Olga Urumova, dances with Stefano. Obviously I don't mean either one of these girls are fat. But both have different body shapes to the ideal one that you see so often on the circuit. And neither one of them would be size 8 or less. I just don't think weight and body shape matter that much for competition results. Bryan always got a lot of slack for not being able to loose the weight, and I think that was partially the reason he didn't quit smoking. But nevertheless he is possibly one of the most worshiped dancers up to date and was world champion for so many years.

You see a lot more diversity in body shapes between professionals than Amateurs. It seems to me that once the dancers are mature enough they realise their dancing needs to take priority over body image. Also I guess they are older so it's harder for them to keep the same form they had during their teens/early 20s.

Ooh, I remember another one. Rachel Heron. How could I forget?! As long as she doesn't fall out of the semifinals again I wouldn't think her weight is holding her back.

Why do all my posts turn into short stories?!

Rachael Heron has the talent and potential to place far higher than what she does. She's a lovely girl, but she is not attractive to look at on the floor. She has told me herself that adjudicators have said to her following competitions that they would have marked her further if she hadn't been so heavy.

I never noticed Olga being big before. She's very tall, but I've never thought she was overly wide.

Olga use to be a lot more toned and thin when she first started dancing with Stefano. Her built is big, but she has acquired more soft tissue as well over the past couple of years. For competitions she tans a lot and her dresses cover things, but if you see her in practice it's more noticeable.

Yes, you're right. Rachel was a bad example. But her case is quite extreme.

Whenever I have brought up the subject of thinness I have always been told off by my coaches. When we talked about our diets, like I said above, it was always about what to eat/when to eat to maximise performance.

Do you compete, by the way?

It's a shame for Rachael. She's only 5 foot tall so she has absolutely nowhere to hide any weight. Taller girls are a lot luckier in that respect. She got down to 7 stone 10 at the height of her career (back when she was in all of the finals, 2004-ish) but it's not been easy for her at all in more recent years.

No, I don't compete.

Never noticed Olga being big before, I thought she was just an average size.

I feel sorry for Rachael, I've read some really horrible stuff written about her because of her size..in all honesty, she's not the only one! Lisa is exactly the same as well but seems to escape the comments relatively unscathed!

You people have forced me to look up some very *interesting* pictures. You can surround me with such 'fatties' like Rachel if you like, I couldn't think of a better way to die

You onbviously have an unhealthy interest in smoking to be bothered about asking the question, be careful!!

People are only disgusted by smoking because of the smell, not any health implications, if drink stank as much, it would be booze that got so much stick as it is just as addictive and worse for your broader health. Liver trouble, mouth cancers, danger to oneself and others under the influence.

I would rather be in a room with 20 smokers for an hour than in a room with 20 drinkers, much safer short term IMO.

That's all very well until you spill their ash

I saw a photo in the paper the other day of Vincent and Charlie Brooks rehearsing for the Christmas Special, they were in a ballroom hold, and both had fags poking out of their mouths, and she even managed a paper cup of coffee in her hand too.

It made me sad - you think of dancers as fit and to know that on the one hand they are so talented, and on the other they are choosing to kill themselves, well to me, that's a shame. As for Charlie, she has one of the best selling fitness dvd's ever, so to see her with a fag in her mouth just made me feel disgusted - that she promotes health and fitness yet clearly doesn't practice what she preaches.

Nobody is perfect, and it is down to each individual to do what they will with their own life. But speaking personally, I look up to people I consider fit, and it comes as a disappointment to find out they abuse themselves by smoking. Imagine Usain Bolt having a quick puff before he ran the 100 metres?

I've never actually smoked in my life, but I worked in a pub for almost a decade, sadly before the ban came in, and I had to quit as, much as I loved my job, the smokey environment was doing me in. I was getting frequent bouts of bronchitis, and forever losing my voice, and although I get such ailments less often now, when I do my body still really struggles to shake them off. It scares me that I will get cancer because of the job I did.

Doing anything excessively isn't a good idea, be it smoking, drinking, or even eating. I'm not perfect, and I don't pretend to be, I just hate seeing people willingly harming themselves, that's all.

The great Olympic athlete Jesse Owens smoked and died from lung cancer at 66, and he was fit for most of his lifetime, fit enough to win gold medals. I don't think Usain Bolt smokes, as far as I know.

I'm sure I've read on a number of occasions that if you smoke it does affect your cardiovascular fitness - which is why athletes are advised by sports trainers and medics not to. I'm sure if Jesse Owens was an athlete today he'd be advised the same - but as we know he competed in a less enlightened era so he didn't have the knowledge to make an informed choice.

I don't think anything less of the dancers mentioned on this thread who smoke - I'll always admire their talent but I have to agree with krissii with all the knowledge out there about smoking and it's harmful effects I find it sad they make the choice to smoke - but I respect it's their choice.

