Strictly star Oti Mabuse slams new professional dancer over choreography

Oti Mabuse delivers savage critique of Strictly newcomer after dance-off drama

After another difficult weekend on the dancefloor, the professional dancer has come under fire from none other than former Strictly favourite Oti Mabuse.

Maddie and her celebrity partner Cach Mercer found themselves at the bottom of Saturday night's leaderboard and only narrowly survived elimination.

And Oti thinks she knows what's going wrong.

Speaking on the podcast she hosts with her husband Marius Iepure, the former Strictly professional suggested Maddie's choreography simply isn't working for the BBC show.

What did Oti Mabuse say?

"I feel sorry for Maddie at this point because I don't feel like she's being guided properly," Oti said, according to the Mirror.

She went on to suggest that Maddie was bringing too much of an American-style approach to the competition.

"I feel like the ideas that she's trying to create are very much Dancing With The Stars coded. And this is not Dancing With The Stars and it's just not going to work out."

Her husband Marius saw things differently, describing the routine as "very modern" and saying he "loved it".

But Oti wasn't convinced.

"Now she's done so many ballroom dances, she's not listening. So she's like, 'I'm going to do whatever I want.' And she's going to get low scores."

It's not just Oti who's concerned

Maddie's choreography has already faced criticism from the Strictly judging panel.

Craig Revel Horwood questioned her posture and the amount of time the couple spent dancing in hold, while some viewers have also blamed the routines for Cach's disappointing scores.

Things came to a head on Saturday when the pair finished bottom of the leaderboard.

They eventually survived the dance-off after head judge Shirley Ballas voted to save them over Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu.

But with the competition getting tougher every week, Oti's warning suggests Maddie and Cach may need to rethink their approach if they want to stay in the running.

For now, they're still in the competition.

Whether they can turn things around next weekend remains to be seen.