Karen Carney instantly dances her way into Musicals Week

This week, Karen blew the judges away with her amazing couple’s choice routine which showcased her individuality and talent on the dance floor and off of it too with her footballing and punditry careers. 

The dance was to ‘Born This Way' by Lady Gaga, and Karen commented how she believes that she was “born to play football”. She, Carlos and her mum visited her local park and Karen commented that she used to go there and “play [football] every day”. Her mum stated in the introduction that Karen “was the only girl on the pitch and there was a bit of stigma about it” but that she told Karen to “get on that pitch and let [her] feet do the talking”. Karen impressively made her first team appearance when she was just fourteen, and she said that this was fueled by her mum telling her that “if you want something in life work hard for it”. Karen digressed that “when [she sees] a little girl in a football kit and the normal conversation, it just makes [her] so happy”. Karen finished off the introduction video by telling the audience that “this dance is about being born to chase your dreams” which would have inspired many young people across the country, not just those aspiring for footballing careers like Karen. 

After their incredible dance, Craig stated simply that the dance “just got [Karen] into the Champions League” highlighting the dance’s brilliance and Karen’s skill. Motsi commented that “honestly this was just everything” to her. Shirley was “quite emotional cause [she loves] a strong woman”, and she went on to say that Karen has really “put [herself] in with a shot at this whole thing”. Finally, Anton commented that the dance was “an absolute celebration of [Karen] and [her] story”. 

The judges all gave Karen and Carlos a ten, leaving them with a perfect score of 40 points, which also happened to be Carlos’ first ever forty on the show. 

This week, the dancers had the additional challenge of an instant dance, where they had previously picked out an unknown dance style and were only given ten seconds to discuss what to do with their partners. 

Karen and Carlos picked out the Cha Cha to dance, which they last performed in Week Three of the competition in Movie Week. This week they were dancing to Begging by The Four Seasons, but sadly the judges were not impressed with their instantaneous performance and put them in last place overall (meaning that they were only awarded one point). 

This meant that this week, Karen and Carlos had a total score of 80 points, as their score of 39 was carried over from last week’s show. 

Fortunately, the couple have made it through to next week of the competition, which is musicals week. Sadly, it was actor Alex Kingston and her partner Johannes Radebe that were eliminated from the competition this week after they faced off against Eastenders actor Balvinder Sopal in the dance-off. 

Tune in next week to see Karen’s next dance in the quarter finals of Strictly Come Dancing!