Vito Coppola

Vito Coppola
Born	(1992-09-27) 27 September 1992 (age 32) Eboli, Salerno, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Occupations	Dancer choreographer
Known for	Ballando con le Stelle Strictly Come Dancing
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)

Vito Coppola (born 27 September 1992) is an Italian dancer and choreographer. He is best known for appearing as a professional dancer on the 16th series of Italian dance competition Ballando con le Stelle (Dancing with the Stars) in 2021 and ultimately winning the competition with Arisa. Since 2022, he has served as a professional on Strictly Come Dancing , the British version of the show, from the 20th series onwards, winning in 2023 with his celebrity dance partner Ellie Leach. In 2024, Coppola won the 19th series of Celebrity MasterChef . ^[1]

Early life and competitive career

Coppola was born in Eboli, in Salerno, Italy on 27 September 1992. ^{[2] [3]} He has a younger brother, Jonathan. ^[4] Coppola began dancing at the age of 6 and later competed in national championships. ^{[5] [6] [7]} Coppola is a three-time World Championship finalist and a European Cup Winner. ^[8] He won numerous competitions at provincial, regional and inter-regional level, and went on to win the first Italian championship at the age of 10 in the Juveniles category, as well as being selected by FIDS to represent Italy at the Team Match in Mannheim, Germany. ^[9] Coppola also won the second Italian championship in the Combined 10 dances, passing with a merit into the higher category. ^[10]

Ballando con le Stelle

Prior to his appearances on competitive dance series, Coppola worked as a dancer on the Italian version of The Masked Singer . ^{[11] [12]} In 2021, Coppola joined the Rai 1 Italian dance television series Ballando con le Stelle as a professional for the 16th season. ^{[13] [14]} He was partnered with the singer and actress Arisa and the pair were crowned winners of the series. ^{[15] [16]} Coppola did not return for the following series, his departure alluding to him becoming a professional on the British version. ^{[17] [18] [19]}

Series	Partner	Place	Average score
16	Arisa	1st	—

Series 16: with Arisa

Week no.	Dance/song	Judges' score					Total	Result
Zazzaroni	Canino	Smith	Lucarelli	Mariotto
1	Charleston	7	7	7	6	8	85 [a]	No elimination
2	Freestyle Veloce	7	9	10	10	8	54 [b]	Safe
3	Paso doble	7	7	7	10	9	40	Safe
4	Tango	8	9	9	8	8	42	Safe
5	Rumba	9	10	9	9	10	47	Safe
6	Bachata	—	—	—	—	—	—	Safe
7	Freestyle Lento	9	9	10	10	10	73 [c]	Safe
8	Cha-cha-cha	—	—	—	—	—	—	Safe
Safe
10	Waltz	9	9	9	10	10	67 [d]	Winners

1. Arisa & Vito received 50 bonus points
2. Arisa & Vito received 10 bonus points
3. Arisa & Vito received 25 bonus points
4. Arisa & Vito received 20 bonus points

Strictly Come Dancing

In July 2022, Coppola was announced to be joining the 20th series of Strictly Come Dancing as one of the professionals. ^[20] Joining alongside Carlos Gu, Lauren Oakley and Michelle Tsiakkas, he said upon his appointment as a professional on the show, "[He was] really excited to become part of this family, adding that [He could not] wait to start this new adventure and to challenge [himself]. Strictly sto arrivando!". ^{[21] [22]} For his first series, he was paired with singer-songwriter and presenter Fleur East. ^{[23] [24] [25] [26]} Together they received the first perfect score of the series. ^[27] Coppola reached the final with East and the couple finished as runners-up behind Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystał, alongside Helen Skelton and Gorka Márquez, and Molly Rainford and Carlos Gu. ^{[28] [29] [30] [31] [32]} Coppola returned for the 21st series. ^{[33] [34]} He was paired with former Coronation Street actress Ellie Leach, ^{[35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40]} and the two of them eventually went on to win the series. ^[41]

In April 2024, Coppola headlined a charity dance show alongside his fellow Strictly Come Dancing professional Luba Mushtuk, with the profits going to Macmillan Cancer Support. ^{[42] [43]}

