Mary Martin when she won Season 5 with Rob van Vuuren.
Many of the dancers on Strictly Come Dancing have become schlebs in their own right and many favourites are blasting back when the new season starts on SABC3 tonight (at 20h00). Only two of the dancers are new, the rest are from previous seasons.
Mary Martin returns to deliver her signature flickitty flack moves - with comedian Donovan Goliath this time. Clearly she's decided she favours dancing to cooking and it makes me happy. As much as I enjoyed her on MasterChef I never felt it was the right thing for her because you can see she's supposed to dance. She's not supposed to be in the kitchen so I'm pleased she isn't.
Donovan better be fancy-footed or funny so she can stay as long as possible. Unless we change the rules and vote for fave dancers instead. That could work.
The Zoolander of Strictly is also back. Brandon Eilers Le Riche who took on the name of his wife. As you may know, Brandon's surname was Eilers, his wife's was Le Riche and when they got married they joined names. Like Die Nuutsman and Michelle Garforth.
Brandon and his wife.
Last season, when Brandon danced with Connie Ferguson, he was credited as Eilers-only and it troubled me a lot but this season he's back to being credited as a double-barrel, which is cool.
The totes cray-cray thing about the set-up with him is that he genuinely is more famous than the celeb he's dancing with. He's dancing with
the Leandi Du Randt, the schleb you're supposed to have heard about but haven't. When the season starts tonight many more people will know who he is than her!
Someone who's going to have a rough time of things is Ryan Hammond who'll no doubt fall head-over-dance-shoes in lurve with his partner this season, Boity Thulo - like he did with Zakeeya Patel last season.
When I
spoke to Ryan and Zakeeya after their win last season I could see he was gaga for her. At the time they had a first date planned. Then, not too long after, I heard that Zakeeya said that they were just friends or something!? If you've heard any updates please spill.
Another dirrrty dancer who's back is Lindsey Muckle who's partnering with Isidingo's Ashish Gangapersad. Best known last season for her showmance with Graeme Richards and his stripper torso. Turns out it wasn't such a showmance though. Yip! The pair of them are still together:
Of course, other blonde Hayley Bennett's also back as she always is. This will be her fifth season on the show. She's partnering up with Top Billing's Jonathan Boynton-Lee which could turn out quite interesting.
A surprise blast-from-the-past is Quintus Jansen who hasn't been seen since Season 4 when he partnered with Brenda Ngxoli. I remember his name but I can't remember what he was like. Whether or not we'll get to know him more lies in the hands of his partner Khanyi Mbau.
Two first-time dancers from last season make their comeback this season too. Jay Antsey's partner Tsholo Mohohlwane returns to partner Janine Davies and Nombulelo Hlathi partners-up with rugby player John Mametsa.
Keep a lookout for the two new dancers ... Johannes Radebe, partner to singer LeAnne Dlamini and Marcella Solimeo - who was in the Top 24 of So You Think You Can Dance last year. She's partnering with comedian Siv Ngesi.