With grace and dignity she changed the meaning of the dance-off – it has been tremendously moving to watch
Balvinder Sopal’s final salsa on Sunday night’s Strictly results show was a moment of triumph: joyful, empowering and strangely victorious even though she, and everyone watching, knew that in the face of the resplendent Amber Davies, the judges could only vote one way. Few other contestants have given such an impressive performance betraying no trace of their inevitable defeat.
EastEnders star Balvinder has been lumped with the unfortunate record of being in the dance-off more times than any other contestant in Strictly history. But that honour has overshadowed the fact that she has also survived the dance-off more times than any other contestant in Strictly history. Something about which, now she has gone, she should be incredibly proud.
Rather than clinging on by the skin of her teeth, or pleading with the judges to keep her, or being desperate or defensive, Balvinder reinvented the dance-off ritual. She treated it as another privileged opportunity to dance on that stage with her partner Julian Caillon, whom she so adores, another opportunity to practise and improve, another dignified performance.
Every week she approached the challenge with resilience, humility, good humour and sportsmanship and even when, as Motsi pointed out last week, it must have felt demoralising to keep finding herself there, she never let it show.
It has not won her the trophy, but it has won her a remarkable amount of respect. As Julian said, before they took each other’s hands for their farewell dance, “It took six dance-offs and a perfect score to take this lady out”.
It took six dance-offs before Balvinder was finally eliminated (Photo: BBC/Guy Levy)
I didn’t expect to be so moved by Balvinder’s Strictly journey, and if you’d told me a month ago that she’d come this close to the final, I’d never have believed you. I thought her time was up – I believed that if someone ends up in the dance-off this many times, they really ought to go, and in fact that if someone keeps getting saved by the judges the format itself is broken.
But I was wrong, because Balvinder instead reminded us exactly why it works. Her improvement has been a treat to watch, she was saved each time because she’d earned it, and without us quite noticing she became an exciting competitor in a series showcasing more natural brilliance than any before it. She proved that you don’t have to make it to the final to embody everything that is special about Strictly.
Last year, Chris McCausland managed what everyone believed was impossible, and showed the world that not only could a blind man dance, but could dance beautifully. It was an incredible thing to witness – but a very tough act to follow, and this year’s cohort have not defied odds or expectations anywhere near as dramatically.
But contestants like Balvinder are inspiring, too, because while they may not leave us stunned into silence or emotional wrecks, we recognise ourselves in them. Balvinder is a die-hard Strictly fan, who in her “yes year”, following her mother’s death, seized an opportunity she was terrified of but couldn’t turn down.
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She wasn’t a natural, she wasn’t perfect, but she kept pushing anyway, handled every knock with grace, listened carefully to all feedback and it paid off. As her dancing talent began to bloom, so did her confidence.
Isn’t that why we always connect with Strictly stars on a “journey”? Because what they do with such admirable sincerity – scaring themselves, risking humiliation, trying their best, making themselves earnest and vulnerable and doing themselves proud in the end – is all any of us could hope for?
Sometimes we are moved because the transformation is so radical we almost can’t believe what we are seeing. Others, as in the case of Balvinder, we are moved because her kind of ordinary, quiet transformation is exactly what we’d like to believe we are capable of ourselves.