Giovanni Pernice's Biography
Who is Giovanni Pernice?
Giovanni Pernice is a dancer who was born in Sicily.At 14, he moved to Bologna to concentrate on dance and went on to win the Italian Championships in 2012.
He has the date of this victory tattooed on his wrist, along with ‘Nato per vincere’ (Born To Win) on his arm.
Giovanni Pernice's favourite dance style is Jive.
In 2015, Giovanni Pernice became a professional dancer on Strictly Come Dancing for the first time.
His professional dance partner at the time Joanne Clifton had already appeared on the popular TV show. His previous professional dance partners included Alexandra Koldan, Erika Attisano, Federica Zappulla and Giada Nuccio.
Giovanni Pernice has competed in numerous International Open and World Open events.
In 2015, Giovanni Pernice partnered Georgia May Foote in Strictly Come Dancing and they were joint runners-up. A month later The Mirror reported that the two of them were moving in together.
However, Giovanni and Georgia broke up in August 2016.
In Strictly Come Dancing 2016, he was partnered by Laura Whitmore.
They were the sixth couple to be voted off of Strictly in 2016.
In 2017, Giovanni was paired with Debbie McGee. They reached the final four.
In 2018, he was partnered with Faye Tozer. Once again they reached the final four.
In 2019, he was paired with Michelle Visage. They came seventh.
In Strictly Come Dancing in 2020, Giovanni was partnered by Ranvir Singh. They came fifth, losing out in the semi-finals.
In 2021, Giovanni and his partner Rose Ayling-Ellis won Strictly Come Dancing. Rose is deaf and through Strictly "online searches for British sign language courses have gone up by 300%, and one training company told the BBC that the number of people enrolling had gone up by 2,000%."
In 2022, Giovanni was paired with Richie Anderson. They were the second couple to be voted off.
In 2023, he and Anton du Beke made the three part travelogue series for BBC One, Anton and Giovanni's Adeventures in Sicily.
In Strictly 2023, he was partnered by the actor Amanda Abbington.
Although the couple danced well in the early stages, towards the end of October Amanda decided to withdraw from the competition.
In 2024, Giovanni teamed up with Anton again, this time in the BBC series Anton and Giovanni's Adventures in Spain.
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