It’s traditionally the signs of romance or fauxmance that keeps the Strictly fans guessing in terms of body language clues but this season there seems to be a new set of signals to watch as the stars and the pro dancers battle for power and control of who takes charge in the training rooms.
The celebrities used to own all the power on the show but now the pros are celebs in their own right the ‘skirmishes’ are becoming more open.
This week on It Takes Two, we saw Tony and Katya still re-living their own personal power battle and there are clues other couples might follow suit.
Tony might have told Rylan that Katya is ‘a genius’ but he bared his teeth as he did so, and at the start, he seemed to physically lift her up to move her further away down the sofa.
He said the week was emotional and he called her strong-sounding pep-talk a ‘team-talk with a few home truths’. Tony will have seen and delivered a few team talks in his career and they are known as ‘hairdryers’ as they blast hot air at the teams.
Katya’s paused as she seemed to struggle for words as she explained ‘it could have gone either way’ and she mimed skewering him while baring her teeth in an exaggerated ‘attack’ gesture.
The risk might have paid off but we might not see the real results until this weekend, which should be a crucial one for Tony.
He’s clearly a good sport but his body language suggested some unease at being spoken to in a way that he might not even have tolerated from legendary football managers.
Helen’s facial expression when Gorka did his speech about her on the balcony last week also hinted at another potential power battle.
Helen is another big TV name with a successful career and although Gorka was clearly being sweet when he defended her, her eye expression did suggest she might not have been comfortable with him letting everyone know she was feeling lacking in confidence, including about her looks.
Gorka seemed to try to back-peddle on It Takes Two, re-aiming his comments to sound purely about the dancing.
Kym is another big TV star who met Graziano when she was the presenter and he was a guest on the show.
Now he is coaching her but, with her habit of standing with her hands on her hips and the way she will often place her hand on top of their hand clasp on the show, there are hints that she’s still the one with the power in the double-act.
And even Jayde seems to sit with her arm around Karen on the Takes Two sofa, looking confident, chatty and more like the leader while Karen gazes up at her with more submissive-looking affection.
