Kristina Rihanoff
On show 2008-2015
IF YOU wanted to find Kristina just before a live show, your best bet was the toilet. “I would have a bit of a zen moment on my own before a show, for some mindfulness, to just be,” she says. “It wasn’t easy to find a quiet space as backstage was hectic, so I’d often just end up in the toilet.” Kristina would use yoga and meditation as a way to deal with the pressures of the show. She says: “I’d get frustrated with myself, like how can I make this better for the celeb. It’s a physical and mental roller-coaster.”
Saturdays can be particularly strenuous with 6am starts.
Kristina, 43, says: “I have great memories of making the finals with Jason Donovan and Simon Webbe, but I could never forget my first Strictly season with John Sergeant.
“I was showing him the steps to a paso doble, assuming he was following, but minutes later I turned and he was just staring like, ‘I’ll never be able to do that’. I made him stand on the spot and clap to the beat so I could dance around him.” But no matter how many hours she put in with John, Kristina recalls Craig lacerating their performance.
“I’d work so hard with John – getting him to do anything that would work for the show really was a miracle – and then Craig would describe it as ‘a disaster’.”
Kristina began dating her dance partner from series 11, Ben Cohen, and they went on to have a daughter together. “I have happy memories from the show. It gave me everything I have in life now,” she says.