Strictly Come Dancing’s Ellie Simmonds experienced a ‘shift’ in her emotions as the competition entered its fifth week, an expert has said.
Darren Stanton, a body language and behaviour expert, has said he believed the 27-year-old athlete wasn’t pleased by comments made about an ‘illegal lift’ in her Paso Doble with Nikita Kuzmin.
He also stated that the swimmer has ‘moved up a gear’ in her performances as she continues to dedicate herself to the dancing.
Darren says: “I think we saw quite a shift in Ellie’s emotions this week, although she’s clearly worked very hard to be in this position there did appear to be something on her mind during the weekend shows. Whether it is the fierceness of competition she is now facing at this level or something else, she appeared somewhat distracted.
“Clearly we cannot decipher this from body language or psychology alone however I did not see the same devoted connection I have seen in all the weeks previous, although her bond with dance partner Nikita remains solid.
“Now that we’re reaching week five in the process I think we are really now going to see who not only has the technical skills and abilities but also the ability to remain flexible and robust in their attitude to win this competition. When the couple were receiving their feedback it was clear Ellie especially was not happy and you can pretty much see the seriousness of her expression compared with other weeks.
“This was clear when Shirley levelled a criticism about an illegal lift, Ellie did not like this and you’ll see her facial expression move from smiling to a very quick anger expression and back to happiness again. This means that she did not agree with the analysis, although of course she knows it’s the job of the judges to offer up criticism so didn’t verbally argue with them.
“I think she is now moving up several gears, as we saw a very different level of determination this week. Also, on the results episode she was one of the last few to be put through to next week’s Halloween special and we saw a much more serious focused side to Ellie‘s expressions.
I think she thought she was going to be in the dance off and there was evidence of relief in her whole body and a facial expression of sheer delight when they were put through to next week.
“I maintain that Ellie is one of the strongest contenders to win the competition as overall she’s clearly bringing into play all of the core values like perseverance, motivation, passion and plain old hard work into her performances.”
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Introducing Darren Stanton:
Darren Stanton is a former police officer with Derbyshire police with a degree in psychology, who used his expertise to uncover the truth when interviewing hundreds of suspects.
He later moved into media and TV as a consultant, being dubbed the “Human Lie Detector” appearing on the likes of BBC’s The One Show, ITV’s This Morning with Phillip and Holly as well as working on screen with criminal barrister Robert “Judge” Rinder. He has also analysed heightened political situations including General Election debates and key interviews with the likes of Dominic Cummings.
