The dancing farmer
Let’s be straight: David Graham may be beautiful to look at, articulate and friendly, but he’s no Fred Astaire. The former Big Brother inmate and Australian reality TV’s most prominent gay man knows this.
Am I a good dancer? Hell, no! Gretel [Killeen] said on my eviction that she was sure I was straight because I couldn’t dance, he told BNews.
Yet, he’s decided to give the whole TV thing another whirl by agreeing to pull on the tight pants for this year’s Dancing With The Stars. His motivation, besides sharing his parents’ passion for ballroom dancing, is simple: to raise awareness for his chosen charity, Ozcare Bush Connections, which offers financial and emotional counselling for those in the bush.
I questioned whether I was making the right decision about being in the public eye and putting my life out there, he said. But the benefits are really obvious because my charity is important to me, and vital for rural Australians.
The longer he stays in the competition, the more money the charity will receive thanks to phone voting.
However, he’s picked a tough year to compete, with strong challengers in the form of TV personalities Jamie Durie, Kimberley Davies, Naomi Robson, sporting heroes Tatiana Grigorieva and Wendell Sailor and singer Kate Ceberano.
His first routine is the cha cha, and he’s been practising hard with dance partner Eliza Campagna in the Melbourne studio and in his shearing shed on his farm, where the couple visited his folks for four days.
It totally helped our bonding because there was some real distance: she’s a beautiful person with amazing grace and posture and I’m just this loser who has none of the above, so it really made us connect, he said.
Graham is all too aware of his stiff competition.
Jamie is an extremely good looking guy and he’s a professional dancer so he’s got that in the bag. Then you’ve got Naomi [Robson] who is stunning and moves like an angel. People will keep voting for Wendell just to keep looking at him. He is sooo handsome! he laughed.
Still, he does give himself a reasonable chance at the title.
I think a gay guy can win it, but can I win it? It might be a stretch unless people want to go for the comedy factor and vote for someone they can laugh at. But I’m seriously loving the dancing so hopefully people can see that I’m giving it a go, he said.
And he has to admit, as well as the mirror balls, there are a few distractions.
Between Wendell and Jamie Durie it’s going to be a trial to keep my eyes on the dancefloor.
Dancing With The Stars screens Tuesdays on Channel 7 at 7:30pm.
