Strictly Come Dancing: Fleur East explains why she restarted her dance-off routine

Singer was allowed to start routine again during pre-recorded results show

Fleur East has explained why she had to restart her routine in last week’s Strictly Come Dancing dance-off.

During Sunday (30 November) night’s results show, the singer found herself competing in the bottom two against EastEnders star James Bye.

When East and partner Vito Coppola went to perform her Salsa, however, the dance was briefly halted after “an incident with a prop” and the couple were allowed to restart. They danced again, then were voted through by judges, who made no reference to the incident.

The BBC confirmed that the couple had been allowed to restart as they had needed to checkt they weren’t injured and East and Coppola had “not begun to dance” before the incident occurred.

Appearing on Loose Women on Thursday (3 November), Coppola explained that he’d had a “bad fall” within the opening moments of the show.

“Basically what happened, in the first few seconds of our number, I just fell down on the chair. Literally was a bad fall,” Coppola said.

“Everyone was gasping, but I showed them I was OK and able to restart so thank you, I’m fine, I’m here today so all good. Thank you very much.”

Coppola added: “We were continuing, because we always say to each other, ‘If anything happens, let’s just keep going, keep continuing’ and literally I was trying to stand up and continue, and when I turned [around], she was spinning the wheel.”

Fleur East was allowed to restart Strictly dance-off routine after prop incident (PA Media)

East explained: “I was ready, I was like, the show must go on. And then production decided to stop the music. We were like, ‘Oh, OK.’”

Confirming what had happened, a BBC spokesperson said: “After an incident with a prop at the beginning of Fleur and Vito’s dance-off performance, the decision was made to halt proceedings to check they were not injured, as a matter of urgency.

“As they had not begun to dance before the incident occurred, it was decided they could start the performance again, once it was confirmed they were fit to do so.”

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday 5 November at 7pm on BBC One.