Getting To Know… Anastacia
At 48, the powerful singer has battled back from surgery and is relishing the challenge of Strictly
◆ Taking part in Strictly is a dream, it’s such a new challenge for me. I’ve never done anything like this before so I hope I pull it off! I’ve got a lot of training to do before I’m twinkle toes!
◆ I’m taking part in Strictly for my own challenge as a woman recovering from so many different health issues. Most recently, I had a double mastectomy so for me it was kind of getting in touch with my female body, re-learning to use my body on stage as a singer and I felt like when I was offered the opportunity I couldn’t say no.
◆ 2013 was pretty much a whole year of surgeries and I just recently had a smaller surgery. Everything is good now but there is a lot of back and forth with surgeries. I would say I’m two years clean of those kinds of surgeries which is a relief as the recovery was a lot.
◆ The biggest challenge will be trying to get out of my head properly and get into the movement. That whole outer body experience where I’m doing the move and it looks really weird but when your partner does it, it looks really great. When I do it I’ll look like I’m giving birth!
◆ Those Latin rhythms are something that I grew up with living in New York so I’m comfortable with those movements. Not that I’m great at them but they feel more natural than ballroom, the sound and everything about the tone of the Rumba – but I don’t know any technical stuff!