‘Didn’t realise’ Ugo Monye left in tears over discovery about Strictly’s Rose Ayling-Ellis

express.co.uk:

Ugo Monye explained to Express.co.uk how he “didn’t realise” that he could connect to dance in such an emotional way until Rose Ayling-Ellis’ Strictly performance with her partner Giovanni Pernice left him in tears.The rugby star, 38, has teamed up with Boots UK for the second series of the health and wellbeing podcast Taboo Talk, where he discusses the topic of chronic pain with host Vogue Williams.Ugo, who was paired up with Oti Mabuse for the latest season of Strictly Come Dancing, has recalled the iconic moment that Rose, 27, and Giovanni, 31, performed a dance that allowed audiences to enter Rose’s world.Rose, who was the show’s first ever deaf contestant, chose to feature a moment of silence during their pair’s performance to Symphony by Clean Bandit and Zara Larsson.Speaking about how “exposing” it can be to reveal your emotions as both a man and an athlete, Ugo admitted that Strictly Come Dancing left a lasting impression on him emotionally.“I knew that doing Strictly could be really exposing - and I don't mean physically, where I had my top off in a couple of the dances and dressed like Pink Panther and stuff like that,” he began.“But I remember going to the final, where I was sitting with Oti, and when I watched Rose dance - she had that kind of stop-traffic moment, iconic dance - I was crying. “I was crying watching it live and I'd seen it before,” Ugo confirmed.“I remember saying to Oti at the time, and to a few of my friends, that I didn't realise that dance can have an impact in the way in which it did on me that night. “So what I took from it was: it's really important to try different things that you know might not be familiar or might be out of your comfort zone, because you just don't know how they'll.