‘MY PLAN IS TO KEEP BREAKING BARRIERS’
When Rose Ayling-Ellis became the first deaf contestant on Strictly Come Dancing last year, she was already used to breaking down barriers. The EastEnders star has been doing it all her life. By getting a perfect 40 score earlier in the competition than any other dancer in the show’s history and going on to win the famous glitterball with her dance partner Giovanni Pernice in an emotional final, Ayling-Ellis demolished preconceptions about deaf people. But she has only just begun.
“I am ambitious to make a difference. I feel like there’s so many barriers out there that need to be broken. And I’m quite happy to break them up! I think I’m addicted to it now,” she says, when she visits The Big Issue for her first major interview of 2022.
After a whirlwind few months on Strictly , Ayling-Ellis rested up over the festive period. “I went down to Devon, caught up with my family for the first time in ages, I ate a lot of food. I even swam in the sea on Christmas Day,” she says. Now she is raring to go.
Ayling-Ellis arrives at The Big Issue office in Finsbury Park, London alongside her interpreter Kirsty in early January, brimming with partner Pernice during the photoshoot. She looks at some of the images, delighting in her new jumper. “I’m so glad it arrived yesterday,” she says, before explaining why we can’t use some shots as her feet are in the incorrect position. “Nope, I’ll get in trouble, Gio would tell me off.”
