PRINCESS Diana was shown on The Crown performing a special dance for Prince Charles to Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl – but did it really happen?
On the hit TV show, the Princess of Wales teamed up with ballet star Wayne Sleep for the performance, and it didn’t go down well at all.
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Did Princess Diana really dance with Wayne Sleep?
It can be hard to pick the perfect present for a loved one, but Princess Diana is said to have completely missed the mark with Prince Charles one year.
A documentary revealed that in December 1985, Princess Diana planned a special surprise dance for her husband during a private Christmas gala for supporters of the Royal Ballet.
Princess Diana performed a three-minute dance to Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl, alongside ballet star Wayne Sleep.
The present was a poignant one for Princess Diana, who loved dancing so much she got daily lessons in Kensington.
What happened in The Crown?
The controversial dance was depicted in season 4 of Netflix’s The Crown.
Diana, played by actress Emma Corrin, was seen arranging the surprise performance for Prince Charles, played by Josh O’Conner, at the Royal Opera House for his 37th birthday.
The scene featured in the season’s penultimate episode, Avalanche, and showed Charles looking less than pleased at the spectacle.
Was Princess Diana a trained dancer?
Diana had studied classical ballet as a child but grew too tall to dance at the highest level.
She continued her love of dancing all her life and was a supporter of the English National Ballet, where she first met Anne Allan, who would later become her private dance tutor.
Diana also approached dancer Wayne Sleep for private lessons in the early 80s but he was too busy touring.
Anne says Diana first approached her for lessons in 1981 when she was an instructor at the English National Ballet.
Anne said in the controversial Channel 4 documentary Diana: In Her Own Words how dancing helped Diana cope with the stress of her turbulent marriage to Prince Charles.
She said: “When I first met her you could see that there was a huge shyness. But over time as we went through our dance class realised just how much dance meant to her.
“She had dance in her soul. I realised the pure enjoyment that it gave her. She loved the freeness of being able to move and dance. She loved it. I could see it helped to alleviate her emotional life. That was hard for her at that time.”
What did Prince Charles think of Diana's dance?
According to Princess Diana: The Woman Inside, Prince Charles was less than impressed with the experience at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
Royal expert Richard Kay said: “It was a present which slightly backfired.
“She did it as a tribute to Charles. Charles wasn’t terribly impressed.
“He thought she was showing off.
“In fact, it was incredibly courageous of her to go on stage at the home of English ballet at Covent Garden and to do a routine with the great Wayne Sleep."
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