Katya Jones slams Strictly judges for harsh and 'unappreciative' Lewis Cope comments

Katya Jones has slammed the Strictly Come Dancing judges for their harsh comments about her dance with Emmerdale's Lewis Cope.

On the show's pin-off, It Take Two, she shared how unhappy she was with what they said. Katya and Lewis danced a Viennese Waltz to Teddy Swims' Lose Control on Saturday's (4 October) episode.

They scored 27 and the judges had a lot of constructive criticism for the actor, especially Shirley Ballas, who said she wanted more "refinement" and felt the dance was "too aggressive".

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However, Katya has suggested that the criticism showed the judges to be unappreciative of her choreography, how hard it was and the "hours and hours" Lewis spent learning it.

"As a pro, as a teacher, I really would've loved for the judges to vocalise their appreciation for what he did do, for all the steps that he spent hours and hours learning," she said.

"And they were there, every single Viennese Waltz step, including the fleckerl that he did on his own, then joined me, the pivots, the naturals, the reverses, all of it."

She added that she felt the dance was "right" for them. "Dancing is an art form, it’s an expression for me, and we put this number together the way we felt was right for us.”

Host Janette Manrara agreed that when you are dancing, you want to do the best you can, but swiftly moved on to discussing their next dance, which will be a Paso Doble inspired by the film, The Mask of Zorro.

Week three on Strictly is Movie Week, where each dance is inspired by a different film. On the show, it was also revealed that Ross King would be dancing a routine based on Thunderbirds.

The Mask of Zorro has been used during Movie Week before. Danny Mac also danced a Paso to some of the film's music and scored 36 points.

Like Danny, Lewis is a frontrunner on the show. Some have said they are unhappy with Lewis being on the show, because of his prior dance experience.

Lewis used to compete in hip hop competitions. He is not the only celebrity this year to have prior experience in dance, as Amber Davies has training in musical theatre. Both of them are performing well, though some fans have suggested that the judges are being harsher with them because of their prior training.

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