‘You’re a **** dancer,’ Karen yelled at me
THINGS were changing dramatically at Strictly.
Traditionally, the pro-dancers had a lot of say in our outfits and song choices, but under the new executive producer, Louise Rainbow, it was very different. I was told I was not allowed to wear a catsuit, which had become my trademark.
And the footage of rehearsals, which used to be natural, was now heavily edited, often in a gimmicky way.
Towards the end of October we were told we were going to be doing a hip-hop number for a group dance on the Halloween show. All the pros gathered in the studio at Elstree early on a Monday to learn the dance, after which we’d all go off and train with our celebs.
We had to hold ourselves like puppets and I really didn’t like it. Arguments started breaking out.
It was a sign of the massive pressure we were under.
‘I’m struggling here,’ James admitted. ‘Can’t we change the step?’
‘No,’ some of the other dancers said. ‘We think you should leave it.’
Karen Hauer was one of the dancers who disagreed with James, as did her boyfriend, now husband, Kevin Clifton.
‘Why don’t you just do it?’ Karen snapped at James aggressively.
The heat was clearly rising in the studio. I admitted I was also finding the routine a real struggle.
Karen then shouted directly at me. ‘Why don’t you just get on with it?’ Kevin shouted at me too, and they both just started going crazy. I was taken aback and all of a sudden Karen was right in my face, shouting at me and waving her arms. It was completely over the top and I could feel my pulse racing.
‘Let’s talk about it,’ I stuttered, but Karen was not listening and just kept going on about how I should just shut up and get on with the routine. ‘Karen, let’s talk,’ I said. ‘No!’ ‘Then what? What are you going to do?
‘She screamed something in my face. It was a vile threat, although she denies it.’
Karen was inches from me. Fellow professional dancers Pasha Kovalev and Artem Chigvintsev rushed forward and pulled Karen away.
People don’t realise the tense atmosphere we work in, or the way we were being treated – and there were harsh words on both sides.
I tried to compose myself but it was no good. Two minutes later I ran out of the studio and burst into tears, and then Pasha and Artem ran out to find James.
James saw red and charged back to the studio. Karen had gone but he saw Kevin and gave him a piece of his mind.
Meanwhile, I ran to find a producer, but Karen had beaten me to it and was already talking to a junior producer in the corridor. ‘Why is she allowed to do this?’ I asked. ‘How can she behave like this?’ ‘F*** off, you’re a s*** dancer,’ Karen snapped at me. ‘That’s why they put you at the back.’ The producer tried to defuse the situation but I was shaking and feeling very upset. I agreed to go to a meeting with Karen and the producers when I was back in London later that week. I was dreading it but I knew I had to be there and when we did eventually meet with the BBC, Karen was calm and we made up. This had been a really bad experience and was very upsetting, and I needed to draw a line under it. That was supposedly the end of the matter, but deep down I couldn’t forget how she made me feel. Somehow the story was leaked and Karen got a lot of abuse online. People were effectively bullying her, and I didn’t like it. In the end I stuck up for her on Twitter, telling people to stop sending her nasty tweets and accusing her of bullying. I made it clear that Karen had apologised and we had moved on. This was true. It took a bit of time, but Karen and I did patch things up and we are fine now.