Bethany Antonia Champions Representation Through Strictly Partnership

Actor Bethany Antonia is using her appearance on BBC dance competition Strictly Come Dancing to highlight LGBTQ+ representation, performing alongside professional dancer Nancy Xu in a same-sex partnership. The House of the Dragon actor requested a female partner because seeing two women dance together on television had helped her feel more comfortable coming out to people in her life.

The partnership follows earlier same-sex pairings featuring boxer Nicola Adams and dancer Katya Jones in 2020 and comedian Jayde Adams and professional dancer Karen Hauer two years later. According to reports from the BBC, Mirror and DIVA, Antonia hopes her participation will help other young people feel represented.

Antonia explained that choosing a female partner was central to her decision to join the competition.

"It was so important to me to make sure that if I did it, I got to do it with a woman," Antonia said.

She identified Adams and Jones's appearance in 2020 as a particularly meaningful moment in her own experience of coming out.

"When I watched Nicola and Katya do it for the first time and be the first same-sex pairing, I wasn't out to everyone in my life," Antonia said.

The actor said watching the partnership helped her approach conversations about her identity with friends and family.

"Seeing them all be so supportive of two women on the telly made it so much easier to say, ‘Oh yeah, me too!’" Antonia said.

She has described her own participation as an opportunity to provide similar encouragement to others.

"So if I have the opportunity to do that for another young girl who might be in the same position as me, who might be coming out, who might be questioning their sexuality or their gender, I absolutely am going to take the opportunity to do that," Antonia said.

In comments reported by DIVA, Antonia also described the opportunity as personally significant because she grew up watching the show.

"It feels like the biggest privilege to get to do this," Antonia said.

Her partnership with Xu has also brought a personal connection through the dancer's name, which matches that of Antonia's late grandmother. The actor told the Mirror that her grandmother, who loved the program, had encouraged her dream of appearing on it.

"Last Christmas, when she was really poorly in hospital, we watched Strictly on the iPad," Antonia said.

She recalled her grandmother's prediction about her future on the show.

"You'll be on that one day, Beth," Antonia's grandmother told her.

Antonia said receiving the invitation in the year her grandmother died made the experience especially meaningful.

"For the call to come in the year she passed away was just unbelievable. And on top of that, her name was Nancy. I know if she was here, she'd have been so happy and supportive of me doing the show," Antonia said.

The actor has also spoken enthusiastically about the physical demands of rehearsals, telling the Mirror that she trains with Xu for eight hours a day.

"It just feels like I'm being paid to move my body and experience this euphoria that we chase as adults," Antonia said.

Despite having limited dance experience, Antonia received scores of 26 and 27 in the competition's first two weeks, according to the Mirror. She recalled taking classes as a young child before deciding dance was not for her.

"I did dance classes as a three-year-old, and then quickly was like, ‘This isn't for me,’" Antonia said.

Xu, who joined Strictly Come Dancing in 2019, said the partnership has been rewarding and praised Antonia's work during rehearsals.

"To see her shine on that dance floor gives me the most happiness. Bethany worked so hard. Every day she surprises me. In our first rehearsal, I said to myself, ‘Nancy, you have a diamond in your hand,’" Xu said in an interview with DIVA.

The professional dancer said her teaching approach depends on the individual student rather than gender. She also noted that Antonia needed to learn to dance in high heels.

"It doesn't matter about the gender," Xu said.

Xu described how adapting her instruction to different students has developed her teaching skills throughout her time on the program.

"She is an amazing student because she's such a humble person," Xu said, according to the Mirror.

The pair's connection developed quickly, with Xu recalling how often they spent time together during the early stages of the partnership.

"We clicked straight away," Xu said.

She said other people on the show noticed their immediate rapport.

"We were like two little girls. Everyone was saying, ‘Oh, we knew you two were going to dance together.’ And we were like, ‘How?’ They said, ‘Well, you are always together and giggling," Xu said.

Antonia has said the partnership represents more than a personal milestone, emphasizing the potential effect of visible same-sex couples on younger audiences.

"If I get to be a part of that story for one other person, one other girl… I've done my job," Antonia said.

Xu also expressed a desire for their performances to challenge expectations about women dancing together.

"We wanted to bring joy and share love. We want to show the whole world that when two girls dance together, it's powerful. It's beautiful!" Xu said in DIVA.

Antonia said she hoped viewers would see the partnership as an authentic representation of the LGBTQ+ community rather than an attempt to follow conventional stereotypes.

"I hope they take away that we are not about to shy away from anything," Antonia said.

She added that she and Xu wanted their performances to reflect their identities and community responsibly.

"And that we're not going to fall into any prescribed stereotypes. I think we're both making a real effort to be the change we want to see and to represent a community correctly and in a way that feels right for both of us," Antonia said.

Xu described the creative process as particularly satisfying when the performance she imagined during choreography came together on the dance floor.

"When I'm choreographing in my brain, the picture, the views, the energy, the idea, the look [of what] was happening in my head, and from Monday till Saturday, and I can see the full picture is just happening," Xu said.

She said Antonia's contribution made her proud of their work together.

"She just made me so proud, and I felt so happy," Xu said.

Antonia described Adams and Jones's 2020 partnership as groundbreaking and transformative for the LGBTQ+ community, explaining that its visibility influenced her own journey toward openness.

"Nicola and Katya doing the show, it was such a massive deal and so transformative for our community - it was groundbreaking," Antonia said in the Mirror interview.

Reflecting on her own experience of being a lesbian, she said requesting a female dance partner was a condition of her participation.

"Well, first of all, I'm a lesbian. When I was approached to do the show, that was the only thing that I asked for. It was a no-brainer for me. I don't think I would have done it any other way, and I'm so happy with how it's been received," Antonia said.

She has also described the nerves she experienced before her first performance, which was a Quickstep.

"I have never experienced nervousness like that in my life. It was so surreal and so much fun!" Antonia said in DIVA.

Xu said she had hoped to dance with Antonia from the beginning of their partnership.

"I think I'm very lucky to be sharing this journey with her, because I have a diamond in my hand. She's a beautiful treasure box," Xu said in the Mirror interview.

Antonia's first-week Quickstep drew praise from judge Craig Revel Horwood, who said it was the first strong dancing he had seen that evening. The actor said the compliment initially felt like winning the lottery, although she also felt for the celebrities who had performed earlier.