Former Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Flavia Cacace discusses the behind-the-scenes of the show, and life after Strictly.
Former Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Flavia Cacace first joined the competition in 2006 and left in 2013.
After winning the trophy with Olympic gymnast Louis Smith in 2012, the dancer – who met her husband Jimi Mistry on the show – reveals to Betway Casino that she found leaving Strictly ‘tough’ and couldn’t bring herself to watch the show again for a few years.
Flavia goes into detail about the behind-the-scenes of the show – as well as the difficulties professionals can face when being partnered up with celebrities that don’t give their ‘100 per cent’.
What are your thoughts on this year’s batch of contestants?
I’ve had a look at the lineup. From what I gather, there are quite a lot of sportspeople, which I think is going to mean it is going to be a really competitive year. All sportspeople are competitive; professional dancers are going to be competitive. Overall, there’s going to be some fireworks because it is sport-heavy. But then again, there are some beautiful ladies in the mix as well. So there will be plenty of elegance in their routines.
Do you always watch it now?
Leaving the show after seven years is really tough. I’d say probably for the next two to three years after I left, I found it very hard to watch. I could not bring myself to watch it, even just hearing the theme tune was really hard. But the last few years, I’ve been doing a bit more commentating. I’ve done It Takes Two’s choreography corner and lots of radio bits and pieces. I have watched it, and I have actually enjoyed it. You do get hooked once you watch it again and you start having a favourite you want to win. I’m back into it a little bit more now – but I did go through a period where I had to turn away.
What is it like when you are partnered with that person for the first time? Were you happy with all your partners?
Looking back at when I was on the show until now, each year they change the way that you meet your partner. I think one year, it was you would walk into a room and they would be there. Another year, it was live on the show in front of everybody. I think when it was live on the show, it was a little bit harder, because you couldn’t hide! I remember being like, ‘I have to really focus on my expression. It doesn’t matter who it is, I’m gonna have to look happy!’ So you have to really think about it. I genuinely was happy with whoever I got. It was about having somebody who was committed. I need to have fun and work hard. I think there was only one year, and I had someone who had signed up, who didn’t know what they let themselves in for. It’s hard. You really don’t enjoy it then because your hands are kind of tied. Every other year, I had people who were committed, hard-working and they ended up being amazing friends. I speak to Louis Smith and his partner regularly. Me and Russell are best buddies to this day. We talk all the time and I go up to Blackpool to see him.
Aside from yourself, who was the best pro dancer at whipping celebs into shape?
I would say Erin Boag. She’s pretty feisty, pretty direct. She’s a good teacher, and she’s strict when she needs to be.
Is it hard being strict on them?
I mean, I don’t think anyone would say I was strict. I do like to work hard, especially when I was partnered with Louis. When you get somebody like that who’s so talented and so capable, you do need to push them in the right way. I think when I was partnered with him, I was the strictest I’ve ever been – because I knew what he was capable of doing. He won’t mind me saying this, but when you are very talented, you can almost be a bit lazy because things come to you so easily, and so it was just about controlling that with his abilities right away. So I think with Louis, I was probably by far the strict as I was with but generally, I’m not very strict. I’m very patient, very positive, and rewarding.
If you were a celeb going on the show, who would you love to have been paired with, and who would you have been scared to be paired with?
I would love to be partnered up with Anton! We would have such a laugh together. We probably wouldn’t have gotten any dancing done, but we would have had a right laugh. And even though I love him to bits, I would be scared to be partnered up with James [Jordan]. He’s fun, but I think I would have been slightly fearful! He is quite strict.
What is something very unglamorous about the show that people might not realise?
I’d say probably wearing high-heeled shoes. Even though it looks glamorous, it’s very, very painful. When you’ve been rehearsing all day, your feet are not glamorous! It’s tough, and that’s why it is quite hard for the female contestants, because they’re having to use their feet in a very particular way in high heels. It’s different from just normally wearing high heels. They’re having to dance, move in awkward positions all day.
What happens after the results show? Do you go out and have fun?
The results are filmed very late in the day, so you’re exhausted. Personally, for me, I was always somebody who just wanted to go back to my hotel, have a bath and some food. Some of them would go for a drink at the bar and celebrate. Occasionally, if it was somebody’s birthday, then we would go out.
How did your partners find the training aspect of the show – did it ever get too much for any of them?
I think everybody’s found it hard work. I don’t think Jimi would mind me saying, but Jimi had a little cry when we were doing the Paso Doble. It does push you past your comfort zone – it feels huge when you have to learn something completely new. When you obviously get these contestants who, even if they have dance training, it’s not this particular style of dance training. You’re passing on just so much information and so much technique that it can get overwhelming. There are days when you’re tired, you’re physically hurt, you’ve got a lot of pain, and you’re choreographing and giving them more and more steps. They can have days where they storm out, and they need to have a little talking to or take some time out. I remember when we did the Paso Doble and Jimi said, ‘Right, I need five minutes.’ I saw him have a little cry, bless him. But he got through it!
