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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Judi James

Strictly's Molly Rainford 'wounded' by judges' harsh criticism, says body language expert

Molly Rainford took to the Strictly dancefloor on Saturday night as a sexy vampire dancing the Argentine Tango.

The ex Britain's Got Talent star, 21, is partnered with professional dancer Carlos Gu on the popular BBC dancing competition, and narrowly avoided elimination last week, after finding herself in the dreaded dance off.

And Molly was determined to pull out all the stops as she danced to Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill with Carlos, after the song recently reappeared in the charts thanks to it being used in Netflix's Stranger Things.

But body language expert Judi James says the singer looked upset by the judges' harsh comments and looked shaken as she headed upstairs to debrief about the criticism with Claudia Winkleman...

Molly Rainford took to the Strictly dancefloor on Saturday night as a sexy vampire dancing the Argentine Tango (BBC)

Molly received an impressive 33 points out of 40 and her feelings were even more obvious tonight as she seemed to be about to veer close to disaster again.

In rehearsal she said that being in the dance-off had ‘given me fire ’ but her body language told a different story as her incongruent eye expression turned what should have been a statement into a question, as though she was trying to self-motivate but failing.

When she said the judges had thought she was playing it safe last week her face pulled into an angry sneer that involved the nose and the mouth, suggesting she was wounded by the criticism.

This week the comments began to sound critical again and Molly’s response was dramatic. She began nodding quickly, with the nodding speeding up.

Molly received an impressive 33 points out of 40 (PA)

This was initially intended as a humble sign of agreement but the faster it got the more it became a metronomic ritual suggesting she wanted all the criticism to be finished and gone as quickly as possible.

Even with her vampire teeth in she managed to purse her lips tight as she was told the dance ‘lacked intensity’, rubbing her tongue over her teeth behind her lips as she did so.

The pace of her nodding as Craig told her it was like ‘two different dances’ and the way she dropped her head signalled she’d heard too much and when Craig added that one aspect was ‘really really ugly’ Molly’s cheeks raised in an attempt to smile but her mouth wouldn’t join in.

Molly was clearly really hurting after being in the dance-off last week (PA)

Molly’s hands were wringing as she stood on the balcony and as the clasp raised to chest level her hands seemed to be shaking. She tried to tell us she had ‘such an amazing time’ but with her hand placed on her chest as an attempt at self-control her words dried up and she seemed about to cry.

Carlos threw an arm of comfort round her neck and Molly clung to his hand. And the ridiculous thing was her scores were good.

One week in the bottom two can spur someone on but despite her good scores Molly might need a lot of pep talks from Carlos to get her bounce back in time for next week.

Molly received an impressive 33 points out of 40 and had to be comforted by Carlos as she fought back tears saying: "I had such an amazing time out there, we definitely were nervous because having that case of nearly going home was so awful.

"And having the best time with Carlos who's an amazing partner."

Strictly continues tonight on BBC One.

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