Who wants a sneak peek at Strictly dancer Neil Jones’s Attitude shoot?
By Will Stroude
You can always rely on Strictly Come Dancing to provide a nice soothing cup of man-candy when those cold wintry nights roll around, but there was one flame-haired hunk in particular who caught our eye last autumn.
Born in a British Army Camp in Munster, Germany, Neil Jones started dancing as soon as he’d taken his first steps. He may have been a Strictly newcomer last autumn, but he quickly made his mark on the dance competition as Zoe Ball’s eyes and ears backstage on BBC Two spin-off It Takes Two.
In our new Summer issue – available to download and in shops now – Neil reveals exactly what it takes to stay in shape a top-flight professional dancer, and admits his stunning red hair and pale skin came with a stigma of its own when he was dreaming of dancing stardom.
“When I was younger lots of people said to me: ‘You’re not a natural Latin dancer’, and ‘you’ll never make it, you should give up’. But I just kept pushing. I said: ‘I can do this’,” Neil tells us.
“I had many top coaches say ‘You shouldn’t dance, you’ll never make it, you’ll never be anybody’. A few of them came up to me and apologised later in life. They said they thought I didn’t have it because I didn’t have the look.
“Because I wasn’t dark-skinned they thought I’d never make it as a Latin dancer.”
Trust us when we say we couldn’t be happier you prove them wrong, Neil.
You can see Neil’s full shoot in the Summer issue of Attitude. Buy in print, subscribe or download.
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