'To still be a dancer into my 50s! It's all gravy after that...'

THOSE of us of a certain age may still remember a shirtless Adam Garcia strutting atop the bar in Coyote Ugly. Others will remember him as a judge on ITV's Got To Dance or leading numerous West End shows and tours. Chatting online he looks impressively youthful for his 52 years, as he takes a break from rehearsing for the UK tour of The Bodyguard.

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Adam stars as Frank, who was memorably played by Kevin Costner in the 1992 film, but the role strictly comes with no dancing.

So surely he's struggling with the urge to break out some moves?

"It's really hard, the music is fantastic," he grins. "It's my wheelhouse, funk and pop, and it's Whitney Houston!

"My God, I want to dance, although I see the cast working hard and my body would snap. The Bodyguard, which opens this week, is a play, a musical and a jukebox musical.

Some songs are played as performances, others are an internal monologue.

"It's a very layered, nuanced story about relationships, loneliness, need, desire and love... as well as a thriller.

Even so, he's not ready to stop twinkling those toes.

"To be able to be a dancer into my 50s, it's all gravy after that. I never want to stop because I love it.

"On Chitty Chitty Bang Bang last year I snapped my Achilles and I thought, 'That's 12 weeks recovery and if I have to have surgery, is that it?' I had to prepare myself. It's going to catch up with me, but not yet!"

Adam came second on 2022's The Masked Dancer, has just choreographed new show Emerald Storm and last year starred in gritty Australian drama My Eyes - all indicative of a performer determined not to be pigeonholed.

Yet he has little in the way of a showbiz background. Born in the Sydney suburbs to Aussie physiotherapist mum Jean and Colombian father Fabio, who worked on stock markets, Adam started dancing at 7.

Local dance legend Dein Perry was so impressed he offered him work as an instructor in 1988, aged just 15.

Neither could possibly have imagined what lay ahead. Perry choreographed Hot Shoe Shuffle, which won him the 1995 Oliver Award, as did future global sensation Tap Dogs in '96.

Adam was at the heart of both, suddenly in London in 1994 - his Sydney university place to study biology and chemistry out the window - and flying by the seat of his pants.