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It’s been a troublesome week for Strictly Come Dancing. After two professionals’ exits forged a shadow over the beginning of the sequence, Wynne Evans and Katya Jones discovered themselves at the centre of a contemporary controversy surrounding two quick clips from final week’s reside present. In the approaching days, they rushed to apologise and insisted they had been joking round, with Jones labelling the saga “absurd”.
Still, loads of viewers had questioned if it might be talked about on this weekend’s reside present. In the top, identical to the pre-series drama, it went unaddressed (until you rely Evans sheepishly remarking “I do love comedy” whereas being interviewed by Claudia Winkleman).
Its omission didn’t matter at all, although, and quickly grew to become a footnote of the episode. This week’s Strictly Come Dancing as an alternative celebrated two of the issues that make it so nice; its range and inclusivity.
Having supplied loads of laughs, swipes at Craig Revel Horwood and a number of the most spectacular lifts of the sequence up to now, Chris McCausland this week put his severe hat on for a Waltz to the anthemic “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. The comic, a Liverpool supporter from town, was clearly determined to get this one proper. And it couldn’t have gone a lot better.
McCausland misplaced his sight when he was 22 and whereas the judges are dedicated to critiquing him precisely as they do the others, his achievements are undoubtedly extra vital given the challenges he overcomes in coaching. His skilled accomplice Dianne Buswell can’t present him the strikes, and he can’t swot up on YouTube or watch performances again.
In one notably poignant second on Saturday, McCausland was left to bop beneath the highlight alone. As the digital camera panned out, Buswell got here into view and he confidently but gracefully strode alone in the direction of her. It was a second steeped in emotion, heightened even additional by the gravity of what McCausland is attaining on the present. If I wasn’t already in tears from the routine, then listening to him ask Buswell if he “did okay” as they embraced afterwards would have tipped me over the sting.
The second of tonight’s highlights got here courtesy of Montell Douglas and Johannes Radebe, as they danced a Carnival-inspired Couple’s Choice. The routine celebrated each Douglas’s Caribbean roots and her accomplice’s upbringing in South Africa.
In their VT, Douglas defined the dance was additionally a homage to her late grandmother, who gave her “the spirit of dance, love and movement”. The efficiency (full with outfit reveals) was joyous and uplifting, with Douglas correctly shining on the dancefloor for the primary time this sequence.
“All I can say is Nana is looking down on you and she has sprinkled her magic dust on you because you were exceptional,” Shirley Ballas instructed the Gladiators star.
The present is at its best when celebrations of range and inclusivity are entrance and centre. Doing so is nothing new for Strictly both.
In 2022, Hamza Yassin celebrated Afrobeats with a dance that noticed him develop into a severe contender (he went on to win). Rose Aying-Ellis, who lifted the Glitterball trophy in 2021, invited viewers to be taught what dancing is like whereas deaf because the ballroom fell silent throughout hers. Two years earlier, Will Bayley — who was born with arthrogryposis, a situation affecting his joints — danced a routine which instructed his story of spending prolonged durations in hospital as a toddler. And simply weeks in the past, Punam Krishan made historical past with a Bollywood dance.
These moments, not the controversies, are what Strictly is all about.
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