Professional dancer Brendan Cole reveals he was "upset" by Shirley Ballas’ "harsh" comments to one of the most talented dancers on the show and things need to change. A former pro from Strictly Come Dancing has aired his feelings on why he believes one of the stars on the BBC show is being treated unfairly. Brendan Cole, 48, who appeared in the franchise from 2004 to 2017, claims there’s one dancer who is one of the best and isn’t getting the recognition they deserve.
He accuses head judge Shirley Ballas of being too "harsh" and says her comments after their performance "upset" him. It comes after JB Gill and his professional partner Lauren Oakley wowed judges and viewers with their Samba to Mas Que Nada by Sergio Mendes. Lauren, who wasn’t paired with a celebrity this year, stepped in to replace the JLS star’s former partner Amy Dowden after she was forced to quit the series following a post-performance emergency hospital dash. She later revealed she had suffered a foot injury and wouldn’t be returning.
After JB and Lauren’s dance, the judges were quick to heap praise on the pair. "I am stunned! Stunned!" Anton Du Beke raved. "Last week you did your Couple's Choice and I said bring this going forward... Man alive, did you bring it!" The usually hard-faced Craig Revel Horwood was even won over and said: "JB - that means to me Jolly Brilliant!"
But it was Shirley’s comments that Brendan took umbrage with. Although she noted JB’s dedication, she also said his prowess on the dance floor was thanks to someone else: "That performance says to me I'm in it to win it and I'm not going anywhere, that's what that performance said. But I do want to say one thing, all these weeks, all these fundamentals - your feet, your leg actions, your body - that you've learned from Amy, she set you up for this kind of performance." Shirley simply said of JB’s new partner: "Lauren you dance fantastic together as a team but you couldn't have done it without all those weeks of work. So a huge congratulations to all of you."
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BBC/Guy Levy)Brendan spoke to Sky Vegas and revealed why he was annoyed with her comments: "One of the things that upset me on Saturday was the fact that Shirley seemed to give all the credit to Amy, which is really harsh," he said. "Lauren has had to step in late last minute, and she created and taught him a really good Samba. The choreography was great, the technical aspect was great, which I don’t think we’ve seen from JB up until now other than the week before with the commercial style. Lauren's getting that out of him, and she should be getting full credit for that."
He went on to claim that the last part of the Strictly journey is the toughest, so he hopes Lauren will get the recognition she deserves: "Hopefully, as the show goes on, she'll start getting the credit, because she's the one that's now doing the hard yards. The last six or seven weeks of Strictly are the hard bits. The first few weeks are like the honeymoon period of Strictly. She's one of the best pros on the show, so obviously she's going to get great stuff out of him, because he's very capable," he said.
Fans of the show agreed with Brendan’s view on Amy and were quick to claim the show’s bosses failed by not giving her a celebrity contestant to coach. One said: "Lauren should never be benched ever again. She's bringing out the best in JB." Another agreed: "I love Lauren. Should have had a partner from the start. I don't think she's been involved in a dance I haven't loved," as a third wrote: "Lauren came to show them producers they made a big mistake benching her this year."
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