2020 Tango's 'Little bit of Honesty'

TANGOLERO wrote:

Very much so Twirlie, not to deter from this Strictly thread,but she's my favourite fiction author and I know all her works very well.( I have them all) Highly intelligent Lady, humourist and a walking historical diary of Georgian upper middle class life.  

She is indeed, though the one thing I find interesting about her books, is that other than the existence of Colonel Fitzwilliam and Captain Wentworth, you'd never know that there was a major war going on between the British and the French etc etc. It obviously has no impact on the home front whatsoever, certainly among the ladies.

Anyhow - enough about Jane Austen. Back to the dancing. Who's in Choreography Corner tonight?

Erin!!!

Erin is choreography corner tonight

diamondsandpearls wrote:Erin!!!

Erin is choreography corner tonight

With Camilla, one of my all-time Strictly queens of dance...

I enjoyed tonight. Some great dancing and good music. I thought An ton had a good mix of tech speak and encouragement. It's going to be hard to vote as several are of a similar level and they've all stepped up a gear this week. Hope Clara gets through

I am going to hold my hands up and say Anto n has done a good job. Bit like The Love God that is Leonard The Lion Goodman at times but at least he commented on steps.
Shirley gave no comment to Bill it was all about her.
Thought scoring was a bit high mainly with Bill going first.
I like JJ and Amy as a pair and Gio with Ranvir. I liked both dances.
I can’t comment on street dance so it looked pretty good.
Thought Caroline managed the cha cha cha well channelling her inner Mrs Slocombe.
Maisie and hrvy were okay didn’t wow me.
Clara was the worst tonight.

The DO will be interesting.

Liked the show but same old problems judging Latin against Ballroom and now Street dance on the same night.. I thought Bill was tremendous to start and a great A.T. from Ranvir to finish. Fish and chips, beef curry and Spagehtti Bolognese, are all enjoyable but a very difficult level playing field for evaluation that's really just personal choice. I must say the level was a great credit to pros and dancers alike. Clara lost a bit of ground tonight, but Bill is still the purest dancer in the pack for me..Still some way to go to name a clear-cut winner. I think Caroline has run her race; good entertainment but.....

Oh lord.

If that was a Blackpool tribute, may we never have another one.

The judges seemed t be on mind altering substances and the marking was totally bonkers.  

Clara got an abominable concept (chefs?  CHEFS?!!!!!  For a samba?!!!  Are you out of your tiny minds people?) and a tune wihich was too slow and understandably had timing issues. But she had great bounce and good hips and I don't care about the rest quite honestly,  How C raig could have scored Caroline 3 whole marks than her is a a mystery as unsolvable as the most unsolvable mysterys in the world.  I  love Caroline - to bits - but that was just WRONG.

Basiclly, the best was Bill (also underscored) and the worst was Caroline (dramatically overscored - it was much worse than last week's dance).  Everyone else slotted in between those too.

Shirley either made the comments about her - how much Blackpool meant to her bla bla - or just wittered on (again) about the sizzling chemistry...  Just come out and say it Shirley - you think Ranvir and Gio are at like rabbits.

C raig veered between being constructively helpful, even if a little waspish, to being downright mean - as usual. I can forgive him this, but the discrepancy of marks between Clara and Caroline was insane.

A nton channelled his inner L en reasonably well and even managed more helpful bits of critique than Shirley. However, he leans towards the Donny Osmond school of overmarking, and as I have said before, I don't want a pale imitation of L en back in the judges seat - we have mved n considerably now.

Tess and Cluadia came dressed for bed in a black nightie and a leopard print onesie respectively.  

Oti had the best dress, with Amy's very pretty QS dress coming second. The worst was the ostrich-feather trimmed chef's jacket.  That crime is is up there with Gangnam Style in Diamond's Hall of Unforgiveable Sins for Which She Will Bear a Grudge for Eternity...

That show has bought out my very best Grumpy Mode  - I thought I had left that behind last year...

And I was all dressed up in a gorgeous silver satin full length gown with gazillions of godets and trimmed in white ostrich feathers. I even had arm wafts...

Not my favourite episode of Strictly, sadly.

PS - All those 'street' dances look quite good until you compare them with ACTUAL street dances. However, they don't seemed to be compared to pro street dancers in the same way the other dancers are compared the professinal versions of their dances. And how do you compare how good a couple's choice dance, which has no set judging critieria or tachnique (in this competition) to a Foxtrot or a Samba which have very defined criteria and rule. It's apples and oranges. And so they always get marked stupidly high, when we don't know if they are any good or not (technically speaking).

