The powerful story behind Constance Hall’s performance on Dancing with the Stars.

Constance Hall cried and cried as she practised last night’s routine for Dancing with the Stars.

“This is the most emotional dance you will ever see,” she posted on Instagram.

“I weep every time I dance it and have had the most exhausting week in rehearsals.”

 

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The producers of Dancing with The Stars have given me permission to share this with you guys. Tomorrow is by far the most meaningful dance of the series for me. The producers asked me to dance for a “memorable year” and the year that changed my life was last year. When I visited our children in Kenya. And they changed my life forever. This is the most emotional dance you will ever see. I weep every time I dance it and have had the most exhausting week in rehearsals. I am dancing for children who blame themselves for contracting HIV after being raped at 2 years old. I am dancing for babies that were forced into prostitution. I am dancing for all of the neglected and abused children that we are yet to reach, who are in pain, alone and scared. My dance partner is dancing as one of the boys from Rafiki. A hurt boy who doesn’t want to accept Rafiki’s love. And I am representing Rafiki. The ironic thing is that half way through practicing this dance My partner Gustavo became Arlo and I remained me, his mother. And I realised that the relationship Rafiki have with our boys is exactly the same as the relationship we all as mothers have with our children, they resist us at times and we keep loving them until they finally accept our love. I miss my kids so much right now that this dance has been next to impossible to perform. But one of the reasons I took up the offer to be on this show was to introduce a new audience to Rafiki, so the pressure is on. Please watch it. Channel 10 7.30pm tomorrow night. @gustavoviglio @rafikicastle @dancingon10

A post shared by constanceandtribe (@mrsconstancehall) on Mar 2, 2019 at 5:36pm PST

Like all the competitors on Monday night, Hall had to dance to the theme of a “memorable year” in her life. So she chose 2018, the year she went to Kenya and visited the children she was supporting through the charity Rafiki Mwema.

“They changed my life forever,” she wrote.

“I am dancing for children who blame themselves for contracting HIV after being raped at two years old. I am dancing for babies that were forced into prostitution. I am dancing for all of the neglected and abused children that we are yet to reach, who are in pain, alone and scared.”

Hall explained that she was dancing as Rafiki, and her dance partner, Gustavo Viglio, was dancing as one of the boys from Rafiki, “a hurt boy who doesn’t want to accept Rafiki’s love”. But halfway through rehearsals, that changed, and Gustavo “became” her young son Arlo.

“And I remained me, his mother,” Hall added. “And I realised that the relationship Rafiki have with our boys is exactly the same as the relationship all mothers have with our children, they resist us at times and we keep loving them until they finally accept our love.

“I miss my kids so much right now that this dance has been next to impossible to perform.”

 

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Knowing that you are always there. That your moods are consistent. That you believe I can do more then I ever imagined I could do… has changed my world. ???????????? #myking

A post shared by constanceandtribe (@mrsconstancehall) on Feb 5, 2019 at 2:20am PST

Hall and her husband Denim Cooke are bringing up seven kids – two of Denim’s from his previous relationship, four from her previous relationship, and their baby son Raja, who was born in May last year.

Hall previously explained to Mamamia that she wasn’t originally going to go on DWTS, but a comment from her brother-in-law changed her mind.

“He said, ‘You could actually make Rafiki Mwema a household name by doing this’ and so that was a huge motivation for me.”

Read more: Constance Hall on why she ultimately said yes to this season of Dancing with the Stars.

Last night on DWTS, Hall told viewers that visiting Kenya had changed her from someone who supported a charity to someone who “basically lives for this charity”.

“It is absolutely unfathomable when you have a big tribe of kids like I’ve got and they have such safety, such security, to then go and see children who have been not only left without anybody but actually suffered at the hands of the people who are supposed to be caring for them.”

LISTEN: The real reasons celebrities want to go on Dancing With The Stars

After the dance, she explained to host Grant Denyer that the work she did with Rafiki had “given my life meaning”.

“My life meant my kids. I sort of gave everything to my kids before that, and now everything that I do, every book that I write, or clothing that I design, I have to do it for these kids, because if I fail I can’t support them anymore. So it’s just given my life a whole new meaning. I thought it was going in one direction and it ended up going in a completely different one.”

Dancing with the Stars airs on Monday night at 7.30pm on Channel Seven.