Strictly Come Dancing bosses are considering hiring intimacy coaches to save the show from recent scandals

Strictly Come Dancing is considering hiring intimacy coaches for the first time to help stop further bad behaviour after the show was rocked by bullying allegations

Strictly: Fiona Phillips and Brendan Cole clash during rehearsals in 2005

Strictly Come Dancing bosses are considering bringing in intimacy coaches and mentors following allegations of bullying on the hit dance show.

The BBC studio team are reportedly considering bringing in experts similar to those used in Hollywood to establish clear boundaries between celebrities and their professional dance partners. The move follows a statement from Graziano Di Prima’s representative earlier this week confirming that the dancer kicked his celebrity partner Zara McDermott during practice, an incident that led to his ouster from the show.

A source close to Strictly said: “Some of them need to have the boundaries of normal behaviour explained to them. Because (dancing) is about leading and following, and they’ve been doing it since they were eight, the idea that you can just grab someone by the wrist is ingrained in them. And clearly, for some (dancers), what constitutes totally unacceptable behaviour needed to be explained.”

Graziano Di Prima was sacked from Strictly this month(PENNSYLVANIA)

Graziano Di Prima admitted to kicking Zara McDermott during rehearsals(PENNSYLVANIA)

Di Prima, 30, hit the headlines earlier this month with the announcement that he was leaving Strictly. His spokesman Mark Borkowski told BBC News: “There’s never a time when it’s right to kick, or to think that it is. And he knows that. He knows he made a mistake. He apologised at the time.”

The popular dance competition has been rocked by allegations against Mr Di Prima and another professional dancer, Giovanni Pernice, the Daily Star reports. Mr Pernice, 33, has strongly denied “any suggestion of abusive or threatening behaviour”. In her memoir Spinning Plates, former contestant Sophie Ellis-Bextor, 45, described her time on Strictly as potentially “cruel”.

BBC could be set to bring in intimacy coordinators amid ongoing Strictly Come Dancing harassment controversy

The ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ singer opened up about her time on the hit show: “The dancers would discuss the choreography that we thought was difficult, and then Brendan (Cole, her dance partner) would grab a dancer and show me what to do. He’d turn her around and she’d end up with her leg around his head or something.”

Thinking about it further, she said, “I think most of this cruelty could be avoided with a little more internal infrastructure. A little attention to the emotional well-being of the participants.”

Sophie Ellis Bextor was paired with Brendan Cole in 2013(PENNSYLVANIA)

The singer believes more should have been done to protect the well-being of the contestants.(PENNSYLVANIA)

Meanwhile, a former dancer on the show, who preferred to remain anonymous, pointed out that no instructions were provided on how to handle their celebrity protégés. The anonymous dancer said: “This doesn’t justify the abuse, but some dancers have been treated exactly this way in dance studios since they were children, so it’s become normal for them. Most of us are not teachers – and winning is everything.”