Oti Mabuse has admitted she “feared” for her life after a lift went wrong in Strictly Come Dancing rehearsals with Kelvin Fletcher.
The pair have been practising their jive to Jailhouse Rock from Smokey Joe’s Cafe this week ahead of this weekend’s show.
However, during an appearance on Strictly: It Takes Two on Wednesday night, the pair spoke about their Salsa performance last weekend and Oti revealed she was left “flying across the room” during rehearsals.
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Oti said: “At this point of the competition, we’re all trying to push each other. So when you get lifts, you’re like, ‘how can I make these lifts scary and impossible?’
“[Kelvin] just kept getting better and better. But after [the dance] I thought, ‘what was I thinking?'”
On Wednesday, he gets faster and I almost fly across the room.
Host Zoe Ball asked: “You simplified it a little bit for the show. Were you in fear of your life?”
Oti replied: “I was! Every week Kelvin starts slow, but then he progresses incredibly.
“So when we were doing it, I thought ‘you have your hands up and I’ll have my hands up’. On Wednesday, he gets faster and I almost fly across the room.
“I was like, ‘oh my god, don’t let me go!'”
Earlier this month, professional dancer Oti hit back at claims Strictly judge Shirley Ballas made her cry after she said there was “a little bit too much rise and fall” in their performance.
Shirley, 59, told the pair after their routine: “There’s very minimal rise and fall in the Viennese Waltz, and there’s just a little bit too much rise and fall for me.
“Also the fleckerl that you chose to dance, and if you choose to dance it, it’s a rotary figure that should actually have more power, and it looked a little bit stuck, for me.
“Although I totally enjoyed the emotive part and I give you 100% for that, also I want to take into account the other one minute and 25 seconds that you’re dancing. But otherwise, I thought you did a grand job.”
Just to be clear. Nothing @ShirleyBallas said to us was wrong nor did it make me tear, she was being honest and her critique is valuable to our journey, I’d like us to improve & as I stated before I was emotional about THE DANCE & how happy dancing made me feel (HAPPY TEARS) 💜
— Oti Mabuse (@OtiMabuse) November 3, 2019
After viewers slammed Shirley for her criticism, Oti cleared things up on Twitter.
She wrote: “Just to be clear. Nothing @ShirleyBallas said to us was wrong nor did it make me tear, she was being honest and her critique is valuable to our journey.
“I’d like us to improve & as I stated before I was emotional about THE DANCE & how happy dancing made me feel (HAPPY TEARS).”
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