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(And, alas, theres no video evidence.)
(The Crownframed it as a birthday surprise.)
Have you watchedThe Crowns reinterpretation of your dance?I have.
Its brought home to me how much our friendship meant to each other.
Certain bits arent quite right, though.
She didnt have many friends at all.
She was quite isolated.
She was a bit of a loner and thats something we had in common.
Lets just say they stuck their noses up at that.
But what she originally wanted was somebody to teach her about dance when she took it up again.
This must have been around 1980.
She wanted to keep fit not at the gym but with dance.
However, I couldnt come and teach her because I was always traveling.
So I sent my dance captain down to London to meet her whenever Diana was free.
The reason Im saying this is because thats what Diana loved she loved everything that movement had to offer.
This was the only place she could see all of that under one roof.
A very shy voice goes,Is this Wayne Sleep?
This is Diana.I go,Diana who?I had suddenly forgotten.
Every time she sent me a card after shed sign it Diana, WALES.
So we finally arranged a time to meet, but I still had no idea what for.
She was like a crane to me.
She said,Id like to dance a duet with you.I thought she must be crazy!
She didnt want him to know about it.
I suggested that and she said,Yes, thats perfect!
One of the first questions she had was what I was going to wear.
We didnt overdo it.
But she was worried about her shoes.
I was worried they would fall off, so we got an elastic sewn into the shoes.
We had to cover all events if it went wrong.
Shoes fall off more than youd realize in ballet.
Why did she want Uptown Girl?
Theres a lovely lady with a hat shes very chic and gets out of a car.
Diana knew she could play that role of sophistication.
What made it so humorous?It wasnt a serious dance by any means.
It clocked in at three and a half minutes.
We brought the house down with humor because they didnt know what was coming next.
It was very dynamic but nothing too difficult.
Steps, lounges, transfers of weight.
We both ran the diagonals and really covered the whole stage with just the two of us.
And at the end, we joined each other.
It was almost like a chorus line and a kick line.
Our legs got higher and higher.The Crownmade it so shoulder-y.
It was a little more elegant than that, although we had a few innuendos.
Im not criticizing the show, though.
When Diana walked on after I did my turns and jumps, she strode in like a tigress.
We only did one rehearsal that day on a closed set.
What I wanted her to see were the two spotlights on our faces its a complete black void otherwise.
She couldnt have danced it better.
I was the nervous one!
I was shaking in the wings.
What if she doesnt like it?
What if I dropped the future queen of England?
How did Diana sneak away from her box?I was in the wings.
you’re able to see the royal box from there but not the normal audience.
There were so many crackers.
Did you consider doing an encore?She wanted to do it again, and I said no.
If we did it again … well, I didnt want that to get out the next day.
I think he got a quarter of a million dollars for them.
We achieved something without anybody having an inkling.
It was surprisingly easy to dash around without being noticed.
Anne Beckwith-Smith, one of Dianas ladies-in-waiting, also knew about it.
Only me and Diana knew what the actual dance was, though.
I think Anne was really worried.
She thought,What were they doing in there?
Blaring Billy Joel and laughing away?
She got a little bit of cold feet after the dance.
The heat had gone off a bit it was 20 minutes later.
The door was opened to the party they were having and I went,Happy Christmas, everybody!
How was Charles behaving?Everything seemed fine.
He had a raised eyebrow, you might say.
It didnt go any further than that at the party.
What was your relationship with Diana like in the years that followed?
Did you two remain close?We did.
People would always ask me what we talked about when the doors closed.
Her boys would always come first.
Id never ask a personal question if it was in the news.
It was like being in a safe house for her.
Wed kick our shoes off and just dance.
People whove known each other for years you dont need to make a huge effort to make conversation.
Thats how we were together and how it was like from the start.
We really did have a terrible sense of humor.
It was a relief.
I just adored seeing her.
you’ve got the option to understand what an impact that had.
Diana wasnt a dumb blonde.
She was a lady.
And she was now about to become her own person.
That became her statement of independence.
