"I knew immediately that only a miracle could help"

2023-05-07 17:59:00

“I’ve been dancing since I was eight years old and I know my body very well. After I couldn’t control my left foot anymore, I knew immediately that only a miracle could help. But there are no miracles in medicine either,” says professional dancer Florian Gschaider after his injury-related exit in the semi-finals of the ORF show Dancing Stars.

The Tyrolean and his dance partner, the actress Lilian Klebow, were the tragic heroes after Gschaider tore a buttock muscle during the final bars of a paso doble during the dress rehearsal. The two were considered favorites for the final next Friday (8:15 p.m., ORF 1).

Klebow waived the offer to compete with another dance partner in the final by means of a “wild card”. “It was a decision of the heart, I can’t just go and dance with someone else. Flo is irreplaceable, neither as a person nor as a dancer. It was clear to me in the first second that I would drop out. I noticed right away that with Florian something grossly wrong. He’s someone who would get up in a heartbeat and move on.”

Maria Angelini-Santner, Balázs Ekker, Katharina Straßer (rechts).
Image: ORF

Gschaider was happy about this gesture from his dance partner. “I said to Lilian that I would accept any decision she made. Of course, I thought it was extremely nice that she didn’t want to continue without me. We grew together as a team, but a friendship also developed between us. And I thank you Lilian for showing me that you can laugh at mistakes,” said the dancer, who is known for being ambitious, and who wanted to get out at the end of the 15th season for family reasons.

Juror Maria Santner-Angelini from Sipbachzell says: “It doesn’t get any worse than that. They both trained so hard and I would have awarded ten points for both dances. I couldn’t believe it at first and was really depressed myself.”

OÖN columnist in the final

In addition to Corinna Kamper and Danilo Campisi as well as Missy May and Dimitar Stefanin, the former ski jumping coach and OÖN columnist Alexander Pointner danced his way into the final with his partner Manuela Stöckl. For his “Contemporary”, the duo received the highest mark of 10 from juror Balazs Ekker, who was equipped with bitter Puszta charm. “When my wife heard that I danced something like that, she said: I’m sorry, I have to laugh. Now say her that she doesn’t laugh anymore. I’m very happy about that.”