It’s Strictly dynamic
IT HASN’T started very smoothly... “I cannot be looking at the screen,” insists Strictly Come Dancing’s Gorka Marquez. “But I can’t see you,” I protest. “No, we didn’t plan on visuals today,” one of Gorka’s several representatives, who I can’t see either, interjects.
We are trying to accomplish that modish phenomenon... the Zoom interview.
But with Gorka – like Bono, a one-name star – invisible and the signal coming and going, it is not going terribly well.
I had been warned interviewing Gorka could be “tricky”.
His ever-present reps had already laid down the rules: “Gorka has requested questions to be submitted in advance for approval. In addition, there are specific topics he will not cover.”
Oh? “Anything about his relationship with Gemma – he will not discuss or focus content on this.”
And? “Any gossip about the personal lives of any of his Strictly partners.”
I explained I never write questions in advance. That what I was after was a chat. Hmm. Could I send some sort of outline?
“Gemma” is Gemma Atkinson, the
38-year-old former star of Hollyoaks, Casualty and Emmerdale.
She has been Gorka’s partner since they met on Strictly in 2017, when she was one of the celebrity dancers.
Currently the drive time host of Hits Radio Network, Gemma is a regular on Loose Women. She’s a social media queen, and almost all of it involves Gorka, who is six years younger.
But he doesn’t want to go there.
Instead, I ask about that moment when he and his celebrity partner, TV presenter Helen Skelton, realised they had lost in the final of Strictly 2022, and his face fell not into a frown so much as a fury.
Many Strictly fans were shocked.
Their steamy Mein Herr from Cabaret was considered by far the best. But they lost to 28-year-old Polish pro Jowita Przystal and her star pupil, the 32-yearold wildlife presenter Hamza Ahmed Yassin. There was the inevitable Twitterstorm, with rumours of Gorka storming off, never to return. “I was upset in that moment obviously,” he says, “because you want to win it, and you have a celebrity who is improving so much and been through a beautiful journey.”
It was the second time Gorka had reached the final, he reminds me.
His shocked reaction on the night, he insists, images of which instantly went viral, “only shows that I love and care about the show. I think it would’ve been worse if I was laughing and enjoying not winning the show”.
When Gorka appeared to drop out of January’s Strictly Live tour, it only fanned the flames. “I didn’t drop out of the show,” he insists. “I never said I was going to do it in first place.”
Life he explains “is about finding the right balance between work and family. I want to spend time with my family, time with Gemma, time with Mia, because that’s very important to me”.
Mia is Gorka and Gemma’s three-yearold daughter. They announced their engagement on Valentine’s Day 2021. A wedding date has yet to be announced.
Gemma discusses his long absences on Instagram, where she has 1.8 million followers.
Just the day before talking to Gorka, she announced she was pregnant with their second child.a boy this time.
“Yes,” he says. I can’t see his face, but he sounds like he’s smiling. “Little mini Gorka.”
Does it make any difference to you that it’s a boy this time? “No, I’m just grateful to be able to have another baby and give Mia a sibling.”
Gorka reunites with fellow Strictly star Karen Hauer when their 19-date Firedance tour begins on February 23.
Hauer is a 40-year-old Venezuelanamerican Latin dance maven and world mambo champion, and the longest-serving professional on Strictly.
They toured their first Firedance show in 2019, then came back in 2021 with a better version of the same show.
This latest touring Firedance promises to be the most spectacular yet. Karen joins us on Zoom to explain.
“Well, it’s lovely to be bringing the show back for the third year,” she says.
They had “such a lovely reaction from the audiences” last time, that bringing it back this year seemed a no-brainer.
“Reinventing it, reigniting it with new music, new choreography. If people saw it last year, they’ll see a completely different show this year, with some of our favourite moments still. I am just really, really excited to get going and get on the road.”
Is it a relief, after Strictly, for them to be back dancing with a fellow professional?
“There is a right time and a right place,” says Gorka. “When we do our show, it’s the time for us to do what we love to do, what we’ve been trained for and to showcase our capabilities and abilities to