Strictly’s Ellie Leach put on her most passionate performance to date on Week Five of the BBC show, as she and partner Vito Coppola danced a fiery Paso Doble.
The former Coronation Street actress and her Italian dance partner raked in an incredible score of 37 from the judges on Saturday's Strictly Come Dancing, including their first 10 of the dance competition, but it was Vito's celebratory kiss on Ellie's cheek at the end of their routine that had fans all talking. See the moment, below.
Following the final piece of electrifying choreography, to the dance track Insomnia by Faithless, Vito pulled Ellie, 22, in for a congratulatory embrace.
“I thought they were going to kiss!” wrote one Strictly viewer on X. “What a partnership,” another wrote. “Their chemistry is electrifying!”
Others couldn’t stop raving about their paso doble, which scored Ellie her highest score of the competition so far. “Now that is how you do a Paso! Ellie and Vito are unstoppable,” one fan said of the duo, with another remarking, “I couldn’t keep my eyes off them!” “Best dance of the night”.
Judge Craig Revel Horwood even commented on their beautiful partnership, calling it "on fire!", before awarding them a well-deserved 10.
© Guy LevyMany SCD viewers took to social media bemoaned the judges’ scores, though, saying it “should have been a 40! Best dance of the night” and “Deserved more 10s!”
Ellie and Vito’s sizzling performance was a world away from their dance on Week Four, which saw them lower down the leaderboard. Dancing the Samba to Copacabana by Barry Manilow, they failed to impress the judges with a score of 28.
Every Strictly Come Dancing winner so far
- 2004: Natisha Kaplinsky (partner Brendan Cole)
- 2004: Jill Halfpenny (partner Darren Bennett)
- 2005: Darren Gough (partner Lilia Kopylova)
- 2006: Mark Ramprakash (partner Karen Hardy)
- 2007: Alesha Dixon (partner Matthew Cutler)
- 2008: Tom Chambers (partner Camilla Dallerup)
- 2009: Chris Hollins (partner Ola Jordan)
- 2010: Kara Tointon (partner Artem Chigvintsev)
- 2011: Harry Judd (partner Aliona Vilani)
- 2012: Louis Smith (partner Flavia Cacace)
- 2013: Abbey Clancy (partner Aljaž Škorjanec)
- 2014: Caroline Flack (partner Pasha Kovalev)
- 2015: Jay McGuiness (partner Aliona Vilani)
- 2016: Ore Oduba (partner Joanne Clifton)
- 2017: Joe McFadden (partner Katya Jones)
- 2018: Stacey Dooley (partner Kevin Clifton)
- 2019: Kelvin Fletcher (partner Oti Mabuse)
- 2020: Bill Bailey (partner Oti Mabuse)
- 2021: Rose Ayling-Ellis (partner Giovanni Pernice)
- 2022: Hamza Yassin (partner Jowita Przystał)
- 2023: Ellie Leach (partner Vito Coppola)
Head judge Shirly Ballas pointed out that Ellie had made a slight mistake with her footwork, while Craig remarked that that her feet did not turn the correct way for a Latin-dance.
Fans sympathised with an emotional Ellie, who revealed in their post-dance interview with Claudia Winkleman that she had been nervous to open the show and felt she had let her partner, Vito, down.
