Strictly's Denise won't be spooked on Halloween (From Southend Standard)

Strictly's Denise won't be spooked on Halloween

5:44pm Friday 26th October 2012 in Echo News

BASILDON star Denise van Outen is facing her third week on Strictly Come Dancing.

She wowed the judges with her fancy footwork with the foxtrot last week and the pressure’s now on to keep up the pace.

She topped the leaderboard for a second week in a row and got great feedback from the judges.

This week she has got her Latin ballroom shoes on to rehearse the cha-cha - and her feet are paying the price!

It is a Strictly Come Dancing Halloween special this Saturday and Denise is putting in a lot of time in the studio in preparation.

Having recovered from the whiplash she suffered in the second week of the competition she is now battling other aches and pains.

She told the Echo: “After a lot of physio my neck is all better now.

“The only problem is the pain has shifted to my feet. The latin dance shoes are killing me at the moment!”

Denise reaped the reward for all the hard work her and dance partner James Jordan’s put in at the studio last week.

Head judge Len Goodman gave her very positive feedback on her footwork having criticised her technique the week before when she performed the jive.

She said: “I was the most nervous I have been in the whole comp last week because I was waiting for Len's comments.

“When someone critiques something like footwork it makes you want to work hard to get it right. Then you just want them to notice the work you’ve put in.

“We put in more than ten additional hours of training last week so we could get it perfect. Thankfully the hard work paid off but it was a shock to me because I thought I was going to get criticised.”