Why do you think he only does the 100 metres? You should see him after he's done his lap of honour, in the tunnel. He's more smoked than haddock.

The smokers, Erin and James, were amongst the worst at the botafogos.

But why is it any different for dancers than it is for ordinary people? They all know of the harms of smoking, and still chose to do so.

Smoking sort of gets passed down generation after generation between the dancers. Usually dancers start dancing from an early age and their coaches sort of become their second parents or their role models. And then bad habits like smoking or eating disorder get passed down to the younger dancers. And smoking and eating disorder go hand in hand as well. Some people smoke in order to lose weight. And then when they become wiser about it, it just gets too hard to quit.

But... isn't that just wrong? Aren't these people meant to be judging dancing ability??

And although I have never had a good long stare at Rachel, I know of her and have seen pictures of her - she is not big by any stretch of the imagination! Isn't she our top UK latin lady?

I noticed that too - ok we can cut Erin some slack because Latin isn't her speciality but I still reckon she would have gone faster if she wasn't a smoker and Latin is James' - incidentally I noticed on the botafogo thread some posters thought Pasha would win this challenge but I think he was worst out of the males - incidentally I adore Pasha - I don't know if it's true if he is a smoker or not but I did read on another thread it was alluded to by Chelsee that he was!


I find it sad whoever chooses to smoke - I almost became a smoker through peer pressure myself - I tried it a few times but I then decided it wasn't for me. I was lucky I had the will power to resist it - not that I'm able not resist other stuff ie eating rich food, drinking - I'm not perfect but I do try and only indulge in moderation

One of my neighbour's mother died of a smoking related cancer recently - I was hoping for her sake and her childrens that it would scare her enough to make her pack it in - however I recently saw her and she was still puffing away!

It's about the whole package on the competition floor - appearance matters almost as much as ability.

Gregor and Rachael were formerly, but now Michael Malitowski and Joanna Leunis are the top UK couple.

Thanks for that

I personally think Rachael often looks too big on the floor. I think she is about a size ten or so, which for her tiny height is not flattering, especially when compared to her beautifully slim peers. Having said that though, I saw her in Paris this weekend just gone and she seemed a lot slimmer than she was earlier in the year. At the World Championship in Moscow in April she was very much out of shape and I am pretty sure that's why Alex Ivanets and Lisa beat her and Gregor for the first time ever.

This is why I could never compete... I'm naturally a large chested 12 with a history of eating issues so if a size 10 is too big I may as well never dance!!

Dance for me is valued for self-expression and genuine emotional experience on the floor.

If spectators pay to watch professional dancers then they will pick and choose the professionals closest matching their aesthetic, emotional and physical ideal including age, beauty, figure, costume, artistry and musicality. Such demanding valuations of professional performance should not inhibit amateur dancers in their pleasure and fulfillment from social dancing. Professional competition will make no allowances for shortage or excess of body equipment which cannot be changed. Shorties will never get a chance to play for Harlem Basketball Team, but ought to be encouraged to enjoy and value what they do as amateurs.

Kristina has been well-endowed since teenage, but she conscientiously diets to keep her assets within limits expected for professional dancing.

Well Aesthetics matter in dancing. After all what you're looking at needs to be pleasing on the eye. But besides that, having a reasonably shapely figure allows the movement to be shown off better. Just think of Russell Grant. He was actually a pretty good dancer (for a celebrity), but his movements were lost because of his figure. Secondly, being heavy makes one slower. And thirdly, there is the prejudice of how can a professional semi-finalist dancer have so much trouble losing weight, perhaps she isn't working hard enough or something.


One of my friends is a doctor and he smokes very regularly. Says it's quite common between doctors and nurses at his hospital!


Rachel is not a size 10. At least not in her worse days. And you also need to consider that she's quite short and a size 10 looks bigger on her than it would on someone as tall as Tess.
Melinda for example is about a size 10. And as you have read in previous posts, no one would consider her too big for the competitive circuit, and she's a finalist now. She's around 5'2".

I see Lionel Blair was on today's ITT and he's 80 next week, I've just read.
He smokes like a chimney and he's still going strong. Maybe dancers and smoking is the secret of long life.

Are you talking about Kristina Rhianoff? At the risk of sounding bitchy - her 'assets' don't look very real to me! Great dancer though

3 years ago there was a photo on the internet, showing twentysomething Kristina dancing topless with a girl at a Seattle party (DWTS on tour).

Her attributes were more than real, they were soft, adorable and in their prime. But if Kristina lets go of her diet then she has the potential to quickly become Rubenesque, unlike Camilla. She offered her diet formula to John Sergeant, who at age 64 lost two stone within weeks.

Apropos the title of this thread, it seems unlikely Kristina would smoke. She survived hard times in Vladivostok when the Soviet Union disintegrated along with jobs meltdown. Many of her contemporaries destroyed themselves with drugs, so no reason why survivor Kristina would give in to a health wrecker (statistically a health wrecker, not so in every case).