Graziano Di Prima’s column
It has been reported that Strictly Come Dancing wants to be “as progressive and inclusive as possible” by potentially including a same-sex male couple on the 2021 series. After the success of Nicola Adams and Katya Jones’ samesex pairing last year (who sadly had to leave the show when Katya tested positive for Covid19), it’s so exciting that they want to keep the momentum going. I would love to be chosen as part of that same-sex couple!
When fellow pro Johannes Radebe and I performed together on the results show during the 2020 series, we got such an overwhelmingly positive response – people reached out to us, saying how important it was to them. I know that for Johannes – who is gay – it was such an incredible feeling to have that support. There were 200 complaints about the routine, but you just have to ignore the negativity because we know that what we’re doing is really powerful, even though dancing together is pretty normal for us.
It’s so important to make stands like this because dancing really is for everyone. Who said that it needs to be a male and female that dance together? There’s nothing wrong with two men or two women dancing together, so it’s great that Strictly are encouraging that. Hopefully, we can get to a place one day where it’s completely normal and doesn’t have to be a talking point.