The West End performer has received criticism for her dance background
Amber and Nikita had just 48 hours to prepare for their first performance(Image: ITV)
Amber Davies was “brought to tears” in the training room while rehearsing her routine for this Saturday’s live show. Former Love Island winner Amber, who hails from North Wales, joined this year’s cast of Strictly Come Dancing when Dani Dyer-Bowen was forced to pull out after fracturing her ankle in a fall during rehearsals.
Amber, who just finished up her stint playing Jordan Baker in the West End musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby, had just 48 hours to get ballroom-ready. She was partnered with professional dancer Nikita Kuzmin and they immediately impressed viewers in week one with their waltz to When We Were Young by Adele.
They followed up their impressive first dance with a samba last weekend. Amber and Nikita wowed the judges as they took to the dancefloor to perform their routine to Bam Bam by Camilla Cabello and Ed Sheeran. They were scored 29 points – two points more than their week one performance- and have achieved the highest score overall in the competition.
Amber Davies and Nikita Kuzmin dancing their samba(Image: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire )
Amber and Nikita recently appeared on ITV daytime show This Morning to talk Ben Shepherd and Cat Deeley about their whirlwind Strictly journey. The musical theatre performer said she was in shock when Craig Revel Horwood gave such positive comments after her samba. She said: “I think you could tell by my face I was genuinely speechless.”
Reflecting on her first performance, she said she was “physically shaking” due to nerves. She got the call on the Thursday and went straight to the training room to pick up a routine ready for Saturday night. Nikita shared: “Setting up choreography at the last second is just mayhem.”
As Amber impressed the judges with her dancing skills, she was hit with criticism from Strictly fans due to her dance background. She is professionally trained in musical theatre, having completed her training at the Urdang Academy in London.
She has landed a number of West End roles including The Great Gatsby, 9:5 The Musical, Back To The Future and Pretty Woman. It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Amber, as it was also recently confirmed she would be taking on the lead role of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde.
While speaking to Cat and Ben on This Morning, Amber took the opportunity to address the criticism she has received over her musical theatre background and said she does “understand where they come from”.
Presenter Cat said: “You have experience of dancing, but you’re not a ballroom dancer, you’ve never done the samba before.” Amber explained: “I want to say, I think the ballroom and Latin community know that musical theatre are worlds apart from each other.
Addressing the criticism she has received, she said: “I do understand where they come from because yes I can perform, you know. But here’s a great example, yesterday we were doing our American smooth and even just walking left, right, left, right brought me to tears because it’s so much more complicated than you could imagine.”
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She explained: “You’re not allowed to take your foot off the floor, you have to drag your heel, you have to keep your frame, you have to look out and when you think about your head you forget about your feet.” She added: “You have to engage every single muscle in your body and it’s exhausting.”
Amber plans to make the most of the opportunity and doesn’t want to let Nikita down. She said: “I’ve been given this opportunity and it came so quickly. I never thought I’d experience Strictly Come Dancing so I’m really going to put in the work and I don’t want to let Nikita down.”
Amber and Nikita will take to the ballroom this week to perform an American smooth for movie week to “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” from The Sound of Music.
Being a performer, Amber also expressed her excitement over the show’s first ever guest mentor, which was confirmed to be Cynthia Erivo. The Wicked star previously appeared on the show as a guest judge in 2021, but she is returning to the studio in a new role this weekend.
The 38-year-old will appear during movie week as a guest mentor for the contestants. The professional dancers will also perform a Wicked-themed dance to As Long As You’re Mine.
On her return to the show, Erivo will help the remaining couples to dance like movie stars, coaching them in rehearsals and in the studio on the night, where she will sit with the judges.
