Chris McCausland, who is lighting up this year’s series of Strictly Come Dancing, admitted to viewers of This Morning: “I can’t feel my legs, it’s killing me.”
He was speaking about the intense demands of his latest dance routine for Strictly Come Dancing on the BBC. Alongside his pro partner Dianne Buswell, the entertainer appeared on the hit ITV morning show to chat about their progress.
The duo revealed they’ve been hard at work perfecting a Jive for this week’s live performance, a routine Chris has confessed he’s finding particularly challenging. On the Thursday (October 3) broadcast, the show’s hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard commended Chris for his relentless commitment and humour as part of the dazzling dance contest.
Eager to learn more about their weekly grind, GMB’s Cat Deeley asked: “What are you working on this week?” In response, Dianne quickly said: “It’s a Jive, so it’s very fast.”
Chris then shared his own take on the rigorous rehearsals and the toll they’re taking on him, reports Wales Online.
Having been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa when he was 22 years old, Chris faces an additional challenge due to his condition. It’s a genetic disease that progressively erodes vision because of cell breakdown in the retina, bringing about an incremental loss of sight.
Host Ben highlighted the unique difficulties faced by Chris on Strictly Come Dancing due to his visual impairment, pointing out that it can be “mentally draining” as he must learn dance sequences through hearing alone, a stark contrast to other contestants who also utilise visual cues.
Chris opened up about the demanding nature of his training, sharing: “It’s mentally draining. There’s a lot of description and sometimes I have to get onto my hands and knees and feel what her [Dianne’s] feet are doing.”
With a touch of humour, Chris added: “She [Dianne] has got muscles in the lower part of her legs that I didn’t even know existed. Sometimes as well, she gets on her hands and knees and just picks my leg up and puts it where she wants. It’s like I’m one of those bendy Spiderman figures.”
Discussing the intricate task of coordinating movements during live performances, Chris said: “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.”
He continued by detailing his dance challenge, remarking: “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.”
Dianne praised their effort and improvement with the words: “Yeah, but we’re getting there aren’t we?” To which Chris humorously replied: “But every week we start from scratch, I can’t feel my legs, it’s killing me.”
On another part of the programme, Chris opened up about his daughter’s concerns over his participation in Strictly Come Dancing, revealing she feared he might “break his leg”. In the same conversation with Ben, he also discussed how his family and friends reacted to him joining the famed dance contest.
Chris shared the reactions he received, remarking: “Everyone I knew said, ‘How are you going to do that?'” He added another anecdote about his daughter’s worry, recalling: “Even my daughter said to me, ‘No, daddy, you’ll fall off the stage and break your leg.'” His recounting of this story prompted laughter across the studio.
This Morning airs weekdays, on ITV1, from 10am.