Strictly Come Dancing contestant Shaun Wright-Phillips has admitted to becoming emotional after his dance-off performance. The former footballer and his partner Alexis Warr survived the bottom two, while Gavin and Stacey actress Melanie Walters was eliminated alongside Aljaz Skorjanec.
Emotional reaction backstage
Appearing on the spin-off programme It Takes Two, Shaun discussed the judges' feedback during the results show. He said: "I think that element of the judges giving information brings me back to when I played football. From when I was 13, I've been criticised in football, and sometimes you take it as a criticism, and sometimes you take it as information to get better."
He added: "That is how I took what the judges said; at the end of the day, they're the professionals, they're seeing it from a different view."
After their quickstep in the dance-off, Alexis revealed: "After he did it, he got emotional. We went backstage, and he started getting all teared up."
Looking ahead to Icons Week
Describing his feelings, Shaun responded: "I performed it; she [Alexis] was over the moon about it, so that made me even happier. It honestly felt like I was climbing Mount Everest or something."
The duo are now preparing for Icons Week on Saturday night, where they will perform a couple's choice routine to a James Brown medley. Alexis said: "So far, it's going very, very well in terms of steps and stuff like that. She's trying a different tactic this week in terms of learning everything at once. Instead of trying to do it like a puzzle, I'm doing it all in one so teaching the arms and legs together, start to get more co-ordination into it."
She added: "I know there's co-ordination in you somewhere." Strictly Come Dancing continues every Saturday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
