After waltzing his way on to our screens and wowing viewers with his dancing prowess, West Indies cricket legend Sir Curtly Ambrose became the sixth person sent home from Dancing With The Stars Australia on Monday night.
Curtly, 55, tells TV WEEK he was keen to appear on the reality series to “show the world that Curtly Ambrose can do more than a bit of cricket.”
A natural-born competitor, he gave the competition everything he had in the hopes of winning the prize money for his chosen charity The Starlight Children’s Foundation.
Curtly was eliminated from DWTS on Monday night (Image: Network 10).
Though his time has been cut short just weeks away from the series final, Curtly is “happy” to have had the opportunity to appear on the show.
We caught up with Curtly after his elimination to find out more about his time on DWTS and his predictions for who will win the competition.
What drew you to Dancing With The Stars?
One of the main reasons was that when people think of Curtly, they think of this mean, aggressive cricketer, and I wanted to show Australia and the rest of the world that there’s a lot more to Curtly Ambrose. And I came here and I had a wonderful time, and Siobhan [his dance partner] and I really entertained our many fans and we’re quite happy.
Curtly and his dance partner Siobhan (Image: Network 10).
What did you think of your dancing ability going in to the competition, had you ever tried your hand at dancing like this before?
No I’ve never done this kind of dancing! And when I arrived in Australia in January, after about two weeks of rehearsals, I started to say to myself ‘this could be a mistake!’ But you know, I’ve had a wonderful partner who kept coaching me and encouraging me, and I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. It was hard work, but I really enjoyed it and it’s been an amazing experience.
It definitely seems like hard work! How do the intense dance lessons compare to years of cricket training?
Yeah they are completely different! Because in cricket you can pace yourself a little bit, but in dancing there’s none of that. You’ve got to keep going over, and over, and over all the time. And in cricket, you know, you could bowl a bad over or two, and then you get a wicket soon after that and everyone will forget about a bad over. But in dancing you make one wrong step, it could throw off the whole routine. So that was totally different.
Having practiced all the routines so many times, was there a favourite style of dance or a favourite performance for you?
Well, I enjoyed all the routines. I mean the first one was probably the hardest one because it was my first and it was a waltz, so that was the most challenging. But after that it started to get a little easier – it wasn’t easy – but I started to get more comfortable and more confident after that. So I don’t have a favourite, but I enjoyed every moment of it.
Curtly reveals his waltz was the hardest dance to master (Image: Network 10).
Having never danced before were you surprised how long you lasted? Were you proud to have done so well?
Yeah we’ve done quite well! I wouldn’t say I’m surprised we lasted that long because I brought my competitive nature to the dancing and I refused to go down, and I had this will to succeed. Siobhan and I wanted to make it to the finals, but we survived for seven rounds out of ten so I think that’s pretty amazing.
The cast seem to be having a lot of fun behind the scenes on-set, did you have fun getting to meet all the other stars?
Yeah we were like a family, even though we were competing against each other it never felt like that. It just felt like we were there to support each other. It was an experience I’ll always remember.
Curtly reveals the cast were “like a family!”
It’s hard to pick, but do you have a favourite to win?
I have a feeling Courtney Act and Josh will win. They dance so well together, they really look special when they do their routine and I believe they will win it.
Dancing With The Stars airs Monday, 7:30pm, on Network 10.
