Strictly Come Dancing is set to return to screens this weekend, with a whole new line-up of celebrities taking to the dancefloor.
A dance expert has addressed the annual “fix” allegations that plague Strictly Come Dancing, often sparked by fans noticing contestants with prior performance backgrounds.
The BBC’s popular dance contest is set to grace our screens again this Saturday, featuring a star-studded line-up including Gladiators icon Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, Love Island champ Dani Dyer, Hollywood actress Alex Kingston and football legend Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
Joining them on the dance floor will be EastEnders’ Balvinder Sopal, George Clarke, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’s La Voix, Chris Robshaw, model Ellie Goldstein, and the controversial Apprentice personality Thomas Skinner.
Also strutting their stuff will be Vicky Pattison, Neighbours’ Stefan Dennis, Ross King, ex-footballer Karen Carney and Emmerdale’s Lewis Cope, with the latter replacing Kristian Nairn who had to withdraw for medical reasons.
They’ll be hoping to emulate the success of last year’s finalists Tasha Ghouri, Sarah Hadland and JB Gill, with Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell ultimately clinching the coveted glitterball trophy, making history in the process.
Despite several “underdogs” like Bill Bailey and Hamza Yassin taking home the title in past seasons, each year sees fans cry foul over stars with previous experience, alleging the show is “rigged”. This was particularly evident when JLS singer JB and dancer Tasha reached the final last year, reports Wales Online.
However, dance researcher and educator and Assistant Professor at the Centre for Dance Research Dr Kathryn Stamp, who specialises in inclusive dance, dance education and dance and health, has addressed if there is anything behind those accusations.
She said: “It’s a challenging one because there are certain skills that come from learning a body-based activity, but then you could say the same for sports people, like bodily awareness and balance and control, they’re going to have that but that doesn’t mean they’re going to do well on Strictly, it’s not an immediate factor.
“I”s the same with an actor or musician or singer, they’ll have something useful in their job because they are a performer, so they might not have the physical technique from dance training but they’ll have something else.
“I think everyone brings something of their history to it, even if it’s not dance training,” she went on.
Highlighting her own experience of dance, having not trained in the likes of Latin and Ballroom despite her history in dance generally and working in it, would find it “challenging”.
“It is a very particular way of dancing and knowing your body and then adjusting what you’ve learned and are having to unlearn and relearn it is another skill that you have to master.
“You’ve learned to control your body for a particular dance style, and then you’re having to unlearn it, to relearn how to dance Ballroom or Latin, which is what they do every week, they learn a new style of dance.
“They talk about it on the show, going from Ballroom to Latin is completely different – your feet might be turned out or in parallel, or you’re tight with the arms and then have to be more fluid for something else.”
Pointing out that actor Lewis has performed in Billy Elliot and therefore may have some experience, Dr Stamp went on to insist that his history in dance may not translate on Strictly.
“You could look back at the history of Strictly and pick out a number of people who have had some sort of dance background and didn’t do very well, just as much as you can point out people who did do well… there’s just not a clear pattern.”
Speaking about the line-up, she added: “It’s really varied, and it happens every year when the line-up comes out, you’ve got people cheering for certain people and then people on the other side going, ‘I don’t know any of these people’, but that’s kind of the point, you’ll only know these people if you’re linked to their area.”
“The point is we’re meant to connect with different people in society, the different members of the public who are meant to represent different things,” she continued.
“It’s a really interesting line-up and part of what is interesting is that before Strictly, we only know from the line-up what they’ve previously done, whereas we all go on a journey together with them I like to think, but they go on a journey as a group through Strictly and we learn so much more about them.
“Different topics come up and we learn about their lives and about their families and their way of doing things, so I think it’s a really exciting line-up because there might be people you don’t know as well or you’ve not seen for a while but we get to see what they’re up to now and learn about them, which is part of the interest for me.”
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One and iPlayer on Saturday, September 20.
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