Strictly Come Dancing’s Graziano Di Prima’s spokesperson has confirmed the star kicked his celebrity partner Zara McDermott once during rehearsals last year, leading to his elimination from the show.
“There’s never a moment when kicking, or having the feeling of kicking, is the right thing to do,” Mark Borkowski told BBC News. “And he knows that.”
“He knows he made a mistake. He apologized at the time.”
Di Prima thought the matter had been resolved, but it is believed that video of the incident has come to public attention. BBC last week, and the dancer was eliminated from this year’s lineup.
The show has been at the centre of controversy following complaints about fellow professional dancer Giovanni Pernice and Di Prima.
Pernice has denied “any suggestion of abusive or threatening behaviour”.
Borkowski said the news agenda had focused on an isolated incident that Di Prima deeply regretted and for which he had apologized.
“The barrage of comments, often without context or nuance, has created an avalanche that has left a young man in a very vulnerable state,” he said.
“In this case, as in many others, the media and social networks have immense power to build and destroy careers.”
On Saturday, Di Prima said he “deeply regrets” the events that led to his departure and that his “intense passion and determination to win may have affected my training regime.”
Former Love Island star and documentary presenter McDermott later released her own statement saying she was involved in incidents in the training room which she now finds “incredibly distressing” to look back on.
The video has not been made public and the circumstances surrounding it are unknown.
BBC News has not seen the video but understands it shows Di Prima kicking McDermott during a rehearsal.
Borkowski said Di Prima did not clearly remember the incident but did not deny that a kick had taken place and the spokesman accepted that he had “crossed the line”.
However, he denied reports that he spat on his dance partner.
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Di Prima “remembers he was pushing (McDermott) quite a bit” in training on the day in question, Borkowski said.
“But it fails to acknowledge some of the problems surrounding it,” he added, referring to recent media reports.
“The descriptions of what was said online and how he remembers it are not aligned,” he said.
And he said it was “absolute nonsense” that a single incident was typical of what happened during “weeks and weeks of training”.
There is also “plenty of evidence” that Di Prima and McDermott “had a lot of fun together during this process,” he said.
In his statement, McDermott said: “I fully understood the level of commitment and hard work Strictly was going to be and I put everything into it.”
“I’m a resilient person and I was fully prepared to give whatever was needed,” she added.
Much of the experience on Strictly was “everything I could have dreamed of” and it was “amazing working with the team on the show”, she said.
“However, my experience inside the training room was very different. There have been reports published about the treatment I received on the programme and there were witnesses to some of the incidents, as well as videos of specific incidents that are incredibly distressing to watch.”
Di Prima has returned to his native Italy and now does manual labor on a remote farm, he said. “He has literally cut himself off from civilization.”
“I think it’s a smart decision, with the support of his wife. He’s coming to terms with his mental health issues.”
Borkowski said he had advised Di Prima to seek professional help since he was removed from the show.
Following the revelations, the BBC has announced it will put a member of Strictly production staff at all rehearsals in future to monitor behaviour.
There will also be enhanced training and two new wellness producers – one for the celebrity contestants and one for the professional dancers.
BBC Unscripted director Kate Phillips said the “vast majority of those who have taken part” in the programme have had positive experiences.
“If any issues are raised or we become aware of inappropriate behaviour, we will always take it seriously and act on it,” he said.
“The concerns that have arisen have been mainly related to training and rehearsals.”
The BBC has now taken “decisive action” to “further strengthen the welfare and support for all those involved in this production,” it added.
‘Intense’ training
But Mr Borkowski said the BBC was “arguably late” in addressing the issues involved, and that the corporation had been “conscious of all the professionals and how much pressure they are under”.
The training process for new dancers is “intense,” he said.
“It’s incredibly difficult to go from turning that person from ugly duckling to swan.”
Former Strictly professional Kristina Rihanoff, who was on the show from 2008 to 2015, described it as a “world of glitz and glamour and a lot of pressure”.
Any verbal or physical abuse “is absolutely not acceptable,” he told BBC News.
“I don’t believe that violence of any kind, abuse of any kind, is the answer to anything.
“You have to be able to regulate your emotions. You’re an adult. You have to regulate them.
“You have to understand that you’re hired to do a very intense job and you get frustrated, you get tired, you can lose your temper, but physical abuse is obviously a no.”
He called for better psychological evaluations.
“We see the glamour and the glitz on a Saturday night, but before that it’s grueling hours, hard work, a lot of emotions, a lot of stress,” she said.
Presenter Rev Richard Coles told BBC Breakfast he had an “amazing” time when he took part in the show in 2017, but was not surprised by the current furore.
“Strictly is showbiz. Behind the shiny, familiar surface, there’s all sorts of things going on – not least of which is intense competition.
“It’s a huge spectacle. Professional dancers have literally been doing it since they were children in a very disciplined, very rigorous, very tough, sometimes even brutal world.
“I think sometimes when celebrities encounter that, there’s a bit of a culture shock.
“Someone I know who worked on the show for a long time described it as ‘a great show with a dark heart.’
“I didn’t quite understand what they meant when they said that. But I think part of it is because in the glitter ball you see one thing, but offstage, of course, it’s a different story.”
“I want to do it right”
There is a broader culture of intense competition in the dance world, according to Terry Hyde, a dancer-turned-choreographer who set up the charity Stepps to provide mental health support for dancers.
Many dance teachers and choreographers support this, but others still work “the old way,” he says.
“They are perfectionists. They want to do it right and they don’t want to be made to look like fools by a partner who can’t dance.
“These celebrities, unless they’ve done musical theater, have probably never done anything like this before.
“The other thing to say is that good dancers are not necessarily good choreographers or good teachers.”