Series	Partner	Place	Average score
20	Fleur East	2nd	35.5
21	Ellie Leach	1st	35.8
22	Sarah Hadland	2nd	35.3

Highest and lowest scoring per dance

Dance	Partner	Highest	Partner	Lowest
American Smooth	Ellie Leach	40	Fleur East	29
Argentine Tango	Ellie Leach Fleur East Sarah Hadland	38
Cha-cha-cha	Sarah Hadland	40	Fleur East	29
Charleston	Ellie Leach Fleur East	39	Sarah Hadland	38
Couple's Choice	Fleur East	40	Ellie Leach
Foxtrot	Ellie Leach	31	Sarah Hadland	27
Jive	Sarah Hadland	36	Ellie Leach	29
Paso Doble	Ellie Leach	39	Sarah Hadland	32
Quickstep	Fleur East	38		30
Rumba	Sarah Hadland	36	Ellie Leach Fleur East	35
Salsa	Ellie Leach	38	Fleur East	32
Samba	Fleur East	40	Ellie Leach	28
Showdance	Fleur East Sarah Hadland	39		36
Tango	Sarah Hadland	36
Viennese Waltz	Ellie Leach Sarah Hadland	33	Fleur East	28
Waltz	Fleur East	35

Series 20: with Fleur East

Week no.	Dance/song	Judges' score				Total	Result
		Horwood	Mabuse	Ballas	Du Beke
1	Cha-cha-cha / "Let's Get Loud"	7	7	7	8	29	No elimination
2	Viennese waltz / "Glimpse of Us"	7	8	6	7	28	Safe
3	American Smooth / "Part of Your World"	6	8	7	8	29	Bottom two
4	Argentine tango / "Paint It, Black"	9	10	9	10	38	Safe
5	Jive / "Waterloo"	7	8	9	8	32	Safe
6	Salsa / "Break My Soul"	8	8	8	8	32	Bottom two
7	Waltz / "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues"	9	9	8	9	35	Safe
8	Samba / "Hot"	9	10	10	10	39	Safe
9	Couple's Choice / "Jumpin', Jumpin' "/"Independent Women Part I"/"Lose My Breath"	10	10	10	10	40	Safe
10	Rumba / "Too Lost In You"	8	9	9	9	35	Bottom two
11	Quickstep / "I Got Rhythm"	9	10	9	10	38	Safe
12	Paso doble / "The Time Is Now"	8	9	8	10	35	Bottom two
	Charleston / "Tu vuò fà l'americano"	9	10	10	10	39
13	Samba / "Hot"	10	10	10	10	40	Runner-up
	Showdance / "Find Me"	9	10	10	10	39
	Couple's Choice / "Jumpin', Jumpin'"/"Independent Women Part I"/"Lose My Breath"	10	10	10	10	40

Series 21: with Ellie Leach

Week no.	Dance/song	Judges' score				Total	Result
Horwood	Mabuse	Ballas	Du Beke
1	Jive / "Can't Tame Her"	7	8	7	7	29	No elimination
2	Foxtrot / "Perfect"	8	8	7	8	31	Safe
3	Viennese waltz / "Waiting on a Miracle"	8	9	8	8	33	Safe
4	Samba / "Copacabana"	7	7	7	7	28	Safe
5	Paso doble / "Insomnia"	9	10	9	9	37	Safe
6	Salsa / "Murder on the Dancefloor"	9	10	10	9	38	Safe
7	American Smooth / "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"	9	10	10	10	39	Safe
8	Rumba / "True Colors"	8	9	9	9	35	Safe
9	Charleston / "Love Machine"	9	10	10	10	39	Safe
10	Argentine tango / "Bills"	9	10	10	9	38	Safe
11	Quickstep / "Belle"	9	9	9	9	36	No elimination
12	Cha-cha-cha / "Mambo Italiano" Couple's Choice / "Blow Your Mind" & "Physical"	9 9	10 9	9 10	9 10	37 38	Safe
13	Paso doble / "Insomnia" Showdance / "On the Floor" & "Dance Again" American Smooth / "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"	9 9 10	10 9 10	10 9 10	10 9 10	39 36 40	Winners

