'WE WANT TO GO FOR A NIGHT OUT IN OUR COSTUMES AND SEE THE REACTION'

STRICTLY'S NADIYA, NIKITA, GORKA AND NANCY ON WHAT IT'S REALLY LIKE TO WORK ON THE SHOW FROM GRUELLING SCHEDULES TO BEHIND-THE-SCENES SECRETS

- NICOLA FAHEY

 Dancing cheek to cheek around our warehouse studio in south London, Strictly Come Dancing stars Gorka Márquez and Nikita Kuzmin are in high spirits.

Dressed in thigh-high rainbow coloured boots, Nancy Xu has her leg casually in a high kick against the distressed wall, while Nadiya Bychkova has the final touches applied to her make-up.

The foursome are back as part of the biggest pro line-up in Strictly history, and are anxiously waiting to find out which of the 15 shiny new celebrities they’ll be partnered with as they gear up for months of gruelling rehearsals with next to no sleep.

Here, in an exclusive interview to mark Strictly Come Dancing’s 20th series, Gorka, 31, Nikita, 24, Nancy, 31, and Nadiya, 33, give OK! a rare insight into working on one of TV’s most popular shows. They also discuss how they balance work and family life, and what they’re most looking forward to this series…

How do you feel about this year’s line-up?

Nadiya: It’s a great line-up. We’re looking forward to getting to know them more. It’s important for us that the energy between the group is great, as that’s what Strictly does perfectly every year. We’ve all kept in touch with last year’s contestants, it was such a great group.

Do you have one massive WhatsApp group?

Nadiya: They stopped doing the WhatsApp group with the celebrities a couple of years ago. We were getting too many messages, we were too good friends I guess! But we all keep in touch. Our partners come to support us whenever we do tours and we try to support them.