Strictly Come Dancing star Vincent Simone has shared some behind-the-scenes secrets from the popular Saturday night show.
Vincent appeared as a dancer on the BBC show from 2006 until 2012 and is best remembered for his sensational Argentine tango routines with professional partner Flavia Cacace throughout his time on the show.
The dancer and TV personality has now shared a glimpse into what backstage looks like at Strictly on a Saturday night.
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We already know that the Sunday night results show is pre-recorded, so it comes as no shock that Saturday requires long hours from cast and crew.
Speaking on behalf of ICE36, Vincent tells RSVP Live: "On a show day, all of the dancers and celebrities arrive early in the morning.
"There was a lot of rehearsals - floor rehearsals, dress rehearsals.
"Back in my day, the group numbers that the professionals did were pre-recorded in August. That doesn’t happen anymore.
"Sometimes you would have to perform between five or six dances in one show, so the days were very long."
While there is no filming required on a Sunday, the professional dancers still have to work - making it a seven day working week during Strictly season.
Vincent adds: "You never had a day off because, when I was on the show, the production team used to give you a CD of the song you would be performing to the following week, so immediately you start thinking about that routine.
"After the Saturday night show, all the dancers and celebrities would mingle and have fun, so they were always pretty late nights.
"Then Sunday, bang! Straight back to work with a massive coffee!
"I would spend my Sunday getting the chorography outline ready for the following week’s performance.
"Each professional also had to choreograph at least one group number each season, but they have professionals doing that now."
Although Vincent hasn't appeared on the show in over ten years, he is still a huge fan and has admiration for the professional dancers - and is a big fan of two of them in particular.
"The professionals are all amazing," he says.
"I’m not just saying this because I was one of them, but it is a job and a half that they do and I know how much they go through to be at their and their partner's best for every single show They work so hard for the show.
"I think that Vito Coppola is the most amazing dancer. From a male perspective, he is the best. Katya Jones is another amazing dancer – I love watching both of them perform."
Vincent believes that some professional dancers in the past wanted to show off their own skills rather than showcase their celebrity partner's abilities.
He says: "I didn’t do that. I had to make sure that my celebrity partners looked good because they are the ones that are being judged, sometimes I did that too much [laughs], but you have to take care of your celebrity as the professional.
"Dancers like Vito and Katya, they look after their celebrities firstly and still look good. That takes a lot of skill."
Layton Williams has been given a hard time because of his dance experience and Nigel Harman has also danced on the West End stage.
Vincent doesn't see the issue with having experienced celebrities on the show.
He says: "Obviously, it gives them an advantage when it comes to the coordination. If you’ve danced before, you’re aware of your feet, your fingers, knees whereas celebrities without that experience, people like Krishnan Guru-Murthy in this series, he’s a news reader so he wouldn’t have been aware of his body and how that looks before he danced.
"Timing is another advantage. If you have the experience of performing to music and aligning your brain to your body in terms of what you hear and when you move, that helps."
But the Italian native says sometimes dancers and celebrities with a performance background can clash.
"If you have a professional and an experienced celebrity, or if you had a ballet dancer come onto the show and asked them to do a samba or a cha cha cha, it would take them longer to do it properly and it wouldn’t look right.
"Sometimes having a pedestrian partner is better than having a partner with dance experience."
Vincent partnered stars such as Louisa Lytton, Rachel Stevens and Natalie Cassidy during his time on the show but says showcasing his and Flavia's work will also be his fondest memory.
"My personal highlight while I was on Strictly Come Dancing was to be first professional dancer to perform the Argentine tango alongside Flavia Cacace," he says.
"We spent our careers dancing the tango, we lived and breathed it, and now it is one of the most popular dances on the show and in general. I think one of the reasons it’s so popular is because of me and Flavia.
"After we did one, we did it every year and people really looked forward to seeing it.
"I loved dancing with Flavia. That was my Strictly Come Dancing highlight. Full stop. Nothing else.
"Following that, getting tens from the judges. That is really rewarding because you put so much work into the routines each week and you feel safe from elimination after a score like that."
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