Rose Ayling-Ellis has joked that her dance partner Giovanni Pernice was “sweaty” as the couple practised their Argentine tango for the Strictly Come Dancing semi-final.
Appearing on Strictly It Takes Two, the actress was shown a video clip and laughed at her apparent disgust at being so close to her dance partner, calling him “sweaty”.
In the footage, Pernice joked: “Stop doing the sweaty thing. People would pay to have this sweat and be this close with me.”
Ayling-Ellis, the show’s first deaf contestant, remains the favourite to win the series having recently won over viewers with an emotional contemporary routine featuring 10 seconds of silence in tribute to the deaf community.
In the Strictly Come Dancing semi-finals, the EastEnders actress will dance an Argentine tango to A Evaristo Carriego by Eduardo Rovira, and waltz to How Long Will I Love You by pop star Ellie Goulding.
On the BBC Two show, Pernice told host Janette Manrara that they learnt their waltz routine in just three hours.
He added: “She really understands the ballroom, I think this is going to be a good dance for her.”
In the semi-final this Saturday, Bake Off winner John Whaite and Johannes Radebe will dance a jive to Coldplay and deliver a couple’s choice routine to Adele’s Hometown Glory in a bid to make it to the grand finale.
AJ Odudu and her partner Kai Widdrington face a rumba to Show Me Heaven by Maria McKee and they will also take on a quickstep to Sing, Sing, Sing by Benny Goodman.
CBBC host Rhys Stephenson and pro partner Nancy Xu will deliver a samba to It Had Better Be Tonight (Meglio Stasera) performed by Michael Buble, before dancing a tango to Queen’s One Vision.
Strictly Come Dancing’s semi-final airs on December 11 at 7.05pm with the results show on December 12 at 7.20pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
