I feel British... I feel connected to this country and the people

As she juggles motherhood and moving home with her musical stage debut as Roxie Hart in Chicago, US-born Strictly star Janette Manrara on finding time to apply for UK citizenship and how she avoids burnout

- By Stefan Kyriazis

FORGET the dance floor - Janette Manrara's life requires faster footwork than any jive.

Not only has she just finished hosting the Strictly Come Dancing Tour and packed up her beloved family home in Cheshire after moving back down South, this week she went straight into rehearsals to play murderess Roxie Hart in the Chicago stage show.

It is touring until August 30 but Janette has a four-week break halfway through to dance in 19 cities with her husband and Strictly star Aljaž Škorjanec in their A Night To Remember show.

If that wasn't enough, Cuban-American Janette, 41, is also raising 18-month-old baby Lyra and studying to make the UK officially home.

I'm exhausted thinking about it but Janette beams, fresh-faced and make-up free, as we start our video chat.

"I'm very conscious of my health and burnout," she tells me, "so I'm taking it day by day. But Chicago was too much of an incredible opportunity. It's always been my dream to play Roxie.

"The biggest concern was Lyra and our family. So Aljaž is gonna come and stay with me as much as he can throughout the tour with her.

"Of course, I'm gonna miss her terribly because I'm used to being with her all the time. But we have a family holiday coming up soon, and she's with us when we tour together."

Janette breaks out into another big smile. "Everything else I can survive," she says. "I'm used to busy-crazy schedules. That doesn't scare me."

So why move house now, especially when everything is so hectic?

"With Aljaž being back on Strictly and me doing It Takes Two, we found it really difficult to commute with Lyra," she says.

"Aljaž was staying in hotels all the time. It was better for us to come back towards London but the countryside is still the way forward, for Lyra to wake up to birds chirping and to greenery and trees. It's a lifestyle that we fell in love with and we don't want to lose."