Tasha Ghouri is appearing on the new series of BBC Strictly (Image: BBC/Ray Burmiston)

BBC Strictly's Tasha Ghouri explains dancefloor 'challenges' she faces compared to hero Rose Ayling-Ellis

Model and activist talked candidly about living, and dancing, with cochlear implants.

by · Daily Record

Strictly Come Dancing star Tasha Ghouri has opened up about the challenges of taking on Strictly Come Dancing as a deaf woman.

The 26-year-old model, who made history as the first deaf contestant on Love Island, spoke candidly about her cochlear implants with her 1.4 million Instagram followers.

Ghouri has always been an outspoken advocate for the deaf community, making headlines for modelling ASOS earrings with her cochlear implant even before she found fame on the ITV2 reality dating show.

Ghouri made history as the first deaf person to enter the Love Island villa (Image: ITV)

As she returns to our screens for Strictly, the star is determined to prove to millions of viewers that deafness really is her “super power”.

She told Grazia: “I'm doing this for myself and the deaf community, and for people who struggle with their confidence. I’m here to help them find self-love and confidence.”

On Instagram, Ghouri explained that she was born completely deaf, and only begun to hear at the age of five when she had a cochlear implant fitted. The device converts sound into electrical signals that stimulate the auditory nerve via a tiny coil fitted within the inner ear.

She added that a “long process” of speech therapy followed, along with more surgery to install a new cochlear implant when she was 15. The star admitted that she was initially overwhelmed by her new implant as a teenager, because the device made “everything sound like robots”.

However, after many sessions with audiologists and speech therapists to fine-tune the sounds that her cochlear implant creates and learn how to interpret them, Ghouri embraced her unique hearing as an asset instead of a weakness.

Now with an impressive career that has seen her sign lucrative brand deals, author a book, and even advise the government on disability inclusion, the star has set her sights on the glitterball trophy next. She pointed to Rose Ayling-Ellis, who won Strictly with Giovanni Pernice in 2019, as her inspiration for joining the show.

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The television personality told her fans that, like Ayling-Ellis, her deafness poses extra challenges in the ballroom – particularly when it comes to responding to music with limited hearing.

But while Ayling-Ellis previously ignored “distracting” musical vibrations and focused entirely on her partner for cues, Ghouri explained that she relies on feeling vibrations throughout her body to stay in time with the music.

She said: “The way I hear music is by feeling the music. The heavier the speakers and the band, the more I can really feel it and ingest it into my body.”

It is for this reason that dancing to “What Was I Made For?” from the Barbie movie was twice as challenging for the star during Movie Week.

(Image: PA Media)

Ghouri and her partner Aljaz Skorjanec topped the leaderboard with a “moving” rumba that earned them 34 points. But the model explained that the song’s stripped back acoustics left her with little to guide her movements.

She said: “when I did Barbie, the piano sound was so gentle and there was no beats or bass. The way I hear music is by feeling the music, that’s why it’s such a challenge doing a Barbie song.”

Ghouri also outlined how she must juggle her gruelling dance training alongside the exhaustion and migraines that being deaf provokes. Although she stressed that she “absolutely loves and adores” her cochlear implant, the star admitted that deciphering different tones, accents, and background noises can leave her “drained”.

She explained: “There’s times sometimes where I will literally be napping a lot in the day because I need to have that recharge and that energy. That’s just purely because when you imagine you’re constantly lip-reading, it’s a strain on your brain.”

Tasha Ghouri and Aljaz Skorjanec topped the Strictly leaderboard in week two with 35 points. (Image: BBC)

The star was quick to find an advantage to training with cochlear implants, though. After a tough day in the studio, she explained that she can sleep completely undisturbed because she removes the external part of her cochlear implant to recharge it overnight.

She joked: “when I go so sleep, I have the best sleep ever, I don’t hear Andrew snoring.”

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