Strictly pro Katya Jones and her dance partner Nigel Harman are fast becoming firm favourites on the BBC dance show and it’s clear their bond reaches further than just the dance floor as the pair have been teasing each other backstage, too.
During Tuesday (October 3) night’s It Takes Two, Nigel and Katya discussed their weekend dance with host Fleur East.
The pair performed a Viennese waltz to the tune of Until I Found You by Stephen Sanchez and picked up 27 points from the judges.
But Shirley Ballas came under fire for her harsh critique of the routine. One fan asked: “Why was Shirley so nasty and brutal with Nigel?”
Strictly: Nigel Harman admits he doesn’t know what he’s doing
However, on It Takes Two, actor Nigel said he thought that Shirley’s judgement – and score of six – was a “gift”.
The former EastEnders star explained: “In week one I was doing the paso and when we had judges comments it was like being at a really good party and everyone was really happy. And then week two I turned up to the same party and this time they didn’t like me as much! So that was a bit of a reality check. But it actually is a bit of a gift. Because technically I don’t really know what I’m doing, so I’m making it up and trying to blag my way through.”
No no! Can I rephrase it? I would be nothing without Katya.
At this point Strictly pro Katya jumped in, joking: “That makes me sound really incompetent in my job.”
Nigel insisted: “No no! Can I rephrase it? I would be nothing without Katya.”
Katya: “Nigel gave me acting lessons”
In spite of Shirley’s critique, the pair are definitely doing well on the hit BBC One show.
In fact, Nigel and Katya are current front-runners to lift the Glitterball trophy, pipping former fave Bobby Brazier to the top spot.
Chatting on It Takes Two, Katya revealed that Nigel’s been sharing some tips of his own during training. Katya said: “I must say having a director as my other 50% of this partnership has been really interesting. So we have worked together on this [waltz] really deeply, and thought every single detail of the story of this couple. He did give me acting lessons. Apparently you have to look with your opposite eye to the other side? It makes you look a bit weird.”
Katya added: “There was a lot of discussion about where’s the balance between acting and dancing. I kept obviously saying, it’s a dance competition we must dance more. And you were adamant we had to act. I feel like we eventually found a balanced middle.”
Nigel said: “We got round to the dancing eventually. You know when you’re on safe ground? I was like: ‘Let’s just do acting for a day!’ Much less sweaty.”
Katya even said that she had wanted their waltz to look like butter melting on hot toast, but joked to Nigel: “When you were learning it was like beans on toast.”
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