Amber Davies faced the dreaded dance-off on Saturday after some fans claimed it was ‘unfair’.
Former Strictly Come Dancing judge Dame Arlene Phillips has thrown her support behind Amber Davies, after the Love Island winner was dealt a crushing blow.
Amber stepped in to replace Dani Dyer on the BBC competition at the last minute, and has been partnered with Nikita Kuzmin.
Despite wowing the judges with her performances, the West End star has sparked some controversy with fans as many are claiming her past experience dancing gives her an “unfair” advantage.
And after failing to secure votes this weekend, Amber faced the dreaded dance-off, but was ultimately saved as the judges sent Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink home.
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During an appearance on Loose Women on Monday 27 October, Dame Arlene was asked about the “scandal” with Amber that saw her in the dance-off.
She replied: “Amber can dance, there’s no doubt about it. Amber has trained as a dancer, there’s no doubt about it.
“But so many of Strictly over the years have trained as dancers. Do they have an advantage? Yes. They know how to go forward, back, right, left, move in rhythm, however, it doesn’t mean they’re going to win, not at all.”
Citing winners like Bill Bailey and Stacey Dooley who had lifted the glitterball trophy without any dance experience, she went on: “It doesn’t mean you’ll win, let’s just enjoy every performance and stop thinking, ‘They shouldn’t win.’
“Amber is a lovely human being, a hard worker, a terrific performer, but she’s as lost as everyone is when they come to Ballroom and Latin.”
After Strictly’s results show, Amber took to Instagram and explained how distraught she was to be in the dance-off.
She said: “A gut wrenching evening in the dance off, especially dancing against two of the most amazing people I’ve met on this experience, @official_jfhasselbaink & @laurenmayoakley – I feel extremely lucky & thankful to be able to experience Halloween week on strictly, but there will be two very special people missed.
“If you voted for us really really thank you, I guess this week we aim for a come back week?! @nikita__kuzmin thank you for holding my extremely shaky hands extra tight.”
This comes after a Strictly expert hit back at the “fix” claims that arise every year.
Dr Kathryn Stamp previously shared: “It’s a challenging one because there are certain skills that come from learning a body-based activity, but then you could say the same for sports people, like bodily awareness and balance and control, they’re going to have that but that doesn’t mean they’re going to do well on Strictly, it’s not an immediate factor.
“It’s the same with an actor or musician or singer, they’ll have something useful in their job because they are a performer, so they might not have the physical technique from dance training but they’ll have something else.”
She added: “You could look back at the history of Strictly and pick out a number of people who have had some sort of dance background and didn’t do very well, just as much as you can point out people who did do well… there’s just not a clear pattern.”
Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday at 6.35pm on BBC One and iPlayer.