Rose Ayling-Ellis has been given time off EastEnders to compete in Strictly Come Dancing, she has confirmed.
The Frankie Lewis actress will be following in the footsteps of several of her co-stars such as Kellie Bright, Maisie Smith and Emma Barton in taking to the ballroom.
Rose, however, will be taking a break from the BBC One soap, telling Metro.co.uk that EastEnders has given her time off in order to strut her stuff on the Strictly dance floor.
She said: ‘Normally, EastEnders makes you work at the same time as doing Strictly, but EastEnders gave me time off, so I can just focus on Strictly completely.’
With Rose’s Strictly journey having well and truly commenced following the show’s launch last week, it’s possible that her EastEnders character Frankie will temporarily be written out.
Frankie has been struggling to make amends with sister Nancy Carter (Maddy Hill) – who she nearly killed in a hit-and-run accident – so perhaps this will play a part in her taking a break from Walford.
Mick (Danny Dyer), Frankie’s dad, departed Albert Square with wife Linda (Kellie Bright) in dramatic scenes earlier this week, so maybe Frankie could join the couple in Watford at Linda’s mums?
We’ll just have to wait and see!
Rose, meanwhile, will take to the ballroom tonight for the first time to dance the Jive with professional partner Giovanni Pernice.
‘There’s a lot of jumping, lots of kicks and stuff,’ she told us, ‘but we have a mirror in the rehearsal room. The mirror really helps to see what I’m doing, and Giovanni always explains stuff.
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‘He’s very physical, which means he’s visual, and I have interpreters with me as well. But because dance is so physical and so visual, I just watch him and copy him. It works really well.’
Rose – who is the first ever Deaf contestant to take part in Strictly – was full of praise for Giovanni’s Deaf awareness.
‘His Deaf awareness is really, really good,’ she added. ‘He’s picked it up so quickly, and normally, when you meet people, it takes time to eventually process, but he got it quick.
‘I think it’s because he’s a professional dancer, so he’s always been very visual anyway.’
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One tonight at 7pm. EastEnders airs Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays on BBC One.
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