The news couldn’t have come at a worse time. Aljaz Škorjanec is leaving Strictly Come Dancing after nine years of bringing warmth and sparkle to the coldest, darkest months of the year.
Hot on the heels of Oti Mabuse quitting, it feels like the spirit of the show is in danger of being lost – but Aljaz’s exit is even more upsetting than it first appears.
Our headlines are being dominated by male violence whichever way we look, from – at the most extreme, genocidal, nuclear end of the scale – Vladimir Putin ’s evil destruction of Ukraine to – at the other end of the seriousness spectrum – the Oscars featuring a live assault.
It’s relentless, coming at us from every angle. That’s why we need to see good, kind men like Aljaz more than ever. To remind ourselves that they exist.
Aljaz is probably the most classically handsome male dancer on the show, and he’s been paired with many extremely attractive women over the years, but there’s never been even a whiff of rumour or scandal.
His ever present and comforting smile almost became the show’s unofficial mascot, lighting up our Saturday nights.
Aljaz’s wife, fellow dancer Janette Manrara, says: “I have admired him from the day I met him for his passion for dancing, but more than anything for his kindness.
“He makes every single person he encounters feel absolutely special; ask any of his partners throughout the years.”
Good role models who redress the toxic masculinity balance feel few and far between.
Aljaz no longer being in our living rooms, making us all feel special, every weekend for 13 weeks of the year is a proper loss.
Although, ironically, if you’d had to make a list of celebrity men you’d feel safe with before this week, Will Smith may well have been on it. He seemed amiable, calm, stable.
Now we’ve seen him laughing at a joke, and then a split second later, flipping, and losing control of himself to the extent that he physically attacked someone on a live TV show being broadcast all over the world.
That nice guy image we bought into took 30 years to build, and 30 seconds to destroy. And it was a chilling, frightening reminder that you never can tell. Even a man who seems like he isn’t dangerous, can suddenly switch. Beware.
It feels obscene to mention Putin in this context, like comparing a tadpole and a killer whale. No one would ever have felt safe with him, even before his invasion of Ukraine.
It’s also undeniable that this horrendous war wouldn’t be happening if the President of Russia was a woman. There’s never been a female dictator in modern times, and that doesn’t seem like coincidence.
What we need now is for men to go against the grain, not follow the herd. Be More Aljaz. Let his legacy of nice, gentle kindness live on, prosper, become less and less extraordinary.
And in the meantime, thanks for the memories, Aljaz. Don’t go changing.
Please .
