When Katya Jones was first announced as one of the new dancers for Strictly Come Dancing, she did not hide her delight – or her competitiveness.
“I know it is extremely intense, but so am I. I am fierce, fabulous and would love to win”, the dancer said in July.
That ambition may have been dented just a little when she was paired with Ed Balls, one of the most inexperienced – and certainly the least athletic – of this year’s celebrities. She didn’t know who he was when they were first partnered, she has said, and took to reading his biography on the way to training. “I can’t believe he was so high up and now he’s dancing with a yellow suit on,” she has since said.
The fact that Jones has surprised everyone by steering her partner to the ninth week of the series testifies to the determination one would expect from the world professional Latin showdance champion and four times British national professional champion. Jones has choreographed a succession of crowd-pleasing numbers for the partnership she calls #TeamGlitterballs including, most recently, an alarming salsa to Gangnam Style that Darcey Bussell said would “go down in Strictly history”.
The 27-year-old was born Ekaterina Solokova in Sestroretsk near St Petersburg. Her father is a senior oil company executive father and her ethnic Korean mother is a graduate in engineering. She started dancing when she was six, training in Latin, ballroom and gymnastics.
In 2008 she met Neil Jones during a competition in Blackpool; they married in 2013. Though he is not partnered with any of the celebrities, her husband is also a professional on this year’s programme, and can be seen performing in the group dances.
Asked if she would secretly have preferred one of the more athletic dancers as a partner, Jones said this week, “I wouldn’t change [Ed] for the world. He’s so enthusiastic. We incorporate his special moves into our routines as I can’t hide them from the world.”
