World champion dancer Katya Jones has been a professional on Strictly Come Dancing for 10 years, but exclusively reveals why she never felt ‘worthy’ of her success until she joined the BBC show
Katya Jones is now one of the Strictly Come Dancing’s longest-serving professional dancers, currently celebrating her 10th year on the hit BBC dance show. Before joining the series, Russian-born Katya, now 36, was already an nine-time British National and three-time World champion in Latin Champion.
But in a heartbreaking admission, she has revealed that despite her professional glory, it wasn’t until she took to the Strictly dancefloor for the first time with her celebrity partner Ed Balls that she “finally thought, ‘I’m good at this'”.
Speaking to OK! for an exclusive photoshoot to mark the return of the show, Katya explained that her years in the competitive world prior to joining the series were so rigorous and demanding that it left her with little time or energy to enjoy or celebrate her wins.
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“Before, as a multi-World and British champion, the feeling was, ‘You’re never good enough,’” Katya said. “Standing on the podium, I often didn’t feel I deserved to win. I’d be thinking, ‘But I didn’t do this bit right,’ or, ‘What will my coach say?’.”
She continued, “My first year with Ed was unexpectedly wonderful for me, and I think it was an unexpected highlight for everyone else. Because of that, it was the first time in my life I thought, ‘I’m good at this.’
“Being able to encourage someone to train after an awful day is a win for me. Working out a routine that lets my celeb partner shine is a win. There are lots of less obvious wins than the Glitterball win, even though that’s pretty incredible, too.”
Katya and ex-politician Ed placed sixth in her debut series, but their moves on the dancefloor became the stuff of Strictly legend – with their famous Gangnam Style routine earning them a nomination in the Must-See TV Moment category at the BAFTAs.
In 2020, Katya made Strictly history as part of the show’s first ever same sex partnership, with professional boxer Nicola Adams. The pair were tipped to do well, but had to withdraw in the fourth week after testing positive for Covid.
As Katya, who was married to fellow dancer Neil Jones until 2019, opened up about some of her less enjoyable moments from her time on the show – including the attention that followed the Seann Walsh kiss-gate scandal – she also explained how she copes with the spotlight of being on one of the biggest show’s on British television.
“The press interest in the show is huge, so I just focus on the work. People can like or dislike me, they can criticise me, but not my work if I do it well,” she said.
“It’s like I have two parallel lives – my public life and what really happens in my life. They co-exist but they’re not the same. My real life is when I go for a walk with the dogs or play piano.
“Whatever noise is out there about my parallel life, I won’t let it spoil real life. This is the message I would love everyone to hear from me – the outside noise doesn’t define your true life.”
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