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Strictly's Oti Mabuse on World Championships, Winning at the BBC & Working Towards Her Dreams

In case you didn't know, I genuinely love Strictly Come Dancing. I'm obsessed with watching the journey of dance that celebrities go on and have imagined myself countless times performing the Quickstep, the Argentine Tango, Charleston and my personal favourite, the Jive and getting perfect 10s from all four judges. So when BBC announced a black dancer was going to be a professional on the show, I dedicated an entire Editor's Letter to this milestone achievement.

However, when I wrote the letter, I had no idea it would lead to Oti Mabuse tweeting us and throwing her support behind the publication, because like us, she's passionate about black women. While I've never met her in person, in her Twitter messages she comes across as warm, bubbly and supportive, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to interview the lady herself...

BB: Can you tell us more about your dancing history? 

OM: I started at the tender age of 4. With my mother and sisters being dancers, I had a lot of inspiration and drive for all my dancing success. I won the South African national championships 8 times, German championships in Show Dance Latin and I am bronze World Champion medalist.

BB: I know that you moved from South Africa to Germany to pursue your dancing dreams, why did you decide Germany was the right destination to progress? 

OM: Germany is the best country to dance for competitive dancing, as they really support and boost all their athletes. They use modern technology and training techniques to develop their top couples and have the best teachers in Europe. But it was my eldest sister who lives in Germany that made it an easy decision to move. She left home at 18 to live her dream and she's one of the judges on the German version of Strictly.