Strictly star Motsi Mabuse’s real name revealed ahead of show’s first dances
STRICTLY Come Dancing judge Motsi Mabuse’s full name is Motshegetsi Mabuse.
Her sister – professional dancer and show winner Oti, 31, – has a longer name too and is called Otlile.
The name Motshegetsi is said to mean “supporter” in the Bantu language of the Tswana people, which is spoken in South Africa.
Motsi, 40, grew up under apartheid in a township in South Africa which saw her and her sisters forced to take a community minibus to their convent school because they were banned from white public transport.
She previously said that during her formative years she was treated as though she was worth “nothing” in her home country, enduring segregation and racism.
But then she was introduced to dance, which helped her through the painful times of growing up under apartheid.
She said: “I’m so thankful for the world of dance because if I had grown up with just the South African bitterness of the very hard childhood we had, and I’d never experienced the love of the dance world, then I probably would have been a very sad person.
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“The world of dance is where I felt accepted as a human being.”
However, she said her life changed when she moved from South Africa to Germany to pursue her career at the age of 18.
She said: “You have to actually get there, to the fact that people really do think you’re great.
“To be able to hear people say, ‘We love you’, and swallow that and say, ‘Oh wow, thank you’, when as a child you were taught – through to your bitter bones – that you were nothing. It’s something you have to get over.”
Motsi and Oti have returned to Strictly for the show’s nineteenth series.
This Saturday will see the first live show where 15 hopefuls try to impress the judges.
The full list of songs and dances in Strictly's first live show on Saturday
- AJ Odudu & Kai Widdrington – Jive, ‘Gold Dust’ (DJ Fresh)
- Judi Love & Graziano Di Prima – American Smooth, ‘Chain of Fools’ (Aretha Franklin)
- Katie McGlynn & Gorka Marquez – Tango, ‘Black Hole’ (Griff)
- Nina Wadia & Neil Jones – Samba, ‘Mi Gente’ (J Balvin, Willy William ft Beyoncé)
- Rose Ayling-Ellis & Giovanni Pernice – Jive, ‘Shake It Off’ (Taylor Swift)
- Sara Davies & Aljaz Skorjanec – Cha Cha, ‘The Boss’ (Diana Ross)
- Tilly Ramsay & Nikita Kuzmin – Waltz, ‘Consequences’ (Camila Cabello)
- Adam Peaty & Katya Jones – Cha Cha, ‘Beggin” (Måneskin)
- Dan Walker & Nadiya Bychkova – Quickstep, ‘Everybody Needs Somebody to Love’ (The Blues Brothers)
- Greg Wise & Karen Hauer – American Smooth, ‘That’s Life’ (Frank Sinatra)
- John Whaite & Johannes Radebe – Tango, ‘Blue Monday’ (New Order)
- Rhys Stephenson & Nancy Xu – Viennese Waltz, ‘End of the Road’ (Boyz II Men)
- Robert Webb & Dianne Buswell – Cha Cha, ‘Rasputin’ (Boney M)
- Tom Fletcher & Amy Dowden – Cha Cha, ‘September’ (Earth, Wind & Fire)
- Ugo Monye & Oti Mabuse – Samba, ‘Iko Iko (My Bestie)’ (Justin Wellington ft Small Jam)
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