Series 22: with Sarah Hadland

Week no.	Dance/song	Judges' score				Total	Result
Horwood	Mabuse	Ballas	Du Beke
1	Quickstep / "9 to 5"	8	8	7	7	30	No elimination
2	Paso Doble / "Freed from Desire"	8	8	8	8	32	Safe
3	Viennese waltz / "Hedwig's Theme"	8	9	8	8	33	Safe
4	Foxtrot / "Birds of a Feather"	6	7	7	7	27	Safe
5	Samba / "Do It, Do It Again"	8	8	8	8	32	Safe
6	Argentine tango / "Ready or Not"	9	10	9	10	38	Safe
7	Cha-cha-cha / "Like a Prayer"	9	9	9	10	37	Safe
8	American Smooth / "Proud"	8	8	8	9	33	Safe
9	Couple's Choice / "Padam Padam"/"Can't Get You Out of My Head"	9	10	10	10	39	Safe
10	Rumba / "Chains" Samba-thon / "Samba" & "La Vida Es Un Carnaval"	8 Awarded	8 4	10 extra	10 points	36 40	Safe
11	Charleston / "Popular"	9	9	10	10	38	Safe
12	Tango / "Big Love" Jive / "I'm So Excited"	9 9	9 9	9 9	9 9	36 36	Safe
13	American Smooth / "Proud" Showdance / "Cabaret" Cha-cha-cha / "Like a Prayer"	9 9 10	10 10 10	10 10 10	10 10 10	39 39 40	Runner-up

Personal life

Coppola is multi-lingual and is fluent in English, Russian and Spanish, as well as his native language Italian. ^{[44] [45]}

References

1. "Celebrity MasterChef 2024 champion crowned". BBC Media Centre . Retrieved 2024-09-20.
2. "Strictly Come Dancing: Vito Coppola's age, career, height and more revealed". Smooth Radio.
3. "Who is Vito Coppola? Meet Strictly Come Dancing 2022 professional". Radio Times .
4. "Vito Coppola". Biografieppiu (in Italian). 22 November 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
5. "Chi è Jonathan Coppola, fratello di Vito e campione italiano di ballo". Donna Glamour (in Italian). 27 February 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
6. "20 professional dancers confirmed for Strictly Come Dancing series 20, as four new pros join the line-up". BBC Media Centre. 11 July 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
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10. "Italian Championships: Junior II Latin Sunday, 29 January 2006". DancesportInfo.net.
11. "Il Cantante Mascherato, la semifinale". RAI Ufficio Stampa . Retrieved 2022-04-16.
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13. "Arisa e Vito Coppola si sono lasciati ma dichiarano: "Siamo rimasti in buoni rapporti"". Cosmopolitan . 10 July 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
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16. "Arisa vince Ballando con le Stelle. E in pista ha trovato anche l'amore (con il suo ballerino)" [Arisa wins Dancing with the Stars. And on the dance floor she also found love with her dancer Vito Coppola]. IO Donna . 20 December 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
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30. "Strictly best thing to ever happen to me - Hamza". BBC News Online . December 17, 2022.
31. "Strictly star wraps arms around Brummie beauty ahead of live arena tour". BirminghamLive . January 19, 2023.
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33. "Strictly Come Dancing 2023 Professional Dancers, Judges, Presenters and more confirmed". BBC Media Centre. April 21, 2023.
34. Daly, Helen; Katelyn Mensah (November 2, 2024). "Strictly Come Dancing professionals line-up: Meet the 2023 dancers". Radio Times .
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36. "Strictly Come Dancing 2023 couples revealed in launch show featuring spectacular performances from professional dancers and Judges". BBC Media Centre . September 16, 2023.
37. Farrell, Lucy; Lisa Letcher (September 24, 2023). "Strictly's Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola's 'chemistry' sparks romance rumours". Daily Record .
38. "BBC One - Strictly Come Dancing, Series 21, Week 1, Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola Jive". BBC. September 23, 2023.
39. "This Year's Strictly Couples Have Been Revealed. Here's Which Celebs And Pros Have Been Paired Up". HuffPost UK . September 16, 2023.
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42. "Charity Dance Show headlined by Vito Coppola and Luba Mushtuk - Dudley Town Hall". BoroughHalls.co.uk.
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