Strictly Come Dancing’s Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal talk about bringing the live tour to Scotland

How ceilidh culture helped Hamza dance his way to the Glitterball trophy

Has there ever been a Gay Gordons quite like the one Strictly Come Dancing champions Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal mashed up into their Charleston on the BBC hit show to Paolo Nutini’s Pencil Full of Lead? With Countryfile and CBeebie’s Hamza in a pink and orange tartan kilt matching Schiaparelli shocking pink tie, his brogues were on firm ground as he put a new twist into tradition and gave his dancing partner a taste of what to expect if she ever finds herself at a ceilidh. And with the Strictly Live tour travelling to 32 venues around the UK before coming to a dazzling finale in Glasgow this month, not a million miles from Hamza’s home in Ardnamurchan in the West Highlands, that could just happen.

“I still believe when we go to Scotland, there will be a session where you’re going to teach us Scottish dance,” says Jowita.

Hamza laughs.

Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal perform a Charleston with a touch of tartan as they dance their way to winning the 2022 Strictly Come Dancing Glitterball trophy. Pic: Guy Levy/BBC

“I’ll organise it,” she says.

“A ceilidh,” says 32-year-old Hamza. “I’d love that. Our final shows are in Glasgow so yeah, absolutely, it would be lovely. Especially after 32 shows of doing latin and ballroom, it would be nice to get the whole crew doing a bit of Scottish dancing.”

Hamza knows a bit about ceilidhs, as well as tossing the caber and anchoring a tug-o-war team, having relocated to the Ardnamurchan peninsula 11 years ago to pursue his love of wildlife filming. Brought up in Sudan along with two older siblings by medic parents until he was eight, the family came to the UK and settled in Northampton before the animal daft teenager studied zoology with conservation and biological photography and imaging at Bangor University. After that, he headed north, initially sleeping in his car while he filmed bird and animal life around the west coast and islands, and he has been at home there ever since.

But right now he’s on the road and he and Jowita take time out to Zoom just before they board the bus for Birmingham at the start of the Strictly Live show tour with fellow finalists Helen Skelton, Fleur East and Molly Rainford as well as Will Mellor, Ellie Simmonds, and Tyler West, plus all of the professional partners and a whole cast of Strictly dancers and musicians as well as judges Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood and Anton Du Beke.

Hamza Yassin with camels on Animal Park, the BBC television documentary series about the lives of keepers and animals at Longleat Safari Park. Pic: Ian Turner

Hamza and Jowita’s dancing feet have barely touched the floor since winning the competition and lifting the Glitterball in December as they went straight into rehearsals for the live show, directed by Revel Horwood but they’re not complaining as they stretch out their Strictly experience.

Sitting side by side, smiles sparkling like Swarovski, the pair still can’t believe what they just did, Jowita scoring a first by being the first female professional dancer to carry off the trophy in her first partnered series in the 20 year old show, while Hamza never thought he had it in him, having suffered self-doubt from beginning to end and expecting to leave on a weekly basis, despite being a bookie and audience favourite.

So why do they think they won?

“I honestly don’t know,” says Hamza. “Any of us could have won that day. It came down to the public. I think we are just lucky. We’re thankful that we’ve won it for sure and I’m glad that we’re doing this tour with some of the people that were on the show with us, for them to enjoy it just as much as us.”

Winners of Strictly Come Dancing Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal are dut to bring the live show to Scotland. Pic: BBC

If Hamza doesn’t know why they won, Jowita does, having identified him as a winner from the start.

“With Hamza from week one he was dancing from his heart and he was pure, he was genuine and he was just, ‘this is me, that’s my samba, that’s my waltz’,” she says. “And to see him doing that, 100% the best he could at that time, for me every week we were winning and I think people saw that in him. His performances weren’t only just doing the steps; it was always something more.”

“Dancing is bigger than just steps, routine, music; it’s the feeling. So I think you gave your heart on that stage and people saw it. Like I saw that in you on day one. Because for us it wasn’t a competition. Like it sounds silly maybe and cheesy, but it was more how we can challenge ourselves and take the most from this experience? And send a message to people as well, to connect with them.

