Strictly star Chris McCausland has admitted he “can’t feel” his legs amid tricky rehearsals for his upcoming jive.
The comedian – who is making history on the BBC ballroom show as its first blind contestant – has been hard at work in the studio with his pro partner Dianne Buswell, with the pair planning a jive to the Wayne’s World theme for Movie Week. During an appearance on ITV’s This Morning, Chris revealed the training has taken a toll.
“I feel like I can’t feel my legs, and all I can feel is my legs at the same time,” he laughed. “I feel like I have been riding a horse for a month, it is killing me!”
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Chris, who lost his sight 24 years ago because of a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa, has to use things like touch and feel to learn the moves, as he can’t just watch what Dianne does. And he admitted the process can be “mentally draining”.
(Image: ITV)
“There’s a lot of description and sometimes I have to get on my hands and knees and feel what her feet are doing,” he told the show’s hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard.
“She (Dianne) has got muscles in the lower part of them legs that I didn’t even know existed! Sometimes when all else fails, she gets on her hands and knees and just picks my leg up and puts it where she wants. Like I’m one of those bendy Spiderman figures!
(Image: ITV)
“There’s a lot of that but there are so many things to concentrate on in terms of, I find it difficult to tell my arms what to do when I’m trying to tell my legs what to do.”
Chris went on: “And so it’s like I have a little junction box in the middle and it says, ‘Do you want to send this to the legs or the arms?’ And if it goes to the legs my arms are just flopping about the place.”
(Image: PA)
Dianne was pointing out how they were “getting there” on the dancefloor, and he joked: “But every week we start from scratch!”
The dancer has previously shared how adapting her training methods to teach Chris has been an interesting process. Discussing it on Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two, she said they were using sound as well as touch. “It’s interesting and we are still learning and we are still working it out together… but it’s working,” Dianne said.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
