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You may remember the video that went viral in 2021 of Rose Ayling-Ellis and her Strictly Come Dancing partner Giovanni dancing in complete silence during their Couple’s Choice dance. Rose is deaf and uses British Sign Language to help her communicate. They wanted to use their dance to show what it is like for the deaf community on a daily basis. She went on to win the show and won a BAFTA after the dance was voted by the public as the Must-See TV Moment that year.

Now she’s back on stage in Soho Place theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy As You Like It. She joins Anita Rani to talk about her West End debut in the show, the work she’s doing to make theatre more accessible for deaf audiences and why she wants to see more deaf actors. Listen to the full interview on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds - it’s the episode from 9 December.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan