Latest news with #Hauer
The Independent
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Strictly Come Dancing reveals professionals lineup for 2025 – with one surprise return
Strictly Come Dancing has announced which professional dancers will be on the line up for this year's show, after months of speculation some would be axed. Dianne Buswell – who won the BBC dance competition with Chris McCausland in 2024 – will return, alongside Nadiya Bychkova, Katya Jones, Neil Jones, Nikita Kuzmin, Gorka Marquez, Luba Mushtuk and Jowita Przysta. Despite speculation Giovanni Pernice would return to the show after quitting last June, when his celebrity dance partner Amanda Abbington accused him of 'abusive behaviour', the dancer, who was cleared of the more serious allegations levied against him by a BBC investigation, has not been listed on this year's lineup of professionals. Amy Dowden, who pulled out of last year's competition following a foot injury, will also return to the show. She will be joined by Carlos Gu, Kai Widdrington, Johannes Radebe, Aljaž Škorjanec Nancy Xu, Lauren Oakley, Michelle Tsiakkas and Vito Coppola who will all take to the floor once more. Two new dancers, who are yet to be revealed, will also be added to the cast, with the BBC set to announce their names closer to Strictly's return this Autumn. Karen Hauer, 42, also secured a space on the line up, despite previous reports claiming the show's longest-serving dancer was set to be axed by bosses. In November last year, it was claimed Hauer was at 'risk' of losing her place on the show because of her age. However, she will return for Strictly once more in September, meaning nobody from the 2024 series has been removed from the professional lineup. Hauer later told The Sun's Fabulous Magazine: 'I'm the longest serving on the show, but new dancers don't threaten me - I watch them and I learn from them.' Sarah James, executive producer at BBC Studios, said: 'The excitement is already building ahead of the new series and in addition to welcoming back our fantastic returning Pros. 'We are looking forward to welcoming two brand new professional dancers to the line up who will help bring another unforgettable series of dazzling dance and loads more besides to viewers later in 2025.' Meanwhile, Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment at the BBC said: 'The Strictly professional dancers are the beating heart of the programme, showcasing to viewers in every corner of the UK their world class talent by lighting up the famous Strictly ballroom every Saturday and Sunday night. 'Here's to another fab-u-lous series!'
CBC
29-03-2025
- General
- CBC
These Edmonton police officers are showing us the languages they speak
Social Sharing In his 25 years with the Edmonton Police Service, Staff Sgt. Patrick Ruzage has used Swahili and Kinyarwanda, the national language of Rwanda, on the job. This year, Ruzage started a language-identifier pilot project so other officers can make the most of their second or third languages. "Edmonton is so diverse right now that we thought this project would be very helpful," Ruzage told CBC's Radio Active. "And for employees to wear their language identifier, [it] gives us a sense of pride." The pilot launched in February, using Velcro tags worn on the front of the uniform so community members can see what other language is available to them. The tags, worn by officers in the EPS west division, are for 71 languages, including Punjabi, Urdu, Cantonese, Mandarin, Basa, Romanian and Ukrainian. It's part of ongoing work at the police service to increase language accessibility. In 2019, EPS launched its language services department, the first of its kind in Canada. "It is the only way to be able to provide equitable policing to all Edmontonians," said Iman Saidi, the language services unit lead. "And there has been a huge increase of diverse languages that we haven't had before." The unit launched a live interpreter app in 2024. It also offers translation support for officers and members of the public. When Ruzage approached the unit with his language-identifier idea, it was an easy yes, Saidi said. "When someone is in need of any policing services, and they can request someone who speaks their language, there is a huge sigh of relief," she said. "It was complementary to the larger project of how we're trying to reach the public." Through a survey, EPS identified more than 400 employees, including sworn officers and civilians, who speak a second language. Ruzage hopes the pilot will expand across the organization in the months to come. "I think there's a huge appetite for it," he said. Communicating better with a bigger community Edmonton's population is growing rapidly. In 2021, 125 different languages were spoken in the city, according to a City of Edmonton report on settlement and immigration. At the Newcomer Centre, "language classes are always full," said interim executive director Laurie Hauer. The centre has more than 800 people enrolled in language classes, and a waiting list of around 1,200. Add to that the experiences people have before coming to Canada, Hauer said, and it can affect how they interact with police or others in law enforcement. "When you come from another culture, another space, those systems function differently," Hauer said. "So any time that you can do anything to enhance people's knowledge and understanding of that is critical." Building community beyond policing It's something Ruzage has seen on the job himself and has noticed during the pilot. "The interactions that we've had with community members, especially immigrants who have moved to Canada — maybe their perception of police is very different, or they don't expect somebody within the police service to speak their language," he said. "When they see this, it tends to calm them down, or bring them to a different level and not look at the police as just an enforcer." He's even had young people from diverse backgrounds reach out to him about the pilot, expressing interest in EPS more generally. Hauer said programs like these — with officers who speak these languages and have cultural knowledge — have an added benefit. "There's an element of interpretation that's really critical, and that's the cultural element," she said. "A translation or interpretation service sometimes doesn't take that into consideration. There's that added value of understanding that cultural piece." The pilot started in February. Ruzage said he's proud of how quickly his fellow officers signed on. "EPS has come a long way, and we still have a lot of work to do," he said.
The Guardian
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Like Tears in Rain review – Rutger Hauer portrait takes deep dive into the archive
The late Dutch actor Rutger Hauer is probably still best known for his extraordinary turn as rebel replicant Roy Batty in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, but that's not where the focus lies in this amiable but mostly unsurprising curio from his goddaughter Sanna Fabery de Jonge. Using the actor's own home movie footage, shot on lovely 16mm, plus new interviews with those close to him, including director Paul Verhoeven, actor Whoopi Goldberg, and his second wife Ineke ten Kate, a portrait emerges of a talented no-bullshit actor who fell slightly short of his potential due to Hollywood not being sure quite what to do with him. To be honest, that's more or less what most people who are aware of Hauer thought of him already, so it's not the case that this adds all that much to the narrative. The home movie archive is previously unseen, and there's a nostalgic pleasure to seeing beautiful grainy footage of a young Hauer (what the famously private actor would have thought of this archive being made public remains a slightly uninterrogated question). The film is thematically strongest in interviews with frequent collaborator Verhoeven, who is both one of the key factors that ensured Hauer broke through in the first place, and, according to a remorseful Verhoeven, a part of the reason he never became bigger. The sticking point was their 1985 collaboration Flesh and Blood, which Verhoeven admits that Hauer participated in against his better judgment, having decided after a positive experience on Richard Donner's Ladyhawke that he would rather play heroes than the villains who made his name. Verhoeven insisted Hauer honour their partnership, but appears to regret that decision now. Whether all this is of much interest to anyone who isn't already a locked-on fan of the actor is debatable, and if you are a diehard Hauer expert, there's probably not much here that you hadn't already guessed or intuited. There's very little opening out to draw any wider conclusions about the industry or acting in general, and fair enough, but it does mean that the overall sense of the film is that it's more of a curio aimed at those who simply can't get enough Hauer, than something that a wider audience could get a lot out of. It's a shame as something really interesting could have been done with the archive, but what's emerged is a bit of a DVD extra. Like Tears in Rain is on digital platforms from 10 March.
