Behind the glitterball: the dark side of professional dancing

It can be tough for the adjudicators too – many of whom are decent and hard-working, as Ballas points out. On Desert Island Discs, Ballas recalls “immense bullying in the industry from men at the top… I was teaching the top couples in the world and then there were threats going to certain couples saying, ‘There’s nine of us and one of her – if you train with her, we’re going to make sure you don’t make it in the industry.’” Ballas hesitates to “name and shame” but arguably there’s a hint or two in her memoir, Behind the Sequins. “If you have an opinion, as a woman, it’s never really truly listened to,” she told Dancing Times in 2020. Let me just say, I find the WDO is much more open and listens to opinions, and they’re in it to make everything fair.” The presidents of the British Dance Council, World Dance Council and British DanceSport Association, and the chairman of the WDO, are all former champions – and all men. An industry insider, who wished to remain anonymous, suggests that “these former competitors take their competitive mindset into the political world”.