For the sake of entertainment, this programme IMO places individuals in situations far more intimate than in doing love scenes on a film set.

I would be in a permanent state of jealous anxiety if my partner was on such a show.

Does that apply to the professionals too?

In which case doesn't that suggest that only married couples should ever dance together?

I would be interested to hear what the professional dancers who appear on this forum think about that! There is however an intensity about Strictly that is probably beyond that of most professional partnerships. I imagine the time spent together per week is generally much less.

No; I know what the OP means. It's intense AND long-lasting. A huge pressure on people who aren't used to the discipline, I'd imagine.

My (large, macho, sporty, terrified-of-looking-an-idiot) husband would be fairly safe though - he'd spend all his time trying to run away from his female professional as quickly as his legs could possibly carry him!

I don't want to sound argumentitive, but I don't really see this - there have only been 2 (if that) relationships of any seriousness between the couples in 5 years, far less than most intense work situations I'd guess, mainly because most of us don't work with a camera crew with us most of the time. Whereas actors on location have hours of hanging around, away from home and nobody watching them, which causes much more temptation than acting 'love scenes'. Doing SCD is nothing to most sales conferences, training days, etc that most work people do (in the sense of opportunity - I just realised how cynical this makes me, but I do think 'could I get away with it?' is a big part of flings. Obviously people seriously falling for each other is different, which nobody can predict but isn't going to be that common.)

But look what happened to Kenny! (And Mark and Gethin!)

Its all in the Latin, really. Thats where they REALLY have to get close and dirty (oops - sorry, intimate) .

Mind you, the "curse of SCD" doesn't seem to have struck too often, and if a couple are confident in their relationship, why should it. The recent sad news re the Ramprakash household doesn't seem to have anything to do with Strictly.

Interesting post! I take your point, but most work situations don't involve such physical closeness. (Or am I missing something?!)

Maybe you're in the wrong job, my dear

Surely a professional partnership is much deeper than an arranged twelve week union for a television series?

Maybe the time spent together is less for established professional couples, and is obviously not subjected to having a TV camera constantly shoved in your face. But surely the intimacy is at a similar level ?

Of course I may be very wrong and maybe dancers just have to remain professional at all times. But in that case why do some of them end up marrying their partner?

I'm not really qualified to speak because I've never been there, but it is a rather interesting point.

Situation required: must involve sales conferences and training days!

No, fair point. I was just thinking 'would I be jealous?' and I can think of lots of things a partner might be doing where someone might realistically have more cause to be jealous. But I would hate the public's seeming irresistible need to believe that the partnerships on SCD are romances, whether they are seeing someone else, gay, etc. So in that sense, yes, if Tess was 'teasing' my partner, I'd probably not be happy whatever was really going on.

See, that's my theory - the more boring the work, the more trouble people get in.

I suppose mostly we don't have what our partners are up to at work shoved in our face as it is with Strictly. As you say, there might be lots of things we wouldn't really like, but what we don't see doesn't hurt etc.

As someone who has "been there done that" in terms of inadvertently falling in love with a dance partner ... maybe it is just me being a hopeless old romantic at heart, but in my experience, it is hard to remain completely professional and detached from someone that you work with very closely (both in terms of time spent together, and in terms of physical proximity), and with someone in whom you need to have a lot of trust and respect to be able to work so closely.

Add the sheer amount of time that the SCD couples spend working together into the mixture, and its a surprise that there haven't been more relationships springing out of things than there actually have been.

Dancing with someone can be extremely intimate, even when you are sticking solely to moves that are "totally in the legal zone" (as my teacher would say! ). It takes a much stronger person than me to keep those feelings 100% professional 100% of the time ...

I suppose there's a difference between something you know is twelve weeks essentially in front of the camera all the time, & what could potentially be far longer/the rest of your life?

From some of the interviews with the professionals, it would appear that the intimate nature of their jobs do lead to their marriages but then again there are plenty who create amazing dance partnerships without being married... I suppose it all depends on the people in question, really.

My thoughts exactly. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

As someone who has been there, I respect your views totally.

It does put a rather different slant on the whole thing for those of us that just spectate rather than participate.

I guess it's just a question of boundaries. But boundaries aren't neccessarily 'fixed' and in time will doubtless naturally move in either direction.

As you rightly say, given the levels of emotion and intimacy involved, perhaps it is a major surprise that it doesn't happen far more regularly.

Too add to that .... some of us even fall in love with the dancers/celebrities just by simply watching them!

Very true indeed. A move that starts off as feeling very awkward and intrusive to begin with very quickly becomes the most natural thing in the world, as does the next move that starts like that, as does the next, and the next ...

Looking back on my current partnership, I think back to those awkward and clumsy first few weeks where it was all "oops, sorry!" at merely a careless placement of a hand on a waist instead of a shoulderblade or similar ... and then I look now at how we hug constantly even off the dancefloor ... I know Claudia banned the "J" word, but it truly is quite a journey that you go on when embarking on a dance partnership!

I would assume it's similar to how the partners of actors feel. Imagine seeing your loved one in a love scene with someone else. It must be very odd.

Some people find it easier to seperate on set/stage/dancefloor performance and real life. Others don't.

And this is probably why so many dancers date other dancers and actors date other actors. They are the only ones who 'get' the whole situation.

I think the OP has asked an interesting question. I know they're in front of cameras a lot but, in addition to the intimate requirements of the dances (no girl has ever asked me to put my hands on her bum as part of my normal working day), the celebs also lean on their professional partners' emotionally to get them through the high intensity of the Saturday night performance. It would be a recipe for disaster for someone as feeble and weak-willed as me, I tell you.

Excellent point .
Today is not the day to quote Mark but he pointed out , the touching etc is part of the " job" to dancers , to non dancers it can seem much more .

All very interesting i must say but then for the dancers among us:

Do you think that even profesional dancers ,who are not or have not been in a relationship together , actually, at one time, hold deeper feelings or atleast passions for each other ?

Or either to the extent that dancers who have danced together for a long time have surely done slightly more than just dancing?

I think its highly likely that professional dancers who are not involved in a relationship together still hold on to a wealth of deep feeling for their partner.

Yes, there are people who can keep it strictly professional (I'm certainly not one of them! ), but even on a very professional level, the amount of trust and respect that you have to share with someone to really work with them in the way and to the extent that leads you to turn professional - well, its something very very special, even if it doesn't manifest itself in a sexual way at any point.

It would be wrong to assume that every dance partnership turns sexual at some stage, but they certainly hold special feelings that you might not share with anyone else.