Fortuna: 'Bastian is girl of my dreams'

Strictly Come Dancing star Brian Fortuna has described Ali Bastian as his "dream" girlfriend.

The American professional dancer, who is working on BBC Three reality show Dancing On Wheels, admitted that his life at the moment was "perfect".

Fortuna and Bastian began romancing when they were partnered up on the BBC ballroom show last year.

"I took Ali home to meet my family over Christmas. On Christmas Eve we had the traditional Italian Feast Of The Seven Fishes - baccala, fried smelts and salmon. We spent New Year in Grenada," he told the Daily Mail.

"I came to England to do Strictly Come Dancing, met the girl of my dreams and choreographed a show about wheelchair ballroom dancing. How perfect is that?"

Fortuna also revealed that his inspiration to work on Dancing On Wheels was his mother Sandra.

"A man who had been badly injured in a motorcycle accident came into her New Jersey studio with a friend and said: 'Sandy, we would like to learn how to dance'," he said.

"My mother began to work with them and they created some dance routines and devised a syllabus, which I believe is the first in the world for wheelchair ballroom dancing.

"Since then, we have created a wheelchair formation team, taken one of the couples to demonstrate their moves on the Dancing With The Stars tour and created wheelchair ballroom dancing classes for wedding couples."

Dancing On Wheels starts on Thursday at 9pm on BBC Three.