| Biography | Joanne Clifton (born 24 October 1983), also known as Jo or JoJo, is an English professional dancer, presenter, model, actress and singer born in Waltham, Lincolnshire. She won the World Ballroom Showdance Championship in 2013 and also won the European Professional Ballroom Championship and World Dancesport Games. She became a professional dancer on the BBC TV series Strictly Come Dancing in 2014. She has also featured on Burn the Floor.
Clifton started dancing ballroom and Latin as a child in her home town of Waltham, taught by her parents, former World No. 1s Keith and Judy Clifton. She competed nationally and internationally as a child initially partnering her brother Kevin.[6] Later she chose to specialise in Ballroom so as not to directly compete against her brother. She has competed in both Ballroom and Latin since the age of 4 and has been a 5 time British Champion, 3 time Italian Champion, Professional Ballroom European Champion in 2012 and Professional World Dancesport Games Champion in 2013.
In 2000 Clifton moved to Bologna, Italy to train with Team Diablo, the biggest dance school in Europe. She was initially partnered with Marco Cavallaro reaching sixth in the world in amateur rankings with him. She crossed from amateur to professional competition when she was chosen to partner Paolo Bosco in 2011.[10] In 2013 they were amongst ten other professional dancing couples to be invited to perform at the Kremlin. She and her partner became champions of the World Dancesport Games in Taiwan in 2013 and won the World Professional Ballroom Showdance Championships in Merano Italy later that year.] Clifton danced with Bosco competitively until his retirement on 15 December 2013. She retired from competitive dancing on 19 December 2013.
From April to May 2014, she joined her brother as a dancer in the Burn the Floor Dance Company, performing in the shows tour of Australia and Japan.
In 2014, Clifton was confirmed as a professional dancer on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. She was partnered with the DJ Scott Mills. They made it through to week 6 but were eliminated in the Halloween show. On 6 November 2014, Clifton appeared on BBC Radio 1's Innuendo Bingo. Clifton remained part of the professional line up for the following series but was not given a partner for the main show. She did however compete in the Children in Need special with, actor, Stephen McGann and then went on to win the Christmas Special with series 9 winner Harry Judd.
In 2015 Clifton appeared in her first musical production Face The Music at Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre playing Street Walker in which she received an Offie nomination for her role. |