Hamza nods and says, “Yeah and dance is inclusivity; it’s for everybody, no matter your age, ability, gender, whatever, everyone can have that joy of dancing. When I first turned up I was just basically doing steps and Jowita’s like, ‘you’ve gotta dance with me, like I need to feel it that you’re enjoying it, you’re dancing’. Every Monday morning I felt I can’t do this particular dance but by Saturday night, because the routine’s in your head, you can enjoy it on the dance floor.

Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal were popular with viewers from day one. Pic: Guy Levy/PA .

“I genuinely thought each week ‘right, this is my last time to dance, give it my all, go out there and enjoy it, and see what happens’. So that took us to the final.”

Hamza and Jowita’s conversational style takes the form of a dance, the pair in tune, taking turns and finishing sentences, anticipating and supporting, back and forth, round and round, leading, following, keeping in step. Such as when I ask who got to keep the Glitterball trophy.

“Hamza and I had a conversation,” starts Jowita, “which was ‘OK, so if we’re going to get just one, who’s going to take it…”

“And I said like no, you should get it…” says Hamza.

“And I was like no, you…

“And then I said three months at my place and three months at yours until they take it off us next year.

Hamza Yassin with fellow contestants from this year's Strictly Come Dancing. Pic: BBC

“But no, we got two,” says Jovita.

“Yes, we got two Glitterballs for ourselves.”

“Problem solved.”

And pause and a 100-watt smile.

Jowita’s trophy is back in Poland at her mum and dad’s, while Hamza’s sits on top of a cupboard at his home in Ardnamurchan, where he lives in between making wildlife documentaries and appearing on the likes of Countryfile, Animal Park (the BBC television docuseries about the lives of keepers and animals at Longleat Safari Park) and BBC’s Cbeebies as Ranger Hamza, a reminder that even if he doesn’t think he can dance, everyone else does.

For both Hamza and Jowita, winning Strictly is a life-changing event. For Jowita it establishes her as a Glitterball winner on the show and for Hamza it opens up opportunities to make more programmes about wildlife and also push his message about the importance of conservation.

“I have a few wildlife documentaries coming up,” he says, “three or four in the pipeline, hopefully one with Jowita in the future, similar to my Escape to the Wilderness documentaries with celebs, and I’ll be doing a few more of my Ranger Hamza’s Eco Quest Cbeebies. And I’ve got a book coming out in September next year about birds. So yeah the year’s very busy and I might be travelling abroad for a few wildlife shoots and conservation projects along the way.”

Aside from professional benefits, what has Hamza taken from the show that he will apply in the rest of his life?

“Dealing with people, believe it or not, because I was relatively unknown. I was known to people that are wildlife, Countryfile, One Show lovers, documentary people, but it has given me a bit more confidence to believe in myself. I’m confident when it comes to the wildlife stuff but maybe not in my own self, and Strictly has given me that. Having this young lady right next to me every step of the way has just boosted my confidence so much.

“It’s given me the ability to learn about friendship and self-confidence, belief in yourself, knowing that when you think you’re tired and done, you’re basically 25% through your tank, you’ve still got another 75%. I never knew I had that until Jowita brought it out of me. Travelling the world, seeing all these amazing animals that we are on the menu to, and being in some of the most remote places, I thought that was tough. But I’ve learned so much more about myself on Strictly, and just being physically fitter as well, which is a real blessing. So yeah, there’s a lot I’ve learned from Strictly. It’s been the best thing and it’s changed my life for sure.”

For both Hamza and Jowita, dancing goes right back to their roots, with formative experiences in their childhoods in Poland and Sudan.

“I was one,” says Jowita, “and my mum always put a music channel on where there was a lot of ballet and classical music and I was walking already so I was stepping in front of telly, trying to copy the ballet dancer. My mum said, ‘OK, she’s going to be a dancer.’ That was the first time I’ve probably just moved, but dance, dance, I was Britney Spears in a competition in the kindergarten aged four, and I danced and sang Hit Me Baby One More Time. That was the beginning of my career,” she laughs.

