Strictly Come Dancing’s fourth same-sex pairing wowed audiences on Saturday’s show
BY NIC CROSARA, IMAGE BY BBC/GUY LEVY
It’s that time of year again. Each weekend celebrities and their professional dancers will take to the dance floor in attempts to win this year’s glitterball. Back in July, it was reported that Strictly were hoping to cast two same-sex pairings this time around. Before we got to meet this year’s #Strictlified contestants, it was already revealed that Richie Anderson would be in a same-sex pairing. However it wasn’t until 23 September that we found out comedian Jayde Adams would also be in a pairing with Karen Hauer.
Jayde and Richie are following in the footsteps of Olympian Nicola Adams and Katya Jones who were the show’s first ever same-sex pairing in 2020. Unfortunately the pair had to pull out of the competition due to testing positive for Covid. Last year Bake Off’s John Whaite and Johannes Radebe made it all the way to the finals and brought tears to everyone’s eyes in their queer joy filled showdance.
When Jayde and Karen took to the floor on Saturday (24 September) to the sounds of Christina Aguilera’s Dirty, I instantly fell in love with their partnership. Their debut performance was full of energy and received a standing ovation from the audience who were clearly living for it. The “pinch me” moment had Jayde holding back tears as she spoke to co-host Tess Daly.
My personal favourite judge, Motsi Mabuse was full of praise saying: “You came down the steps and I said, ‘Samba you are in trouble, you have never met this woman!’”
After performing, Jayde told Claudia Winkleman that Karen has a unique way of giving criticism when training. Instead of saying “no” or anything negative, Karen will apparently hiss at Jayde, and when Jayde does something well she’ll receive a nose boop. Followers of Strictly’s Instagram will have seen some joyful backstage footage of Jayde chanting “Let’s go girls!” and the pair giving each other an abundance of nose boops.
In an interview with Digital Spy Jayde explained her reason for taking on a same-sex partnership. She shared that it fit her previous training on the dance floor with her background in competitive disco dance along with her late sister. This partnership was a full-circle moment for her. “I think my partnership with Karen is more about sisterhood, and if you’re in the dance world, which I was as a child, the sort of all-girl and all-male partnerships [are] quite commonplace.”
She also joked that: “If I was in a male partnership, show me one of the lads that’s lifting me. I’m now going to be able to throw Karen Hauer around that dance floor. She’s going over my head, I don’t care!”
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