Amber Davies kicked off Saturday night’s Strictly Come Dancing with a stunning American Smooth with her partner Nikita Kuzmin.
The couple earned the highest score of the series, an incredible 31 points, with head judge Shirley Ballas applauding the pair’s ‘exquisite’ performance.
The West End star admitted her ‘dreams came true’ tonight as her icon Cynthia Erivo guest mentored for movie week.
Strictly professionals took to the floor with a dance dedicated to the story of long-running stage show and Hollywood blockbuster film Wicked.
The professional dancers dressed up in fantastical costumes as part of the story-telling dance number.
The female stars dressed up in all-black like the film’s Wicked Witch of the West, as Elphaba Thropp, and the men portrayed Prince Fiyero.
The routine, choreographed by Jason Gilkinson, celebrated the franchise’s second film, Wicked: For Good.
Amber Davies kicked off Saturday night’s Strictly Come Dancing with a stunning American Smooth with her partner Nikita Kuzmin
Amber broke her silence on the backlash from Strictly Come Dancing fans about her previous dance experience before joining the BBC show.
The former Love Island star, who has also taken part in a number of on-stage musicals including Pretty Woman and Back To The Future, was quizzed over whether she thought it was ‘fair’ celebrities with training are allowed on the show alongside novice celebrity dancers.
Despite arguing her case, it backfired for Amber, 29, online as furious fans of the dancing competition hit out that they weren’t buying it.
Speaking on This Morning on Wednesday, the TV star, who also took part in ITV‘s Dancing On Ice in 2024, tried to set the record straight.
Quizzed by hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley, who described her as a ‘professional performer with dance experience’, Amber affirmed she’d never taken to the ballroom floor before.
‘The ballroom and Latin community know that musical theatre is worlds apart [from ballroom dancing],’ she hit back against the criticism.
Amber Davies has broken her silence on the backlash from Strictly Come Dancing fans about her previous dance experience before joining the BBC show
It backfired for Amber, 29, online as furious fans of the dancing competition hit out that they weren’t buying her excuses about previous dance experience
Asked by Ben, 50, whether she felt it was fair fans had been complaining about her past experience, she continued: ‘I do understand where they come from, because I can perform.
‘But, there’s a great example. Yesterday we were doing our American Smooth, and even just walking left right, left right, brought me to tears.
‘It’s so much more complicated than you can imagine.’
Her professional dance partner, Nikita Kuzmin, chimed in to explain how even though it’s ‘three steps’ it can be ‘really difficult’ to pick up.
But fans on social media weren’t won over by the excuses, taking to X to complain that despite her defence, she still had undeniable previous training.
‘She’s trained in musical theatre. She’s as close to a professional as you can get. The show has lost its way,’ one penned after tuning in to This Morning.
Another agreed: ‘She’s desperate to win, just like she was on Dancing on Ice,’ as a third added: ‘She’s a professional dancer.
‘She was on Dancing On Ice and now she’s on Strictly. She probably knew she was gonna replace Dani as soon as she got injured – and is on the West End.’
Her professional dance partner, Nikita Kuzmin, defended Amber on This Morning on Wednesday
Dani, 29 – who was originally partnered with Nikita – announced that she’d been forced to withdraw after fracturing her ankle in training
Amber replaced injured Dani Dyer just days ahead of Strictly’s first live show.
Bosses had hoped that Dani, 29 – who was originally partnered with Nikita – would go far in the competition, but it was announced that she’d been forced to withdraw after fracturing her ankle in training.
A source said: ‘The celebs are trying to be good sports about everything and don’t want to let on to show bosses they’re unhappy.
‘But behind the scenes, all the chatter is they think it’s unfair that the line-up now includes two sensational dancers who have substantial experience on stage.’
They told The Sun: ‘Having one celeb with that kind of background is one thing but having two is seen as unfair, particularly if they both ended up in the final.’
A spokesperson for the BBC told Daily Mail: ‘We’ve been shown absolutely no evidence to suggest that this story is true, or that the anonymous quote it is based on is from anyone connected to the series.’
With Amber rounding out the cast, a surprisingly large amount of the celebrities on this year’s Strictly already have prior dance experience.
While the purpose of the show is for the celebrity contestants to learn how to dance from their professional partners, it appears many of them won’t need much help at all.
The former Love Island star has taken part in a number of on-stage musicals including Pretty Woman and Back to the Future (pictured here in The Great Gatsby)
Amber has a Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre and Dance and took part on Dancing On Ice in 2024
While she may not have long to prepare, Amber has plenty of dance experience behind her.
The star has a Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre and Dance, took dance as a GCSE subject at school, and trained at Danceworld Stage School.
She attended Urdang Academy for the performing arts as a teenager where she trained in musical theatre.
Just last year, Amber was a contestant on ITV’s Dancing On Ice where she finished in an impressive fifth place with pro skating partner Simon Proulx-Senecal.
Many Strictly fans were unimpressed with the signing due to Amber’s past dance experience.
Taking to social media, they wrote: ‘A trained dancer! This show has lost the plot in every area Needs a total reset.’
‘Wasn’t she on Dancing On Ice?’… ‘Strictly is about journeys on learning how to dance, this is skipping all that.’
‘Another dancer? She may play it down but this is her career. I don’t think that’s fair really.’
‘She is a trained dancer and was on Dancing On Ice a few years ago. She is too trained for this show.’
Strictly Come Dancing continues this weekend on BBC One and is available to stream on iPlayer.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.celebrity.land.co.uk ’
