Dancer Amy Dowden says return to Strictly will be 'beautiful for my family'

Amy Dowden described partner JB Gill as being perfect for her Strictly return
-Credit: (Image: PA Media)


Professional dancer Amy Dowden says a return to the Strictly dancefloor will be "beautiful for [her] family".

The Strictly star is paired with celebrity partner JLS singer JB Gill and will perform in tonight's first life performance. The 34-year-old told the PA News Agency her return to the BBC One show after overcoming breast cancer is the “perfect comeback” as it celebrates its 20th anniversary.

Amy received her diagnosis in May 2023 when she found a lump the day before her honeymoon. She then missed out on having a celebrity partner in that year's series of Strictly Come Dancing.

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However, in February, the dancer announced she would return for the 2024 series after a mastectomy and chemotherapy left her with “no evidence of disease” following tests. Speaking of her return to training and performing live, she told PA: “I’m absolutely loving it, JB’s been the perfect comeback for me.

“I’m just back in my happy place doing what I love most. I think it’s going to be just really lovely (today), because it’s going to be beautiful for my family, because they struggled just as much as I did having to watch me go through it.

“Last year’s Strictly was a tough watch for them, because it was a reminder of exactly what we were going through. It’s going to be one big celebration, this whole series for me.”

The Welsh dancer will perform the waltz to Leo Sayer’s When I Need You alongside celebrity partner Gill. The JLS singer told PA he felt the pair’s chemistry was “very strong”.

The 37-year-old said: “For me, I think it’s just trusting Amy, she’s the pro for a reason, I trust her judgment. We talk a lot, and I think our chemistry is very strong, even from the outset.

“So, you know, just trusting her decisions, and obviously we will come up with stuff together, and then once we’ve decided it, that’s it, and we go and execute that, so that’s my biggest focus in that respect.”

Gill has said the dance training has been “mind-blowing and eye-opening” as he had found ballroom dancing to be “completely alien” compared to choreography whilst a part of JLS. The Croydon-born singer said: “In the first few days, it was mind-blowing and eye-opening, because it was so completely alien.

“I went home to my wife (professional dancer Chloe Tangney) and just said, this is what I was doing, and going through the counts, and she was like ‘what on earth is that? It doesn’t even make any sense’. It took a while to sort of get into the swing of those sorts of things, but the body of course is going through lots of different things as well.

“It’s a waltz, so it’s not as impactful, should I say, as perhaps some other styles on the body. But you still feel it, there’s certain things, like when you’re holding your frame as well as your shoulders, your back, your neck even, because the positioning has got to be right if you’re doing it correctly, even your hands have got to stay close, so you’ve got tension in your hands as well.

“So all those sorts of things you don’t perhaps expect and (they’ve) sort of come out in the wash this last couple of weeks, but we’re in good shape.”

Week one of Strictly Come Dancing series 22 will air on BBC One and iPlayer at 7pm.

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