Entertainment
Oti Mabuse praises her Strictly Come Dancing ‘family’ after shutting down exit rumours
Oti Mabuse isn’t leaving Strictly Come Dancing just yet despite rumours mounting recently, and admits she’d find it difficult to leave the family and ‘best friends’ she’s made on the series.
The professional dancer is a Strictly hero having won the competition twice; with Emmerdale actor Kelvin Fletcher in 2019 and again with comedian Bill Bailey in December 2020.
Last week, Oti sparked speculation that she was quitting the ballroom dancing series after six years when she stated in a recent interview that 2021 would likely be her last year.
However, she has since clarified that she’s staying put and will be back to compete for the glitterball once again.
‘I don’t know why I said that but I will take it a season at a time. I don’t know what came over me,’ Oti told Metro.co.uk to celebrate her partnership with meal subscription service Green Chef.
The dancer continued: ‘I’ll see how I feel to be honest.
‘The first thing that I have to say, this job that I have is one of the best jobs that I’ve ever had and Strictly for me is the most amazing experience of my life. It’s the professional dancers, it’s the celebrities, it’s the crew that we all feel like a family and every single year it just gets better and better.
‘You are a part of this incredible world with incredible people that always makes me feel grateful that I’m incredibly proud to be a part of the show. It brings so much joy to so many fans and so many people and that’s what I love about the show.’
She continued: ‘It’s a world you always want to be a part of, it’s a bridge that you constantly want to keep building and growing and making better and stronger. That’s honestly why I do it, because I work with my best friends. Production take care of you before and after the show and away from the show.
‘You have crew that you see on another production and it feels like you’ve lost a long lost cousin.
‘That’s why I love it, the fans man. The fans really make us feel good and they’re such an important part of the show and that’s why I love it.’
In addition to Strictly, Oti will also have her schedule filled later this year with The Masked Dancer, a spin-off of ITV’s hugely popular The Masked Singer.
It’ll see Oti slip off her dancing shoes for a change and sit behind the judging panel alongside Joanthan Ross, Mo Gilligan and Davina McCall.
However, she won’t be taking tips from her sister Motsi Mabuse, who is a judge on Strictly, simply because The Masked Dancer couldn’t be more worlds apart from the BBC One series.
Oti explained: ‘It’s a different show. With Motsi on the show, she gives marks and critique on technique, Strictly is like dance galore and The Masked Dancer is dance galore entertainment.
‘So I can’t say do this and that next week because it’s a completely different show but I love it and I hope people at home love it just as much because it comes with just having fun and the family watching the most incredible majestic show.’
The 30-year-old continued: ‘The thing about The Masked Dancer is the anticipation and the suspense, looking at the clues and trying to figure it out, the guessing, the assuming it’s this person that you love, it’s that and sometimes, I feel like I’m going to be that person who just gets lost in the performance and I don’t have to critique them and just guess along with the rest of the nation.
‘It’s honestly taken a lot of the pressure off me, I’m having the best time laughing all the time and I feel like I probably will be laughing too much and just having a great time and forgetting that I’m there.’
Oti, 30, continued: ‘It’s the excitement of the unknown. That in itself, you have to literally be vigilant and watch everything from the costumes to listening to the songs and you don’t even have their voices so it’s hard but I’m so excited.’
As a dancer, Oti is mindful to maintain a healthy and balanced diet and partnered up with Green Chef to feel more ‘confident in the kitchen’.
She explained: ‘With Green Chef, it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change. It’s making the choice to take certain things and that’s what I love about it.
‘I was introduced to the lifestyle of keto because it was high in protein and it was really good for your body, especially in terms of dancing.
‘I’ll be the first one to tell you, especially in my 20s, in every single interview I would be the person to say I eat everything. But obviously with things growing, I’ve just had to be quite aware of taking things that I want to make my body feel good and to keep my body feeling good.’
As if she hasn’t got enough on her schedule, Oti is also releasing a children’s book, Dance With Oti: The Bird Jive, on May 27.
‘I wanted to make sure that this book had every single child, every single background so that they can connect and relate to all children. I want someone to look at it and go, “Look mummy, that’s me”,’ she said.
I’m surrounded by amazing people and we have a laugh about it because you say things you don’t mean and you’re just in the wrong stage of your mind for the day.
One thing we talk about a lot is they say, if you look at a photo of yourself around other people to test their own mental health too, is to say at least one thing good about yourself before you go in so you’re exercising your mindset to think good things.
I know I’m not perfect and when I look at other people and think, oh they look perfect I wish I looked like them, but it’s about making sure that you also compliment yourself sometimes and do what you need to do to put yourself in a good physical state and a mental one.
We’re so quick to say the things we don’t like but we really need to train ourselves to just start being nice to ourselves and practice self care.
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