Life inside rehearsals amid Zara McDermott and Graziano Di Prima fallout

Former Strictly Come Dancing skilled Kristina Rihanoff has welcomed the BBC’s choice to provide stars chaperones throughout rehearsals, after complaints about two fellow dancers on the present.

Talking to BBC Information, she mentioned she thought celebrities would now “be feeling slightly bit extra comfy” to enroll to the present.

Rehearsals had been usually “irritating” and “pressurised,” she mentioned, including that celebrities would really feel “comfortable that there can be any individual watching and observing the conditions”.

Strictly has been hit by a string of damaging allegations regarding former dancers Giovanni Pernice and Graziano Di Prima.

Pernice has denied “any suggestion of abusive or threatening behaviour”. On Thursday, Di Prima’s spokesman admitted he made a “mistake” by kicking celeb accomplice Zara McDermott as soon as throughout rehearsals.

Earlier this week, as extra revelations got here to mild, the BBC introduced it could put a member of the Strictly manufacturing workers in all future rehearsals, and that there would even be two new devoted welfare producers.

It insisted it could at all times take any points severely and act when made conscious of inappropriate behaviour.

Rihanoff, who was on the present between 2008-15, mentioned the brand new measures had been “higher now than by no means”.

Cameras had been “the reply to the whole lot, actually, as a result of it is there and you may’t get away from that”.

Throughout her time on the present, Rihanoff was partnered up with celebrities together with the political broadcaster and creator John Sergeant, boxer Joe Calzaghe, Blue singer Simon Webbe, Australian actor and singer Jason Donovan and rugby participant Ben Cohen.

Reflecting on her time on Strictly, she described it as “great” but in addition “a problem”.

Rehearsals had been exhausting, and dancing companions typically wanted to “stroll away from one another” in irritating moments, she mentioned.

The strain ramped up the nearer {couples} bought to the finals, she mentioned.

“It’s a must to study a number of totally different dances and also you’re already exhausted and your celeb accomplice is exhausted, and also you simply really feel the warmth,” Rihanoff mentioned.

“It is a actually, actually pressurised setting and loads of dancers wrestle with psychological well being.”

She mentioned she thought it wanted to be defined to celebrities that the present was “not a stroll within the park”.

However she added that there was “by no means an excuse for violence”.

“All of us really feel annoyed,” she mentioned. “It is a regular feeling, we will not deny now we have them, but it surely’s the way you cope with that frustration.

“You shouldn’t actually get onto your celeb. You may simply say, OK, let’s take a second. Let’s stroll away from one another, have a cup of tea, and simply restart in a few minutes.”

She added that dancers wanted to “stay skilled” as they ready celebrities for his or her Saturday evening performances.

“I can’t discover actually [a] cause to justify disagreeable behaviour.”

Strictly has been on the centre of controversy after complaints about Pernice in addition to Di Prima.

On Tuesday, TV star Zara McDermott, who was partnered with Di Prima final 12 months, mentioned she was concerned in incidents within the Strictly coaching room that she now finds “extremely distressing” to observe again.

Di Prima’s spokesman Mark Borkowski mentioned the information agenda has centered on an remoted incident the dancer deeply regrets and has apologised for.

“There may be by no means a time when kicking, or any sense of that’s proper,” Mr Borkowski advised BBC Information. “And he is aware of that.”

However McDermott’s spokesman mentioned on Thursday: “Zara has already confirmed in an announcement launched on her social media earlier this week that the reported conduct was not a singular incident.”

Each Pernice and Di Prima have been unnoticed of this 12 months’s Strictly line-up.

Broadcaster Rev Richard Coles, who appeared on the present in 2017, advised BBC Breakfast he was “not shocked” by the revelations.

“On the coronary heart of the Strictly expertise is that this intense relationship you’ve together with your dancer, and far of that [happens] unobserved,” he mentioned.

“It will get very intimate, and it will get very bodily in methods which I feel typically shock folks.”

Like Rihanoff, he welcomed the transfer to introduce chaperones.

“I feel that is good for contestants. I additionally suppose it is good for dancers,” he mentioned.

Internet hosting Good Morning Britain on Thursday, TV presenter Richard Madeley said that folks he is aware of who’re concerned within the present “all speak about these points, and so they say that they’ve all identified about them for years and years and years”.

He added that “the lid has been saved on it however now the lid is coming off”.

Expertise agent Sue Ayton, who represents celebrities like Angela Rippon, who appeared on final 12 months’s collection, mentioned the BBC’s responsibility of care measures had been “exemplary”.

Nevertheless, she advised BBC Radio 4’s Media Present each she and Rippon understood “the relentless coaching, the laborious work. So we went into it with our eyes large open. We have each labored with dancers, we all know how laborious it’s.

“We all know, in a brief interval, they have to show folks into, for all intents and functions, skilled dancers in a really quick time.”

Former BBC One controller Lorraine Heggessey, who commissioned Strictly, advised BBC Radio 4’s Immediately programme it was “very unhappy” that “clearly a line has been crossed”.

“However I feel what’s essential is that the BBC is coping with it swiftly, and setting up measures to ensure that these items do not occur once more.”

The allegations have solid a shadow over the collection in its twentieth anniversary 12 months, with the celeb line-up for this 12 months’s collection anticipated to be revealed within the coming weeks.

“I feel Strictly can recover from this,” Heggessey mentioned. “I feel we must always hold on to all of the positives, handle the problem and transfer on.”

In an announcement, Kate Phillips, BBC’s Director of Unscripted, mentioned: “While we all know our reveals have been optimistic experiences for the overwhelming majority of those that have taken half, if points are raised with us, or we’re made conscious of inappropriate behaviour, we are going to at all times take that severely and act.

“Issues which have arisen have been essentially associated to coaching and rehearsals. The decisive steps now we have taken and are introduced at present, act to additional strengthen the welfare and help in place for everybody concerned with this manufacturing.”