Nadiya Bychkova (Ukrainian: Надія Бичкова; born 24 August 1989) is a Ukrainian ballroom and Latin Americandancer who is a multiple-time Slovenian Ballroom and Latin Champion and two-time World and European Champion in '10' Dance.[1][2] In 2017, she joined the British television show Strictly Come Dancing as a professional dancer. She holds two Guinness World Records at Strictly's Pro Challenge for the most dance steps in 30 seconds - for fleckerls in 2020 and pat-a-cakes in 2021.
Strictly Come Dancing
In 2017, Bychkova appeared as a professional dancer in the fifteenth series of the British television dance show Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with EastEnders actor Davood Ghadami. They reached the quarter final of the competition, finishing in sixth place.[3]
She returned for her second series in 2018, partnered with another 'former' EastEnders actor and Blue singer Lee Ryan. The couple were eliminated in week three.[3]
Bychkova returned for her third series in 2019 and was partnered with ex-professional footballer David James. They were the fourth couple to be eliminated.[4]
In 2022, Bychkova was paired with singer, Matt Goss. They were the third couple to be eliminated. In 2023, Bychkova returned to the series but had no celebrity partner.
In 2024, Bychkova was paired with Olympic swimmer Tom Dean. They were the first couple to be eliminated after losing the first dance-off to Toyah Willcox and Neil Jones.
She had previously been a professional dancer on the Bosnian version of the show.[5]
In 2013, Bychkova married Russian dancer Sergey Konovaltsev; the marriage lasted two years. Bychkova was later engaged to Slovenian footballer Matija Skarabot, with whom she has a daughter named Mila.[6]
In April 2015, Bychkova featured in the Ukrainian edition of Playboy magazine; she was also on the cover of FHM in March 2012.[7]
In an appearance on Saturday Mash-Up! in January 2022, Bychkova was 'Super Slimed' with 20 buckets of gunge, after receiving 63% of a viewer vote against Dan Walker and Kai Widdrington. Also in January 2022, she announced that she and Matija were no longer a couple and had been living apart for a while. In June 2022, she confirmed she was in a relationship with Strictly co-star Kai Widdrington, although they are reportedly no longer together as of July 2024.[8]
Dance tours
In September 2024, Bychkova and Kai Widdrington announced they were to appear at "Dancing With The Stars Weekends" 2025.[9]
