Aliona Vilani has announced on her Twitter overnight that she will not be returning for the 2016 series of Strictly Come Dancing to defend her title and will be retiring from Strictly Come Dancing after the 2015 series.
Going into this Strictly Come Dancing Series13, I decided that no matter what would happen, it will be my last one❤️ pic.twitter.com/SrIVMhihSo
— Aliona Kavanagh (@AlionaVilani) December 22, 2015
After 7 years on Strictly Come Dancing, as my finale, this has been my best Strictly experience ever by a long way! pic.twitter.com/K4V1Yvli9z
— Aliona Kavanagh (@AlionaVilani) December 22, 2015
She joins Ola Jordan in retiring from the show following the 2015 series.
Aliona became the first pro to win Strictly Come Dancing twice when she and her celebrity partner Jay McGuinness were crowned champions this weekend. She previously won in 2011 with Harry Judd.
Will you miss Aliona? Let me know in the comments section.
I’m going to miss aliona but I’m also sure her replacement will be good to watch
Will miss Aliona. Her choreography was amazing and innovative and I don’t think she was given enough credit for it (as well as being an amazing dancer). I wish her well in whatever career path she is now following.
farewell aliona my favourite pro since before she even arrived and graced the floor of strictly in 2009, have never liked anyone but her, her dancing is a class above all the pros don’t believe me just go watch some of the pro dances, I’m particularly a fan because she’s never been the one to make horrid dodgy faces while she dances let that be pro dances or just dancing with her celebrity, the current pros get on my nerves they need to learn that toning it down it abit wouldn’t hurt anyone. Her partnership with all her celebs have been a pleasure to view the successful ones and she’s had a lot current one Jay, and the not so successful ones, I really don’t care what people say about her, shouting she’s marmite in my eyes she’s custard.
This was inevitable after the unprofessional performance of the judges this year.
They did everything they could to try and sabotage Jay and Aliona’s win, to the extent of simple bullying.
Thanks to Aliona’s support Jay was able to rise above their hurtful comments, a lesser person might have crumbled.
The BBC have now lost one of their best ever dancers, so they have really shot themselves in the foot, the sheer outrage shown on their site where the posts are overwhelmingly in support of the rightful winners and equally disgusted at the judges behaviour should give them food for thought.
Thank you Aliona, you were a joy to watch, wish you every success in the future.
What bullying? Where is your evidence? They weren’t treated harshly by the judges, other people are commenting that they were treated too leniently! People need to stop seeing conspiracies around every corner and gain a sense of perspective!
Open your eyes. Judges were a joke. To late to back track Len messed up when Peter was in the dance off sort the judges oit
Just watch some of Jay’s earlier dances where he was incredibly nervous, and Craig in particular was extremely nasty always going on about having no personality and his face being bland. The worst example was when he messed up the foxtrot only to do a great recovery and called his face dead…..exactly the same day Jay had learnt his grandfather had died. Pretty insensitive even for Craig
Agree with Cathy. Whilst Jay did really well throughout the series and Aliona has always been a superb dancer and choreographer. I do feel that on Saturday Jay was poor and and the girls were better. So despite voting for him at other times I voted for Kellie on Saturday. There was no bullying or conspiracy, at all times the judges expect more of the able than less able dancers.
Is the final not about their whole strictly performance, not just that one night?? Also we have proof of judges being lenient regarding rules (particularly the amount of lifts) with Kellie and Kevin but not with others. In KKs Americans smooth they did too many lifts but weren’t penalised where others have been. I think they like to promote a likely winner each series and this series they picked Kellie because they didn’t see Jay as a good dancer to begin with. If you look at the blogs you will probably understand this more.
What a shame but I can understand it. Always good to go on out on a high. After 7 series maybe Aliona is ready to move on just the same as other dancers have done in the past and will do in the future. Good luck to her.
I can’t say it’s a surprise – the only pro to win twice (so far), she knows that in general the winner one year tends to get a less able celeb the following year & maybe just wants to try pastures new or appear in one of the other Strictly’s around the world.
She always seemed very serene in interviews on ITT this year & I think this news explains that – as far as she was concerned whatever happened she was leaving and she didn’t want to get too worked up about anything.
It will be a shame to see her go but good luck for the future Aliona.
What a shame perhaps those who run the show with wake up and smell the coffee it’s time to modernise the show first with new progressive judges and in the dance off the studio audience should vote on who should leave not the judges