Uptown girl video cast professional#

In real life, it's unclear exactly how the prince felt, though some accounts suggest that he was unhappy with the performance. (The gala was hosted for his 37th birthday, after all.) The stunt exacerbates his already-present irritation over how well liked and popular his wife is. In The Crown, Josh O'Connor's Charles is upset by this surprise, as he thinks Diana is trying to show off and upstage him. The choreography had turns, high kicks, and even a lift of sorts. The piece opened with Sleep but Diana made her grand entrance soon after, leaving the audience in shock. The night of, Sleep signaled to Diana from the wings of the stage that it was time for her to get backstage. Diana knew she could play that role of sophistication.' There's a lovely lady with a hat-she's very chic and gets out of a car. She'd already decided on the music: Billy Joel's Uptown Girl.'ДЄs for Diana's song choice, Sleep explained to Vulture, 'There was a music video that went with the song and she must've seen the video. But I soon realised she had a good sense of humour, and that we could have some fun with our height difference. 'My first thought was, she's too tall to dance with me, I'll be a laughing stock: I'm 5ft 2in and she's 5ft 11in. 'She was in leg-warmers and a leotard,' he added. He and the princess rehearsed privately in a studio in West London. 'It was all top secret,' Sleep explained.

Uptown girl video cast professional#

He couldn't teach her because he was always on tour as a professional dancer, but she later came to him again to propose their big gig. Sleep had known the princess since the early 1980s, when she approached him for dance lessons, he revealed to The Guardian. The next best thing to an actual recording is this video of Sleep in 2017, 20 years after Diana's death, in which he retraces the steps from the dance for CBS's 48 Hours. (It was the '80s people weren't going to whip out their phones to record.) And there were only a few black-and-white photos of the set taken by the opera house's photographer, which were published in 1995, according to Town & Country. Unfortunately, there is no video of Diana's big dance number.

They were speechless,' Sleep recalled in a video about the performance years later. 'There was a gasp from the audience, of 2,500 people, who took an intake of breath all at the same time.

They danced to Billy Joel's 'Uptown Girl,' which was Diana's own song choice. Midway through, the princess quietly left her seat in the Royal Box to grace the stage with dancer Wayne Sleep. In December 1985, Charles and Diana attended a gala performance at the storied venue. Also among those in the list is Princess Diana's surprise dance number at the Royal Opera House-this, much like most of the events in the show, did happen in real life. Season 4 of The Crown introduces a handful of 'Did that really happen?' moments, from Prince Charles's cringeworthy engagement interview to the queen's secret estranged cousins.