Tasha Ghouri sends clear message over dance experience backlash as ‘unfair’ BBC Strictly advantage row erupts

Strictly Come Dancing star Tasha Ghouri has waded into the row surrounding her previous dance training following criticism from some viewers for scoring the first 10s of this year’s competition.

Alongside pro partner Aljaz Skorjanec, Ghouri earned a leaderboard-topping score of 39 on Saturday evening for her Charleston.

Craig Revel Horwood was the only judge not to lift the 10 paddle while his fellow judges heaped praise on Ghouri for what they deemed to be a flawless performance.

Inevitably, Ghouri sailed through to the next stage of the competition and remains one of the frontrunners to lift the Glitterball Trophy by the end of the series.

However, as she garners more attention for her show-stopping routines, Ghouri has also been on the receiving end of disgruntled complaints given she has experience in the world of dance.

Before finding fame, Ghouri trained at the Creative Academy in Slough where she graduated with a first-class honours degree in Dance Performance.

Ghouri began training in ballet when she was just a toddler too but admitted before the 2024 series that Strictly was an entirely different challenge from what she’d faced previously.

She told Kiss FM in August: “I’ve not danced for quite a few years – since Love Island, my career is so different. It’s such a different dance style, I may actually not be good at it, like ballet – I’m not good at ballet. I’m trained in commercial street style. It’s going to be very hard but I’m excited for a challenge.”

But despite the assurances that Strictly wouldn’t be a walk in the park for her, the 26-year-old has faced furious reactions from some BBC viewers after being awarded the first perfect scores of the series at the expense of a more inexperienced competitor.

After the BBC Strictly Instagram account shared a clip from her Charleston, one fan criticised: “‘Truly professional’ I’d hope so given she went to dance school and IS a professional dancer. Way over marked, what a joke!”

“It’s almost as if she went to a dance college and could already dance,” a second sarcastically hit out before a third echoed: “They have an advantage she’s a dancer it’s a lot easier for her.”

Elsewhere, a fourth fumed: “It doesn’t hurt as hard because she is a professional dancer! Yes, I get not Latin & ballroom but there’s a crossover in musicality strength and that the others just don’t have! Unfair!”

Ghouri didn’t respond directly to the criticism of her experience but when a handful of famous faces waded into the comments to show their support, the Love Island star sent a clear message that she’s not letting the backlash get to her.

Former Strictly finalist Layton Williams was one to hit back at the naysayers, typing: “But she’s a professional… SLAYER! Some of you lot are such haters. Aren’t we bored of the same old argument?

“I wonna see a range of abilities on this show. Just like they have every single year. It’s fun. It’s fab. And I’m obsessed. Keep going girl xxx.”

And Gogglebox’s Tom Malone Jr also backed the 26-year-old: “Tasha smashed it… you guys have no idea how hard it is to adapt to a dance style you’ve never trained before and I can’t even imagine the additional pressure of her disability on top of that.

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“Tasha is an inspiration and she’s going above and beyond to show people that we can push beyond the boxes that society tries to assign us to.”

Showing her appreciation for Williams and his attempt to silence the critics, Ghouri replied to the actor with an applause emoji and the message: “Love love love you,” followed by a love heart emoji,

And she similarly snubbed engaging with criticism as she commented back to Malone Jr: “Thank you so much Tom really appreciate this,” followed by a love heart emoji.

Ghouri and Skorjanec will take to the dancefloor once more on Saturday evening as they take on a Tango to Florence & The Machine’s Dog Days Are Over