Strictly Come Dancing rehearsals kicked off again yesterday, as the professional dancers get prepared for the new series of the BBC dance show. Each celebrity will be gearing up to be partnered with a new celebrity, in a bid to win the prestigious glitterball trophy.
Last year, Strictly winners Dianne Buswell and Scouse comedian Chris McCausland lifted the Strictly trophy, as favourites of the competition. Since the show ended, Dianne has kept busy with the Strictly Live Tour and more recently, Dianne and Vito Red Hot and Ready Tour.
The 2024 and 2023 Strictly winners came together to light up the stages across the country with their new show. After months of touring the country, the tour came to an end last week. Dianne has now taken to Instagram to reflect on the whirlwind couple of months.
She said: “The show finished and we jumped straight into another Strictly season I haven’t really had a chance to reflect until now, this moment right here was so special.
“Vito and I want to thank every single person who took the time to come and see our show we genuinely can’t believe the response and we are so grateful to you all, this was our final bow for now.”
The Italian dancer responded “Love Love Love”, in response to the heartfelt message. Vito Coppola has made the final with each of his celebrity dancers on Strictly Come Dancing. He danced with Fleur East, Ellie Leach and Sarah Hadland, lifting the trophy with former Coronation Street actress Ellie Leach.
As the final show ended, Vito’s last dance partner, actress Sarah, showed her support for the Italian star and shared a photo of their reunion on social media.
Sarah captioned a photo of the two: “So happy to see you – my beautiful @vitocoppola. I am so, so proud of you shining away in the incredible @dianneandvito show congrats to @diannebuswell all of the amazing cast and @jasongilkison.”
Vito and Dianne have not been separated for long as they reunited for rehearsals yesterday. The show attracts millions of viewers every year and is one of the most popular programmes aired by BBC.
Two new professional dancers have joined the other dancers for the new series. Alexis Warr and Julian Caillon will be paired up with two celebrities as the show gets underway later this year.
American-born Alexis is best known for winning US dance series So You Think You Can Dance in 2022 and was crowned as ‘America’s Favourite Dancer’, becoming the first female Ballroom and Latin dancer to claim the title.
Australian-born Julian has been dancing since the age of 10, specialising in Ballroom and Latin American, and going on to represent Australia on the international stage. He appeared as a Professional Dancer on three seasons of Australia’s Dancing With The Stars.