Strictly Come Dancing contestant Jamie Laing is one of the contestants with previous dance experience, it has been revealed.
The Made in Chelsea star, who is one of the 15 celebrities taking to the floor on the upcoming series of the BBC ballroom competition, studied theatre and performance at university.
Jamie spoke about his background in dance on The Greatest Dancer podcast earlier this year, with his quotes resurfacing this week.
He said: “Contemporary dance you can do anything you want, I feel like if you’re given some ribbons and you roll about on the floor, everyone is going to be like ‘that is contemporary’.”
The reality star admitted that his contemporary dance module had put him off dancing for a long time.
He explained: “When it came to finally enrolling in my course, people had already picked what they wanted to do and the only thing that was left was contemporary dance.
“So for the whole first year I had to do contemporary dance. As I was the only boy, I had to be the bulb in the flowers and all the girls were petals.
“All of my friends were sitting in the front row and they were all laughing at me and I thought ‘this sucks’, so my experience of dance has been skewed a bit by that.
“It was the worst thing in the world, I’d wake up every day and think ‘why have I done this.’”
Jamie, who was at the centre of reports he had split from his girlfriend ahead of Strictly earlier this week, is not the only celebrity among this year’s contestants who has a dance background.
EastEnders star Emma Barton previously admitted she thought she even had too much experience to take part in the show.
In an old interview, the Honey Mitchell actress suggested it might be unfair for her to take part, having already played Roxie Hart in a touring production of Chicago.
The soap star added: “I’d love the chance to learn ballroom dances, but it’s scary to be in the spotlight.”
Emma isn’t the only star on the line-up who has previously been involved in the theatre, with CBBC presenter Karim Zeroual starting his career as a child star in the West End, appearing in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Lion King.
Check out the full line-up for this year’s Strictly – which was recently revealed as the most racially diverse in the show’s history – below...
