This week, Strictly Come Dancing announced its lineup of pros for the 2020 Strictly the Professionas tour, but many fans were disappointed to see that popular dancer Kevin Clifton wasn't among the names mentioned. However, on Friday, the 37-year-old responded to a Twitter user who had asked him why he wasn't taking part, and he had a perfectly understandable reason. "I'm busy on tour with @OfficialBTF [Burn the Floor] so had to decline," he explained. A lot of Kevin's followers responded to his answer telling him that the tour wouldn't be the same without him, while others joked about the recent speculation that he had been snubbed from the tour by the show. "No, no Kevin, you were humiliated by being dumped from the tour – remember. You must be confused I mean, surely the papers wouldn't use lies and baiting headlines?" one wrote. Pros taking part in the upcoming tour are Karen Hauer, Gorka Marquez, Dianne Buswell, Oti Mabuse, Luba Mushtuk, Johannes Radebe, Graziano di Prima,Nadiya Bychkova and Neil and Katya Jones.
Kevin Clifton has revealed why he isn't taking part in the Strictly The Professionals tour
While Kevin enjoys being part of Strictly, he is also very passionate about Burn the Floor. In 2020, the show will be extra special for him as he will be taking part in it with his sister and former Strictly pro Joanna Clifton. Stacey Dooley's boyfriend has previously revealed that Burn the Floor saved his dance career after he very nearly gave up after falling out of love with it. Chatting to HELLO! in 2019, he said: "It sort of saved my whole dancing career really. I was in the zone at the time where I was going to quit ballroom dancing as I was quitting the competition world and I had grown out of love with that. And I thought I had fallen out of love with ballroom dancing."
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Kevin was partnered with Anneka Rice in this year's Strictly
Kevin continued: "But then I was asked to come and join the cast of Burn The Floor and I had never seen anything like it. They are very involved with storytelling and character development and it is the best sort of show that exists. A lot of the Strictly cast are Burn The Floor alumni. Burn The Floor gives everyone an extra quality. So when I was asked to go on the tour again this year I jumped at the chance. I feel I developed with the show more than anywhere else in my career."
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In August, Kevin announced that his sister would be joining him in the next Burn the Floor production. He took to Twitter to reveal the news, writing: "It's FINALLY happening. The ultimate collaboration, Burn The Floor @burnthefloorofficial, Joanne Clifton @realjoanneclifton and Kevin Clifton."
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