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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Katherine Heslop

Strictly's Ellie Simmonds fights back tears as fans blown away by her 'magical' waltz

Ellie Simmonds wiped away tears on Strictly Come Dancing this evening, as her waltz was described as 'special' and 'magical'.

Viewers were entranced by the Paralympian's dance with Nikita Kuzmin, for which she was awarded 30 points by the judges.

In the rehearsal studio Nikita, 24, and 27-year-old Ellie chatted about how they were adapting the waltz for the sportswoman's achondroplasia dwarfism – and were both proud of breaking new ground.

After their performance to Can't Help Falling In Love by Elvis, Ellie appeared emotional and wiped away tears as the judges give their feedback.

Head judge Shirley Ballas said: "There's so much magic in something so simple and that's what you did today. It was just beautifully executed."

Nikita and Ellie dance the Waltz (BBC)

She went on: "You show people we can all do what we love."

Motsi Mabuse had huge praise for the performance, adding: "You guys are just special what can I say."

Fans took to Twitter to share their praise, with one person saying: "Holy Moly Ellie Simmonds dancing to Can't Help Falling In Love has just finished me n @acacia_jude off #Strictly ".

Another person wrote: "Finally managed to stop sniffling at the beautiful #Strictly dance from #elliesimmonds A truly wonderful watch."

Ellie fought back tears after her dance (BBC)

A third person penned: "Whether it ticked all the ballroom dance boxes, I don't know. But what I do know is that it was beautiful to watch #Strictly #elliesimmonds."

Earlier this week, Nikita and Ellie spoke about how adapted the Waltz.

Speaking on This Morning, the pro dancer said: "Realistically, it's quite a lot but at the same time we still have the same technique. We still have the same rules but I think we're doing something very special so we're investing all our hearts into everything.

"Obviously there's a lot to do with the ballroom hold.

"The hold, the stride. Usually you and your partner have the same size of stride but now we have to figure out how we're going to move around, especially with the ballroom dance."

He added: "It's such a beautiful thing that we're doing. For me, as a creative person and a choreographer, it's something so beautiful."

"This was a really challenging week, but I can say proudly I got her smiling by last night," Nikita said, as Ellie went on to add: "I was struggling. I couldn't remember the next move, it was just frustrating."

Nikita and Ellie have spoken of how they adapted their waltz (BBC)

It comes after Ellie admitted she is just going to "grab" onto Nikita as she discussed the adaptations they make.

"It’s new. How am I going to grab him, I mean hold him? I’ve never danced in my life – so how are we going to work it out, how are we going to adapt, it is the unknown," she said.

"It just gets me emotional really. I’m the first individual with dwarfism to do it in the UK. When I was a kid, if I’d seen someone with dwarfism doing a dancing show on a Saturday night, it would just be something so special."

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