“For me,” says Hamza, “it was dancing in Africa, in Sudan, at an aunty or an uncle’s wedding, and I was five or six,” says Hamza. “There’s a video somewhere in my parents’ attic, and that’s my first recollection of dancing. You can see my bent legs in it, already. There’s a singer, guitar, drums, the bongos kind of thing, traditional music. I was super happy, the whole family around me, hyping me up and I’m enjoying it, just grooving to it generally. I just enjoy music, I’m constantly listening to it, and I dance by myself, anything that just feels the music. Never in a million years did I think I’d be doing latin and ballroom - which I absolutely love. So yeah, dance has been in my life.”

Despite the pressure of being judged on Strictly, Hamza and Jowita both have a love of dancing purely for its own sake, and it’s this passion to follow their artistic instincts that brings them together.

“As adults we always get told to be realistic,” says Hamza. “So when you’re a kid, all kids draw and paint, but as we grow up they tell you to be realistic, you’re not going to make money out of art and stuff. But people still do. So for someone like Jowita to believe in herself and say ‘no, I want to dance, this is where I feel happiest and I’m going to make a living out of it’, it’s a hard thing to do. Same as me with my photography, my filmmaking. People say ‘oh you’re never going to do this’, because people who film for Attenborough are like the world’s top, so for you to break the mould and follow your dream, knowing that you might never make it, that is the world’s biggest sacrifice.

“Jowita and I, we’ve kind of followed our dreams, and now I feel, and I’m sure Jowita feels the same, I don’t work a day of my life. I go out and do the thing I love the most and I happen to get paid for it. I’ve learned to become better at it, and I’m always learning, but it doesn’t feel like work. When I’m filming wildlife it is the thing that I love the most.”

As the competition went on, it turned out that the worlds of wildlife and dance weren’t so far apart as Hamza took Jowita to Longleat Safari and Adventure Park in Wiltshire and WWT London Wetland Centre to show her some of the animals and birds he loves.

“She saw the gorillas and the elephants, monkeys, macaques and wildfowl - shelducks, herons. And it’s amazing because even when we’re talking about an egret that stands on one leg, immediately Jowita finds a way of bringing it back to dance, and says ‘remember that bit when I asked you to stand, that’s what I wanted you to do, just like that bird, you see how her neck is so beautiful and elongated, elongate your neck like that crane’. I’m like, ‘hang on, it’s not a crane, it’s an egret actually’, and she’d say, ‘doesn’t matter, just elongate like that’.

For Jowita the animal kingdom proved an inspiration when it came to choreograph their dance routines.

“I had that pleasure to see him in action with wildlife and to see how happy he is and how dedicated he is to that and that inspired me so much. Like in the musical week we did the Lion King and I’m so lucky because he opened my eyes to so many other things and I hope everyone else’s so that they will want to take care of mother nature because it’s our home, and without it we’re not here, we can’t survive.”

Hamza agrees, “Even if you’re doing an office job, we are entwined in the natural world and mother nature is the most important thing. That’s what I want to instil in the next generation. Attenborough lit the spark in me and I want to light the spark in all the people that don’t know about it. If we give her just a little bit of space, she works miracles and she comes back stronger than ever.

“So doing Strictly, I thought in two weeks - because that’s the first time people go out and it will be me - if I can just tell the world how much I love the natural world and see how excited I am about it, that’s what I can do.”

Since we’re talking animals and Hamza is the expert, do they ever dance purely for pleasure, like humans?

“Animals don’t do anything just for the sake of doing it,” says Hamza. “Sorry, but not just for the joy or pleasure, because for them it’s a survival mechanism. They do it to impress.”

“No,” says Jowita, in a rare moment of disagreement: “Penguins! They do. I’ve seen the movie. Happy Feet!” she laughs.

And laughing again, the pair of them take their happy feet and get ready to get dancing.

Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal will appear with the.Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour at Glasgow OVO Hydro, February 10-12.

Tickets: £35 - £95 (bands differ between venues), visit: www.strictlycomedancinglive.com

STRICTLY COME DANCING THE LIVE TOUR is produced by Stage Entertainment UK and Phil McIntyre Live, in association with BBC Studios.