Anton du Beke

Anton du Beke (born Anthony Paul Beke [Birth Index for England and Wales, 3rd Quarter of 1966] ) is a professional ballroom dancer and television presenter. His dance partner since 1997 has been Erin Boag. With Boag, he won the IDTA Classic in England in November 2003.

His reasonably late entry to dancing began at 14, when he discovered his local dance hall. He had gone to collect his sister, Veronica from her dance class and reportedly was encouraged to join, there being only one other boy in the class. At this time in his life, du Beke was also a junior boxer.

He left school at 16 to follow an amateur dancing career. At 17 he decided to specialize in ballroom.

He has appeared in all five series of the BBC's "Strictly Come Dancing". In the first series, he danced with singer Lesley Garrett and finished in third place. For the second series, he partnered presenter Esther Rantzen; they were eliminated in the third week. He danced with actress Patsy Palmer for the third series and finished in fifth place. In the fourth series, he danced with actress and impressionist Jan Ravens but was eliminated in week 5 of the competition. His partner for the fifth series was TV presenter Kate Garraway; the couple was voted out in week 7. His partner for the sixth series was actress Gillian Taylforth; the couple was voted out in week 2 (the first week of dancing for the female celebrities)

There are a lot of comments made on the "Strictly Come Dancing" series about his resemblance to Bruce Forsyth, and he is also frequently mistaken for comedian Rob Brydon.

In March 2007 du Beke was a contestant on the BBC Two series "The Underdog Show" and was paired with homeless dog Ginger, they were eliminated in week three of the competition.

He is the presenter of the BBC cookery show "Step up to the Plate". He has also appeared as a guest on "The Wright Stuff". Du Beke serves as a captain on the UK version of "Hole in the Wall" which premiered on 20 September 2008 on BBC One.

Du Beke has just released a new book called "Anton's Dance Class", which is currently serialised in the "Mail on Sunday". [cite web | url = http://www.kylecathie.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781856267311 | title = Anton's Book ]

trictly Come Dancing performance record

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