Rugby player turned twinkle toes Jordan Conroy has been raising the heat on Dancing With The Stars but he says that his head is like "a bowl of spaghetti" after the past few months of training on the pitch and also strutting his stuff on the dancefloor.
The 27-year-old Tullamore man, who plays for Ireland's national rugby sevens team, has been tripping the light fantastic for the past two months on the show. He’s also back rugby training nearly every day and he says it’s been more than hectic.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment ahead of tonight’s Big Band Week on DWTS, he said, "I’ve been back training for rugby for two weeks as well as doing the dancing and it’s kinda taking its toll again, trying to fit it all in.
"My head is like a bowl of spaghetti every Sunday night!"
A normal week for Jordan starts on Monday at 10.30am with rugby training and then in the afternoon he hits the DWTS studio to practice that week’s routine with his professional dance partner Salome Chachua, who hails from Georgia.
On Tuesday, he’s does a gym session for rugby and then it’s straight in for six or seven hours of dance practice. Wednesday is totally dedicated to DWTS, and Thursday starts early with a pitch session and then the rest of the day dancing.
Friday is another long day on DWTS before rehearsals for the show all-day Saturday and Sunday and before show time.
"I’m genuinely exhausted!" says Jordan, who was also part of the rugby sevens team that represented Ireland at the 2020 Olympics. "I came back into the rugby last week and the physio said, `are you OK? You look absolutely exhausted’.
"There’s only four or five weeks left so I’m going to work on through and then I’ll have a little more time for myself because it’s literally been go, go, go!
"I haven’t had a minute to myself, and I haven’t seen any of the lads because by the time I get home, I’m straight to bed."
Tonight’s Big Band Week will see the celebrity dancers and their partners performing in front of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Jordan and Salome will be hitting the floor with a Contemporary Ballroom to High Hopes by Panic! At the Disco
"There’s a bit of storytelling in our routine so hopefully people will be able to follow what we’re doing," Jordan says. "Salome has a theme and I just follow what she says!"
He has topped the leader board at least once and he says he’s surprised at how well he has done.
"I was really surprised at my first performance when I got a 22 and between that the Paso Doble, it’s been up and down.
"I was hoping to end the competition near the top but surprisingly I’ve been in the top four nearly every week and it’s also good to see that the judges are appreciating the work we’re putting in and we’re progressing week by week.
"It’s been steady and I’m always trying to push myself to aim for those marks from the judges."
His mum, Jennie, is his hero and they’ve been though a lot together. They fled her abusive husband when they were living in Germany when Jordan was still a child and escaped to Ireland.
And Jennie has been in the DWTS studio audience cheering her son on every week. "She’s there every Sunday. She said I want to be there every week as long as you’re in it, so she’s been enjoying it immensely," Jordan says.
"She’s been a fan of the show since it started so for her to see me in there has been really fun and special and she looks forward to it every weekend. She’s a great old cheerleader to have on the side-line and being able to bring friends to in to watch is a lot of fun."
The support in Tullamore has also been pretty good. "It’s been immense!" Jordan says. "My mum is the one getting stopped in town all the time. I must get down there one of the days to say thank you because the support has been huge."
He adds, "I get so many messages from friends at home. It’s just been amazing. Even up here in Dublin, I’ve been stopped by people quite a lot and the nice thing is being recognised by the little kids and been able to get pictures with them is the nice part about it. It’s a weird one, but I’m enjoying it."
And has his inbox cooled off after that very hot Paso Doble seemed to raise the whole country’s temperature a few weeks ago?
"Every Sunday, the in-box blows up. It’s ridiculous!" Jordan laughs. "I got a lot of Georgian fans too though Salome and it’s really hard to try and get back to everyone because they’re all so nice, sending lovely messages.
"It takes a while to get back to everyone. It’s been quite hectic. Shockingly busy but, you know, that comes with the show and that’s fine!"
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
Dancing With The Stars continues on Sundays at 6.30pm on RTÉ One
