Re: SCD 2019 Weekly Dance & Music Choices

CaledonianCraig Tue Oct 15, 2019 3:56 pm

B4p wrote:I dread to think what they'll be dressing Mike up in for this week. I feel Jeremy Vine's wooden horse may be making another appearance. Let's hope Katya comes up with another good idea.

Indeed. I look at those dances and fear for Mike this week. Unless he can develop a half decent hip action the rest could fall apart quickly. A warm to hot candidate for the dance-off I fear.

saxonsiren Tue Oct 15, 2019 4:23 pm

Who let the Dog's out? Shocked

More like "Who let the Musicality Director Out!?"

TANGOLERO Tue Oct 15, 2019 6:09 pm

I can quite honestly say I have little interest in any of this week's choices. How bad is that? Even worse, I feel I'm losing interest in Strictly. Never thought I'd say that. The world is full of good music and it isn't all in the English language. Hit em with a bit of La Bamba and watch the audience react.

mauveangel09 Tue Oct 15, 2019 7:37 pm

What a pile of you know what!! Embarassed

Sorry folks but I second your comments Mr T. I'm not impressed with much of this. Where are they getting the music from this year?? It is rapidly degenerating by the week. Last year I thought it had improved and there was some really good choices but not this year. It's not that I don't like some of the tracks in themselves but they are mainly so inappropriate for the dances and could almost be re-arranged in some cases. And as for 'Who let the Dogs out' this to me is really scraping the barrel on many levels - thinking of who has got it I predict much leaping and running and not much salsa - I wonder what they are going to dress him in???? Cringeworthy.

Let's pick some of the other tracks apart - because I'm in a rant mood:

New York New York - probably one of the best tunes of the night but to me it smacks American Smooth - a great choice for American Smooth in fact, but not so much for a close hold Foxtrot. From what AJ was saying last night on ITT I'm sure there will be lots out of hold, in fact I am finding that a lot of the Foxtrots are now American Smooths minus the lifts!

Saving all my Love for you Back in safe ballroom for Emma W but the original is so slow - I feel it would make a better modern waltz. All the Viennese Waltz music thus far this year has seemed to be very diminutive (if that is the right word) Personally I prefer my Viennese Waltzes to have a bit more welly and be more whirly - just an observation although I suppose it is difficult for them to do it properly when it is seen in the early weeks.

The Michael Buble one - great piece of music but don't associate this sort of thing with a jive - would make a brilliant Charleston or Quick Step though.

Sugarhill Gang - Well I actually love this piece of music - especially the drums at the beginning - but samba??? To me it lacks the continuous rhythm and flow that characterises a good samba track. By its very nature it is stop and start - it is bound to be a comedy n umber but I think it would be much better for a freestyle salsa.

The Miley Cyrus track - I bet A nton laughed when they gave him this for a paso!!!! At least B runo won't be there this week to ask for 'Spanish lines'

Charleston track - don't like it - weird rhythm - could be a dance dis-ah-ster on the lines of Anneka's - or at a push could be chance for Alex to shine in a more athletic dance.

Sam Smith rumba track - boring.

So the ones where I think that the rhythm might work better for the dance that has been allocated are the Annie Lennox 'Little Bird' track but quite fast again for a Tango I think. Chris and Karen's Quick Step track to Prince - another good one I think and Kelvin and Oti's Cha Cha music - I predict he will do very well with this one judging by his rumba performance.

So just my own views as always...………….. Laughing

B4p Tue Oct 15, 2019 7:55 pm

TANGOLERO wrote:Hit em with a bit of La Bamba and watch the audience react.

That would be a great Samba track. Far too sensible a choice for the music monitor.

B4p Tue Oct 15, 2019 8:31 pm

I can't remember when, but I'm sure that Annie Lennox track has been used before to good effect. Don't mind that one.
I like the Prince track, and had the good fortune to see him perform the year before he died. I think it could make a good Quickstep BUT, knowing Karen and Chris, I'm guessing it will turn into a 100 yard hell-for-leather dash around the floor. Karen has done some nice Quicksteps in the past so I live in eternal hope.
I'm hoping Mike and Katya don't end up being dressed as Pokahontas and John Smith, but Katya has come up with a few cracking Sambas before so fingers crossed.

Someone up in Strictly Towers is obviously a Whitney and Sam Smith fan. I'm not.

I'm hoping Wills Contemp-o-waft, isn't just another version of AJ's partner last year (my life so far in 7 parts). Don't like that song it drives me mad with it's repetition.

I like a bit of Buble, but I worry for David's long limbs flying out at all angles for a very fast dance like the Jive.

An ton may have to go for a comedy angle once again when he's given ridiculous music like that for a Paso. I reserve judgement but again, another repetitive song

Pump up the Jam? Who let the dogs out? Puh-leeeeeze. Give me a break.

