Giovanni Pernice has been a Strictly professional dancer for just shy of a decade. He’s danced jazz dressed as a skeleton with Steps’ Faye Tozer, vogued with RuPaul’s Drag Race judge Michelle Visage, performed a Lion King-inspired samba dressed as Pumba with TV presenter Richie Anderson, and, in 2017, he spun Debbie McGee around his neck, hands-free in the final (which he’s made it to a record four times). When he finally won in 2021 with Rose Ayling-Ellis, the programme’s first deaf contestant, after dancing in silence during their couple’s choice routine, he became the undisputed king of Strictly.
Now it’s all over. The Sun has reported that Pernice has “quit” Strictly following complaints from his former celebrity partner Amanda Abbington over his strict teaching methods. Abbington left last year’s series early and later claimed she had been diagnosed with “mild PTSD” following a series of bust-ups with Pernice.
Laura Whitmore and Ranvir Singh, who danced with Pernice in 2016 and 2020 respectively, have also referred to Pernice’s tough training style. On Loose Women, Singh told her co-hosts that she was a “bit scared” of him, while Whitmore said on a 2020 podcast that she was “extremely uncomfortable” with the dancer she was paired with and ended her time on the series “broken, both mentally and physically”.
It has since been reported that the BBC has launched an internal investigation into Pernice following complaints by three unnamed “traumatised” celebrities.
Now, an internal memo leaked to The Sun shows that Pernice’s name is not on the list of pros competing in the next series, due to start in September.
Abbington’s allegations have led to a grim scandal that has hung over Strictly for the better part of a year. Fans are desperate to know what really happened between the pair. That interest isn’t surprising given Pernice’s popularity – he’s good looking, game for a laugh and above all, an outstanding dancer. It also proves a long-held theory by Strictly fans: that it’s the pros, not the celebrities, that we really care about.
Over the 20 years Strictly has been on television, the professional dancing line-up has become just as important to viewers as the celebs. When it comes to revealing the partners in the annual launch show, we’re excited about which dancer is partnered with which celebrity, not the other way around. Just think of how sorry we all felt for Anton du Beke (always the bridesmaid, never the bride when it came to the Glitterball Trophy) when he was paired with Judy Murray, Ann Widdecombe, Susannah Constantine, and Jacqui Smith.
The celebrities are ephemeral obsessions, their popularity lasting only while they’re on the dancefloor (unless of course, they succumb to the “Strictly curse” and shack up with one of the pros, like Gemma Atkinson – married to Gorka Marquez, Rachel Riley – married to Pasha Kovalev, or Stacey Dooley, who recently had her first baby with Kevin Clifton). For some, Strictly is a chance to make their debut to the masses, for others it’s a chance to boost their career to the next level. Either way, they join the show under the shadow of its pros, deferential to their expertise and the relationship they’ve already developed with us at home.
As the mainstays of Strictly, the pros are the ones we can look forward to seeing week-in, week-out. While we do root for the celebrities, we also vote for our favourite dancers – we track their past wins and hope they get the recognition from the judges we feel they deserve.
I’m not sure underdog Bill Bailey would have won in 2020 if it weren’t for the nation’s love for his partner, Oti Mabuse – and I think we can all agree that Strictly lost a bit of its sparkle when she departed two years later. It’s no surprise that she’s gone on to judge Dancing on Ice, have her own ITV breakfast show and present personal BBC documentaries – she was made for TV and had a readymade fanbase of Strictly viewers who had fallen in love with her charisma, honesty and talent over the previous six years.
She’s not the only one with transferable skills: the Strictly pros are seasoned all-round entertainers. Years of professional dance competitions – the plastered smiles, the fake tan, the glitzy outfits – have prepped them for the cutthroat world of showbiz. No matter what the tabloids are saying about them, on Saturday nights they’re the epitome of sparkly professionalism – reliable, enthusiastic, brilliant.
Pernice’s exit might sound like bad news for Strictly and the BBC (just like Mabuse, he is reportedly making the jump to ITV, with rumours swirling that he’s signed up for I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here) but it will ultimately save it. Behind-the-scenes scandals taint what is supposed to be a joyful, family-friendly series, suggesting a dark side of overzealous training and backstage misery. In other words, the happy, shiny floor Saturday night shows would be undermined and exposed as a fraud.
Now, the show must go on. There are plenty of other Strictly pros who are ready to become Strictly’s golden boy. Johannes Radebe is mesmerising on screen, Kai Widdrington is proving himself to be the hunk of the series, and Nikita Kuzmin is a formidable competitor. Whoever emerges as Strictly’s next hero, one thing is certain – it’ll be all eyes on them, not whichever D-lister is on the end of their arm.