The proverb says, “practise what you preach”. But for dancers Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace, it’s more a case of “practise what you teach” after six series of teaching and partnering the great and the not so great on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, it’s now all eyes on them as they take centre stage in a dance show they’ve created themselves — Midnight Tango.

The show reaches Oxford next week, and I caught up with Vincent and Flavia as they paid a flying reconnaissance visit to the New Theatre to check out the stage area available for dancing.

“There’s going to be a very subtle storyline, so it will be slightly different to the normal dance show,” Flavia explained. “We’ve done ballroom and Latin for 23 years, so there will be hints of other dance forms here and there. But the basis of it will be Argentine tango.”

Vincent and Flavia are an interviewer’s dream. They positively bubble with humour, energy, and chat. They are both Italian, and both live in Guildford. But they are no longer partners off stage.

“That would be too much to cope with I think,” Vincent laughed. “Dancing is already quite stressful!”

How, I asked, did they come to meet each other?

“I moved from Italy to England because of the dancing,” Vincent replied. “I was about 17 and England was, and still is, the centre of dancing. Teachers travel all over the world to London, and also England hosts three of the top competitions in the world, one of them in famous Blackpool. So I decided to move here, after I had split up with my then partner, who was the Italian champion at that time.

“Flavia and I had the same teacher when I first arrived in England, so I had a try-out with her. And that was it, we just matched straight away.”

The initial chemistry between a dance couple is vital, Flavia confirmed.

“The fact that we’re both from Italy helped, that connection. It’s good to be physically matched too — height is very important.”

“I couldn’t speak any English when I arrived here,” Vincent laughed. “Luckily I was introduced to this Italian/English partner: Flavia helped me a lot with the language, and finding accommodation. It was weird, we lived two hours away from each other in Italy: Flavia is from Naples and I’m from Foggia.”

Vincent and Flavia proceeded to win a whole string of dance championships and awards. But it was Strictly Come Dancing that really put them on the map.

“The BBC got in touch with one of our tango teachers, because they wanted us to appear as a tango couple in a show called Dance Fever,” Vincent explained. “So we started doing that, and then it was a coincidence that the producer of Dance Fever was also responsible for Strictly Come Dancing.”

Watching the clips of each week’s Strictly training sessions — the stress and tension levels sometimes look quite high — it’s clearly not all about glamour.

“We always get some dodgy weeks,” Flavia confirmed. “Not every dance suits every person physically, musically, or inspirationally. It just doesn’t happen. You get to the Friday, and it’s still not happening. You just pray that on Saturday for that minute and a half you’ll be able to get through the routine.”

And to relieve the stress? Both Vincent and Flavia admit to being passionate shoppers.

As Vincent put it: “Being Italian, I’ve always been into motorbikes and big flashy cars!

“It would be good to have a two-seater sports car for this tour round Britain, but it wouldn’t have enough boot space to take a pair of dancing shoes, never mind all Flavia’s costumes!”

Midnight Tango is at the New Theatre, Oxford, from April 12 to 16. Tickets on 0844 8471588 or at newtheatreoxford.org.uk