The lineup of professional dancers for the upcoming season 20 of Strictly Come Dancing has officially been revealed.
The hugely popular BBC dancing competition is in the final stages of preparing for its launch of the new season, which airs later this month on September 17. Now, we have our first look at the full lineup of professional dancers.
Most of the faces will be familiar to regular viewers of the show, with the full list of returning dancers being: 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 Przystał, Johannes Radebe, Kai Widdrington, and Nancy Xu.
However, fan favourites Oti Mabuse and Aljaž Škorjanec will not be returning as they have officially left the show. There will be some exciting new dancers to this year's edition, though.
Latin dance champion Michelle Tsiakkas joins as a new dancer, while Italian dancer Vito Coppola joins as an 11-time Latin American champion. He previously starred on the Italian version of Strictly Come Dancing before switching over to the UK version.
Former Under-21 British National Champion Lauren Oakley also joins alongside Chinese National Champion Carlus Gu, who has been a world semi-finalist several times and was the runner-up Amateur Latin Rising Star at the 2017 UK Open.
The professionals will be dancing alongside a host of famous faces, as usual, with some of this year's celebrity contestants including singer Fleur East, TV presenter Helen Skelton, EastEnders actor James Bye, and Hollyoaks actor Will Mellor.
The other celebrities taking part this year are Molly Rainford, Kym Marsh, Kaye Adams, Richie Anderson, Jayde Adams, Ellie Simmonds, Tyler West, Matt Goss, Ellie Taylor, Tony Adams MBE, and Hamza Yassin.
They'll be hoping to impress the judging quadruple of Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and former Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Anton Du Beke. Strictly Come Dancing mainstay Bruno Tonioli officially left the show earlier this year.
It remains to be seen who will be the favourite to win this year's edition, but last year's series 19 saw EastEnders actress Rose Ayling-Ellis win alongside professional dance partner Giovanni Pernice. Ayling-Ellis was the show's first-ever deaf contestant and winner.
Strictly Come Dancing airs on BBC One.
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