By Meghna Amin
Copyright walesonline
A dance expert has revealed who could be the underdog in this year’s season of Strictly Come Dancing . The beloved BBC competition is set to return to screens in a matter of days, with the launch show having already been recorded, overlapping with the National Television Awards . Gladiators legend Harry Aikines-Aryeetey was announced as the first celebrity taking part, having performed in the Christmas special last year, and was followed by Love Island winner Dani Dyer, Doctor Who star Alex Kingston and footballer Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. EastEnders actress Balvinder Sopal, George Clarke, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK performer La Voix, Chris Robshaw and model Ellie Goldstein have also joined the line-up, as well as controversial Apprentice star Thomas Skinner , Vicky Pattison , Neighbours’ Stefan Dennis and Ross King. Former footballer Karen Carney and Emmerdale actor Lewis Cope were the final stars confirmed, with the latter replacing Game of Thrones’ Kristian Nairn who had to withdraw for medical reasons. They’ll be following the likes of Tasha Ghouri, Sarah Hadland and JB Gill, who made it to the final last year, while Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell lifted the glitterball trophy, making history along the way. This year, bookmakers are speculating who could follow suit, while others suggest which celebrity will be the first voted out. 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 spoken about what we can expect this year. Speaking about the line-up, she began: “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 went on. “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.” Pointing out that Ellie, who is “so excited and enthusiastic”, and Lewis stood out, after he joined the line-up later following Kelvin Fletcher who then went on to win, Dr Stamp predicted a sports star may make it to the end. She said: “With the sports stars, it’s always interesting because some of them really struggle but tend to be in there for quite a long time and learn to master things and work hard, and some of them are brilliant, we’ve had three sports stars win so you never know which way it is going to go.” She continued: “I do like an underdog, and I think it’s sometimes hard to know before they’ve even stepped on the dancefloor. I’m always asked who is going to win, and I’m like, ‘They’ve not even danced yet, I don’t know.’ The bookies will say one thing and everyone will have their favourite. “One of the underdogs would be the bookies’ favourite to go out first, because you don’t know, they might suddenly be incredible.” She pointed out that Ross and Stefan could be the underdogs, saying that though they may have “potential”, both are low on bookies’ odds to win. “The top five to go out first are all men so there’s something quite interesting there at the moment, any one of them could be an underdog.” She went on: “It’s hard to say without seeing them dance, but we’ve had people like Tony Adams who did struggle and has been open about it, or Jeremy Vine, who was open about how he got a lot of critique from the public and the judges about his performance, but they were trying. “We’ll see in that first show that they are trying but are also incredibly nervous. It’s the first one, so we’ll get a sense of what is going to happen after that, but part of it is about learning, and I like to see them do a bit of learning.” Judges Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Anton du Beke and Shirley Ballas are all set to return for Strictly this year alongside hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, while the professional dancers have been sharing glimpses at training on social media, as the likes of Amy Dowden and Nikita Kuzmin return with two new pros, Alexis Warr and Julian Caillon. Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One and iPlayer on Saturday, September 20.
