Ola Jordan has weighed-in on what could stand between Tasha Ghouri and the Glitterball trophy after she found herself in the dance-off again - despite being hailed one of the best dancers in the competition.
Former Love Island star Ghouri, 26, is set to go head-to-head with Chris McCausland, JB Gill and Sarah Hadland at the weekend but could her dance background be putting off voters?
Before appearing on the 2022 series of the ITV 2 dating show, Ghouri - who was born deaf - trained as a dancer at Creative Academy in Slough and has since competed at major dance events. She specialises in commercial, which is a broader style of dance popularly seen in music videos or on stage at music tours.
While describing Ghouri’s Waltz last week as “the best Waltz in the series” Jordan - who served as a pro on the BBC dance competition from 2006 until 2015, winning in 2009 with news presenter Chris Hollins - does think Ghouri and pro partner Aljaž Škorjanec may have some hurdles to overcome.
Speaking to the Standard on behalf of Mecca Bingo, she said:“Tasha is the best dancer but she’s not getting the public vote.
“Her dance background might be going against her, but it depends on what people like at that time and what dance she's going to do.”
“She did the perfect Waltz this week, and she's still quite high on the leaderboard because she was second from the top. She's dropped down so she's obviously getting fewer votes than Chris and Sarah.
“We've got to remember that Sarah and JB have had some kind of dance training as well, so it's important to say that it's not only Tasha who has some previous experience. Let's not forget that and let's not pick on Tasha only, it's not fair.”
Jordan thinks ultimately it’s going to come down to between Gill and McCausland to win this year’s Strictly, but says it will be a tough week for McCausland as the BBC dance competition’s first ever visually impaired contestant as the pressure intensifies.
She explained: “The others have had dance training but it’s going to be the hardest week for Chris because he's got to remember all the routines.
“He can't see, he can't copy [pro partner] Dianne [Buswell] so it’s going to be hard for him.”
