JB Gill says training without his Strictly Come Dancing dance partner Amy Dowden has been “surreal”, as she skips this week following an illness.
Dowden, 34, is said to be “doing much better” after a health scare forced her to miss Sunday’s results programme after being taken to Barnet Hospital.
Professional dancer Lauren Oakley, who does not have a partner for this year’s BBC One show, has stepped in to perform with JLS star Gill at the weekend.
While on the way to train with Oakley, Gill spoke to the BBC Radio 2 programme Scott Mills, presented by OJ Borg on Thursday, about how it has been without Dowden.
He said: “We’ve been able to build an incredible rapport over the last six, seven weeks and it’s been great going to the training room with her and working on the new routine and, for me, learning different styles – whether it’s a ballroom style or new Latin style – and then watching that process sort of as it builds into the show that we put on, on the Saturday night.
“So to not have her in rehearsals this week has been a bit surreal.
“But the best thing … is that she’s taken some time to get better.
“We’re obviously wishing her all the best as she recovers.”
Speaking about working with Oakley, Gill said: “Well, of course everybody’s different and especially when you’re doing partner work – Amy’s slightly shorter than Lauren, you know, there are little sort of bits and pieces that are different for each of them.
“So for me coming into that and not, obviously, being a professional, it’s just about having to adapt to how they dance, and the best way for us to partner together.
“The good thing about this week is that I’m doing my couple’s choice, so it’s not so much ballroom hold or Latin partner work and lifts and so on.
“It’s gonna be a bit more, I guess, individual side by side, because it’s icons week this week on the show and we’re gonna have a chance to express ourselves together.
“So actually, I feel like it’s gonna be a good way for me to, you know, to approach obviously the changes that we’ve had this week.”
Gill says he will be doing a Bruno Mars-themed performance on Saturday night.
On Monday, a Strictly spokesperson said: “Amy Dowden MBE is doing much better and the Strictly family send her love and wish her well.
“She is delighted that fellow professional dancer Lauren Oakley is able to step in for rehearsals and to perform in Saturday’s show for JB Gill’s couple’s choice dance.
“We are all hopeful that Amy will be back to dance with JB next week.”
Dowden’s management company said on Instagram she “was discharged from hospital the following day and is now resting” and would be supporting Gill and Oakley.
This year the dancer returned to competing on the show after undergoing treatment for breast cancer, including having a mastectomy and chemotherapy.
In February, Dowden revealed that tests showed she has “no evidence of disease”, and later fronted a BBC show which delved into her condition.
She has also documented her Crohn’s disease in Strictly Amy: Crohn’s And Me, and said meeting others in a documentary had helped her “accept” her own condition for the “first time ever”.
The lifelong condition, in which parts of the digestive system become inflamed, can cause stomach aches and cramps, fatigue and diarrhoea, among other symptoms, according to the NHS website.
