Saturday night's instalment of Strictly Come Dancing saw viewers tune in at the all-important mid-way mark in the race for the coveted Glitterball trophy and couple to be declared show champions.
But this week's BBC show left the audience reaching for their tissues as body language Expert Judi James cast her eye over Saturday night's Strictly Come Dancing describing a 'tidal wave of tears' here in her exclusive Mirror column...
Overcome by emotion on an emotional night.
With Blackpool looming next week all the couples were more desperate than usual to avoid the dance-off and that panic produced a tidal wave of tears.
Will was unable to speak after dedicating his dance to his dad, Hamza was lost to happy tears after his African number but a video call from his gran and aunt tilted him into some sobs of distress.
Tess had a vague stab at sounding tearful and Motsi was reduced to performed tearfulness twice, both with Hamza and tears of pride for Fleur.
The true upset of the night was Kym though.
Kym’s whole experience of Strictly has been very emotional but despite that she decided tonight to dedicate her dance to her baby Archie that she lost soon after his birth. It was a brave choice but ultimately it seems to have been too much emotion for her to handle and control during her routine.
She began the dance magically but the judges told her there was ‘a change of energy in the middle’.
Too much personal emotion seems to have affected her dancing and Kym said herself that she made ‘silly mistakes as the emotions got to me’.
The result was so sad to watch. Kym kept a hand pressed to her stomach as though trying to keep her emotions in check with this self-comfort barrier ritual. She kept rubbing as though soothing herself but then she became apologetic to Graziano, placing a hand on his ribs and looking up at him with a desperately unhappy eye expression.
While some of the other dancers were busy squeezing tears out tonight, Kym seemed to be suppressing hers to a point where it was painful to watch. She sucked her lips in and she kept nodding as though desperate to join in out of sheer politeness.
When Graziano pulled away from Kym to speak to Claudia, Kym looked so vulnerable, patting her stomach again and appearing to be shaking before patting his chest and apologizing, making Claudia reach out to touch her to reassure her as well. Kym crossed her legs at her ankles in a gesture of vulnerability and she was blowing air from her mouth in a signal of tension and pressure.
Residual emotions might power some performances but for Kym it looked overwhelming. Up until that point her dancing was utterly beautiful but she badly needs to have fun in Blackpool next week.
