The Love Island winner has been replaced by Amber Davies in a move that reportedly made Strictly stars ‘furious’
Dani Dyer has shared a message to the Strictly cast ahead of tonight’s live show, after the cast were reported to be ‘furious’ about her replacement, Amber Davies.
Earlier this week, Dani had to withdraw from the dance show after fracturing her ankle during training. The former Love Island winner had been partnered with Nikita Kuzmin. Following her departure, Amber, who won Love Island the series before Dani, was picked as a replacement.
Dani has now taken to Instagram to wish the rest of the cast good luck. She wrote on her stories: “Good luck to all the gorgeous cast starting there strictly journey tonight can’t wait to watch you all, so proud & know how hard you’ve all been working.. see you all soon.”
Strictly stars were said to be fuming at the decision to replace Dani with Amber, due to the latter’s extensive dance experience. The 28-year-old has had leading roles in dance heavy musicals such as The Great Gatsby and 9 To 5, and used to work as a dancer at London nightclub Cirque Le Soir.
According to an insider, the other competitors felt it was “unfair” that someone with such training was chosen, especially when another of this year’s replacement castmates, Lewis Cope, also has dance experience.
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“The celebs are trying to be good sports about everything and don’t want to let on to show bosses they’re unhappy,” The source told The Sun. “But behind the scenes, all the chatter is they think it’s unfair that the line-up now includes two sensational dancers who have substantial experience on stage. Having one celeb with that kind of background is one thing but having two is seen as unfair, particularly if they both ended up in the final.”
This sense of unhappiness was strongly denied by the BBC, who told the Daily Mail: “We’ve been shown absolutely no evidence to suggest that this story is true, or that the anonymous quote it is based on is from anyone connected to the series.”
Amber and Lewis, who joined Strictly before it’s pre-recorded launch show following Kristian Nairn’s withdrawal, are just the latest contestants to have prior dance experience. Last year, finalist Tasha Ghouri was slammed for competing when she had worked as a professional dancer before. Likewise, Ashley Roberts had dance training, as did Layton Williams.
However, none of these dancers are trained in specifically ballroom and latin techniques. As such the Strictly pro-dancers and judges do not feel these celebs are at an advantage.
Anton Du Beke, who has been on the series since it started in 2004, said: “Some people might have done some dancing but it wont have been fox trots and cha-chas. It will be mainly musical theatre or commercial. It will help them a bit. There is a small advantage to it really.
“I have not seen many of those who have actually won. The deciding vote it always yours. You know what becomes difficult, they come out week one and they are really good and they get to week ten and they are a bit the same. They haven’t improved much.”
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