TANGOLERO wrote:Liked the show but same old problems judging Latin against Ballroom and now Street dance on the same night.. I thought Bill was tremendous to start and a great A.T. from Ranvir to finish. Fish and chips, beef curry and Spagehtti Bolognese, are all enjoyable but a very difficult level playing field for evaluation that's really just personal choice. I must say the level was a great credit to pros and dancers alike.  Clara lost a bit of ground tonight, but Bill is still the purest dancer in the pack for me..Still some way to go to name a clear-cut winner. I think Caroline has run her race; good entertainment but.....  

Basically you have siad what i did but much more succintly and stylishly!

I wholeheartedly agree! (

I think the pros are putting in some cracking routines this season and the celebs are rising to the challenge.

Bill - A.Smooth. I jotted a note that they seemed to take a while to get into hold. As Cr aig remarked beautiful hands and arms. I thought the dance did look smooth. Some parts looked a bit repetitious but I enjoyed it. It was strange not seeing a lift.

Maisie - Salsa. I enjoyed watching this, although I thought 4 lifts was over doing it just a bit. She really danced her socks off. I'm glad Shirley was a bit more constructive with her this week.

JJ - Quickstep. Lots of content to contend with. I think Amy threw in everything including the kitchen sink. He seemed to keep on time and remembered his steps. He's probably the weakest of the bunch now despite working the long hours.

Clara - Samba. What a shame, she started well and seemed to have a good rhythm then she went wrong a couple of times and I think it threw her completely out. Shirley mentioned her footwork and she couldn't tell which foot she was supposed to be on, but if you watch it back, I'm sure that's where she went on the wrong foot at least twice. I disagreed with Cr aig about it not being her dance. I think if she hadn't gone wrong it would have suited her fine.

Jamie - C.Choice. I take my hat off to Jamie. The first 2 weeks he was clowning around and just seemed along for the ride, then after being in the dance-off, he dug his heels in and 'became' the dance. A good Samba last week despite my concerns and a brilliant street dance this week (and I don't even like street dance). I liked the concept with the dance machine and thought Karen had put a great routine together. Points well deserved.

HRVY- Tango. I liked the outfits. The dance looked complicated. HRVY seemed deep in concentration, and not so much 'in' the dance this week. For the first time he seemed out of his comfort zone. I thought it looked good, but Cr aig noticed a couple of mistakes. The music was new to me but I liked it and thought it fitted the dance.

Caroline - Cha-Cha. I think Tango nailed it with 'Mrs Slocombe'. She did better than I thought she would. Her footwork looked neat but I didn't notice any hip action, but let's face it all eyes are usually on Johannes. The tongue sticking out made her look like an old lech. but the story line was a great angle. Great fun and upped her usual score by 2 points. I enjoyed it.

Ranvir - A.Tango. Intense and powerful. I thought An ton's 10 a bit over generous. I would have scored 8 or 9.

What I used to like was the pros who used to use an accent in the music to highlight a change in pace, usually by an arm or leg changing position. Karen, Artem, Erin and Vincent were all good at that. I remember Karen saying that it also helped the celebs to break the dance down into chunks so that if they got a bit lost they knew that their hand or foot should go up or out at a particular accent in the music. I've not noticed the current pros doing that, although we often have Amy's pointy finger doing a similar thing.

Yes I too had a grumpy night - there was some great dancing as always but the scoring as you said D+P was bonkers.

I started off thinking that it was going to be a week of the judges pulling back on scores - particularly after Bill's scores - I really thought A nton would give him a 9 as he was so complimentary about the routine which seemed just up his street. Then 9 s for Maisie after HRVY got a 10 for a similar routine last week - but then it started to go awry - 9 for JJ whereas it was 8s for Bill?? 5 for Clara? Ok so it wasn't her best but wasn't that bad - no-one who is left is in the '5' ballpark now. A '10' for Jamie and Karen's 'Couples Choice' - it seems like everyone is getting their turns at 10 this series! HRVY made mistakes but still got '9's - then it got worse - couldn't believe Caroline's marks tbh and bringing up the end of the show, an Argentine Tango which whilst good, wasn't exactly a classic and no way was worth '10' in my book!!!

