EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS AND PHOTOS
‘STRICTLY’ PROFESSIONALS
AS WE JOIN THEM AT TOUR REHEARSALS
TELL WHY THEY ARE ONE BIG FAMILY
Luba Mushtuk takes centre
18 stage, while Karen Hauer, Neil Jones, Nancy Xu and Gorka Márquez pose up
There’s a buzz of excitement in the air when hello! joins the dance stars of Strictly Come Dancing during rehearsals for their The Professionals UK tour.
“It’s always so much fun when we all come together like this,” says Karen Hauer, taking a break for our exclusive chat.
Strictly’s longest-reigning professional dancer, who joined the show in 2012, has been reunited with her co-stars – Gorka Márquez, Neil Jones, Dianne Buswell, Jowita Przystal, Nikita Kuzmin, Luba Mushtuk, Vito Coppola, Nancy Xu and Carlos Gu – and tells us: “We’re like brothers and sisters.”
The close-knit cast have been leaning on each other more than ever after the passing of former Strictly head judge Len Goodman at the age of 78 in April, following a diagnosis of bone cancer.