Michelle Tsiakkas will be the first Cypriot professional dancer to join the cast of Strictly Come Dancing.
She and another three new dancers – European cup winner Vito Coppola, Chinese national champion Carlos Gu and former Under-21 British national champion Lauren Oakley – will be joining the line-up of professional dancers assigned to this season’s celebrities.
They join the 16 professional dancers for the upcoming series: Dianne Buswell, Nadiya Bychkova, Graziano Di Prima, Amy Dowden, Karen Hauer, Katya Jones, Neil Jones, Nikita Kuzmin, Cameron Lombard, Gorka Marquez, Luba Mushtuk, Giovanni Pernice, Jowita Przystal, Johannes Radebe, Kai Widdrington and Nancy Xu.
Tsiakkas is a Latin dance champion and started dancing at the age of six in Cyprus.
When she was not studying, Michelle spent her time competing, representing England at major international championships before joining the world touring dance show Burn The Floor.
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC1 on Saturday 17 September
