Darren Bennett, the creative director and principal choreographer of Dancing With The Stars Ireland, has spoken about how the big dance numbers come together on the show.
Speaking on Jennifer Zamparelli's radio show on 2fm (weekdays, 9am to midday), he said, "First of all, what's really important is the song... and then you sort of think about how you want to interpret that."
Explaining how he and his fellow show choreographer Lilia Kopylova, who is also his dance partner and wife, develop the ideas from there, he said: "Our summer months are sort of coming up with concepts and ideas and moodboards.
"It can something as simple as one image - and that one image is something you take and you sort of build it out from there."
"And that's actually the fun bit for us - dreaming up these big ideas."
When asked what he thought of this year's contestants, he said, "So far, so good."
He told Zamparelli that there is "a really big bond" between them all, even to the point that they do "show and tells" for each other during rehearsals each week, where they perform their dance for their fellow contestants.
The former Strictly Come Dancing pro dancer also explained his own dance background, revealing that both of his parents were professional dancers and champions. "It was that thing when we were young, we were always surrounded by it. They had a dance studio, we were always part of that... we sort of fell into it.
"Before you know it, you were eight, with a number on your back, doing a competition."
Darren and his twin brother Dale went on to become professional dancers themselves.
Darren joined Strictly Come Dancing in the UK, and went on to win the competition with actress Jill Halfpenny in 2004, in the show's second season.
He and his dance partner Kopylova were initially reluctant to take part in the series, as they were touring the professional competitive circuit at the time.
"We were world pro finalists, we were like, 'We're not doing that!'" he said, but the allure of the programme grew as they realised it would allow them to put down roots in the UK.
Dancing With The Stars continues on Sunday at 6.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
