Mabuse said on Tuesday she was “honestly so grateful to the BBC and will always remember that Strictly and BBC brought me to the UK – which I now call home and I have learned and grown so much. Thank you from the bottom of my heart”. Written by Strictly Come Dancing superstar Oti Mabuse, this debut picture book will dance into the hands of families who have loved watching Oti on-screen.

It’s the end of an era on Strictly Come Dancing: Oti is out-y. Yes, the hugely popular professional dancer and two-time champion Oti Mabuse has today officially announced that she’s quitting the BBC ballroom show after seven years. A year ago she spoke to The Telegraph suggesting that this would be the case. It’s a partnership rooted in shared values and a belief in the power of books and festivals to bring people of all ages together and continues our ongoing commitment at the Southbank Centre to platforming a diverse range of voices. The passion and purpose of Selina Brown and her team is simply inspiring; it has been a pleasure working with them on realising their vision for the festival and I can’t wait to see how it resonates with our audiences, from returning visitors to those coming through our doors for the first time.” The Cher Show is on tour until 2023, cheronstage.com. Oti Mabuse’s UK tour of I Am Here starts on 28 April, otimabuse.com/tour. Romeo & Duet is on Saturdays at 7pm on ITV and ITV Hub For level access to the Royal Festival Hall from the Queen Elizabeth Hall Slip Road off Belvedere Road, please use the Southbank Centre Square Doors. The JCB Glass Lift is situated at this entrance and will take you to all floors. All floors are accessible from the main foyer on Level 2. If you need further assistance, our Visitor Assistants are here to help you.In a statement, BBC Strictly said Mabuse’s “energy, creativity and talent” had contributed to many of the show’s most memorable moments. “She will be hugely missed, not only by viewers, but the entire team.” Dance will always be my first love and to everyone, my family especially, friends, strictly fans and judges who have been my support throughout my strictly journey. Thank you for being incredible! You are irreplaceable in my heart and have made everyday unforgettable! I love you.”

Oti Mabuse is the only person ever to win Strictly Come Dancing two years in a row, but the great unspoken rule about competitive television is that people don’t really care who wins. In fact, she was already the ballroom’s sweetheart for her samba with Hollyoaks’ Danny Mac in 2016 – a moment so exhilarating that people stood up to cheer when they were halfway through it.

Think Like A Monk by Jay Shetty

Blue Badge holders and those with access requirements can be dropped off on the Queen Elizabeth Hall Slip Road off Belvedere Road (the road between the Royal Festival Hall and the Hayward Gallery). Mabuse’s father was a lawyer, often working pro bono, representing people during the bleakest days of apartheid. Her mother, a teacher, also had a formidable civic drive, pushing on after apartheid was overturned to secure equal rights for women. “Even after Nelson Mandela was president, we still had to march to get the right to vote. That’s what has made me who I am, that I come from a country of strong women.” But her mother also took the dancing extremely seriously. For years, she “kind of adopted” Mabuse’s dance partner, when they were both 10, “so that he would have the financial support and be able to make rehearsals. She always said: ‘I want more for my daughters because I know what they are worth.’ She fought for us a lot.” You take those advantages that your parents and educators didn’t have and, you want to just make them proud Oti Mabuse performing with Colin Grafton on Dancing On Ice, February 2022. Photograph: Zac Cooke/PA

It’s time for Oti’s dance class! Join Oti in her dance studio and learn “The Bird Jive” in ten easy steps. You can also use the external lift near the Artists' Entrance on Southbank Centre Square to reach Mandela Walk, Level 2. Items are left in our cloakrooms at the owner’s risk, and we cannot accept any responsibility for loss or damage, from any cause, to these items. We're cash-freeDance with Oti: The Bird Jive By Oti Mabuse Illustrated by Samara Hardy Strictly Come Dancing star Oti Mabuse launches debut picture book! Before that, while she was just being “a supportive girlfriend”, hanging in the Let’s Dance queue with Marius and warming up with him – he was already one of the professional dancers on the show – she was spotted by producers. “They went to Motsi, said: ‘There’s a girl downstairs, shall we bring her up and see how good her German is?” By the time that season aired, in 2015, she had already won third place in World Cup Freestyle Latin in 2014, second place in the European Championship Latin in 2014 and first place in the German Championship, Freestyle Latin, so she had fulfilled her raison d’etre, and the reason she had moved to Europe in the first place – to compete. Mabuse’s popularity surely helped pave the way for her sister Motsi to join the judging panel, too, and there are even rumours that BBC producers are considering bringing in another Mabuse sister, Phemelo, or even Oti's dance husband Marius Iepure, as a replacement for her. It is unsurprising to find her launching three projects at once: a tour of her own, I Am Here (this is a direct translation of her name, in Setswana); The Cher Show, a new musical, for which she is the choreographer (Arlene Phillips directs); and finally Romeo & Duet, an endearingly daffy TV dating format, where a single person stands on a balcony and a suitor has to woo them down with song. They are pretty prodigious, in other words – like the Williams sisters of dance – and she says (of King Richard, the biopic about the tennis coach who brought his daughters up to be champions): “I saw that movie on a flight, and I told my parents, we need to watch this because I think we have to have a conversation. We call my mum King Richard.”