Cach Mercer: ‘I’m not putting on my Strictly Come Dancing struggle’

Strictly star Cach Mercer isn’t letting the criticism dampen his spirits (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)

Cach Mercer and Maddie Ingoldsby are blocking out the Strictly Come Dancing backlash.

The Love Island winner, 25, and his partner Maddie, 21, have had quite the journey since their first dance almost two months ago.

‘It’s been a roller-coaster,’ Cach admitted to Metro, appearing somewhat deflated.

Cach is easily one of – if not the – best dancers in the competition, but has had far from a smooth journey. While his talent has never not been abundantly clear to see, Maddie’s choreography has been criticised for including too much freestyle and not enough technique required specifically for the dance they’re performing.

‘I feel like we do ourselves proud every time we hit the dance floor,’ Cach insisted. ‘The public reaction is just the public reaction; it’s something we’ve now learned to just not pay too much attention to.

‘I feel like we just dance for ourselves and have as much fun as possible, and we just look forward to every Saturday.’

Cach’s pro partner, Maddie Ingoldsby, is a new pro dancer on the BBC series (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)

Maddie added: ‘It’s just about trying to find the balance of bringing something new, but also sticking to the tradition as well.’

Viewers have been cruel enough to post that the pro dancer is ‘letting down’ her partner when arguably she’s just dragging Strictly Come Dancing into a new era.

‘We’re very happy with what we’ve done so far, and individually this experience has taught me a lot of things about myself that I didn’t even know was a thing. So it’s been a very inspirational journey,’ she said. 

When pushed to elaborate on what she’s learned about herself, Maddie didn’t want to go there, telling me: ‘We don’t need to get into that.’

It’s always a tough road for someone with even the slightest dance training on Strictly Come Dancing. So many have been met with unreasonably harsh backlash from fans just for competing on a Saturday night entertainment show with no prize other than the glory and a cardboard Glitterball trophy.

Cach and Maddie survived last weekend’s dance-off against Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu, who were eliminated from the competition (Picture: BBC/Guy Levy)

Cach has largely been self-taught in street dancing, which is a far cry from ballroom.

‘I think some of my dances are a reflection of the fact it’s not easy for me. Some of the dances that I’ve done, you can see I’m not putting on the fact I’m struggling.

‘There’s certain elements of certain dances that I struggle to maintain, like posture or a heel instead of a toe; there are a lot of grooves that I’ve needed to unlearn, and a lot of grooves I’ve had to adjust to on posture and stuff I need to maintain, which I have never done before.

‘I wouldn’t say I have an advantage, and I wouldn’t say I have a disadvantage either. I would just say I’m starting from scratch, just like everybody else is, and I think people should focus more on that.’

Cach noted other stars don’t get the same scrutiny when their professions also give them somewhat of a head start.

The Love Island winner feels he faces a high level of scrutiny (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)

‘A lot of dancing is performing, and there’s a couple actors on the show,’ he said.

‘Their performance may be better than mine because they’re used to acting a part, and I don’t have any acting experience but I’m not gonna go online and say, “Oh my gosh, that’s unfair they’re gonna be able to perform better.” No, I’m gonna crack on with it, try to do the best I can, listen to my pro and apply what I’ve learned, and try to do my best. That’s just really it.’

Last weekend, they tackled the Waltz. ‘It’s been smooth sailing,’ Maddie said about rehearsals ahead of their routine, coming off the back of a high when their Argentine Tango hit all the right notes the previous weekend and was unanimously praised by the judges.

It was a much-needed boost after their Cha Cha the week before, which Motsi Mabuse said ‘would have been a disaster but was saved by your talent’.

‘I was really annoyed about the Cha Cha,’ he said. ‘I was really upset that it didn’t go the way I wanted to go, so Monday, as soon as I hit the training, we both were like, “Yo, we want to lock in. We want to do this one correctly.” 

After the latest dance-off, Cach wrote on Instagram: ‘Extremely grateful for another week on the floor’ (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)

‘We drilled it, drilled it, and drilled it to the point she was in a lot of pain last week.’

‘He wasn’t hurting me,’ Maddie’s quick to stress.

‘She was a bit sore from some of the lifts and stuff because I was throwing her about for a bit,’ he adds.

In hindsight, perhaps that Cha Cha will turn out to be the best thing that’s happened to Cach. He’s come back fighting, and now we’re reaching the halfway mark; the competition is getting serious, the final starting to emerge on the horizon.

Cach previously said if he was a betting man, Delta Goodrem would be his winner. Is that still the case?

‘The pros, they all think the same. She is really phenomenal so that statement still stands.’

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday night on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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