ipswich: There may be trouble ahead, but while there’s moonlight and music and Angela Rippon and romance, let’s face the music and dance.

You can follow in the dance steps of Morecambe and Wise and trip the light fandango with the former Come Dancing presenter as Big Dance East comes to town this Saturday.

A range of activities are planned throughout the day, including three chances to learn and then perform a mass dance at three different locations.

DanceEast will be holding 15 different dance style taster sessions – there’ll be Morris Men on the Cornhill and award-winning dance group Zoo Nation will give Jerwood DanceHouse visitors a taste of their highly acclaimed West Show Into The Hoods in the evening.

There’ll also be performances from New Art Club and other DanceEast groups.

“I’ll be doing a bit of everything,” says Angela, who studied classical ballet until she was 17 before deciding to concentrate on her academic work.

However, she’s been involved with dance through Come Dancing, the European Dance Championships and various other outlets for most of her professional life.

“We’ve got the three big communal dances where we’re going to get as many people as possible to learn a dance in four minutes and then do it all together so I’ll be taking part in that, which will be a huge bit of fun, and hosting some of the taster sessions.”

Angela was invited to take part in the event in her role as a Dance Champion.

The group is a collective of people involved in dance - such as choreographer Arlene Phillips and Olympic swimmer and ex-Strictly Come Dancing contestant Mark Foster – who aim to promote it as a great way of getting and keeping healthy no matter your age, shape, size or level of fitness – and have fun while doing it.

“The idea is to get as many possible out dancing during the day - not just people who already enjoy dancing, but people who perhaps love watching dancing on television or have often thought I’d like to have go at that but I’m not quite sure about it,” adds Angela.

“They can see if they enjoy it and if they do they can discover where they can take classes – whether it’s line dancing, belly dancing, flamenco, hip hop, ballroom and Latin.

“Saturday’s the perfect time to try something. People are bound to find something they think is great fun. In the long term we hope to get them fit and keep them fit.”

She’s looking forward to the Get Up Offa That Thing mass dances which will take place at 12.30pm in Christchurch Park, 1.30pm at Arras Square, Buttermarket Shopping Centre and at 2.30pm at Jerwood DanceHouse.

“I think it’s going to be fabulous day of dance and hope as many people as possible in Ipswich come along.”