This week we’ve looked into the Female Professional dancers to discover who has had the most Strictly success to date. Success is a subjective thing – so as with our previous Male Pro Leaderboard blog post, we need to be clear about our definition. We consider 2 dimensions: who has achieved the highest number of “perfect scores” (usually 40 out of 40, but also 30 out of 30 in Series 18 and 50 out of 50 in some weeks of Series 7 and 12); who has consistently achieved the largest number of “high scores” (25-30/30 for dances scored out of 30; 30-40/40 for typical 4-judge dances; 42-50/50 for performances with an extra judge scoring).

Before we find out who’ll be crowned Strictly’s very own Dancing Queen (or Queens), here are some interesting facts about the Female Pros:

• There have been 31 Female Pro dancers on the Show, 1 more than the Male Pros
• A Female Pro has lifted the glitterball on 11 occasions compared to 8 times by a Male Pro
• There are 2 Female Pros, Aliona and Oti, who have “done the double” and won twice, a feat yet to be achieved by any Male Pro dancer (Oti achieved this on the bounce in 2017 with Kelvin and 2018 with Bill)
• The record for fewest performances is held by a Female Pro – Hazel Newberry managed just one Cha Cha Cha with her partner Quentin Wilson back in Series 2 (2004)…which incidentally is also the lowest scored dance on the Show ever receiving just 8 points from 4 judges
• Karen Hauer is Strictly’s longest serving Female Pro with 96 dances performed (94 scored) but amazingly she has yet to receive a perfect score (of the Male Pros, Anton performed more – 127 scored dances – without receiving ever receiving a full set of 10s)
• Unlike the Male Pros, no Female Pro has managed to win on a first attempt; an impressive feat achieved by 4 Male Pros so far (Brendan, Darren, Aljaž and Artem). Looking at the stats though, this could be about to change…

The data: dances included are those that have been scored in the usual way by either 3, 4 or 5 judges. The format of early shows means there are 7 Showdances by Female Pros not included here from Series 2-6 as these were not scored.

Female Pro Perfect Scores Infographic & Leaderboard

For this we needed to consider who has scored the most “full marks”, usually 40 but occasionally 30 out of 30 or 50 out of 50. 27 perfect scores have been achieved by the Female Pro dancers: 4 scores of 30/30, 2 scores of 50/50 and 21 scores of 40/40. We will add the data showing these scores as a % of their overall scores but are basing this leaderboard solely on the number of top marks awarded. (% are rounded to the nearest whole number.)

Oti is the clear leader here, with 4 more perfect scores than anyone else (although interestingly this is behind the Male Pros with Pasha achieving 13 and Giovanni 11, however they both danced more times). We were surprised that despite winning twice (in 2011 and 2015) as well as reaching the Final in 2010, Aliona was Joint 5th here with 2 perfect scores. How would looking at the number of “high scores” change the leaderboard? Would the same pros dominate?

Female Pro High Scores Infographic & Leaderboard

We used the following ranges to classify dances as high scoring: 25-30/30 for dances scored out of 30; 30-40/40 for typical 4-judge dances; 42-50/50 for performances with an extra judge scoring. We will add the data showing these scores as a % of their overall scores but are basing this leaderboard solely on the number of high scores awarded. (% are rounded to the nearest whole number.)

So it’s official, Oti wears the SCD Dancing Queen crown for now, topping both leaderboards very convincingly but it seems more than fair that in terms of high scores at least she shares the crown with Aliona who made it to 3 Finals in a 6-year period and has a greater percentage of performances with a high score. They are the only two Pros to have won the trophy twice.

One final point of interest is how well the new Female Pros are scoring – their progress will definitely be interesting to watch. Our infographic below shows that if we only consider the % of high scores achieved (rather than actual numbers) – then it’s 2021 newbie Nancy at Number 1 with 87% of her dances getting high scores (20 out of 23) and 2022 newbie Jowita at Number 2 with 80% of her performances being highly scored (8 out of 10). With Jowita and Hamza being widely tipped to lift the glitterball this year, she could become the first Female Pro to achieve this in her debut series.