Strictly Come Dancing star Luba Mushtuk has revealed a surprise new career away from the much-loved BBC dance contest. Luba, 33, who joined the team of Strictly professionals in 2018, is enjoying working on her new interest in her spare time, which she revealed in a chat with the Manchester Evening News.
Luba, 33, has a love of acting and is being helped by her friend Rose Ayling-Ellis, the reigning Strictly champ who lifted the Glitterball trophy with Giovanni Pernice last year. Rose, who broke through barriers as the first deaf contestant to take part in the show, played Frankie Lewis in BBC soap EastEnders for two years.
"I have a love of acting - it's my new boyfriend," said Luba. "It's something I'm extremely passionate about just lately. I'm very new to all of it but I've always wanted to know how it's done."
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She explained: "You see incredible actors and this year I decided to go for it. I'm having one-to-one sessions with an incredible actress. She's phenomenal and it's something I'm looking forward to doing more and more. I think it might help with my dancing as well."
She added: "It would be a dream to do a dance film to combine both things. For now I'm just learning and studying and I have the biggest for respect all this."
She said about learning from Rose: "I'm lucky enough to have friends who are actors, for example Rose who is a really good friend sometimes she'll come over and we do acting together and that's really really fun. She'll give me notes and say 'not that, do this' it's beautiful to have that.
"The last time she was here she said 'it's such a shame I haven't done the rumba' so we'd do the rumba and then we did some acting. "That's how our nights go. We do acting, we do dancing, we do pasta and then we go home and sleep."
Luba, who has been partnered with rower James Cracknell and former NFL player and sports pundit Jason Bell on Strictly, wowed audiences with an electrifying Argentine Tango with fellow pro Karen Hauer last month during which she had to lift Karen.
The breathtaking routine saw fans call for Luba to follow Karen, who was partnered with comedian Jayde Adams this series, in having a same-sex partner on the show. "I would to do that anytime, any day, please," she said.
"I'm very proud of that routine. I'm not used to lifting anyone so that was very interesting," explained Luba. "As a follower I know exactly what I need, so I was trying to give Karen exactly what I usually need. And I surprised her. She told me I was the best partner I'd ever had."
Luba, who joined the show as assistant choreographer in 2016, started out in dance competitions at the age of four. "My first partner who was seven was extemely embarrassed that I was four and he was seven because I was too young for him," she recalled.
"My mum would make my hair high because he was tiny and he was much higher than me. By age of 12 I had invitation to study with a world champion teacher in Italy. I left Russia for Italy at the age of 12.
"Strictly I wanted to do it for 10 years. I saw it on TV and was mesmerised. I thought 'this is so interesting and so beautiful.' Dreams come true if you really want it."
She added: "I made my dream come true finally, It was a beautiful moment. It's just a special placee to be. I'm grateful to call this my job. I share it with people who are so special.
"I was assistant choreographer for two years and I was always behind the scenes. I remember imagining myself on that floor and imagining myself in that group number. In 2018 when that happened I was the happiest girl on the planet."
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