DANCE contestant Miriam Mullins has told how she is putting in punishing hours to compete as best she can, adding: “If everyone was crap, like, no one would watch it.”
The latest season of Dancing With the Stars is being hailed as the most competitive yet, and the influencer reckons that can only be a good thing for telly viewers.
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She said: “The standard is definitely high but it’s such a good thing because it means it’s an amazing show.
“It’s good to have a bit of competition I suppose. I mean if everyone was crap, like, no one would watch it.
“A lot of people now are putting in lots of hard work and lots of hours.”
The TikTok mover and shaker says she found it hard to breathe while dazzling with a samba last week, as she had been “quite sick” with a bad cough and sore throat ahead of the hugely demanding week two performance.
With a nasty bug going sweeping through the cast, pro dancers Kylee Vincent and Karen Byrne were even forced to pull out.
But Miriam told the Irish Sun she was determined to battle on saying: “It took a bit of a toll...I did struggle a lot last week but got through it.”
In the end the 28-year-old and pro-partner Montel Newson blew viewers away with a spectacular routine which judge Arthur Gourounlian branded a “fierce samba.”
The Cork woman, who has stacked up a 2 million strong following on TikTok, is now focused on ensuring she does not become the first of the 11 celebs to get the boot tomorrow night.
Determined Miriam, who will be dancing a foxtrot to Niall Horan’s Heaven, said she had “a bit of a fear” of making a mistake live on RTE One, adding: “But it’ll be grand, if it happens it happens, it’s normal.”
She said the long days in the dance studio are starting to pay off in terms of how quickly she can pick up the moves.
Miriam said she felt “lucky” because she’s staying “literally a five minute walk from our rehearsal studio.
“Most mornings we don’t start until 10am.
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“Some days we could go on until 6pm or 7pm - it’s a long day.
“But that’s up to us. We have a schedule where they say about 3 o’clock but we like to put in a couple more hours.
“And we do take a lot of breaks in between. We kind of make it fun and stuff because I think if you’re dancing for eight hours straight, that isn’t fun.”
She added: “I think the first dance was the hardest to learn because we were so new to it all.
“Whereas Sunday will be my second ballroom dance.”
She said given her status as a social media influencer, she was unsure if an audience beyond her followers might warm to her.
'Very apprehensive'
She said: “I was very apprehensive because I didn’t know what people were going to say.
“I feel like there is still a bit of a stigma with influencers and influencers getting opportunities.
“But I’ve literally had the best response ever. It’s been so amazing. People who don’t even follow me are coming onto my page and going, ‘Oh i found you from Dancing With The Stars, started following you, love your content.’
“So it has kind of worked really because I’m also getting a new audience as well.
And if her stint on the show opens new doors, possibly to presenting roles in the future, then her dream would be coming true.
She said: “That’s what I’ve always wanted to do.
Future hopes
“I did media in college so I actually have a degree in media so I always kind of wanted to go down that route.
“And I suppose that’s why I started the TikToks really because it was a way to express myself and kind of do a bit of acting.
“I was hoping that if it did well it would open up other doors for me.
“And that’s exactly what it’s done but it’s taken a lot of hard work and dedication and I’m just really grateful.”
She said she is missing home and missing playing twice a week with her local football club and relishes having boyfriend Tiaan Heyns over as well as friends and family up to see the show on Sundays.
Laughing, she said: “I got a bit of a surprise this week which you will see on the show.”
And - spoiler alert - she added: “I can’t wait for everyone to see that because one thing people have been asking me is about my dog and I may have gotten a little surprise from her this week.
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“That was amazing getting that surprise from her this week which was really good.”
- DWTS is on RTE One on Sunday at 6.30pm.
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