Motsi Mabuse knows that when people meet her for the first time, they are expecting to meet a showgirl. The former pro dancer and Strictly Come Dancing judge has flown in from her home in Germany this morning but, post-photoshoot, she is wearing a baggy black sweatshirt, leggings and trainers. It’s funny, I say, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen you dressed down. “You will never see me dressed up ever, unless I’m on TV,” she says. “My sister in South Africa, she’ll call me on FaceTime and be like, where’s the girl from TV? Who are you? I’m like, forget her! She comes out on Friday. On Sunday…” She mimes stuffing herself into a box. “Cupboard. Far away.”
It is mid-afternoon when we meet, and she is emerging from the cupboard. Off-screen, she speaks more softly than she does on TV. She says that she is “really, really, really particular” about the words she uses, and that on the other side of the showgirl personality is “a very deep thinker”. She is about to head off to the Strictly studios, where she will meet this year’s batch of contestants for the first time. She is looking forward to meeting Angela Rippon, who used to present Come Dancing, the late-80s proto-Strictly that Mabuse would watch on TV in South Africa when she was a little girl. “She’s a legend in the dance world,” she explains.
