The dancer is now best known for being a judge on Strictly but he’s opened up about his dance life before the hit show
Anton Du Beke said how he thought he was ‘wasting his life’ as he recalled how he once considered quitting dancing. The dancer is now best known for being a judge on Strictly Come Dancing.
But as fans will know, Anton was part of the hit dance show from the very beginning and ended up becoming the longest-serving professional dancer in the BBC One dance contest.
That was until he swapped the dance floor for the judging panel to take over from departing judge Bruno Tonioli permanently in 2021. His celebrity dance partners over the years have included former home secretary Jacqui Smith, soap star Emma Barton and politician Ann Widdecombe.
Now, Anton has been heard speaking about his dance past, before Strictly came knocking. Speaking to Kate Thornton on her podcast White Wine Question Time, he said: “I remember, we did a competition, a big competition. We did the French Open in Paris and did really badly.
“I mean, so badly in this competition. And I was really depressed about the whole thing. And we weren’t getting on very well. Everything was a battle. We had not a penny, you know, I earnt £100 a week and spent £120. Everything was horrendous. Danced badly, not doing very well in competitions and that was everything to me.”
He went on to share: “Well, you can’t control, results because the judges, it is what it is. But you’ve got to be able to do your best and put your best first, and you can control that. And we weren’t. And it was terrible. And I always got massively depressed about, not clinically obviously, but I always got really upset about dancing badly.
“And it still does actually, when I’m on tour… So we were doing this competition in France, in Paris anyway. And I remember we did terribly. We went back to the hotel and it was like quite a low ebb for me because I just, I went in the bathroom and I ran this bath.
“I got in the bath and it was, it was like a miniature bath. Like a half bath. And I just felt at that moment my life couldn’t get any worse. I mean, a cheap hotel has got no money in the a**e end of Paris… With half a bath, my legs up against the wall while everybody else is still competing and doing marvellously.
“I’ve been chucked out early thinking, can it get any worse than this? And thinking to myself, I’m going to have to chuck this in because I’m wasting my life. And then I had this moment where I had sort of you know, an angel and a devil on my shoulder, you know, that sort of thing.
“And I had this conflict, this conversation, one going, well, that was bleeding awful, wouldn’t it? And the other one going, well, it wasn’t too bad. Another one going there was absolutely awful. What are you doing? You might as well chuck it in. And then the other side going, well, you can’t chuck him. What are you going to do? […] Oh, I was having an internal crisis anyway. In half a bath. I mean, it was so depressing.”