I have been working hard over the last few years not to become outraged on behalf of others who neither ask for it, or need it BUT,
I really feel for the Pros who already have a hard enough job teaching a decent version of any dance in 4 days, without being handicapped by rubbish music that has no rhythm or bearing on dance rhythm. The Strictly God's on Mount Olympus seem to love to see mere mortals squirming. Janette looked almost apologetic last week dressed in a Flamenco dress, dancing a Foxtrot, to the song entitled 'Senorita'. Strictly Squirmville Incorporated strikes again.
Oh well, at least the VT's haven't got into full swing yet (look out - here come the Halloween trailers!)

diamondsandpearls Tue Oct 15, 2019 10:59 pm

B4p wrote:I dread to think what they'll be dressing Mike up in for this week. I feel Jeremy Vine's wooden horse may be making another appearance. Let's hope Katya comes up with another good idea.

Has she had one yet?

Gangnam Style remains the routine most likely to bring me out in a nasty rash and send me hunting for a pin cushion so I can stick some pins in my eyes. And then as you say, there was the wooden horse and Jeremy Vine being all yee hah for which I am still receiving counselling...

All joking aside Katya is capable of some very clever and innovative chorepgraphy which she was able to showcase well with Joe (and the Matrix one with Sean last year). But give her a less able s leb and she just becomes thoroughly bonkers and starts throwing kitchen sink-ography at everything. I have ordered an extra large sofa to arrive in time for next week, so I can hide behind it, cowering with my hands over my eyes until her and Mike have completed whatever insanity she thinks up for their Samba. *shudder*

B4p Tue Oct 22, 2019 2:20 pm

Week 6 (Halloween)

Michelle and Giovanni Foxtrot to the Addams Family theme by Vic Mizzy
https://youtu.be/X6QzbvH-ZNo

Emma and An ton Tango to Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Bach
https://youtu.be/ho9rZjlsyYY

Kelvin and Oti Tango to Bad Guy by Billie Eilish
https://youtu.be/DyDfgMOUjCI

Mike and Katya Tango to What You Waiting For by Gwen Stefani
https://youtu.be/f5qICl3Fr3w

Karim and Amy Paso Doble to Smalltown by Bronski Beat
https://youtu.be/cQUfkJh_i0w

Saffron and AJ Jive to Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by The Police
https://youtu.be/aENX1Sf3fgQ

Will and Janette Jive to Casper by Little Richard
https://youtu.be/ze06wpIr_Y4

Catherine and Johannes Cha Cha Cha to Scared Of The Dark by Steps
https://youtu.be/xRb4xqFpOvY

Chris and Karen Samba to Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) by Backstreet Boys
https://youtu.be/6M6samPEMpM

Emma and Aljaz Charleston to A Little Party Never Killed Nobody by Fergie feat. Q-Tip and GoonRock
https://youtu.be/0ZgjmE6xdaw

Alex and Neil dance a Couple's Choice (Street/Commercial) to Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr.
https://youtu.be/Fe93CLbHjxQ

B4p Tue Oct 22, 2019 2:29 pm

Worried for Chris. An ton strikes gold. Hopefully the theme week will be a bit more forgiving to Will for that Jive

TANGOLERO Tue Oct 22, 2019 2:38 pm

B4p wrote:Week 6 (Halloween)

Michelle and Giovanni Foxtrot to the Addams Family theme by Vic Mizzy
https://youtu.be/X6QzbvH-ZNo

Everything that's bad about Strictly....

Emma and An ton Tango to Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Bach
https://youtu.be/ho9rZjlsyYY

Never a tango, but ultra-superb music so they should kill it.

B4p Tue Oct 22, 2019 3:04 pm

TANGOLERO wrote:Emma and An ton Tango to Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Bach
https://youtu.be/ho9rZjlsyYY

Never a tango, but ultra-superb music so they should kill it. [/quote]I could just about see a fast Paso to it

TANGOLERO Tue Oct 22, 2019 4:54 pm

B4p wrote:

Never a tango, but ultra-superb music so they should kill it.

I could just about see a fast Paso to it[/quote]

That's about where I had it at a stretch B4p. It's about the only discipline adaptable to it by flexible dance. Back a bit (in my prime and Spanish dance days) I could have danced to it ,not by learning choreography or steps but by reacting to the music. Totally the best way to dance but you'd never get dance teachers to agree..They'd be out of work.. bounce

mauveangel09 Tue Oct 22, 2019 6:36 pm

TANGOLERO wrote:
I could just about see a fast Paso to it

[bWOW that music - brilliant[/b] A nton must be in seventh heaven - but I absolutely can see a paso in my mind for this one that same as you two can.

