Strictly Come Dancing star Vito Coppola has revealed how much Ellie Leach means to him, no matter where they place in the final.
The Coronation Street actress, 22, and pro dancer, 31, are one of the three remaining couples hoping to lift the glitterball trophy on Saturday, with Bobby Brazier and Dianne Buswell, and Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin.
Over the last few weeks, Ellie and Vito have found themselves surrounded by rumours that they’re the latest victims to fall to the notorious Strictly curse, and while there’s been plenty of hints of a blossoming relationship, the pair haven’t directly addressed the speculation.
But they’re not letting it take away from their experience or time training, and have pushed the ‘romance’ comments to one side.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk and other press ahead of the final, Vito admitted, when asked if they’re paying attention to the rumours: ‘We’re so into the rehearsals all day, we have so many things to think about, and choreography, and lifts, up, down, left, right.
‘And after we finish we have the time to eat fast enough, and then we nap a little bit because we need the energy to continue the rehearsals. After, we go home, and we just say, “Let’s make sure we eat and go to sleep”, because the next day we have to be back again, so we really are so focused on this beautiful experience.
‘Words can’t describe how much we’re really enjoying every single day, every single rehearsal, every single second of this amazing Strictly,’
We’re exhausted just thinking about it! But Vito made it clear, the pair have no time for those rumours.
However, Ellie did admit how much ‘trust’ she has in her partner, while he declared her to be his ‘winner’.
As they head into the final, Ellie recalled the experience being like ‘a dream’, and how she already feels as though she’s won.
Turning to Vito, she said: ‘To have had this experience, I already feel like I’ve won, and with you, as a teacher and partner, I genuinely do feel like I’ve won.
‘Obviously it would be nice to win, but coming into Strictly I just wanted to have fun and enjoy every single moment, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.
‘So if we win, amazing, if we don’t win, still amazing, I’ve had the most incredible experience.’
‘She’s my winner since day one, and the way she’s improved, she’s worked so hard’ Vito replied back, adding: ‘Really, you have been every single week the winner, my winner, our winner of our couple, and I’m sure all your family and all the people that love you are proud.’
Despite Vito’s faith in her, and the fact that they’ve never been in the bottom two, Ellie admitted that each week they’ve been ‘shocked’ yet ‘grateful’ for the public’s support, and it took a while before she found confidence in herself.
She said: ‘I think that at the beginning of the competition, I really didn’t have much self confidence or self belief, and that’s something that I’ve always really struggled with.
‘I think that Strictly has really helped me to build on that and grow because obviously, we go live on Saturday, which is something that I’m really not used to.’
Saying the live shows were ‘completely out of my comfort zone,’ Ellie went on: ‘So for me, that really, really helped me in building my self confidence.’
She continued: ‘After week one, I was like, “This is the strangest experience ever. I can’t believe that I just danced live on TV in front of millions of people.”
‘But then as the weeks went on, I was like, “Okay, I’m starting to learn a new skill, I’m starting to learn a lot more about myself,” and Vito believed in me from the start and so that made me be like, “Okay, well if Vito believes in me and he can trust me to do this dance then maybe I should have a little bit more belief in myself.”‘
That belief didn’t kick off to an easy start though, with Ellie admitting she was ‘so nervous’ when the competition began.
She said that during their first training session she told Vito: ‘Look I’m really sorry, there’s going to be things that I don’t really think I can do.’
‘I was really scared,’ she recalled. ‘I’ve never had any dance experience, I think sometimes you know when you listen to music [that] you can move to music and you know if you have a little bit of rhythm or not, but I honestly didn’t know if I would be able to pick up Ballroom and Latin dancing.
‘And also at the start, I was a bit like, I didn’t trust myself at all. As the weeks progressed, I was like, “Okay, I’m starting to get into the groove of things, so trust in yourself a little bit more,” and that’s where I found my groove on the dancefloor.’
While remaining coy over their chemistry together, Ellie revealed their ‘strong partnership’ and ‘trust in each other’ has aided their success on the dancefloor over the three months they’ve been rehearsing.
‘Vito is an amazing dancer, that’s why he’s a professional so I have to trust in him, but also it’s a lot about him putting trust in me because it’s something I’ve never done before, so for him to make choreography so difficult, there has to be a lot of trust there,’ she said.
‘I trusted her since day one, because I believed in her potential,’ Vito replied.
He went on: ‘Because she didn’t trust in herself, I said, “Okay so first I have to have your trust,” so I made her trust me first.
‘Now once you trust me, if I trust you, trust me that I trust you! And you will trust yourself!
‘And so it worked, because she said at the beginning, “No I can’t do that,” and I said, “Okay, if you really believe me, and we have this kind of 50/50 [relationship], let’s meet halfway, you will see, you will be surprised at how good you are.’
He added: ‘The most beautiful thing was to see the development. I said, “Don’t worry, give me a white page, I will start to write for you, you read and afterward you realise how good you are!”
‘And it seems the moment she started believe in herself was the paso doble, the dance that made something switched, like “Oh actually, I really enjoy it and really start to believe in myself.”‘
‘We just had a great connection, a 50/50 partnership since the beginning,’ he added.
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Ellie elsewhere addressed her future plans after Strictly, though this won’t be her last time dancing with Vito, as she joins some of the other celebrities embarking on the Strictly tour.
‘We always say we really live in the present, and don’t like to think too much in the future because I think when you do, you kind of miss all the best bits about the present and especially in this experience I don’t want to miss anything because I knew how quick it was going to go.
‘So I was like, “Live in the present, don’t think too much about the future,” and I’ve just really enjoyed the Strictly experience, and then we’ve got the tour which will be really fun! So I’m excited for that, and also, I’m excited to see what’s to come.’
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The Strictly Come Dancing final airs on Saturday at 7pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
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