Shane Crawford, 49, certainly made his mark on Dancing With The Stars. He may not have gone home with the mirror ball trophy, but he more than entertained viewers at home with his energetic approach to each routine – dancing (and singing) with gusto.
“My aim was to just be entertaining,” the former Aussie Rules player tells New Idea following his elimination. “Whether people were laughing with you or at you, just being entertaining in some way, having a good time, getting out of your comfort zone, and learning new things was the goal.”
As for Shane’s bravado on the floor, he confesses it was somewhat of an act.
“You can pretend that you’re confident, but you’re always on edge a bit,” he says. “You certainly feel out of control when you’re doing some of the performances.”
Guiding the 49-year-old along the way was his dance partner Ash-Leigh Hunter, with whom Shane had a blast.
“The pressure was on because Ash won last year with Phil (Burton),” he tells us. “I said to her: ‘Lower your expectations. Let’s just be entertaining.’ And she was great. I think it’s important that you have a dance partner that you can connect with, and someone who knows all of your faults. We had lots of laughs which made training so much easier.”
Having previously played football for 16 years, Shane is no stranger to gruelling training sessions. And while the dance studio is a different beast to the pitch, there proved some crossover between the two.
“Football training is something I’ve done all my life. If you make a mistake you can rectify things by the next bit of play,” the athlete says. “With dance, if you lose your way you’re pretty much eliminated.
“But there are a lot of similarities. It’s obviously very fatiguing on the body, and the repetition of it all, rehearsing each day.”
Amazed by the bravery of the professional dancers, Shane describes them as “fearless”.
“Especially the women allowing us men to lift. And the female celebs being thrown around, they’ve got to be so trusting. The world’s a bit of a different place, especially in social media space. No matter how well you might do, you’re gonna cop it a bit. It takes courage to go ‘I’ll give it a go’. I think we need a pat on the back for turning up.”
And turn up, he did. Not just on the dance floor, but with his show-stopping wardrobe.
“I told the bosses before I started: ‘If I do this, I’ll go all in. I’m up for anything. If you think it’s gonna be good for the show, I’m not precious, let’s go for it’,” Shane says about his costumes.
“I started in overalls for my very first dance. I thought ‘This isn’t DWTS. This is disappointing. I want a shiny new outfit!’ And then I finished the show feeling like I was a part of Bridgerton. It’s fun. All the celebs backstage, we look at each other and go ‘Wow, have a look at you!’. It was like being a kid and going into your parents’ wardrobe and just putting on all these clothes. It was quite cool.”
The camaraderie backstage was a highlight for Shane, who enthused how “supportive” each of the celebrities was. Especially Home and Away’s James Stewart.
“He shared a lot of feedback backstage and he was really invested,” the 49-year-old says of James. “He watched all the shows and had done his research; he would feed that information to the other stars backstage. And he would give us acting techniques and things to concentrate on, just trying to help us with our performances.
“I would say ‘Hey, I’m doing this. What would you do?’ And he goes ‘Well, I would do it like this’. And I said ‘Yeah, OK, I’m going to do that’.”
Even more supportive were his family at home. Shane shares four sons – Charlie, Ben, and twins Jack and Harry – with his wife Olivia.
“I’ve got teenage boys so I’ve been conscious of doing TV stuff that’s gonna stir things up a bit,” he tells New Idea. “You don’t want your kids having to fight your battles for you in the playground. But I want them to see their dad having a go at different things, and having a go at life.
“You learn more about yourself when you test yourself and feel a bit uncomfortable. I’d love to know the conversations that are going on behind closed doors with their friends. But they seem to be OK. They said, ‘Did you have fun?’ and I said, ‘Yep’. And they said, ‘Well, that’s the most important thing’.”
