I am strictly stricken by nerves but hide it from partners reveals Kevin

STRICTLY star Kevin Clifton says he is “all over the place” with nerves just before he hits the dancefloor but keeps it a secret from celebrity partners.

The professional dancer, who joined Strictly in 2013, says he has to keep his pre-show jitters hidden because he has to be “like a rock” for them.

He calms himself by sitting quietly in his dressing room before going to collect his partner to perform.

Kevin, 37, told BBC Breakfast: “I’m all over the place with this sort of thing.

Worried

“I’m really nervous before any performance – even on Strictly, where it’s more my comfort zone. I get nervous before going on.”

When hosts Louise Minchin and Dan Walker revealed their surprise, Kevin said: “Before I go and meet my partner, I’ll take a few minutes in a room on my own because I don’t want them to see that I’m going through this nervous process.”

Louise said: “I’d be really worried if I saw that you were nervous.”

Kevin replied: “I go through my own process...a few certain moves and this whole routine that I go through before going out to perform.”

He said it was important because he has to be “like a rock” for his partners.

And the dancer said that he found he was talking more openly about mental health issues on his podcast after he talked with performers about their thoughts and the creative process.

He said: “I found that when I’m talking to people the conversation very quickly takes a turn into anxiety and mental health and the mental process that people go through, because it turns out all performers tend to be a bit nuts.”

Kevin, who will soon star in a stage version of The Wedding Singer in London, also said that he intended to take a few months off work because he has had little time for a holiday in the last few years.

He said: “It never happens. I keep saying I’m going to take a break. I’ve been working solidly for two, three years, between Strictly, Burn The Floor, the Clifton Dance Academy Online that I do with my sister, my podcast. All of this stuff. I need to rest.”