HEARTBREAKING: Strictly Star Suffers Serious Injuries In Heartbreaking Accident As Details Of Ordeal Emerge
Former Strictly Come Dancing choreographer Kylie Hayes has revealed how a devastating stage fall brought her dancing career to an abrupt end.
Kylie, who worked on 12 series of the BBC competition and once taught Anton Du Beke to tap dance, suffered a serious leg injury while rehearsing for a production of 42nd Street at the Curve Theatre in Leicester.
The choreographer said the accident happened during what should have been a routine rehearsal as performers tested lighting, stage exits, routines, costumes and sets.
But during the rehearsal, Kylie claims the steps normally used by dancers to safely enter and leave the stage had been moved.
She subsequently fell from the stage in darkness and sustained an injury at the junction between her Achilles tendon and calf muscle.
Kylie Recalls Horrifying Moment She Fell
Speaking about the accident, Kylie said she had expected the rehearsal to be completely routine.
“It was supposed to be a standard rehearsal run, we were testing out the lighting, stage exits, routines, places, costume changes and sets,” she explained.
According to Kylie, the steps used to leave the stage would normally have been clearly marked and illuminated.
However, she said she was forced to make her exit in “pitch black”.
“All the dancers stopped dead,” she recalled.
“I landed flat on my face with my leg outstretched.”
Despite the severity of the fall, Kylie initially tried to carry on.
“I was so embarrassed and did the British thing and said I was fine and tried to walk it off,” she said.
But it quickly became obvious something was seriously wrong.
When she attempted to walk, Kylie said her injured leg collapsed and became “numb like jelly”.
Injury Changed Her Life in Seconds
The consequences were severe.
Kylie was signed off work for a year and had to wear a medical boot around the clock.
She also experienced extreme fatigue and said she had to inject herself with medication designed to prevent blood clots.
The injury did not simply affect her physical health.
As a professional dancer and choreographer, losing the ability to work meant the career she had built throughout her life suddenly disappeared.
“It was absolutely devastating,” Kylie said.
“Everything I had ever known had been ripped away from me in seconds.”
Her husband was also forced to become the family’s main financial support while she was unable to work.
‘Dance Is Who I Am’
For Kylie, the most painful consequence was discovering she would no longer be able to pursue dancing as she had before.
She explained that performing had been a fundamental part of her identity since early childhood.
“People say break a leg on stage, but I never dreamed I would be the one to fall, and it cost me my career,” she said.
“Dance isn’t just a career, it’s my essence, it’s who I am and my whole identity and all I have ever known since I was two.”
Kylie described losing dance in intensely personal terms.
“To me, not dancing is like having an amputation and losing a limb, as I can’t use my feet anymore for what I was born to do.”
She added: “I am now grieving a career I once had.”
The former Strictly choreographer said she particularly missed the excitement surrounding live performance.
“I lived for the stage, the buzz, the excitement, the audience and all that was taken from me in that instant when I fell off that stage.”
Legal Action Followed Accident
It was revealed in May that Kylie was pursuing legal action with Express Solicitors against the theatre company connected with the production.
According to the supplied report, 42nd Street 2023 Ltd. had admitted liability as of May.
Kylie’s allegations about how the accident occurred form part of her account of the incident.
The fall brought an unexpected end to a career that had included more than a decade working behind the scenes on one of Britain’s biggest entertainment programmes.
From Strictly to a Life Away From Dance
Kylie’s work on Strictly Come Dancing saw her help some of the programme’s best-known personalities prepare for performances.
Among her achievements was teaching long-time Strictly professional and judge Anton Du Beke to tap dance.
Her experience made the consequences of the injury particularly difficult to accept.
This was not simply a performer missing one production or recovering from a temporary setback. Kylie said the accident ultimately forced her to leave the world of dance altogether.
Years after building her life around performing and choreography, she is now adjusting to a future without the career that had defined her since childhood.
As Kylie put it herself, she is still “grieving” the dancing life she once had — after one rehearsal accident changed everything in a matter of seconds.
