Darren Lee Bennett (born 14 February 1977) is an English professional dancer. With his wife

Lilia Kopylova Lilia Andreyevna Kopylova (; born 18 June 1978) is a Russian professional dancer. With her husband Darren Bennett, she has been competing as an amateur since July 1997 and as a professional since May 2003. The couple has achieved considerable ...

he has a successful career in professional Latin dancing, competing nationally and internationally. Darren's favourite dances are the

Samba Samba () is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilians, Afro Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, It is a name or ...

and the

Foxtrot The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a time ...

. They teach private lessons in their own studio at Sheffield, England. Bennett was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

. He first met Kopylova after his twin brother Dale, also a dancer, introduced them. In November 2005 Bennett and Kopylova won the British Championships for Professional Latin, coming first in all five dances. In November 2006 they successfully defended this title against a challenge from

Olga Rodionova Olga Rodionova (born 25 June 1974) is a Croatian-Russian model, actress and TV presenter. Career As a model, Rodionova has worked with some of the best fashion photographers in the world, including Helmut Newton, David LaChapelle, Peter Lindber ...

and Paul Richardson, who had been competing for the USA but had recently registered as a British couple. Bennett and Kopylova triumphed winning all five dances to retain the title. In February 2008, Bennett and Kopylova were winners of the

Carl Alan Award Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community *Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of tel ...

for Ballroom, Latin and Sequence (performers)- a prestigious title described by the IDTA as 'the Oscars of the world of dance'. The couple starred in a West End dance show, ''Latin Fever'', which they choreographed themselves, as well as choosing the music and costumes to reflect the mood of each Latin dance. Bennett is a consultant creative producer for the Dancing with the Stars ( Irish Edition) TV show working alongside his wife and choreographer

''Strictly Come Dancing''

He was one of the professional dancers on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

dancing television programme, ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (commonly referred to as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly Ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dance, Latin dance. Each couple is ...

''. This is a summary of how well he has done in the show: * Series Two: Won with his partner, actress

Jill Halfpenny Jill Halfpenny (born 15 July 1975) is an English actress who first garnered attention playing Nicola Dobson in the coming-of-age BBC drama series '' Byker Grove'' (1989–1992). She became more widely known for her roles as Rebecca Hopkins on ...

. * Christmas Special: Won with his partner from series two,

. * Series Three: Knocked out in the third week with his partner, TV presenter

Gloria Hunniford Mary Winifred Gloria Hunniford, OBE (born 10 April 1940) is a television and radio presenter, broadcaster and singer from Northern Ireland. She is known for presenting programmes on the BBC and ITV, such as '' Rip Off Britain'', and her regula ...

. * Series Four: Knocked out in the semi-final after competing with singer

Emma Bunton Emma Lee Bunton (born 21 January 1976) is an English singer, songwriter, media personality, and actress. She rose to fame in the 1990s as a member of the Pop music, pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Baby Spice, reflecting the ...

. They also competed together in the 2006 Christmas Special, finished in third place overall (the remaining couples were not ranked). * Series Five: Knocked out in the quarter-final (fourth place) after competing with actress

Letitia Dean Letitia Jane Dean (born 14 November 1967) is an English actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Sharon Watts in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. An original cast member from 1985 to 1995, she reprised the role from 2001 to 2006, and ag ...

. They also competed together in the 2007 Christmas Special, but were not placed in the final two overall (the remaining couples were not ranked). *Live Tour 2008: Competing at a series of venues during January and February 2008 with Series Five partner

, they won once (31 January 2008), and were runners up on two further occasions. The tour was based on a similar format to the main series, with each couple performing two routines which were marked by the judges, and the audience being invited to vote for their favourite. * Series Six: Knocked out in the fourth week, dancing with

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...

Jessie Wallace Karen Jane Wallace (born 25 September 1971), known professionally as Jessie Wallace, is an English actress. She made her acting debut in the television police series ''The Bill'' and rose to prominence for her role as Kat Slater on the BBC so ...

. Won the 2008 Christmas Special with

, meaning they became two of the select few couples to win the Christmas Special twice. * On the 2009 Strictly Come Dancing Tour Darren was re-united with his Series 2 partner and champion

. * Series Seven: Knocked out in the fourth week, dancing with Actress and

Loose Women ''Loose Women'' (known as ''Live Talk'' from 2000 to 2001) is a British talk show that broadcasts on ITV weekdays from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. The show focuses on a panel of four female presenters who interview celebrities, talk about aspects of ...

presenter

Lynda Bellingham Lynda Bellingham ( ; 31 May 194819 October 2014) was an English actress, broadcaster and author. She acted in television series such as ''All Creatures Great and Small (1978 TV series), All Creatures Great and Small'', ''Doctor Who'', ''Second Tho ...

Highest- and lowest-scoring performances per dance

Performances

Other work

Darren along with wife Lilia have been heavily involved in the "Essentially Dance" scheme, with the intention to give all children within the UK a chance to experience ballroom and Latin dance, the scheme is funded by the Aldridge Foundation and was officially launched on 22 June 2009. Darren joined the judging panel of the Lebanese edition of ''Dancing With The Stars'' for its

first series First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

in December 2012 and second series in November 2013 and

third series Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (dis ...

in March 2015 and fourth series in November 2016.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Darren 1977 births British ballroom dancers English male dancers Living people Entertainers from Sheffield Strictly Come Dancing winners