Danny Price literally dances his way through life and gets paid for it. CAROLINE SEPHTON meets the man with the muscles who has moved with Madonna. WHEN live wire dancer Danny Price explodes on to the podium at a Blackburn nightclub the girls go wild - they even queue up to stroke his muscles!

But very few Friday and Saturday night boppers at Utopia are aware that the tireless performer has also been in a myriad of musicals, choreographed a cluster of concerts and even rubbed shoulders with Madonna.

Danny Price's launch into the world of dancing actually came as a big surprise to him. Until he was 17 he had only ever practised by himself in the front room of his home in Oldham. But his life changed when his friends invited him to watch a break dance contest at the Hacienda nightclub in Manchester and secretly entered him into the competition. Danny won with a complex "windmill" shoulder spin.

From there he went on to perform in the world break dance championships in Germany where he came second and then his career really took off.

"One of the first offers I got was to perform with Madonna on her Holiday tour," said Danny, son of a Jamaican father and Scottish mother.

"She was only starting out then. I always remember her being a person of extremes. She could be the lightest person or the most intense person, depending on her mood."

After Madonna he flipped in and out of shows, performing with stars including Bobby Brown, Chaka Khan, Whitney Houston and Paul Young. But he was brought back down to earth by his mother.

"She said to me: 'Are you a dancer or are you just lucky? Get some proper training'."

So Danny enrolled at the Higginshaw School of Performing Arts and was plunged into a world of ballet, tap, singing and acting.

"At first I thought: 'Me, a break dancer, doing ballet?' But my analogy now is that a dancer is like a doorway.

"The more dances you let in, the more of a dancer you are."

Danny's other credits include a year in Starlight Express in the West End, touring raves with the group NJOI, being voted Boots Physique Model from 1990-92 and dancing in hairdresser Trevor Sorbie's spectacular shows.

"At one of the hair shows I was painted from head to toe in gold, like a god, and I even had to wear a gold thong," he said.

"I always think when I am performing that if I couldn't do it in front of my mother, I'm not doing it.

"I kept looking at this thong and wondering. It was really borderline." But his chief love is teaching children.

"My greatest moment came when I worked on movement with Down's Syndrome children," he said. "That was a big breakthrough for me.

"I love working with children. They are without malice and vindictiveness."

He began dancing at Utopia three months ago when former manager Keith Lamb headhunted him to perform with the club's dance team.

He combines this with choreographing other performances around the country, currently including Little Shop of Horrors with youngsters in Birmingham and a charity concert for GALA - Gay and Lesbian Attitude - at G-MEX, Manchester, in August. And with the promise of a principal role in a British movie later this year it seems life for Danny could not be better. But he is still waiting for one simple dream to come true. While his mother follows him around the country, his father has not yet seen him perform and he would love him to do so.

"He's just an ordinary guy and can't understand what all the fuss is about," said Danny.

Tomorrow, in contrast, we talk to Adam Walker, from Blackburn, who represents England in youth ballroom dancing championships.

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