BBC have just revealed which three new professional dancers are joining Strictly Come Dancing this year, and we couldn't be more excited! The three new dancers who will join the hit BBC One show this autumn for its sixteenth series are Italian Latin Champion Graziano Di Prima, professional South African Latin Champion Johannes Radebe and four-time winner of the Italian Dance Championship Luba Mushtuk.
With their incorporation, the total number of professional dancers will be higher than any previous year, a total of eighteen, promising the biggest and most hotly anticipated series to date.
The new dancers were announced on Wednesday morning
The exciting news comes just months after popular dancer Brendan Cole revealed he was leaving the show after not being asked back. The dad-of-two opened up about being axed from the show back in January during an appearance on Lorraine. "It's quite hard to talk about," he said at the time. "The BBC haven't renewed my contract. We get contracted year upon year. They've made an editorial decision to not have me back on the show. I'm a little bit in shock. I'm quite emotional, a bit raw about it. It's done via a process of a phone call and stuff. I have had 15 incredible series on the show. I'm very proud of the whole show. It's a great team. I'm disappointed. It's very hard to talk about. It's a recent decision."
And now the BBC have finally addresses his exit, with Louise Rainbow, Executive Producer of Strictly Come Dancing saying: "A huge thank you goes to Brendan from all of us for 15 amazing series of Strictly. We wish him all the very best with his future projects."
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Brendan is not the only dancer to be let go this year. It has also been revealed that Chloe Hewitt, who joined in 2016, will also be leaving the series. The other professional dancers who will be returning to the Strictly ballroom once again are: AJ Pritchard, Aljaž Škorjanec, Amy Dowden, Anton Du Beke, Dianne Buswell, Giovanni Pernice, Gorka Marquez, Janette Manrara, Karen Clifton, Katya Jones, Kevin Clifton, Nadiya Bychkova, Neil Jones, Oti Mabuse and Pasha Kovalev.
MORE: Brendan Cole has a VERY surprising new job following Strictly axe