Strictly Come Dancing couple Rose Ayling-Ellis and Giovanni Pernice remain the favourites to win this year, with the latter revealing just how much he’s enjoying their partnership.
The EastEnders star and the professional dancer soon took the competition by storm after Rose became the show’s first ever Deaf contestant.
They’ve even broken records, scoring the quickest ever 40 points in Strictly history, which came during Halloween week.
So it’s not surprising Giovanni recently labelled this series his best yet, revealing how ‘rewarding’ dancing with Rose has been so far to Metro.co.uk.
Asked whether he felt this series had been particularly rewarding, Giovanni told us: ‘Absolutely. In the seven years I’ve been on the show, this is definitely the most amazing time.
‘As a teacher, it’s rewarding on a Saturday night. Not when you get a 40 or a good score – obviously that is nice – but it’s more about the performance part of it.
‘You come on a Saturday night, we both know how much we work during the week. We both work harder, three times [harder] than anybody else, and when we achieve what we achieve, it’s just rewarding really.
‘More than anything else, that’s what you want as a teacher. It doesn’t matter if sometimes we go wrong with steps or timing or anything, we’ve managed to do one minute and 30 [seconds] of routine with a Deaf girl, still looking unbelievable and still breaking records – all of that is quite impressive!’
The pair are in a three-horse race for the title against John Whaite and AJ Odudu, according to bookmakers’ odds.
But Rose and Gio don’t even have winning on their mind at the moment, insisting they’re just happy to still be in the competition.
Actress Rose told us: I’m just taking one week at a time because I don’t really have time to think about the pressure [of winning] because the dance is taking over my brain!’
Her dance partner agreed there is ‘no point’ of thinking about the outcome each week, noting: ‘Each dance is a different dance and each couple is playing the game as well because everybody wants to win.
‘We just focus on what we’re doing every week: making sure that we get through the week and play this by week by week.’
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He went on to remind fans: ‘At the end of the day is a public vote, the only thing we can control is what we do in the studio and make sure our dance is good, so hopefully the judges and the public like it and we can go through!’
Their upcoming dance sees them take on a Couple’s Choice, giving them completely free reign on their routine, with Rose previously commenting how this performance is ‘nothing like’ her previous dances so far.
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Strictly Come Dancing continues tonight at 6.40pm on BBC One.
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