By Meghna Amin

Copyright dailystar

A Strictly Come Dancing insider has spoken out about the infamous “curse” that seems to haunt the BBC contest. This year, a fresh line-up of 15 celebs are set to strut their stuff on the dance floor, with the pre-recorded launch show hitting our screens on Saturday. Among the star-studded cast are Gladiators hero Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, Love Island champ Dani Dyer , Hollywood’s Alex Kingston and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. They’ll be joined by EastEnders’ Balvinder Sopal , George Clarke, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’s La Voix, Chris Robshaw and model Ellie Goldstein. Rounding off the list are controversial Apprentice personality Thomas Skinner, Vicky Pattison, Neighbours’ Stefan Dennis, Ross King and ex-footballer Karen Carney. Lewis Cope is meanwhile stepping in for Kristian Nairn who had to bow out due to health issues. Every year, Strictly is dogged by whispers of a so-called curse, alluding to the pattern of celebs ending long-term relationships and sparking up romances with their professional dance partners, reports Wales Online . Notable examples include comedian Seann Walsh, who was pictured kissing Katya Jones in 2018, despite both being in relationships at the time – Katya was married to fellow Strictly pro Neil Jones. Stacey Dooley and Kevin Clifton also went public with their relationship after the competition, although they refuted claims of any romantic involvement during the show. Ben Cohen ended his 11-year marriage to Abby after his stint on Strictly with Kristina Rihanoff, with whom he now has a daughter. However, he denied that his marriage ended because of his relationship with Kristina. Meanwhile, Dianne Buswell and Joe Sugg have shared the exciting news that they’re expecting their first baby together, having first crossed paths on Strictly back in 2018. Rachel Riley and Pasha Kovalev, who were paired up on the show in 2013, are also now parents to two children. Last year, whispers circulated about Pete Wicks and his dance partner Jowita Pryzstal, although neither confirmed anything beyond a friendly relationship. And it’s likely this year will be no different, with fans eagerly speculating whether the infamous “curse” has struck once the professional partners and celebrity duos are unveiled. Dr Kathryn Stamp, a dance researcher, educator and Assistant Professor at the Centre for Dance Research, who specialises in inclusive dance, dance education and dance and health, has now weighed in on whether there’s any truth to these claims. She stated: “The people that this ‘curse’ has been spoken about, you can track back to where there’s been nothing that’s come from it and there’ll be people for whom something did come out of it. “It’s something that just gets applied but there’s no consistency in terms of the reality of it, and the reality is different for everyone. “We just have to be careful with talking about people’s lives and people’s children and things like that. “It’s similar to certain stereotypes like sports people being good or bad at dancing and things like that, there’s no consistency.” She continued: “Dance is a social activity, particularly Latin and Ballroom, you’re in a partnership, but you can absolutely have platonic relationships as part of the partnership. “[The curse] is a bit of a nothing for me, because it’s so individual to the lives of everyone.” On the topic of the line-up, she said: “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 elaborated. “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 at 6.40pm.