House of the Dragon star Bethany Antonia is competing on Strictly Come Dancing with professional dancer Nancy Xu, a partnership she requested before signing up. The 28-year-old actress, who has no previous dance experience, said she would not have done the show any other way.
Request for a female partner
When approached about the show, Bethany made one condition: her partner had to be a woman. "Well, first of all, I'm a lesbian. When I was approached to do the show, that was the only thing that I asked for. It was a no-brainer for me. I don't think I would have done it any other way, and I'm so happy with how it's been received," she said.
She cited boxer Nicola Adams, who danced with Katya Jones in 2020, and comedian Jayde Adams, partnered with Karen Hauer in 2022, as groundbreaking examples. "Nicola and Katya doing the show, it was such a massive deal and so transformative for our community - it was groundbreaking," she explained. "So if I have the opportunity to do that for another young girl who might be in the same position as me, who might be coming out, who might be questioning their sexuality or their gender, I absolutely am going to take the opportunity to do that."
Six years ago, she said seeing such support on television helped her come out fully to friends and family. "Seeing them all be so supportive of two women on the telly made it so much easier to say, 'Oh yeah, me too!'".
A meaningful partnership
Nancy Xu, 35, is an award-winning Latin expert who joined Strictly in 2019 after appearing in the Chinese version of So You Think You Can Dance? and in Broadway and West End versions of Burn The Floor. She is in a long-term relationship with Italian martial arts expert Mikee Michele. The pair "clicked straight away", Bethany said. "We were like two little girls. Everyone was saying, 'Oh, we knew you two were going to dance together.' And we were like, 'How?' They said, 'Well, you are always together and giggling.'"
Bethany also felt the pairing was right because Nancy shares the name of her late grandmother, a huge Strictly fan who died at the start of this year. "Last Christmas, when she was really poorly in hospital, we watched Strictly on the iPad," she explained. "And she was like, 'You'll be on that one day, Beth.' For the call to come in the year she passed away was just unbelievable. And on top of that, her name was Nancy. I know if she was here, she'd have been so happy and supportive of me doing the show."
Training for eight hours a day with Nancy is "my idea of heaven", Bethany said. "It just feels like I'm being paid to move my body and experience this euphoria that we chase as adults. Everyone's always trying to cram in 20 minutes at the gym, or 15 minutes on a run, so being given access to this kind of world, I'm just blown away by the dancers. They're all so energetic and excitable, and I can see why, because it is blissful getting to dance like this."
Teaching and learning
Nancy, who has not previously been paired with another female during her seven years on the show, said gender makes no difference to her teaching. "It doesn't matter about the gender," she explained. "I've learned so much and I have upgraded my teaching skills during my whole Strictly Come Dancing journey. I can dance the way I want, but when I have to share my knowledge to different people, it's based on their life experience and what they do. The first thing Bethany needed to learn was how to wear high heels!"
Nancy has been watching Bethany's shows, from a part in former BBC daytime soap Doctors to the West End musical Hadestown and the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, in which she played Lady Baela Targaryen. "She is an amazing student because she's such a humble person," Nancy said. "I think I'm very lucky to be sharing this journey with her, because I have a diamond in my hand. She's a beautiful treasure box."
Despite scoring strong marks of 26 and 27 in the first two weeks and receiving compliments from the judges, Bethany is not a classic stage school kid. "I did dance classes as a three-year-old, and then quickly was like, 'This isn't for me,'" she laughed. "It's feeling so nice to figure out if this is something that I am actually going to be any good at." She attended The Television Workshop in Birmingham, where she grew up, and landed her first proper role in Doctors aged 18.
Highlights and what's next
One of her best moments came after her quickstep in week one, when judge Craig Revel Horwood declared: "That's the first bit of good dancing we've seen all night!" Bethany said it felt like she'd "won the lottery" but also felt bad for the five celebrities who had already danced. "It was amazing, but then it didn't feel very fair at all to the couples that had gone before us. So it was kind of bittersweet."
Last weekend, her face was painted bright green for her Paso Doble to Wicked for movie week, ending with a flourish as she was hoisted into the air on a harness. "I just kept thinking, I can't believe I'm on Strictly Come Dancing and I'm flying in the air," she said. "It just felt so surreal. Cynthia Erivo is one of my icons, and getting to do her version of Elphaba with the box braids - that little nod just felt so special."
This week they will perform an American Smooth, which Bethany feels is very different to her previous dances. "Week one was everybody's intro to who they were and then week two was Movie Week. So this feels like the first week where everything has been stripped away and we're going to learn a whole routine full of technique. I'm really excited."
Having started the contest with her very favourite dance, she said: "I just felt so jammy! I was like, 'Oh, I've been given a woman, and I'm dancing the quickstep in week one!' It's a dream come true." Asked if they could become the first all-girl partnership to make the final, she said modestly: "Oh my goodness, I don't know. I think we're just trying to make it to Thursday to be honest."
Strictly Come Dancing airs Saturday on BBC1 at 6.15pm.
