There’s a few ways to work out which celebrities improved the most during their time on Strictly, but here we look at the simplest metric: who saw the greatest single score increase.

We end up with an interesting list of the best ‘improvers’ which includes not only 5 Series winners, but a celebrity with the second lowest ever score as well as one who survived 4 dance-offs to reach a Final plus one pro partner whose 3 appearances prove as a dance teacher, she’s definitely worth more than her weight in sequins!

We think these celebrities would make a great Strictly All Stars line-up one day…you never know!

Notes

• 17 celebrities who saw a score improvement of 18 or more points between their lowest and highest dance scores are included here
• Where the score range between bottom and top scores of 2 or more celebrities is the same, the time taken to achieve the improvement is taken into account
• Where there were 3 or 5 judges, scores have been adjusted to be out of 40 to allow comparison

=16th Lisa Snowdon & Brendan (S6); Joe McFadden & Katya (S15)

• Score improvement: 18 points in 11 weeks
• Lisa: W2 Salsa – 22; W13 (Semi-Final) Quickstep – 40
• Joe: W2 Tango – 22; W13 (Final) Charleston – 40

Joe is the first of 5 winners to make this list and shares his spot with Lisa, who was an exceptional ballroom dancer scoring 35 or more for every ballroom routine she performed but who also danced one of Strictly’s 3 perfect Cha Cha Chas in her Final.

Did you know? 
Lisa was the only celebrity in the first ten years of the show to dance her first two Final routines perfectly. Had Showdances been scored in S6, she might have been the first ever Finalist to score 120!

15th Chris Hollins & Ola (S7)

• Score improvement: 18 points in 9 weeks
• W5 Jive – 22; W14 (Final) Charleston – 50/50 adjusted to 40

Another Series winner, and like Joe another male celebrity performing a memorable, perfect-scoring Charleston in a Final. Chris’ scores took a W5 dive with his Jive but he had started promisingly. In W1, he danced a Tango and a 30-scoring Rumba which remains the joint highest W1 Rumba score ever (equalled by Ali & Brian the same night). An early sign of his champion’s potential?

Did you know? 
Chris and Ricky Whittle (S7 Finalists) both danced 19 routines, more than any other Strictly stars.

14th Rose Ayling-Ellis & Giovanni (S19)

• Score improvement: 18 points in 5 weeks
• W1 Jive – 22; W6 (Halloween) Tango – 40

Also a winner, Rose is the only celebrity here to go from a low score to a perfect one in such a short time. Her Halloween Tango to Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shiver’ remains the only perfect Halloween routine, and the joint earliest maximum score in Strictly history (matched by HRVY in S18).

Did you know? 
Rose received 3 scores of 6 for her Jive and a harsh score of 4 from Shirley. Unusually, Craig gave 4 couples a higher score than Shirley that evening.

=12th Mike Bushell & Katya (S17); David James & Nadiya (S17)

• Score improvement: 18 points in 2 weeks
• Mike: W2 American Smooth – 14; W4 Quickstep – 32
• David: W2 Paso Doble – 10; W4 Quickstep – 28

In S17, both Mike and David benefitted from the ‘Quickstep bounce’ (thanks to James for this term), which saw an 18-point rise from their low W2 scores. Their Strictly journeys seemed fatefully linked; after W4 success, the following show saw them face each other in the dance-off and David went home.

Did you know? 
David’s Paso is Strictly’s second lowest ever score.

11th Gemma Atkinson & Aljaž (S15)

• Score improvement: 19 points in 12 weeks
• W1 Cha Cha Cha – 20; W13 (Final) American Smooth – 39

Gemma is one of 7 celebrities here with the Cha Cha Cha as her worst dance. This is because it is very often performed early on; in fact, until S7 the only two routines performed on the first night of the competition were either Waltzes or Cha Chas.

Did you know? 
Gemma first performed her American Smooth to Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’ in W9; her score of 38 that night remains the joint highest for an American Smooth danced in Blackpool week (matched by Georgia & Giovanni and Hamza & Jowita).

10th Matt Dawson & Lilia (S4)

• Score improvement: 19 points in 11 weeks
• W1 Cha Cha Cha – 19; W12 (Final) Waltz – 38

The earliest contestant to make this improvers’ list, Matt was most definitely a ballroom boy – his 5 highest scores were all for ballroom routines with the Waltz being his best; he improved his W7 score by 1 point when he danced it in the Final.

Did you know? 
On Final night, Matt’s Samba score went the other way, scoring 1 less than in W10. These days it is rare for a dance in the Final to be awarded less than the original. In S1 Natasha Kaplinsky’s Samba dropped 6 points when she redanced it!

Keep an eye out for Part 2 which will countdown the contestants with the greatest score range from joint 8th to 1st.

Photo Credits
Mike Bushell: BBC
Rose Ayling-Ellis: Wikipedia
Chris Hollins: BBC
Matt Dawson: Wikipedia
Lisa Snowdon: Wikipedia
Joe McFadden: BBC