Candy Michele Lane is a New Zealand dancer,

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

and television presenter. She co-presented TVNZ's ''

Dancing With The Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

'' with

Jason Gunn Jason Gunn (born 26 December 1968) is a New Zealand television and radio personality. He is known for ''The Son of a Gunn Show, What Now, Dancing with the Stars, Wheel of Fortune'', and ''The Rich List'', and also afternoon shows on radio stati ...

, and also choreographed '' New Zealand's Got Talent'', ''The Singing Bee'', and '' Stars in Their Eyes''. Most recently she was the Head Judge of the 2015 series of ''

Dancing With the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

''. In August 2021, it was announced that she would feature in the 2021 Season of Celebrity Treasure Island 2021. She relocated to Australia in 2022 to be closer to her family.

Dance career

Performance

Auckland-born Lane first represented New Zealand in dancing when she was 10 years old, and as a 14-year-old became the youngest person to win the New Zealand Amateur titles. Aged 15, she went to London to train, dancing on the world circuit for 10 years and performing lead roles in the West End, including playing Anita in '' West Side Story''. At 18, Lane became the youngest person to win the professional Australasian and South Pacific championships, which she went on to win five times. With her partner Doug Newton, she won the Professional Latin title at the Australian Championships in 1977, 1978 and 1979. She reached a ranking of third in the world for dance.

Choreography

Lane has choreographed several New Zealand television shows, including ''The Singing Bee''and Dancing with the Stars, ''Stars in Their Eyes'' and ''New Zealand's Got Talent''.

Teaching and judging

In 1990, she established her own dance troupe, The Candy Lane Dancers. She then opened a dance school, Candy Lane Dance Studios, in the Auckland suburb of Mount Eden. An International Adjudicator, she has judged at the Ballroom and Latin American World Championships and many other international competitions.

Television presenting

''Dancing With The Stars''

Lane was co-host alongside Jason Gunn of five series of the New Zealand version of ''Dancing with the Stars'' between 2005 and 2009. She specifically presented the backstage interviews with the dancers and the half- and full-time leaderboards. She often danced with Brendan Cole, a judge on the show. On the final episode of each season, Lane performed in a choreographed "spectacular", featuring the dancers from the show, Gunn and The Candy Lane Dancers. Lane was the head judge for the 2015 revival on

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...

The Shopping Channel

In October 2012 Lane became one of the inaugural presenters on The Shopping Channel, New Zealand's first

home shopping channel Shopping channels (also known in British English as teleshopping) are a type of television program or specialty channel devoted to home shopping. Their formats typically feature live presentations and demonstrations of products, hosted by on-air pr ...

Fashion design

Lane launched a line of dance-inspired leisure clothing, "Dancesport" in 2008.

Honours

In the

2014 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2014 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

, Lane was awarded the

Queens Service Medal The Queen's Service Order, established by royal warrant of Queen Elizabeth II on 13 March 1975, is used to recognise "valuable voluntary service to the community or meritorious and faithful services to the Crown or similar services within the pu ...

for services to dance. In October 2015 she was presented with a Scroll of Honour from the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand for her services to New Zealand entertainment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Candy Living people People from Auckland New Zealand ballroom dancers New Zealand choreographers New Zealand television presenters New Zealand women television presenters Recipients of the Queen's Service Medal 21st-century New Zealand dancers Year of birth missing (living people)