Dame Sarah Storey became the third celebrity to leave Strictly Come Dancing on Sunday night, after a difficult week that ended with her bottom of the leaderboard and losing a dance-off to actress Bethany Antonia.
The multi medal-winning Paralympian, 48, admitted she felt “very exposed” performing as Shania Twain for Icons Week and looked shocked when the real Shania appeared on screen to wish her and partner Julian Caillon good luck. Shania, who also invited Dame Sarah to show her the dance the next time she is in the UK for a gig, added: “I hope you impress the judges.”
A Tough Week of Training
During the week, the mum-of-two had told how much she was struggling with the dance, writing on social media: ”Big fat tango tears almost taking me down today. Typical that the words of the song I was making all the mistakes in were 'That Don't Impress Me Much’.
On Saturday night she told presenter Emma Willis that Anton du Beke was right and she was "a little bit" lacking in self belief. “It’s very strange to be strutting in a costume and a wig,” she confessed. “Being asked to do it, I feel very exposed.”
The Judges' Verdict
Moments later the four judges, led by Shirley Ballas, awarded her the lowest scores of the night with all 5s apart from Anton du Beke’s 6, leaving her with 21 points. Head judge Shirley described the dance as “like a tango I’ve never seen before in my entire life” - saying it was “all toe-led” with “no heel” and that it had “too much bounce”.
Craig Revel Horwood said she had “dropped the ball” during the solo sections and Motsi said that at least she had stopped counting out loud, which she had been criticised for the previous week. Anton gave her a pep talk saying “you’re better than you think you are” and urging her to “believe in yourself a bit more because you’re really quite good". He pointed out that she never makes mistakes during her live performance and called her timing “immaculate”, also telling her: “You’re stopping yourself from taking the next step.”
The Dance-Off and Aftermath
In the end it was the voting public who did that, after she ended up in the dance off with Bethany Antonia, who performed a Cha Cha as Aretha Franklin to her classic song Respect. All four judges voted to save Bethany and so Sarah became the third celebrity to leave the show. Bethany scored 28 for her cha cha and was told she had “confusing” leg action and needed to get her weight forward.
Top of the leader board were Cach Mercer, who did a foxtrot as Frank Sinatra, and Jaime Winstone, who was David Bowie for her Paso Doble, who both scored 34 points. Sunday night’s results show also saw the professional dancers transform into different eras of Madonna as they paid homage to the Queen of Pop and there was also a special tribute to Dolly Parton as singer Belles sang Dolly’s iconic Jolene, accompanied by a performance from Amy Dowden and Kai Widdrington. Delta Goodrem missed out on this week’s show as she nurses her injured ribs but is expected to return next week.
