Strictly Come Dancing pro Katya Jones really, really wants to dance with a woman
Strictly Come Dancing pro Katya Jones. (Luca Teuchmann/Luca Teuchmann / WireImage)
Strictly Come Dancing pro Katya Jones has said she wants to be part of the show’s first same-sex dance partnership featuring two women.
Jones and her partner, BBC Breakfast sports presenter Mike Bushell, were the seventh pair to be eliminated in the most recent series. The pro dancer has also competed with former shadow chancellor Ed Balls.
Strictly featured a same-sex male routine in the last series, when professionals Johannes Radebe and Graziano di Prima performed to Emeli Sande’s “Shine”, but a same-sex pair is yet to actually compete.
But Jones would “love to” change that, she told the Sunday Mirror.
She said: “I would love to dance with a woman on the show.
“I think creatively it would be really interesting and I love coming up with new ideas for stuff.
“So on that side I think it would be quite interesting.”
When Radebe and Di Prima’s performance was aired, it sparked nearly 200 complaints.
According to data released by the BBC every two weeks, the “main issue” in the 189 complaints received was listed as “offensive to feature two men dancing as a pair”.
Katya Jones competed on Strictly Come Dancing with former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls in 2017. (Dave J Hogan/Getty)
The current series of Strictly‘s rival Dancing on Ice stars same-sex partners Ian ‘H’ Watkins and Matt Evers, who made their debut on January 5.
But after their first performance, broadcast watchdog Ofcom confirmed that it had also received complaints in response.
Although out of millions of viewers, only 16 people took time out of their days to actually file complaints about a same-sex dance pairing, Watkins told HuffPost UK that he was still very hurt.
He said: “The reaction was incredible – a lot of the comments were overwhelmingly supportive, but when people call you hideous names and say things like ‘it’s not natural’ or ‘you’re a faggot’, all of those awful names, for me, they’re a dagger in my heart.”
