{"id":744939,"date":"2026-08-21T08:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T08:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/744939\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T08:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T08:46:10","slug":"karen-hauer-takes-centre-stage-in-eastbourne-after-strictly-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/744939\/","title":{"rendered":"Karen Hauer takes centre stage in Eastbourne after Strictly exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the longest-serving female professional performers on Strictly Come Dancing has turned to theatre following her departure from the BBC programme. <\/p>\n

Karen Hauer has joined Eastbourne Devonshire Park Theatre’s new production of Richard Harris’s comedy, Stepping Out.<\/p>\n

The story follows a group of amateur dancers attending a weekly tap class and explores themes of friendship, confidence and belonging.<\/p>\n

The Venezuelan-American told BBC Radio Sussex<\/a> she had been “loving her time in Eastbourne”, praising the town for its coffee shops and saunas.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old says she has been enjoying performing in Eastbourne, but added it had been “hot”. <\/p>\n

“I was sweating my socks off when rehearsing and performing at the theatre,” she said.<\/p>\n

Hauer plays dance teacher Mavis in Stepping Out, and it is her first appearance since leaving Strictly in 2025.<\/p>\n

Hauer said she felt “connected” to the role and the opportunity “couldn’t have come at a better time”.<\/p>\n

“I’d just finished Strictly when I got an email asking if I’d do a self-tape for the role,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I’d seen the film before, so I knew the story. It was something I really needed.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the longest-serving female professional performers on Strictly Come Dancing has turned to theatre following her departure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-744939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}