Rockett’s review
best choreographers. They chatted at the launch show and I didn’t get a word in edgeways. We’ve been out for meals. And it has been wonderful.”
Mike said rehearsals with Katya for last night’s routine left him covered in strange marks.
He said: “We’ve tried some lifting and now I have bruises on my arms. They are quite impressive – one looks like a crouching tiger.”
But Katya could see why they might start tongues wagging. She said: “We needed a microphone in the routine so we used a wooden stick. But when people come into the rehearsal room they see me standing there with a stick and Mike covered in bruises...”
Katya has put last year’s scandal behind her. She and husband Neil, 37 – another of Strictly’s professional dancers – announced they had split last month. They said their 11-year relationship had become like a friend
ship rather than a romance but insisted Snog-gate was not the cause of the break-up.
Katya says they are still on good terms and she doesn’t get jealous when she sees her ex on the dancefloor with his 2019 partner, football pundit Alex Scott.
She said: “It’s nice to see Neil and Alex do their thing. I’m so proud of him. Dancing is our life. It brought us together and it’s some
thing that we will always share.” Now Katya is sharing her experience with Mike – and he says he’s already feeling the benefits of her training.
He said: “I’ve never had so much energy running through me. And Emily is really pleased I’m losing weight. I’ve lost half a stone.”
When they wed in May, Emily was given away by her nineyear- old son from a previous relationship. Mike has three girls with first wife Kim. They divorced in 2009. janine.yaqoob@
mirror.co.uk Neil Jones, humiliated last year when wife Katya snogged her comic celeb Seann
Walsh, opened the show with footballer Alex
Scott. And they didn’t disappoint with a brilliantly choreographed guickstep.
Fancy footwork all round. This pair should go far! 21/40 Former Corrie babe Cath Tyldesley was in full Eva the Diva mode with a seriously plunging neckline that flashed her own glitter balls.
Shirley calling her and partner Johannes Radebe “a beautiful couple”. Can’t argue. 20/40 He’s late to the party but Emmerdale star Kevin Fletcher was channelling pure John Travolta cha cha cha-ing with Oti. Electrifying! The highest score in week one for years. 32/40
Aw, Saffron Barker and AJ Pritchard look like they’ve been dancing together for years. The
You Tube star fits perfectly with AJ, and in week one they’ve already found their rhythm and were so suited in their matchy-matchy red and black outfits. 27/40
Olympic gold medal winner James Cracknell looked terrified and as wooden as a canoe. Poor Luba Mushtuk didn’t have much to work with – a tango with zero passion. 11/40