Byline: by Laura Collins

The question is genuine but Arlene Phillips appears taken aback. 'No. Absolutely not. Never, never, never.' Each rapid-fire syllable drums the point home. 'I never dance for fun. Everybody expects you to do fabulous dance moves on probably some very slippy dance floor, and certainly wearing the wrong shoes.'

Smiling, Arlene admits that the last time she was persuaded to break this self-imposed rule was last summer at an after-show party for Flashdance, a show she choreographed.

'I danced for the first time in years and those naughty dancers filmed it and put it on YouTube,' she says. 'That was wicked. So no, I can't just get up and dance and I don't. People expect so much of you.'

Certainly, right now, people expect a great many things of Arlene, especially the millions who know her only for the fraction of her career she spent as a judge on Strictly Come Dancing. After all, since Arlene was dropped from the show, her rolex replica perceived misfortune has turned her into a cause celebre.

She must be hurt and she must be angry. She must be as caught up in the maelstrom of 'Arlene versus Alesha' as everybody else. Outrage has been voiced, campaigns launched and petitions posted demanding that the BBC bring her back - a plea predicated on the notion that, if not lit by the glitterball of Strictly, Arlene's world must cease to spin.

But, however touched she may be by the outpourings of loyalty, nothing could be further from the truth. 'I don't see things the way other people see them,' she explains. 'I'm straightforward. I think, "This is the way things are." And on I go.'

And indeed she does. Arlene is absorbed with working out how to fill the vast performance space of The O2 arena as the director of Sacred Flame, one of the most ambitious musical productions she has ever staged.

Last week she replica breitling joined songwriter Frank Musker, former Wet Wet Wet star Marti Pellow and Ronan Hardiman, the composer of Michael Flatley's Lord Of The Dance, at the launch of the musical which will receive its world premiere in December. The coming-of-age tale starts in modern-day South America, journeying into the past and the darker reaches of Peru, where the hero was abandoned as a baby.

Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday, Arlene says: 'I've been working on Sacred Flame for the past five or six months. It's such a vast production. I've done big gigs - the opening of the Commonwealth Games, that was a big one. But this is huge.

'Not only are there incredible scenic designs, but it's complex. There is film and projection and a lot of stunts. There are 24 dancers and 15 children who play orphans. Originally I was asked to direct and choreograph it, but I thought, I can't do it all. This is too big. So I decided to work with Karen Bruce, a brilliant choreographer who was my associate on both Grease and Saturday Night Fever. She does wonderful Latin stuff, phenomenal lifts.'

Arlene smiles. 'Already she's getting very upset with me and we haven't even been in the rehearsal room. It's always the same - I'm imposing my ideas on her. But I'm so excited about it. I just want it to be my show. I'm always bossing somebody about. I want everything to be right. I won't let anything go.'

Seen through the prism of the small screen, this uncompromising approach, and an uncanny knack for witty putdowns, earned Arlene a reputation as a Queen of Mean. 'I'm always surprised that people feel that they see only one side of me,' she says. '

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