Aljaz Skorjanec fires back at Craig Revel Horwood over Tasha Ghouri BBC Strictly critique
Strictly pro Aljaz Skorjanec has defended former Love Island star-turned-dance partner Tasha Ghouri’s Tango from the criticism of judge Craig Revel Horwood.
On Saturday evening, Revel Horwood said their rendition, set to Dog Days are Over by Florence and the Machine “lacked aggression”.
Speaking on Tuesday’s It Takes Two, Skorjanec defended the duo’s performance, insisting he and Ghouri had delivered the routine “beautifully”.
He told host Fleur East: “I wanted to do a Tango that was as smooth just as much as it was aggressive and sharp.”
Defiant, the Slovenian pro declared: “I think that we delivered that beautifully.”
Speaking to Ghouri, It Takes Two host East observed: “After the performance you seemed a little bit deflated. What was going through your mind from that moment?”
Ghouri, who’s been at the centre of a row among fans over her dance training background, confessed: “I will be honest, I think I had quite a rough week last week.
“I’m going in with a positive attitude, I’m not going to let it get to me and work harder this week.”
On the night, head judge Shirley Ballas disagreed with her fellow judge’s comments. She said that Skorjanec and Ghouri’s Tango had “aggression” and “attack”.
And despite his initial criticism, Revel Horwood added that the couple had danced “magnificently”.
The Tango received eights from Ballas and Revel Horwood while judges Motsi Mabuse and Anto Du Beke lifted the nine paddles for a total of 34.
The scores saw Skorjanec and Ghouri to fourth place on Week Five’s leaderboard, the first time in the series the couple have not topped the table.
However, East revealed Skorjanec and Ghouri are now the highest-scoring couple ever in Strictly’s 20-year history by this point in the competition, notching up 172 points across the last five weeks.
They narrowly beat out close competition in the form Strictly 2023 duo Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin, and 2021 couple John Whaite and Johannes Radebe, who reached 169 and 167 points respectively, by Week Five.
Skorjanec said he was “proper chuffed” with the news while Ghouri said: “I never thought in a million years we’d be making history like that.”
As Halloween Week approaches, the couple announced they will dance a Samba to I Like to Move It by Reel to Real.
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Ghouri promised their Samba will show “a side we’ve not done yet” and present the “the funny, silly, banter between us kind of vibe”.Skorjanec acknowledged that as the weeks go on “the choreography gets harder; the competition gets stiffer”.
The Slovenian pro concluded: “All you can do is just stay in your lane and make sure you can deliver the best Samba, the best Tango, the best dance every week.”
