Karen Hauer lands Stepping Out role after 14 years on Strictly
Karen Hauer has landed a new stage role after leaving Strictly Come Dancing, stepping into a revival of Stepping Out weeks after saying she would not return for the 2026 series. The move sends her from a long-running ballroom job into live theatre, with Mavis giving her a teaching role rather than a partner-dancing one.
Stepping Out at Devonshire Park
The new revival will put Hauer in Richard Harris’ comedy about amateur tap dancers preparing for a charity gala performance. She will play dance teacher Mavis, a part she said resonates with her because the play is “about ordinary people achieving extraordinary things through dance.”
“I’m looking forward to dusting off my tap shoes and working with a great company of actors and dancers to bring this heart-warming, feel-good comedy to the Devonshire Park stage,” she said. That line is the business takeaway here: Hauer is not just taking a role, she is repositioning herself as a stage performer after more than a decade locked into a television franchise.
From 2012 to 14 years
Hauer joined Strictly Come Dancing in 2012 and became the show’s longest-serving professional dancer over 14 years on the entertainment show. Her exit landed last month in a social media video, where she said, “After 14 years on Strictly Come Dancing, I've decided this is the right time for me to close this chapter and take on new projects in other areas that I'm passionate about.”
She also said, “Strictly completely changed my life, not only as a performer and a teacher, but as a human being.” The new casting gives that statement practical weight: she is moving into a production built around teaching, mentoring and performance, not into a pause between TV contracts.
What Mavis changes
“Who would’ve thought that a young girl from the Bronx would end up becoming the longest serving female professional dancer on a British TV institution,” Hauer said in the same farewell video. The irony is tidy, but the career shift is sharper: after 14 years in one of television’s most visible dance jobs, she is choosing a smaller, live setting where the role is defined by character, not competition.
“I’ll never forget joining the show 14 years ago with Sir Bruce Forsyth and Len Goodman and learning from such incredible legends along the way,” she said. For viewers who knew her through the ballroom, Stepping Out is the first clear sign of what comes next — a stage run built around the same skill set, but with a different audience and a different kind of pressure.
