Craig Revel Horwood hopes the standards "don't drop" on 'Strictly Come Dancing' this year.
Craig Revel Horwood hopes the abuse accusations don't impact the dancing standards this year
Professional dancers Giovanni Pernice and Graziano Di Prima were dropped from the professional line-up amid claims of abuse, but both deny wrongdoing.
And the judge hopes it doesn't result in the show being "watered down and vanilla" because the dancers are afraid to give constructive criticism.
He told The Sun of the controversy: “I hope the standards don’t drop this year.
“When I’m teaching casts for shows in rehearsals, I still have to be quite strict. I think you have to be.
“Can you imagine an Olympian getting gold with his or her trainer not being strict?
“As far as saying, ‘Oh, that was really bad, you need to try it again’, I’m not gonna cry over that.
“You just have to be able to take some criticism. Otherwise, we’re living in a world where no one is criticised, and it will become watered down and vanilla, where no one’s trying.”
The 59-year-old dancer says his own training was extreme and the 'Strictly' celebrities would probably have "sued" if they had experienced what he went through.
He added: “I never would have made it without criticism.
“If my teachers hadn’t told me my arms were terrible, way too loose and wild and out of control, I would still be wild and out of control.
“My Russian ballet teacher was always touching my hamstrings. That happened to everyone, to make you work from the hamstring up.
“People will say I was caned, but it’s not about that. It’s about a connection of instructing the muscle to work from underneath and not the top.
"It’s a really simple way of doing it, but if you do that in a Strictly class, you’ll be sued.”
Following the accusations, BBC director general Tim Davie apologised to anyone who has had an experience on 'Strictly Come Dancing' that "hasn’t been wholly positive".
Tagged in Craig Revel Horwood