When Rose Ayling-Ellis first watched her famous Strictly Come Dancing routine recognising the Deaf community, she ‘hated’ it.
The former EastEnders star, 28, and her dance partner Giovanni Pernice, 32, astonished the audience with their Couple’s Choice dance to Clean Bandit’s Symphony, which included a moment when the music stopped and the room became silent.
The performance was nominated for a Bafta for ‘Must-See Moment of the Year,’ and they subsequently won Strictly.
Rose, on the other hand, first ‘hated’ the notion.
‘I watched this pre-recorded video by external choreographers and immediately didn’t like what they’d come up with,’ she told The Guardian.
‘I was up for the idea, as long as it wasn’t a patronising stunt. An attempt to get the pity vote, all sad, dreary and “poor me”.’
‘It was what hearing people think deaf people experience. Very insular, cut-off, small. It was so sad. And that’s not me.’
Rose and the Strictly crew then reworked the routine, and the magic happened.
‘From there, we created the dance, shaping and changing it throughout the week,’ she went on.
‘[It felt] more true to me. It was only at camera rehearsals in the studio, when I was told the crew – who never stop – all dropped what they were doing to watch that I thought, “S**t. This might be a big deal”.’
Since his victory, Rose has departed EastEnders as Frankie Lewis to feature in a West End version of As You Like It, and she will next be seen in her own documentary, Signs For Change.
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One later this year.
Source My Celebrity Life.