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There's backstage turmoil at Strictly Come Dancing as the professonal dancers speak out on the celebrity pairings.
Nancy Xu and Michelle Tsiakkas broke ranks this week to voice their disappointment at being left without celeb partners for the 2025 series, which kicks off its live shows on Saturday night.
With an excess of pros, each year Strictly benches some of its professional line up. Alongside Nancy and Michelle, this year Luba Mushtuk and Neil Jones have also missed out.
Meanwhile Gorka Marquez, who has been dancing on the show since 2016 confirmed ahead of the new series that he wouldn't be competing this year, as he juggles work as a judge on the Spanish version of Strictly with his UK dancer role.
Instead, these dancers will have more prominent roles in the pro routines as well as regular appearances on BBC2 spin off show It Takes Two and a greater chance at nabbing a partner for the one-off Christmas special.
Despite their diminished roles on the show, it's reported that all the professional dancers are paid between £35,000 to £50,000 for the series, regardless of whether they have a celebrity partner.
The dancers do have the chance to earn more though, banking another £35,000 if they are asked to perform on the Strictly live tour after the series.
Meanwhile, the celeb contestants are said to be paid the same flat fee each, starting at a minimum of £25,000 even if they leave in the first week.
If they make it to week four, they get an additional £40,000, and if they take part in the Blackpool special and the quarter final they get £60,000.
The semi-finalists reportedly bank £75,000 and the winner is said to get a massive £100,000.
The celebs are expected to train for up to 10 hours a day, six days a week with their professional partners before performing live on BBC One every Saturday.
As for the professionals who are paired up, they are expected to put hours of work into choreographing the routines.
The process for matching up the pro dancers with the celebrities has remained largely unchanged over the show's 23 series.
The pairings are decided after a speed dating style exercise to ensure the celebrities are partnered with the pros they have the most chemistry with.
The 'speed dancing' event is one of the first rehearsals held in the summer ahead of the show starting in mid-September.
During the intense day, the celebs have a brief dance and chat with every pro whilst production staff are watching on, looking at each potential pair's chemistry.
They also have to take into account the height differences between dancers and the stars. The producers then determine the matches.
ITV star Ross King, who is taking part in the 2025 series recently gave some insight into the process, admitting: 'It was like the first day of school... Everyone was so warm and welcoming. The 'speed dancing' was really funny. All the men get in a circle.'
'All the female pros are on the outside. Then you do a little waltz. Then they move on, and then you dance again... It's a little chemistry test. The chemistry of who gets on with who.'
2024 celeb contestant Angela Rippon revealed how 'they played eight bars of a cha cha. And what happened is we all danced eight bars with whoever was in front of us. Then, after eight bars, they moved on.'
'So we had the next one, and then they moved on, and it was just like speed dating. We all ended up playing the music, so we all danced with each other three times.'
It's thought that any celebrities who have performed previously on the Strictly Christmas specials are deliberately not matched with the pro they performed with for the on-off show.
Strictly sources suggested earlier this week that benched pro Nancy Xu was furious after Gladiator star Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, with whom she was partnered with for the Christmas special, has been paired off with Karen Hauer for the 2025 series.
An insider told the Sun that Nancy is concerned that there are forces working against her.
The source said: 'Nancy is upset that she's been benched again - despite having a brilliant run with Harry during the Christmas series.
'It's not the first time it's happened and she's said she thinks there may be some kind of deeper issue she's not aware of.'
She was paired with Jamie Borthwick for the Christmas special in 2023 which they won, and when he joined the main series last year he was put together with Michelle Tsiakkas.
Insiders add that Nancy understands that she can't be dancing with the same partner because they'd have an advantage but she can't work out why she's not getting a celebrity.
Nancy, Michelle and Neil Jones have all voiced their support for the show, despite airing their grievances, with Neil, who also missed out on a partner in 2022 and 2023, making light of his predicament and declaring 'no matter with or without a partner I just love being part of Strictly.'
Representatives for Strictly have been contacted by Daily Mail for comment.