Former Strictly Come Dancing professional Kristina Rihanoff has said she believes the BBC needs to check that their professional dancers are qualified to teach, saying it can be ‘frustrating’ to teach novices when you have no experience.
The pro dancer also said she believes the BBC needed to invest in more cameras and camera crew to ensure training was always filmed for proof.
Speaking on GB News Kristina Rihanoff said: “We’re yet to see what’s going to happen this year. I think they have to put more measures in place to keep everybody safe, celebrities and of course professionals too. We also suffer like everyone else, feeling overwhelmed, overworked with nobody to talk to.
“It is a very difficult environment, very stressful. We all worked very hard to deliver the best show we could on Saturday night.
“But from the professionals point of view, I could never remember that they actually had somebody who could help me manage stress levels, or my mental health at that time, where the times were very rough.
“I was going one year on the show when my mum was having a cancer scare, and I still had to go and perform, and I was battling inside between, ‘Should I just leave and go and see her or stay on the show?’
“So there are difficult times for every single person who is involved in the show, not just the celebrities but the pros as well. And I think having so-called ‘well being producers’ will be super helpful.
“We are never in the same room with another pro training another celebrity. It never happened to me for eight years on the show and I don’t really think it would be happening now.
“We actually always had cameras with us every single step of the way. I don’t think it’s exactly the same at the moment and I think it is an issue.
“And to me, even though they want to do chaperones now, which is great, I’d rather think about investing in more cameras and more camera crews, so everything is filmed at all times. Then you have the proof right there in that video.
“I have such fun memories of [John Sergeant] working together and I think he was my kind of lucky card, because I was just finishing my competitive career and I came on the show.
“We wanted to go as far as I possibly could, maybe win. But I understood that I had to be clever , I had to choreograph some fun choreography and just have a good time with a gentleman and kind of understand the way he works and the way he would enjoy the show. I think it was a perfect pairing.
“I think what really needs to be done is understanding, can the professionals they have now actually teach? Do they have a pedigree as teachers, because the primary job is to teach novices, and it can be frustrating and it can be challenging.
“This is your job as a professional, to be able to teach and deliver the information and make the person flourish and enjoy the show.
“I don’t know [if current professionals are qualified teachers] because I don’t know the background. A lot of the dancers on the show, I simply don’t know because they are quite young.
“So when I left the competitive world, they weren’t on the scene yet. But in my generation of dancers, we were older, I think we were all competing professionally and therefore teaching, because we obviously had to finance our dancing like that.
“I just think there has to be a much process and see at the vetting stage are these pros have experience in teaching?
“Because at the end of the day, if you’ve never taught an elderly gentleman or any adult who’s never danced, you were always taught yourself quite full on and quite harsh in our competitive world.
“It’s hard work and I think maybe the BBC needs to explain to the celebrities that actually it’s a very intense show. It’s no joke.
“But the BBC contract, they only have to do 12 hours a week. That’s a minimum. You can’t do anything in those 12 hours, it’s just simply not enough, and it’s a very gruelling work schedule.
“I think the celebrities need to be more prepared and know more about what it really requires to be on a show like that.”
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