She recovered from her initial Strictly Come Dancing dance off with a scorching Paso Doble that secured her an outstanding 28 points from the judges.
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However, EastEnders actress Balvinder Sopal has revealed how she felt “crushed” by disappointment after landing in the bottom two for the second consecutive week. This comes after the news this week that Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly are leaving the BBC show.
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“I’ve had meltdowns and things,” she admits, acknowledging it’s been challenging to maintain a positive outlook. “And I’m like, ‘holy hell. I’ve been lying about being optimistic’.
“I beat myself up and I’m sometimes a little bit derogatory but there’s no need to be that way. When you get on that floor, there is a fear of judgment and rejection. But what I have to remember is that I’ve put myself there.”
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The EastEnders actress has been in the dance-off twice in the competition so far(Image: BBC)
Despite achieving decent marks for both of her recent performances, Balvinder hasn’t garnered sufficient support from home viewers to escape the feared dance off.
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On both occasions she’s been rescued by the judges, with Ross King and subsequently Chris Robshaw eliminated instead, reports the Mirror.
Yet recalling the instant she discovered the devastating news for a second time, Balvinder tells the Mirror: “My heart just sank, I thought we’d done enough to come back from the week previous when we were, again, in the bottom two. I was crushed.”
Last Saturday’s final result was incredibly tight, and viewers are aware that if head judge Shirley Ballas still possessed the deciding vote, Balvinder would have been eliminated.
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Fortunately for her, that responsibility fell to Craig Revel Horwood.
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Strictly Come Dancing star Balvinder Sopal has been left ‘crushed’ after being in the dance off twice(Image: BBC)
“I’m so grateful to Craig and he’s one of the scariest judges, I think,” Balvinder says. “He saved us and I can’t thank him enough.”
However, the entire bruising ordeal means the soap star, 46, worries she’s proving far less popular in real life than as her Albert Square alter ego, Suki Panesar.
“Maybe they thought we were safe and so they didn’t vote for us,” she reasons. “But every time Suki and [her Walford wife] Eve come on screen, my social media feeds go mad, message after message after message.
So I’m like, ‘OK, what’s going on here? Surely you want to be supporting Suki?’ Maybe everybody doesn’t like Bal? I mean, who knows? But one thing is for sure, I don’t want to be in the dance off again.”
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The soap star is determined not to land in the dance-off again for a third week(Image: BBC)
Admitting that the “feeling of insecurity” is difficult to dismiss, she and her Aussie pro Julian Caillon, who is in his first year on the series, are determined to throw everything into this week’s performance.
“We’ve just got to nail our dance this week and make sure that we impress as much as we can. I’m trying not to carry any of the baggage of Saturday into this weekend.”
For Icons Week, Balvinder is set to embody pop queen Beyonce as she and Jules quickstep not to Survivor, as some might have guessed, but to the country tune Texas Hold ‘Em.
Will Balvinder avoid the dance-off this weekend?
