Strictly Come Dancing's Motsi on breaking barriers in first ever candid chat

10 October 2023 , 13:46

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Strictly Come Dancing's Motsi on breaking barriers in first ever candid chat

Strictly Come Dancing judge Motsi Mabuse has sensationally lifted the lid on her true feelings on breaking society barriers and tokenism.

The 42 year old star, who has been a professional dancer for three decades, was named as Darcey Bussell's replacement on the judging panel in 2019. And while the fact remains that she is the first black judge on the BBC show, Motsi is adament that she was not given the coveted title because of the colour of her skin - it was simply down to her extensive experience.

In an candid interview earlier this week, the professional ballroom dancer said that people need to "stop the labels." She continued to say on the podcast Reign with Josh Smith: "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. "

Strictly judge Motsi Mabuse talsk openly during podcast interview (PA)

Motsi Mabuse and her husband Timo Kulczak (Getty Images)

She added: "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?'."

And speaking about her own experiences on being labelled as the token black judge on the dance show, she continued to say: "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. It takes away my quality. It takes away everything that I have been through and marched on through to be there. "

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The sister of TV personality Oti, added: "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. 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.”

Lucretia Munro