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Home / New Zealand

A foodie, a Warrior, a muso and a host: Meet the latest DWTS stars

Ricardo Simich
By Ricardo Simich
Society Insider editor·NZ Herald·
30 Mar, 2019 06:00 PM4 mins to read

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Photo / Supplied

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Celebrity chef Nadia Lim, league player Manu Vatuvei and former TV star Jude Dobson will take to the stage for the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars.

But Spy is picking that lesser-known social media influencer William Waiirua will steal the limelight.

Spy can reveal the four are joining already-announced Mike McRoberts in Three's celebrity dance competition.

Waiirua, a professional morale-booster on Instagram with over 90,000 followers, released his own music video, Wowwee, with fellow Kiwi artist Vince Harder. He starred in a police recruitment video and made a viral te reo Maori Bohemian Rhapsody tribute.

"My dancing experience comes in the form of a bit of line dancing in the back end of '98," Waiirua told Spy. "I didn't place on the podium, but picked up a participation ribbon in the Feilding Lions' Club Line Dancing meet."

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The 32-year-old has already been checking out the male competition.
"I saw Mike McRoberts with his top off, Manu Vatuvei's gold tooth, one of the other celebs do the splits, that's all I'm going to say."

Dobson is poised to be this season's Suzy Cato — and she also has Cato's partner from last season Matt Tatton-Brown.

Photo / Supplied
Photo / Supplied

"Robert Rakete said 'go for it, just surrender to the learning process' and Suzy Cato was also very reassuring and encouraging," Dobson said. "Matt is a very patient teacher and we have a lot of laughs.

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"I encourage my kids to take opportunities when they come up — even if they are scary ones — so I guess I had to walk the talk."

"I hope I am a half-decent dancing mummy sort, not an embarrassing one. I'm going to work hard to be the former version for them [and me]. On the 'glam' thing, the makeup and wardrobe department will do what they do, I'll just go with their expert thoughts, and turn up ready to dance."

Lim is juggling dance practice and being a mum of two young boys with her stellar foodie career.

"So far the schedule is working pretty well. I've tried to fit practice around family time as much as possible, so we practice every day between 10am and 2pm, which is when River, my 6-month-old, has his big nap," Lim told Spy.

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"Mornings start pretty early anyway, so 6-10am is spent doing a bit of work and getting the kids ready. As soon as I get home from practice, I get a bit more work done, then from 4-7pm I'm back into mum-mode picking up kids, cooking dinner, bathtime, bedtime etc. As we get into it more we will probably start doing some practice in the evenings too."

The 33- year-old is partnered with last season's winner Aaron Gilmore — which Lim says adds some extra pressure.

"Aaron is an amazing teacher and I don't want to let him down. For a gal who wears jeans, a T-shirt and an apron almost every day, it's been quite fun getting into the costume part, however I am definitely not a fan of the spray tans, nails and hair spray. I'm used to my nails naked and super-short — much more practical for the kitchen."

League legend Vatuvei told Spy professional dancing was something he never thought he'd do.

"I thought it would be just like doing a wedding dance to be honest — a bit of step-two-side-to-side, but I've found out it requires a lot more than that. Ultimately I am doing it because it's for charity. It's nice to give back to the community."

When the 33-year-old first signed he had his famous beard, which has since been clipped. It wasn't long before his league mates knew something was up.

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"I have told some of them — they're pretty shocked. They straight laughed at me as they normally do. Normally we have banter and I give it to them all the time, but now they have something on me. I'd better make sure I perform well 'cos one little stuff-up and they'll post it on social media."

Dancing with the Stars is due to start screening on April 14.

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