Strictly Come Dancing’s leaderboard is already causing a stir, just one week into the competition. Camilla Kerslake, the wife of contestant Chris Robshaw, has spoken out about the difference in dance experience among this year’s line-up, following her husband’s debut performance.
Chris, 39, and his professional dance partner Nadiya Bychkova, 36, were the first pair to take to the floor during Saturday’s live show, performing a samba that earned them a score of 14 from the judges. This left them near the bottom of the leaderboard at the end of the night.
Former rugby union star Chris was cheered on by his wife Camilla, 37, who was watching from the audience. She later took to Instagram to share her thoughts on his performance, describing the range of dance experience among the contestants as “absolutely wild”.
Classical singer Camilla posted photos and videos from the live show on her Instagram account. She wrote: “Proud forever. Up against people with years of experience when you’ve never even done a 2 step, opening the whole season and starting with one of the hardest dances going”, reports the Mirror.
“They tested you HARD. You and [Nadiya] blew me, and the crowd away. Definitely some lessons for next week but you were absolutely astonishing. I couldn’t hold it together at all. We love you [Chris]. Team #SeeQuins. Let’s GOOOOOO #Strictly #StrictlyComeDancing. Slide 5 of my first time meeting [Vicky Pattison] is something special.”
Supporters rallied behind Chris with encouraging messages in the comments section, whilst Love Island winner Amber Gill shared her thoughts on the post: “Unpopular opinion: I think having people with so much dance experience is unfair.” Camilla replied to the reality TV personality by writing: “The experience differences are absolutely wild. Definitely [thinking emojis].”
This comes after several contestants have drawn scrutiny regarding their apparent background in dance. Lewis Cope, 30, has confessed to possessing some dancing experience whilst Amber Davies, 28, has acknowledged her performing arts history.
The pair, who both joined the line-up as replacements, aren’t believed to have any Latin or Ballroom training.
When questioned about her experience, Amber revealed in a VT featured in the episode: “I’m in musical theatre.”
Her dancing partner Nikita Kuzmin, 27, remarked that was “great,” though she clarified: “However, I have never done Ballroom. Never done Latin.”
Meanwhile, Lewis’ dancing partner Katya Jones, 36, explained: “When Lewis was younger, he did do some hip hop dancing [but it’s] not helping the natural swing of the jive.”
Earlier, during the launch programme, Lewis commented: “I haven’t danced now for about 12 years so I’m really excited to get going with that again.”
Strictly’s Anton Du Beke, 59, opened up about the contestants’ varied dance backgrounds in a chat with the Mirror before the show’s launch. He shared: “Some people might have done some dancing but it wont have been fox trots and cha-chas. It will be mainly musical theatre or commercial.”
He continued: “It will help them a bit. There is a small advantage to it really. But I have not seen many of those who have actually won. The deciding vote [is] always yours. You know what becomes difficult, they come out week one and they are really good and they get to week ten and they are sort of a bit the same. They have not improved much.”