Strictly Come Dancing star Kevin Clifton has revealed that during the competition, professional dancers get offered extra help from a choreographer. And while he tends to accept the offer, there are some pros who refuse another opinion. Speaking on his recent episode of his podcast The Kevin Clifton Show, the reigning champion explained: "The way it works is, once we're training we get offered help from Jason Gilkison [a choreographer] or one of his assistants during the week. We're all basically offered one hour at some point in the week if we want a third eye to come in the room and just look at what we're doing.
© Photo: RexKevin Clifton opened up about what does on behind-the-scenes on Strictly in his podcast
"[They] just take a look at our choreography or say if there's one particular step that we're struggling with, they might have another idea on how to teach it to the celebrity." Although having extra advice on hand is useful, some dancers prefer to keep their routine as authentic as possible. "Now, some of the pros, and it’s each to their own, as everyone likes to work in different ways, but some of the pros are slightly against that," added Kevin.
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"They don’t like a third eye coming into the room, it's very much, 'My way, this is how I've always worked and I don't want anyone else interfering,' which is fair enough. But, for me, because I have very much a growth mind-set all the time, I'm always looking for, 'How can I get better?' So if I'm offered the help of Jason Gilkison or his assistants to come in and be the third eye, they might just have one ingredient that they can unlock or see one step that isn't quite working, then I'm going to take it."
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"I'm always going to take their help and I'm always going to take their advice because they're brilliant too and everyone has their own ideas about things," he continued. "Jason is one of the best choreographers in the world. If he thinks it’s not good enough, then he'll say." Kevin joined the BBC show in 2013 and has reached every final, excluding 2017 and 2019. Last year, it was finally his turn to lift the glitterball trophy along with fellow champion and celebrity partner Stacey Dooley.
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