Layton Williams of Strictly Come Dancing had his professional partner Nikita Kuzmin weep following a performance last week.
The Bad Education and musical theatre actor, 29, has been battling alongside experienced dancer Nikita, 25, on the BBC dancing series.
Since the beginning of the competition, the duo has received high marks from the judges; nevertheless, they have received some criticism on social media, notably from those who think he has a ‘unfair edge’ due to his past dancing expertise.
They’ve also accused the performer of being at odds with the judges, creating suspicions of a ‘feud’ with head judge Shirley Ballas.
However, they’ve continued going, scoring a perfect 40 in Musicals Week with their Paso doble to Backstage Romance from Moulin Rogue.
Nikita has now said that he was filled with emotion as they took to the dancing.
On It Takes Two on Wednesday night, host Janette Manrara queried the couple about the meaning of their scores, and Nikita said that they meant a lot to him.
‘We have been trying to push every single week and come up with something new and I’ve been pushing him and holding him to high standards and that night we said we wouldn’t think about the scores, and we weren’t actually shooting for anything,’ he explained.
‘We were going out there to do ourselves and our families proud.
‘The moment we let it go it came to us.
‘It was special, and I loved it.’
He added: ‘He came in and wanted to learn it and I get passionate when people want to learn.’
Layton then jumped in and pressed his companion to ‘speak the truth’ about what transpired after they discussed how they stayed late at rehearsals last Wednesday night.
‘To be fair he danced so well that night and became so much of a true American Latin dancer I became emotional,’ Nikita said.
‘You cried?’ Janette exclaimed.
‘Yes. It’s just really lovely when your student is really hungry and wants to learn.’
Speaking about returning to the dancefloor after some ups and downs, Layton said they were both’so pleased’ of their performance and didn’t want to rest on their laurels despite the fact that no one was eliminated last week due to Nigel Harman having to withdraw from the competition.
‘We had worked so hard to make sure we had taken all of the criticisms on board and we wanted to do that performance just for us,’ he said.
When asked about the possibility of reaching the final, Layton stated that it would be a culmination of all he has worked for since signing up for the programme.
Layton also published a gushing post on social media on Sunday.
‘10’s across the board! Fighting back from the bottom 2 is rough but what a perfect routine for it,’ he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
‘All credit has to go to the most amazing dance partner and teacher ever – Nikita Kuzmin! Think what you want about me, but give him his flowers plz.’
He went on to write that he wanted to go out and ‘slay for the stageys, theatre fans and MT industry’.
‘I’ve been flying the flag for us all since day dot and hope I’m doing ya’ll proud.’
It Takes Two airs weeknights from 6.30pm on BBC Two. Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 7.35pm on BBC One.
Source My Celebrity Life.