By Meghna Amin

Copyright walesonline

A Strictly Come Dancing expert has addressed the “curse” rumours that plague the BBC competition. A new batch of 15 celebrities are taking to the ballroom this year, with the pre-recorded launch show airing on Saturday . Gladiators legend Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, Love Island winner Dani Dyer, Hollywood star Alex Kingston and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink will be joining EastEnders actress Balvinder Sopal, George Clarke, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK performer La Voix, Chris Robshaw and model Ellie Goldstein. Controversial Apprentice star Thomas Skinner, Vicky Pattison, Neighbours’ Stefan Dennis, Ross King and former footballer Karen Carney were the final stars confirmed, with Lewis Cope replacing Kristian Nairn who had to withdraw for medical reasons. Each year, Strictly is hit with rumours of a so-called curse, which refers to the trend that celebrities end their long-term relationships and begin a romance with their pro dance partners. Those include comedian Seann Walsh who was photographed kissing Katya Jones in 2018, while they were both in relationships, with Katya married to fellow Strictly pro Neil Jones at the time. Stacey Dooley and Kevin Clifton also confirmed their romance after the competition, though denied they’d been involved romantically while on the show. Ben Cohen split from his wife of 11 years, Abby, after appearing on Strictly with Kristina Rihanoff, who he now shares a daughter with, though he denied ending his marriage to be with Kristina. Meanwhile, Dianne Buswell and Joe Sugg have announced that they are expecting their first child together after meeting on Strictly in 2018, and Rachel Riley and Pasha Kovalev have two children together after partnering on the series in 2013. Last year, rumours swirled around Pete Wicks and his dance partner Jowita Pryzstal, though neither confirmed anything more than a platonic relationship. And this year will likely be no different, with fans speculating whether the “curse” has hit once the professional partners and celebrity pairings are revealed. Dance researcher and educator and Assistant Professor at the Centre for Dance Research Dr Kathryn Stamp, who specialises in inclusive dance, dance education and dance and health, has now addressed if there is anything behind those accusations. She said: “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 went on: “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.” Speaking about the line-up, she added: “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 continued. “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, September 20