Copyright dailystar
Strictly Come Dancing star Amber Davies initially shot to fame on Love Island in 2017 - but she had actually graced national television screens months before that. The West End performer is now stepping onto the dance floor alongside Nikita Kuzmin after stepping in for Dani Dyer , who was compelled to pull out following an ankle fracture. Given her background in the entertainment world, Amber has had to fend off "fix" accusations and was devastated to land in the dance-off last weekend. The 29-year-old triumphed in the third series of ITV's dating programme Love Island alongside Kem Cetinay, and subsequently built a theatrical career, featuring in musicals Back to the Future, Pretty Woman, The Great Gatsby and is set to portray Elle Woods in Legally Blonde next year. Amber, who has also featured on Dancing on Ice, originally comes from North Wales, but relocated to London after securing a scholarship to study musical theatre, reports Wales Online . She then starred on The X Factor before her TV career in the spotlight, singing backing vocals. She could be seen singing behind Leona Lewis and Ben Heynow during The X Factor finale in 2015, and later took to social media, saying: "Loving this action show from last night @leonalewis @BenHaenow what an experience!" Ahead of taking part in Strictly , Amber said: "I've watched Strictly with my family since I was younger and to now be part of the show is a dream come true. I'm going to give it my all and I am sending Dani well wishes for a speedy recovery. I hope I do her proud." Despite ranking high-up in the Strictly leaderboards over recent weeks, Amber and Nikita faced the dance-off last weekend, competing against Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Lauren Oakley who were eliminated from the show. She later took to Instagram to express her devastation, saying: "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 comes after a Strictly expert hit back at the "fix" claims that arise every year. Dr Kathryn Stamp previously shared: "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 added: "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 continues on Saturday at 6.35pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
