Ellie Ferguson wants to split her ‘Greatest Dancer’ winnings with her choreographer.
The 14-year-old champion – who emerged victorious from the BBC’s new talent show on Saturday night (23.02.19) – has already shown that the success hasn’t gone to her head after it was revealed she would be giving half of the £50,000 prize away.
She is quoted by The Sun newspaper’s TV Bizarre column as saying: "I’m going to give £25,000 to my choreographer. She deserves it for everything she has done to help me."
Ellie – who was paired with ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ pro Oti Mabuse for the final – impressed the public as she performed both a duet and a solo routine.
Asked by host Alesha Dixon how she was feeling after winning, the show’s first champion said: "I’m speechless. It’s been the most amazing experience of my life and I couldn’t be more thankful for everyone’s support. I want to say thank you to my coach and to Oti."
As well as the prize money, Ellie will also get to perform on the Beeb’s own ballroom show ‘Strictly’, and the teenager was shocked over the weekend when she spotted the show’s pro dancers – Neil Jones, Janette Manrara, AJ Pritchard and Aljaz Skorjanec – sat in the audience just before she took to the dance floor.
She admitted to the MailOnline: "Some of the ‘Strictly’ pros were in the audience, and Oti pointed them out to me just before we were going on stage to do our duet.
"I didn’t know they would be there, but she showed me where they were sitting. It was quite scary."