Strictly’s Shirley Ballas wipes away tears as she praises Ellie Simmonds’ ’emotional’ waltz

Strictly Come Dancing’s second live show of the series came Saturday night on BBC One, with the 15 couples facing the series’ first public vote.

And judge Shirley Ballas struggled to hold back tears as she praised Paralympian Ellie Simmonds’ emotional performance.

The athlete, 27, danced a beautiful waltz with her partner Nikita Kuzmin to a standing ovation from the studio audience.

Shirley, 62, then admitted she got emotional when she thanked Ellie, who suffers from dwarfism, for proving that ‘we can all do what we love’.

She said, “There’s so much magic in something so simple and you delivered it today.”

But Shirley then swallowed the tears and admitted, “I’m getting emotional now.”

Ellie also appeared to be in tears as the camera cut off to show her mother proud in the audience.

Shirley gave Ellie some constructive criticism before complimenting Nikita on his choreography set to Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling in Love.

She then said, “You show people that we can all do what we love.”

The dance gave the duo a score of 30, beating Will Mellor and Nancy Xu’s 26 as well as James Bye and Amy Dowden’s 24.

And so far at the top of the standings have been Radio 2 DJ Richie Anderson and pro partner Giovanni Pernice – who took to the dance floor with a Quickstep dance, which judge Motsi Mabuse called ‘absolutely beautiful’.

The pair put on a united front on the show, appearing to wipe out recent rumors of a behind-the-scenes spat – after reports that they “didn’t click the camera.”

While the pair donned matching sequined suits for the visually appealing dance, the performance was called “absolutely beautiful” by Motsi – as Shirley stood up.

The head judge explained: ‘I didn’t expect it to be so in sync and so good, today you were laser focused – you did a great job. What a transformation!’

‘You are a real showman, I loved it. If you could put that sequined jacket back in my room, I’d be really happy,” Anton joked.

And while discussing the dance backstage after the performance, Richie explained, “This dance required a lot of good posture. And look at me, I have Mr. Bean’s attitude.’

Continues, “Thank you for being so patient,” turning to Giovanni.

The pair managed to score 32 out of 40 points, more than ten points above their debut performance the week before.

And their endorsement comes after the partners have been plagued by rumors of a flight from the camera, with sources telling The sun that professional dancer Giovanni became frustrated because Richie didn’t listen to him during rehearsals.

An insider said: ‘The couple didn’t click. Richie gets so carried away with the whole experience that he speaks 100 words a minute, and it can be difficult for Giovanni.

“He’s been telling his friends that Richie talks instead of listening during training, and that’s frustrating.”

They then added that it was still early days and they still had to get used to each other: “Giovanni thinks Richie has real potential in the competition.”

However, a source close to the couple told MailOnline: “It’s bullshit that they don’t get along. They can laugh so much and were overjoyed with the reactions on Saturday night.’