Haven't had a chance to carefully listen to the rest of it yet but I just had to react to that one...……………... Very Happy

(B4P - at least the scary stare won't matter this week Embarassed

diamondsandpearls Tue Oct 22, 2019 7:06 pm

TANGOLERO wrote:
That's about where I had it at a stretch B4p. It's about the only discipline adaptable to it by flexible dance. Back a bit (in my prime and Spanish dance days) I could have danced to it ,not by learning choreography or steps but by reacting to the music. Totally the best way to dance but you'd never get dance teachers to agree..They'd be out of work..

Oh Tango... I absolutely couldn't agree more. We often see the dances on Strictly from a different perspective, but really, at the root of it we are on exactly the same page!

I loved the film Strictly Ballroom for precisely this reason - the premise was that you felt the music through your body and moved it to the beat and rythm (the hero's uncle and grandma perfectly demonstrating from 2 mins in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUO5WPaIr-s). Perfect Botofogos were all very well, but if you couldn't feel the music then you weren't making the most of marrying the music to the movement of your body. I really thought when they called it 'Strictly', in front of the 'Come Dancing' bit that they were giving a nod to both the original BBC programme which was very formal ballroom competition, with stiff skirts and stiff hair and stiff upper lips (nothing wrong with all of that - I still adore a stiff skirt), and the premise of Strictly Ballroom where it was all about going with the music in a less formal adn stiff way.

Obviously the pros have to teach technique (and even aim for a perfect Botafogo), but sometimes they I feel they lean too far towards the performance of the theme, which has often been shoe-horned into an unsuitable song, ie the wrong beat for the dance, so the dancer has no chance to really enjoy the music and dance to the actual tune, rather than dance the dance they have been given. And actually old Toccata is a case in point - its not really a tango tune and will cause difficulty in interpreting the rythm naturally. The dances which always work so well are to tunes that have the right rythm and essence of the dance they are tryng to capture. Basically, it just makes it easier to move to the music in the required way. So an appropriate tune works in the dancers' favour, an inappropriate tune works against them and makes something that may already be new or even alien to them a darn sight harder. Hence Anneka found her ballroom much easier to do (and as she said ' danced with her heart') than her having to 'run around' (anneka's words) to a song which wasn't a jazz age charelston tune but a post punk pop tune with no charleston ryhtm whatsoever. It just wasn;t fair to expect such a non-dancer to be able to interpret that in a charleston-esque way. And she clearly wasn't enjoying it... All for the sake of a bloomin' theme!

Anyway Tango, I expect that now that I have elaborated you may not agree with everything I have said, but we most definitely agree that reacting to the music is the best way to dance!

TANGOLERO Tue Oct 22, 2019 10:24 pm

diamondsandpearls wrote:
Anyway Tango, I expect that now that I have elaborated you may not agree with everything I have said, but we most definitely agree that reacting to the music is the best way to dance!

Indeed D&P, I agree wholeheartedly; outside of competition, the "only" real way to dance. As an aside, and certainly nothing against lessons and constructive learning; A certain gentleman once tried to teach me (and others) how to do something I could do quite well when I was sixteen years old, as could the rest. After two months of daily "tuition" and much ado about nothing, he told us to "go out and just do as you like". We did, quite successfully. . Wink

diamondsandpearls Wed Oct 23, 2019 6:04 pm

TANGOLERO wrote:[Indeed D&P, I agree wholeheartedly; outside of competition, the "only" real way to dance. As an aside, and certainly nothing against lessons and constructive learning; A certain gentleman once tried to teach me (and others) how to do something I could do quite well when I was sixteen years old, as could the rest. After two months of daily "tuition" and much ado about nothing, he told us to "go out and just do as you like". We did, quite successfully. .

I am now intrigued and standing to attention like a meercat - who is this 'certain gentleman ' of whom you speak I wonder!!

And I was very tickled that depite 2 months of teaching he just told you all to go out and do your own thing... Laughing

TANGOLERO Wed Oct 23, 2019 8:24 pm

diamondsandpearls wrote:
I am now intrigued and standing to attention like a meercat - who is this 'certain gentleman ' of whom you speak I wonder!!
And I was very tickled that depite 2 months of teaching he just told you all to go out and do your own thing...

Curtain firmly drawn over that episode D&P, as I don't know how long non-disclosure stays in force (although I did mention it on here at the time) . The "training" and build up was a really enjoyable time,(in the main) but suffice to say, the end product ( a two-hour, two-part T.V spectacular) was a xxxx-up of massive proportion with a behind the scenes fandango worthy of Agatha Christie. Beyond that, lips firmly sealed... Cool

TANGOLERO Wed Oct 23, 2019 11:24 pm

diamondsandpearls wrote:
I am now intrigued and standing to attention like a meercat - who is this 'certain gentleman ' of whom you speak I wonder!!
And I was very tickled that depite 2 months of teaching he just told you all to go out and do your own thing...

