Same-sex dancing couple on Israel’s Strictly Come Dancing

Gili Shem Tov (left) and her dancing partner Dorit Milman

Israel has become the first country in the world to feature a same-sex dancing couple to perform on the now global television dance phenomenon.

Gili Shem Tov, an openly-gay sports presenter on one of Israel's main TV channels, made a female dance partner a condition of competing in the show.

"I live with a woman, we are raising my son together and it felt natural to dance with a woman," she said.

The TV presenter has teamed up with heterosexual professional dancer Dorit Milman, and the pair says they will take it in turn to adopt the male role in their dancing but will be wearing identical costumes while they perform.

Milman who wholeheartedly supports Shem Tov’s decision, hopes that their performance will change peoples’ minds about gay relationships:

"Us going on the stage in prime time showing the world that everybody can love everybody, every thing is okay, it's legitimate. Everybody wants to dance… enjoy yourself, enjoy your life,” she said.

The dancer did confess that the pair has had to "change the rules" to make their dance routine work.

"In a 'normal' couple, the man must show his masculinity and the female is very sensual." The two women would focus on their "mutualism", she said, while "still showing the emotions of love and hate, seduction and rejection in the language of movement".

But mastering their steps is not the only challenge the couple face, Shem Tov said that although most people have welcomed the idea some are heavily criticising it:  "I heard people say they won't let their children watch the show because it's a same-sex couple and they don't like it.

"It makes me feel I want to do it more. And if only a few people will become more tolerant and open-minded, my work is done here," she said.

Milman, her partner in dance agrees and hopes that other countries, including Britain, should learn from their example. “If Israel can do this, then in the next series of Strictly, so should Britain,” she said.

The Israeli producers consulted the BBC, owners of the show’s format, on whether there had been a same-sex couple competing in any of the 36 countries where versions of the show have been broadcast.

"They said we would be the first," said the executive producer, Assaf Gil.

There were no ideological objections to a same-sex couple, he said. "We came to the conclusion it would be fascinating and interesting."

Israel has a thriving gay scene, based mostly in the liberal, secular and cosmopolitan city of Tel Aviv, whereas Jerusalem and other cities where religious Jews are prevalent are less tolerant of displays of homosexuality.