My body’s held together with tape but I am doing it for the over 50s
Noodles as that’s the easiest thing to do. I’ve dropped a dress size already, it’s crazy how fast the weight comes off you.
“It’s going to be my excuse to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe. I’ve only really got workout gear at the moment and even that’s starting to go baggy.” s Nina, a mum-of-two, prepares to step on to the dancefloor in front of millions of viewers tonight, she is feeling the pressure. She says: “Just thinking about hearing my name being introduced makes me feel nauseous. “Honestly, I feel sick to my stomach. Everyone’s very scared. One of the celebs, who will remain nameless, wakes up first thing in the morning and there’s a swear word in the group WhatsApp. “Then it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s coming’. You see it as a tsunami on its way.” For week one, she is taking on one of the toughest dances, a sexy Latin Samba. Nina says: “When they told me we were doing the Samba I almost cried. I was like, ‘Why is that our first dance?’.
“It’s in my head constantly. The other night I couldn’t sleep, so at three in the morning I was in my living room with my AirPods in just dancing.”
She has confessed to a plan to come up with a new character for every dance – so what alter ego has she created for tonight?
Nina says: “We’ve been calling her Valentina. She’s Brazilian and she’s going to bring it. It’s like Beyonce when she brings out Sasha Fierce on stage, I’m going to become Valentina, a sexy, goddess diva.
“She’s the only way I’ll get through the sexy bits. There’s this one bit where I have to slide my hands down my head and my neck, and I tell Neil, ‘Close your eyes when
I do that bit, as I feel really stupid’. I do not feel like a sexy person.” Will fiery Valentina bite back if she doesn’t like what the judges, Craig Revel Horwood, Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke, have to say? Nina says: “Valentina might.” Nina says her husband of 23 years, composer Raiomond Mirza, has been very supportive. She says: “I’ll come home and go, ‘Can you rub my shoulder? Can you rub my feet?’ And he’ll be like, ‘Yeah, it’s fine’.” Nina’s “work husband” Neil has set his sights on staying in Strictly for weeks. She says: “He thinks we’re going to get to the semi finals. “I hope he’s right because I’m really enjoying myself.” Strictly Come Dancing, BBC One, tonight, 7pm.