You may find this write up from The Times (written at the time) interesting D&P. Whilst there are several decidedly wrong statements there (like about the crowd at the match (there were 14,000 in and we got a brilliant reception, and I got a rollocking on our football website for not warning them in advance ("We could have got a chant going for you"...imagine the bragging rights in that.. Cool

Anyway...Oh, and I'm not in the photograph, taken a fortnight before I joined up Very Happy

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tv-review-you-make-me-feel-like-dancing-tricks-of-the-restaurant-trade-f2sw2mgdfvr

diamondsandpearls Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:19 pm

I watched the whole series with my Mum, just after Dad died, so I really remember it. For us, as viewers who wer most definitely not shown the full story, it was something that was wholesome and bringing a community together in a lovely way. I think, being newly bereaved, we might have been slightly projecting - we wanted to believe that there was a lovely man making eveyone come together through music and dance so that we could feel a little lighter...

A few years on and, as I was saying to my friend only this afternoon as we sat in the unexpected autumn sunshine putting the world to rights, I realise everything is produced. Everything. So what you see isn't necessarily the reality. And so it would seem with this programme, from both the report written in the Times (notwithstanding the writer's own factual errors) and from your own account, which indeed I read when you posted it. In fact, such was the difference in my viewing experience to what you actually experienced that I had no idea it was this self-same programme.

So, very interesting... Very interesting indeed.

EDIT: I've just done a quick youtube search and I think it was a different programme to the one I'm thinking of! I was thinking of the series where they too 3 towns (Skipton was one) and they got residents to do a dance all through the town using different styles depending on the age and dance expereince (if any!) of the people who agreed to take part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcCjbySv5uI

The video I'm watching is all set in Bolton Palais De Danse - not the town as a whole... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWQQ27IdWX8

TANGOLERO Thu Oct 24, 2019 11:16 pm

diamondsandpearls wrote:
The video I'm watching is all set in Bolton Palais De Danse - not the town as a whole... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWQQ27IdWX8

Ah, "The Jack Murphy Show" D & P, right. Well, you might find 5 seconds of my face in a crowd scene in all that, but not even one second on camera on the Palais dance floor even though I was there for over four hours that night and that's what we'd turned up six days a week for practise , for two months. I was with my wife and daughter and I had a really nice lady for a partner and you won't see her either, not even in the background. We gave everything for Jolly Jack for that one night at the Palais.( over two hundred hours of filming) In return we got free tea/coffee,pasties and sandwiches but alas, T.V stars, never.. ( I will say a big thanks and a good word for Jack's assistant, Heidi, she was lovely and so helpful the whole time). As for the rest, well, que sera.... confused

TANGOLERO Fri Oct 25, 2019 9:40 am

Meanwhile, back at Strictly Alley....I can't get Tocata and Fugue out of my head..... bounce

mauveangel09 Fri Oct 25, 2019 2:46 pm

Neither can I...…………….. Rolling Eyes

Some of the other tracks seem really insignificant - although being a theme week I expect they'll be suitably 'themed up'! There are a couple of crowd pleasers in there but only a few...……...........

Moova 12 Fri Oct 25, 2019 3:20 pm

Having caught up with it takes two I thought Alex and Neil seemed to be close to a dance Kevin did to same song. The music choices are scraping the barrel I feel.

TANGOLERO Fri Oct 25, 2019 4:17 pm

mauveangel09 wrote:Neither can I...……………..

Some of the other tracks seem really insignificant - although being a theme week I expect they'll be suitably 'themed up'! There are a couple of crowd pleasers in there but only a few...……...........

I still have this version on vynil of John Williams and Sky doing Tocatta. Dazzling....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgbgUrp1a70

diamondsandpearls Fri Oct 25, 2019 6:59 pm

TANGOLERO wrote:

Ah, "The Jack Murphy Show" D & P, right. Well, you might find 5 seconds of my face in a crowd scene in all that, but not even one second on camera on the Palais dance floor even though I was there for over four hours that night and that's what we'd turned up six days a week for practise , for two months. I was with my wife and daughter and I had a really nice lady for a partner and you won't see her either, not even in the background. We gave everything for Jolly Jack for that one night at the Palais.( over two hundred hours of filming) In return we got free tea/coffee,pasties and sandwiches but alas, T.V stars, never.. ( I will say a big thanks and a good word for Jack's assistant, Heidi, she was lovely and so helpful the whole time). As for the rest, well, que sera....

I've watched it all and it's not actually the broadcast version. There is a comment below the video from a lady who says pretty much what you said - that they practised for ages and then didn;t make the cut - but that this version shows those people. They were the group doing the Tango... I am guessing (from your name!) that you may have been in the Tango group - in which case you may even see yourself! (I confess I was trying to guess which of them might be you!)

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SCD 2019 Weekly Dance & Music Choices