babies, and also for me and James to have a long overdue date night! “Babies are social beings and she has not met anyone her age yet, so I cannot wait for her to meet other children. I need to get her out there as soon as possible and she can play with a little mate.  “She seems to be wanting to meet people though – when we go for walks around our local area in Kent, she runs up to people to say hello, so I think she is a little extrovert and certainly quite a character. She seems to be quite outgoing, but you never know for sure until she is in a group, you have to test it to find out. “Having a baby and there being lockdowns has not left much time for romance! It’s really hard, I didn’t appreciate it when I didn’t have a baby. We haven’t done a date night out of the house yet, because I cannot leave Ella with anyone yet. She is at the age where she is a bit needy and because she is a lockdown baby, she won’t stay with anyone yet.  “At the moment either me or James have to go out and one of us stays with her. Our dream date night right now would be to get a hotel room and just have a decent night’s uninterrupted sleep! We miss the alone time, but we are strong so we will work through it.  “We have tried to be healthy and done a lot of cooking with minimal takeaways during Covid times, so I would also love to go to a nice Thai restaurant, which is my favourite cuisine, have a glass of wine or two and have some quality time together. That will come soon I’m sure!” Ola Jordan: Thanks to being a new mum and Covid, all of the dancing I do now is with my daughter in front of the TV “The biggest lesson I learnt was that I had so much time before. I used to say I didn’t have time to do something when in reality I had all the time in the world. Now, I genuinely don’t have the time as we tend to Ella so much. And that has been made even more the case in lockdown when all of our productive activities have had to be from home. She keeps me on my toes, that’s for sure.  “We dance with Ella in front of the TV – that’s as much as we have been able to do, which is strange to say as both me and James have spent all our lives dancing and doing other very active things. We don’t work at the moment because there is so little happening, so since we had Ella we haven’t danced much. “But if we had to, because James and I have been dancing for so long, we could probably pick it back up immediately – it’s like riding a bike! It also keeps you fit and it’s been hard taking my time to lose my baby weight. If I’d have danced, I may have lost it quicker!” Ola Jordan: James shaving his head for charity has helped him grieve for his father – doing something positive for people with brain tumours “It has been a tough year in our family, firstly giving birth just before Covid but especially with James’ father passing away. But I am so proud of James doing something positive shaving his hair on TV for charity – I think it helped James grieve. It made you realise how many people out there have lost loved ones to cancer – especially brain tumours – so he wanted to get something positive out of this sad situation.”  Ola Jordan: It has been so hard watching the performing arts industry struggle – we can’t wait to support people who have not been working when things open up again “It’s so sad to see so many people who have lost their jobs and can’t support themselves in the performing arts industries.  “Our work has slowed, but we are lucky – people behind the scenes on shows, from seamstresses to the lighting crew, musicians etc who we do not see on stage. It’s really tough for those people, showbiz is a family and I really feel for them.  “It’s extremely difficult and we can’t wait to support them when everything opens up again. If we can go and watch something locally in Kent or beyond, we will in a heartbeat.  “In terms of ourselves, we are looking forward to getting back out there and performing. Be that dancing, TV shows or anything else, we can’t wait to start normality again.”   Ola Jordan: I’d love to see Robbie Williams do Strictly… and my terrified husband James go into the Jungle! “For Strictly, I’d LOVE to see Robbie Williams go on the show. He’s a showman, I just think he’d be such a character and also would be so talented. “When I was a professional and the producers came round to announce the contestants, I always hoped and wanted him to be on it, just so that I could be paired up with him. I think we may have won together! But even though I am no longer on the show any more, I’d still love him to do it, he’d be a fantastic booking.”  “For I’m a Celebrity, it has to be my husband James. He would be just terrible at it, absolutely shocking in the jungle. He hates all creepy crawlies, I am the one that catches every single spider at home. He’d be a screamer like Dean Gaffney!  “He was very proud and supportive when I did all the trials on the show, so I would be too – however, it would definitely give me a good laugh.” Ola Jordan: I am a competitor – I only ever want to do another reality show where I know I will excel. So that rules out any cooking show! “I have done a lot of shows – but one thing as a natural competitor, I only ever want to do things which I know I will excel and be really good at.  “Cooking shows like Celebrity Bake Off or Masterchef I could never do, as I’m just not a good enough cook or baker. I can do the basics and I cook for my family, but if I am going to do something, I always look for things which I can have a good go at performing well at. I am a perfectionist, so going on a show like that and being average or not very good does not interest me.  “I’d be really scared of doing something like Dancing on Ice, because I would be terrified of injuring myself, not being very good. I saw how tough it was for James when he won it, the skills are really hard to transfer from the ballroom to the ice – it is a completely different skill.  “I remember telling James beforehand ‘are you sure you want to do this’ because he was not very good – but he worked really hard and ultimately won. Like me, he has been a dancer all his life, competing in so many tournaments and there is something inside us which when we turn our hand to a task, we want to do well at it and will put in all the time needed to be the best.  “I would never say never to doing another dance show, though. You never know what happens out there. I might feel that there is unfinished business there one day in the future. But Strictly is so tough, it’s morning, noon and night for seven months of the year and I’ve got all sorts of injuries from a life of dancing. So for now, I am happy with a glass of wine in front of the TV watching it!”
