Motsi Mabuse talks disappointing Strictly label
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Strictly Come Dancing star Motsi Mabuse has spoken about some difficulty around her judging role on the show.
The pro dancer has been a mainstay of the BBC series for the last four years, but significant media coverage around her first season centred around adding a Black judge to the panel for the first time since Alesha Dixon left in 2012.
In a new interview with Reign with Josh Smith, Motsi has spoken in depth about the show's strides for diversity and how the dialogue around Strictly could improve.
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"I think the barrier that I think we most definitely all have to overcome is to stop the labels," she said. "I think if every time the same-sex couple gets a different platform, we kind of say, 'This isn't a normal life.' It still doesn't make them equal to what people see as normal.
"So, everything needs to become a normality without saying, 'Oh my gosh, we've got one Black person, we've got a same-sex couple, we've got this.' The labels, this is what we all really need to get over. We need to just say, 'that this is life.' We're not breaking barriers if we're suddenly including people, it shows how not inclusive we were before.
"Obviously, yes, we are all growing and things are changing and so on. But for me, it's the labels. Let's just be humans... We need to come to a state in our society that we don't separate human beings anymore. It's 2023, why are we still talking about, 'Oh first time this,' that makes me so upset, I'm like, 'Are you proud? Are you really proud?'"
In her case, Motsi felt that her own impeccable qualifications for the judging job were underestimated at the time of her hiring.
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"What I also really, really, really, really dislike is when people are like, 'She got it because she's Black'. It takes away from every Black woman and in my example, it takes away my experience," she pointed out.
"It takes away my quality. It takes away everything that I have been through and marched on through to be there. When you just see the label, 'Oh, she's Black, you know the first Strictly Black judge, the first this,' it takes away 15 years of experience as a judge. It takes away 30 years of my experience as a dancer."
Motsi went on: "Maybe my experience as a dancer is not your experience, but maybe my growth coming from South Africa and going through all levels is a different kind of experience, which gives me a different side of the ball.
"So, all these labels, obviously we want to celebrate somebody when they've achieved something that has seemed unattainable for a while, especially for different people and different generations.
"But at the end of the day, that's the main question. 'How did they get there?' And don't forget that they are qualified and bring talent to be in that space."
Motsi will be back at the judging table this Saturday night, as the remaining Strictly contestants celebrate Eurovision, Whitney Houston and Fleetwood Mac with their latest routines.
Strictly Come Dancing airs on Saturdays and Sundays on BBC One, while spin-off Strictly: It Takes Two airs on weeknights on BBC Two. Both shows are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
Tickets for Strictly's 2024 live arena tour are available now.
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