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Former Strictly Come Dancing judge Dame Arlene Phillips has rallied behind Amber Davies, after the Love Island champion received a devastating setback. Amber jumped in to take Dani Dyer's place on the BBC show at short notice, and has been paired with Nikita Kuzmin. Despite impressing the panel with her routines, the West End performer has stirred up debate amongst viewers as many are arguing her previous dancing background provides her with an "unfair" edge. And after struggling to gain support this weekend, Amber found herself in the feared dance-off, though was eventually rescued when the judges eliminated Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink instead. Speaking on Loose Women on Monday 27 October, Dame Arlene was questioned about the "scandal" surrounding Amber that led to her dance-off appearance, reports Wales Online . She responded: "Amber can dance, there's no doubt about it. Amber has trained as a dancer, there's no doubt about it. "But so many of Strictly over the years have trained as dancers. Do they have an advantage? Yes. They know how to go forward, back, right, left, move in rhythm, however, it doesn't mean they're going to win, not at all." Referencing champions like Bill Bailey and Stacey Dooley who had claimed the glitterball trophy despite lacking dance training, she continued: "It doesn't mean you'll win, let's just enjoy every performance and stop thinking, 'They shouldn't win.' "Amber is a lovely human being, a hard worker, a terrific performer, but she's as lost as everyone is when they come to Ballroom and Latin." Following Strictly's results show, Amber turned to Instagram to share her devastation at finding herself in the dance-off. She wrote: "A gut wrenching evening in the dance off, especially dancing against two of the most amazing people I've met on this experience, @official_jfhasselbaink and @laurenmayoakley - I feel extremely lucky and thankful to be able to experience Halloween week on strictly, but there will be two very special people missed. "If you voted for us really really thank you, I guess this week we aim for a come back week? ! @nikita__kuzmin thank you for holding my extremely shaky hands extra tight." This follows a Strictly expert's response to the annual "fix" allegations that surface each series. Dr Kathryn Stamp previously explained: "It's a challenging one because there are certain skills that come from learning a body-based activity, but then you could say the same for sports people, like bodily awareness and balance and control, they're going to have that but that doesn't mean they're going to do well on Strictly, it's not an immediate factor. "It's the same with an actor or musician or singer, they'll have something useful in their job because they are a performer, so they might not have the physical technique from dance training but they'll have something else." She further commented: "You could look back at the history of Strictly and pick out a number of people who have had some sort of dance background and didn't do very well, just as much as you can point out people who did do well... there's just not a clear pattern." Strictly Come Dancing is on BBC One and BBC iPlayer
