Shirley Ballas has thrown the gauntlet down to this year’s Strictly Come Dancing stars, with a rule that was branded ‘strict’ by colleague Tess Daly
The former world champion dancer has been head judge on Strictly since 2017, taking over from show original Len Goodman. While she has extensive knowledge of ballroom and Latin, giving her the perfect pedigree to be a Strictly judge, some of her critiques have gathered criticism from viewers over the last few years.
Shirley found herself at the centre of some last ditch drama at the end of last week’s results programme, when she told host Tess Daly tha t she didn’t agree with the decisions of her fellow judges, who all voted to keep Matt Goss in, at the expense of Kaye Adams.
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And the head judge ruffled a few more feathers during Saturday’s live show, while giving feedback to comic Ellie Taylor, who has just danced a cha cha cha to a Cher classic for Movie Week. The first judge to address Ellie and pro partner Johannes Radebe, Shirley told the pair: "You're starting to add things to your basket: you've got some twisting actions going on, I rather like those; your personality was quite infectious today, that was much better."
She went on: "What I'd like to see going forward is that things don't move quite so blocked, a little more isolation could now be had," before looking rather stern as she added: "Also, no heel leads! We're going to into week three. You did a natural top and the first step of every step was a heal lead. As from today, I am not accepting, that goes for everyone, I am not accepting heal leads."
After listening to Shirley, host Tess quipped: "She's being very strict."
