Elaine Crowley on Dancing With The Stars: 'I am absolutely banjaxed'
Elaine Crowley will be the second last performance of the evening on Dancing With The Stars. Picture: Brian McEvoy
TV presenter and journalist Elaine Crowley says she is “running on adrenaline” ahead of making her Dancing With The Stars debut tonight on RTÉ.
The Cork woman is set to be the second last performance of the evening as she takes on a waltz to the Commodores’ Three Times A Lady with dance partner, Denys Samson.
Ukranian dancer and choreographer Samson may have hopes for this season – having placed second last year and in 2022 – but Crowley doesn’t appear to be as confident.
“I can safely say I’m not a dancer by nature, in any way shape or form. If I can pull off my first dance without falling on my arse, I’ll be doing very well,” she says.
Despite this, the duo are “having a ball” together and Crowley says she has learned how to play Samson at his own game.
“He gets ferociously cranky so I just have to do this game with him where I tell him to be all sweet and lovely and [like] Justin Bieber. If he is a nice Justin Bieber, boyband-type [of person], we have a wonderful time. If he is cranky Denys, I’m just not entertaining him at all,” she joked.
The journalist has been flat out training since December and says that between work and dancing, she “barely got Christmas off”. She added, however, that this was mostly down to her being “a bit slow on the uptake” when it came to her initial rehearsals.
While Crowley hasn’t set any official resolutions for the new year, a constant pledge to herself each January is to get fit. Having started the year with a training plan already in place for the show, she says: “I can safely say I’m getting as fit as a fiddle here. It’s the one year my new year resolution will actually come true.”
She’s not being too harsh on herself, either, and is choosing to just “embrace these things I already do and love”.
“It’s not new year, new me. It’s new year, same old me. I’m not going to change. I’m not at all going to change at this stage in my life,” she says.
When speaking to The Irish Examiner back in November, Crowley told of how she can have terrible insomnia and while it had eased off over the last year, it has now come back again due to her nerves in the lead up to the show.
“I got two hours sleep last night. I got three hours sleep the night before. I am running on adrenaline. I am absolutely banjaxed.
“It’s weird, I feel like I’m starting my first day of school again.”
Crowley’s motivation for going on the show – which she will balance between her Ireland AM commitments by working on Friday and Saturdays, with Sunday off – was to bring some joy to 2025.
“The last few years have been sad and depressing. I just wanted to have a bit of fun. You only live once and you regret the stuff you don’t do more than the stuff you do. I do love dancing around the kitchen by myself, not so much in front of other people. Who doesn’t love dancing a little bit?”
An added bonus is just how much her family are enjoying the idea of her dancing, with the Cork woman saying they are getting an absolute kick out of it already.
“I’m going to embrace it, I’m going to have fun and the worst thing I can do is make an awful eejit of myself and I do that anyway,” Crowley says.
Dancing With The Stars returns for its eighth season on RTÉ One tonight at 6:30pm. It will feature familiar faces such as hosts Doireann Garrihy and Jennifer Zamparelli, as well as judges Loraine Barry, Brian Redmond and Arthur Gourounlian. Karen Byrne, who was previously a professional dancer on the show, joins the judging panel this year.
