Strictly Come Dancing judge Motsi Mabuse is now recognised as one of the nation’s most knowledgeable pros – but back in her earlier years, she was told by cruel teachers that she “danced like a dog”.
Speaking at Cheltenham Literature Festival last year, the 42-year-old opened up on the abuse she experienced – and how she felt that “no one was defending” her.
“Some of [my dance teachers] were good and inspirational but some of the relationships were abusive,” she explained.
“Teachers [said to me]: ‘You’re dancing like my dog’, and they repeated it quite often.”
The former pro dancer added that it was impossible for her to prove that she’d been emotionally harmed, as she had no tangible evidence such as bruises, but that the words alone had taken their toll on her wellbeing.
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“When you speak about abuse, sometimes people tend to be like, ‘Yeah, where did he hit you? How did he hit you? Show me pictures,'” she explained.
“But stuff like manipulation and emotional abuse, those are things you can’t see. It’s in your head.”
She continued that her mother had been “shocked” by what she witnessed happening to her, but that “nobody thought to remove the kids” from the setting.
“Everyone thought this is how we discipline kids and it’s not, so as a young child, nobody’s defending you and that is what you take with you,” Motsi lamented.
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The mum-of-one now runs her own dance school in Germany with husband Evgenji Voznyuk, and she’s determined that she won’t let what she experienced happen to other impressionable children.
To ensure that, she employs an in-house therapist who is tasked with looking after her students’ wellbeing, insisting that success in an abusive environment is “not worth the trophy”.
Motsi herself had a positive experience when she moved to Germany in her late teens, finding her teachers there much more supportive – and this helped her regain the confidence she needed to compete.
She recalled: “I was the first black girl in South Africa to leave the country because of ballroom dancing. The only one. That was my drive.”
Motsi confided that she once had a fear of ending up “on the streets” and, although she’s unsure where her anxiety came from, it was significant in helping her propel herself to fame.
In 2007, she joined the RTL show Let’s Dance, teaming up with former Eurovision Song Contest star Guildo Horn, and she returned three years later to compete alongside Germany’s Next Top Model judge Rolf Scheider.
The star first set up her school in 2017, joining the Strictly judging panel in the UK two years later, while her sister Oti was a pro dancer on the same show for several years.
Now Motsi is also raising a young daughter, and is determined to protect her from the type of negative experiences she endured in her own childhood.
Speaking out on Instagram about her love for the little one, whose name has never been disclosed, she gushed: “A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. Making the decision to have a child… is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.”
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