How did you deal with injuries on the show – did you have to dance through them?
Most dancers will have done many performances with pretty, pretty bad injuries, and we’re pretty strong. Anything muscular, we will just kind of grin and bear it. The worst time ever that I had on the show was when me and Vincent were doing a performance and I had a stomach virus. I was really bad, really bad, very ill. I had the flu and I had to go on and do this dance with a person either side of me with a bucket just in case. I was chewing gum, and then if I needed to, like, before, or in between, coming on and off, there was somebody there with a bucket. I remember getting a big bunch of flowers after I was done. That was really hard, I had to go straight after!
What is the best way to calm your partner down if they’re really having that panic?
I think generally just remind them that they just need to get out there and enjoy it as much as they can. They’ve put in all the work. Once you’ve done all the training, when you actually go out, you have to kind of forget everything, and dance and enjoy it – that’s all you can do. You’re not really in control of anything else at that point. You’ve done all the hard work. You’re also there to make them laugh, just find silly ways to ease them into it. I’m a bit of a giggler. I laugh very easily. There would always be something or somebody trying to boost everyone. When I was on the show, you had Anton and James, who were always making jokes and things like that. That always lightens the mood, and then before, that kind of snaps them out of it, and they’re fine.
Are there big mistakes celebs often make on the show? What would you tell them to avoid doing?
I’d definitely say don’t eat too much before the show. You want to have enough energy, so you want to fuel up at the right time, but don’t feel bloated. That’s the worst thing you can do. Try to have a good sleep the night before and don’t do anything silly beforehand!
What do viewers not know about Blackpool? What is it like behind the scenes?
For professional dancers from the ballroom and Latin world, it’s like a second home. Strictly goes there on one of the Saturdays, and the audience is introduced to the beautiful ballroom. But for us, we’ve been going there since a pretty young age. We know the venue, really, really well. It brings back lots of memories for the pros who have competed there. I think it’s also got so much history from a dance perspective. I’m quite a bit of a spiritual person, so I believe that there’s definitely a special energy.
Len Goodman is no longer with us, do you have a standout memory with him?
He was amazing. I love Len to bits. He was actually my favourite. He always spoke the truth. He was obviously the one who had the technical know-how; he was always very funny, always direct with his comments. I have lots of memories. If you had a celeb who wasn’t technically brilliant, you would kind of mask that by doing quite a long intro or you could use props. I used to love his face and his comments when people used to go on with a feather boa, and there would be three bars of Fox Trot. I could always watch somebody’s routine and then know what Len was going to say.
Judge Craig gets a reputation for being straight to the point and quite brutal with feedback, but what’s he really like?
When I was on the show, Craig’s comments were really brutal. But I think over the years, it’s gotten better. The comments now are very different from what I used to experience! You think back to the things they used to say – no way would they say that now, so I definitely think Craig has softened. He’s absolutely lovely, though. I think people probably want him to be a little bit brutal in real life, but he is one of the nicest people I’ve worked with. But yeah, back then, the judges were a lot tougher!
What is something people don’t know about what happens on the final? Anything backstage that surprised you the first time?
The final is really intense. I think the only difference with the final is that, literally, you are absolutely non-stop. At the start of the show, you have to wait for your turn to dance, and then you have a huge wait for everybody else to dance. But in the final, there are only three or four couples, and you’re having to do a lot more numbers. You feel like you’re on and off the floor constantly, and you don’t get a break. The day flies by because you haven’t got as much waiting around. You’ve got all these people around you doing your makeup, hair, and changing the look. It’s so incredibly intense and just really fast-paced.
When you think about your time in the final, does it feel like a blur?
Yeah, totally a blur. You’ve got people around you all day, and you are constantly on and off the dance floor. Then there’s no waiting around. It’s just a rehearsal, then the live show.
When you are told you’ve won strictly, can you put into a few words what that is actually like?
It’s just like the best feeling in the world, you cannot believe it. I mean, just to be in the final is a win for me. It’s indescribable. You can’t believe how many couples were in it to begin with, and that you’ve actually kind of won – it is mad. I kind of lost my mind. When I won with Louis, one of our numbers was the show dance, which was our salsa to Dirty Dancing’s I Had The Time of My Life with the big lift. I don’t know what got into me, but I was wearing my Charleston outfit, which was like a beaded fringed dress and I was so excited that when we won we had a dance at the end and I said to Louis, ‘Let’s do the lift!’ I ran back, and then I could see his face was just like, ‘What are you doing?’ I ran up to him, jumped, and he literally caught me. When he put me down I thought, ‘How did he do it?’ I was wearing this beaded dress and how somehow caught me without any preparation.
Would you ever be tempted to go back and try to win again?
I would never say no. If I was asked to go on again, that would be very hard to turn down.
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