Dancing With The Stars fans left 'speechless' after Ant Middleton's dramatic turnaround

Dancing With The Stars fans have praised the performance of one contestant after last night's episode, with some saying the dramatic waltz brought a "tear to the eye". Fans took to social media to compliment Ant Middleton on his dramatic dancing transformation after he stole the show with his dance partner Alex, showing a huge improvement from the week before.

Ant has previously spoken about why he decided to do the show, with the SAS Australia star saying that when the opportunity was presented to him, he felt scared. "When I feel fear, I get excited," he said. The 43-year-old has put his body through gruelling challenges during his time in the military, serving in Afghanistan, but he said doing Dancing With The Stars presented its own challenges, both learning a new skillset physically, as well as emotionally.

Fans praise Dancing With The Stars' Ant Middleton

After his moving performance, fans took to social media to praise the former special forces soldier on his improved dancing skills.

"The man goes from one of the fiercest soldiers on the planet to a dancer. Wow," one person commended him, with another agreeing. "Wow, I was speechless. I'm used to seeing you as a Macho Man but that performance blew me away."

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"Just finished watching you, Ant. That waltz was absolutely beautiful and brought a tear to the eye," someone else said. "Outside the comfort zone is where the magic happens 🙌👏👏👏," another fan commented.

Ant Middleton on the emotional journey of Dancing With The Stars

Ant recently shared on Jess Rowe's podcast that he initially struggled with surrendering to dance and being vulnerable on the dancefloor.

"I've spent my whole career learning to lock my emotions away, in a place where the enemy can't see, or negative people can't see because they take advantage," he explained.

"The biggest challenge was unlocking this emotion and flicking the switch. I was like, I can't just switch it on and off, I've trained my whole life to lock it away. I couldn't allow those emotions to come in whilst I was on the job as it was a distraction. It goes against everything I've been taught and that is what scares me," he said.

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He credited the show for helping him open up his emotional side with a bit more ease, saying one dance in particular left him feeling 'strange but good'.

"It was quite an emotional dance and they said, 'Ant you need to get into a headspace where you've been your lowest' but on the performance day I went into a headspace that triggered something," he shared. "And the dance just flowed. It wasn't until the end I felt this wave of emotion leave me. It did help me open up those emotions with a bit more ease, I couldn't believe it. It felt really strange, but it felt good."

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