Rose Ayling-Ellis has come clean about how much she initially 'hated' what went on to be her iconic routine on Strictly Come Dancing, fearing it would comes across as a 'patronising' stunt.
It' been nearly two years since Rose began her Strictly experience, alongside pro partner Giovanni Pernice. Former EastEnders actress Rose made history on the BBC show, by becoming its first ever deaf contestant and her pairing with Giovanni ended up giving Strictly one of its greatest partnerships to date, with the two wowing judges and fans alike.
It took just a week of the 2021 series for Rose and Giovanni to be installed as favourites to win and, on their way to clinching the Glitterball trophy, they also delivered one of the show's most memorable performances ever witnessed in the ballroom. During the routine to Clean Bandit's Symphony, Rose and Giovanni danced to 10 seconds of complete silence, in support of the deaf community.
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As well as them reprising it in the final, the Couple's Choice performance went onto win Rose and Giovanni a BAFTA TV award but, in an interview with The Guardian, Rose admitted she did have serious reservations about it. She explained: "I hated it. I watched this pre-recorded video by external choreographers and immediately didn’t like what they’d come up with. I was up for the idea, as long as it wasn’t a patronising stunt. An attempt to get the pity vote, all sad, dreary and ‘poor me’."
She added: "It was what hearing people think deaf people experience. Very insular, cut-off, small. It was so sad. And that’s not me."
Rose also revealed that the routine was then reworked, with her realising that it could 'be a big deal,' when all of the Strictly crew stopped what they were doing in rehearsals to watch it"
The groundreabking routine scored 40 on its first outing and then again in the final, when Rose and Giovanni beat runners up John Whaite and Johannes Radebe.
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