Dancing With The Stars hopeful Erica Cody has said she is trying to give her professional dance partner Denys Samson as much love and support as she can as war continues to rage in his homeland of Ukraine.
32-year Denys, who is from Odessa and previously danced on the Ukrainian version of Dancing with The Stars, Tantsi z zirkamy, returns to the show this Sunday following his absence last week due to Covid-19 and Erica says the support for him has been very strong.
Speaking ahead of Sunday night's DWTS quarter final, 25-year-old Dublin hip-hop singer Erica said, "The amount of support and love he’s getting is overwhelming. It’s hard to fathom what he’s going through emotionally being so far from home with everything that’s going on.
"His family and friends are still in Ukraine and the support from the cast and crew, and everyone even online and beyond has been endless.
"I think that in times like this the Irish people really know how to come together, and he’s totally overwhelmed and so, so grateful," Erica added.
"I think the fact that we get to dance together every week is a form of escapism and because he was stuck at home with Covid, I was really worried about him seeing everything that is happening in Ukraine.
"It’s really nice to have him back on the show so we can all mind him."
Asked if Denys’ family were safe and whether they are hoping to join him in Ireland, Erica said, "It’s really all up in the air but for now they’re safe but we don’t know how things can go.
"I don’t want to speak for him, but I do know that his mam and his auntie are quite worried about how things are going so I’m just trying to keep his spirits high and give him as much love and support as I can as his partner."
The pair have topped the leaderboard every week since the show started but speaking about whether she was worried that the war in Ukraine would affect Denys’ DWTS performance in the coming weeks, Erica said, "We take every week as it comes. We’ve had different challenges every week on the show. We’re enjoying our time together and there’s only three weeks left so we’re living in the moment.
"Anything can happen any day to anyone so literally just powering through and just enjoying being on this journey because even being in the quarter finals is huge in itself.
"The war has been having an impact on Denys over the past couple of weeks as you can imagine, and you saw the show when we did the American Smooth and how emotional he was but as I said dancing away is almost a form of escapism for him and me.
She added, "Just to get away from it all. He had Covid last week and he had to stay at home and couldn’t dance so to have him back and being able to talk that’s a big plus. I feel we’re on the right track."
Dancing With The Stars continues on Sunday on RTÉ One at 6.30pm.
