Arlene Phillips has had her say on the ongoing furore surrounding ’Strictly Come Dancing’s Seann Walsh and Katya Jones, insisting they should perform this Saturday despite getting caught out cheating on their partners.
On Tuesday it was confirmed the pair would be performing a Charleston on the BBC dance show, almost a week after pictures and a video of them kissing in the street emerged.
Arlene has insisted that there is no reason why they shouldn’t continue in the competition, and that the judges should disregard this week’s headlines and judge them purely on their routine.
Speaking on Wednesday’s ‘Lorraine’, Arlene explained: “I absolutely think they should be allowed to dance. They are consenting adults, the public appear to be the moral guardians.
“I’m not condoning what they did at all but it’s a dance competition, unless they have signed some kind of disclosure, that there is a behaviour contract, they are not about to be stopped from dancing, that’s what they are hired to do, dance.”
On the judges role this coming weekend, she said: “I don’t think they should allude to it. We’ve had these difficult moments before. They have to come in and judge them on the dance. They have to be professional. They are hired as professional judges, they are hired to do that, they are not moral code judges. It’s about the dances, technique and storytelling.”
Arlene added that she understood why so many ‘Strictly’ contestants have succumbed to the so-called ‘Strictly’ curse because it was “such an intense relationship”.
“There is so much passion, sensuality and storytelling through dance,” she said.
“You get closer and closer… you are thrown together.
“We all love Neil and Katya, there is a togetherness, in truth who knows what their relationship [is like]? I know many people who have open relationships and we know nothing about Seann’s relationship with his girlfriend.”
She added that if your relationship isn’t in a strong place, you should not appear on the dance show.
“There is something about somebody who is teaching you,” she said. “These very strong female partners teaching their male partners, and vice versa. There is an intensity, and they are thrown together for hour upon hour, physically close...There is constant touching and feeling.”
Since the video of the pair kissing was made public, Katya and Seann have both issued apologies, while Seann’s girlfriend, Rebecca Humphries, confirmed she had dumped him in an extended Twitter statement.
Katya’s husband, fellow ‘Strictly’ pro Neil Jones, has so far not directly addressed the matter.
He did, however, post praise of Katya and Seann’s most recent ‘Strictly’ performance on Instagram in the hours after the kissing video hit the web.
‘Strictly Come Dancing’ airs on Saturday at 6.40pm on BBC One.