Strictly’s Johannes Radebe is “proud” his same-sex routine “started conversations”

23rd October 2020

Last year, Johannes danced with Graziano Di Prima in a touching routine.

Last year, Strictly Come Dancing professionals Johannes Radebe and Graziano Di Prima touched hearts across the nation with a beautiful and moving dance to Emeli Sande’s 2019 romantic pop anthem, Shine.

The routine was the first proper time that Strictly Come Dancing had featured a same-sex pairing, and it preceded its historic announcement for this year with its first same-sex contestant-professional pairing of boxer Nicola Adams and Katya Jones.

Reflecting on the dance on last night’s (22 October) The One Show, Johannes said: “It was a dance between two people, friends, for that matter, and I knew that it was going to start conversations but that’s what we need to do.

“I’m so happy that Strictly are now introducing same-sex couples this year, and I think we should all just wait for that and really embrace it.”

He added: “We started the journey so I hope it continues. It was such a proud moment. I love everything about that dance.”

Johannes became a fan favourite last year when he made his Strictly debut with Coronation Street actress Catherine Tyldesley due to his infectious personality and camp choreography – we still regularly watch their Charleston.

This year, the dancer is paired with actress and TV presenter Caroline Quentin, and they will be performing their first dance to Sheena Easton’s biggest hit, 9 to 5 (Morning Train).

Elsewhere, Nicola and Katya’s first dance will be a quickstep to Ella Fitzgerald’s version of Get Happy, Good Morning Britain presenter Ranvir Singh and Giovanni Pernice will be doing a paso doble to Beyoncé’s End of Time and Made in Chelsea’s Jamie Laing and Karen Hauer have a cha-cha-cha to what would’ve been one of the breakout songs of this year’s Eurovision, Think About Things.

Despite how touching Johannes and Graziano’s performance was, 189 people complained claiming it was “inappropriate.” Thankfully, the BBC used common sense and didn’t uphold any of the complaints.

The BBC also dismissed complaints over Nicola and Katya’s same-sex pairing when it was announced that Nicola was to dance with a woman on the show.

In a statement, they wrote: “Strictly Come Dancing is an inclusive show and is proud to have featured same-sex dancing amongst the professional dancers in group numbers in previous series.

“We have stated, in the past, that we are open to the prospect of including same-sex pairings between our celebrities and professional dancers, should the opportunity arise. Nicola Adams requested an all-female pairing, which we are happy to facilitate.”

They continued: “The show is first and foremost about dance, the sex of each partner within a coupling should have no bearing on their routine.”