Friends told reporters: "Her energy is boundless.
"No doubt she'll have the group dancing around the campfire in a bid to beat the cold and keep morale high. Should be fun."
Dame Arlene, who was born in 1943 in a working class Jewish home in Manchester, moved to London in her early 20s to establish her career in the dance industry.
She was first asked to be a judge on Strictly Come Dancing in 2004 and was not sure it was the right move, but having agreed, "it quickly began to feel like home," she told the JC in 2017.