I loved the opener from the Pros tonight - A nton was very centre stage and really seemed to cope well with it. It made me think that I'm sorry there was no Blackpool show this year, I always look forward to it. I do think everyone is trying to up their game now.

Bill and Oti - American Smooth - 9
I thought they both looked superb and definitely the best costumes of the night for me. It was quite a complex routine but managed to keep the feel of a traditional foxtrot American Smooth set to excellent music and I felt it was sheer class. Oti is so clever with managing to tailor the choreography and the type of routine to whichever type of partner she has and always picks up their strengths. I loved this one and I noticed his arms and hands and they way he finishes every move.

Maisie and Gorka - Salsa - 9
Actually I didn't feel that it was particularly salsa like - more like some indeterminate latin n umber - however, it was danced very well with lots of spins, lifts and acrobatics and Maisie looked more happy and confident this week. A solid 9 from me.

JJ and Amy - Quickstep - 8
I liked the routine a lot - I felt it had a slower tempo than what you sometimes get with a QS but I felt JJ's timing was spot on and the steps were neat. I didn't think that it was worth more '9's than Bill's American Smooth though.

Clare and Alijaz - Samba - 7
I agree with B4P that CRH's comments about it being a dance that didn't suit her were wrong - it could have suited her fine if she didn't have to prance around in that awful costume to a ponderous tempo and if she hadn't have gone wrong I think the dance would have been ok. I was so disappointed in the awful theme and costumes which had no relationship at all to the track - which is a great song and which should have been speeded up to its normal rhythm and they could have worn funky 70s costumes. The whole thing seemed laboured and was not danced with abandon. Such a misplaced theme I'm surprised that Alijaz agreed to this. I don't think latin is really his strength but neither was the routine the disaster that the judges made it out to be......... CRH's 5 was ridiculous..................I so hope Clara doesn't end up in the bottom two. I threw some votes her way.

Jamie and Karen - Couples Choice - 9
I've given it a 9 because there's no denying that he danced this very well with all the energy and fun that it demanded and Jamie is well and truly into his stride - however, at the risk of sounding a grouch, how many more similar 'Street' dances are we going to see??? I'm also getting bored with Jamie and Karen doing 'side to side' routines the whole time. I really want to see some more ballroom from him.

HRVY and Janette - Tango - 7
I felt this was a very fast Tango - and more paso like at certain points. I would have liked to have seen a bit more light and shade from the dance, I felt they were motoring round the floor and I thought it was overmarked by quite a way tbh. I'm often not keen on Janette's Tangos - it was ok but I felt if it had not been so fast he may not have gone wrong. I liked Janette's costume a lot - I thought HRVY looked like a doorman.

Caroline and Johannes - 6
I think I'm out of kilter here because I didn't think it was fun at all - I thought it was cringey and a sort of attempt to fall back on the comedy angle to get the votes - which didn't work on me. To be fair it started off ok and actually she did do better than what I thought she was going to do, but for me she ran out of steam half way through and I'm surprised that she scored as high as she did. Clara was better for me.

Ranvir and Gio - 7
It was a good attempt - I think she came across as confident and it was well danced but a bit repetitive for me and again, didn't have light and shade. I did enjoy it but I didn't think it was in the realms of the classic Argentine Tangos of SCD and wasn't worth a 10. Did anyone else feel that the length of the dress was wrong and should have been a bit shorter to show off the leg moves more.

mauveangel09 wrote:Ranvir and Gio - 7
It was a good attempt - I think she came across as confident and it was well danced but a bit repetitive for me and again, didn't have light and shade.  I did enjoy it but I didn't think it was in the realms of the classic Argentine Tangos of SCD and wasn't worth a 10.   Did anyone else feel that the length of the dress was wrong and should have been a bit shorter to show off the leg moves more.

I thought Ranvir's dress looked very 'school ma'am' and her hair and make-up too severe. I'm not sure about Shirley's 'strong and feminine' comment. The make-up was strong, but I felt it made her look a lot older than Gio and wasn't very flattering. I saw a lot of Vincent's moves in there, but without the body contact or classic A frame posture. If you watch the clip on the Beeb site of Ranvir & Gio's dance, Gio does a few flashy toe flicks and stomps whilst Ranvir's drawing slower circles on the floor. I think this will become one of his hall mark dances. He certainly seems to enjoy it.

Street dance - I would like to see Karen attempt a completely different style of dance for the couples choice next year. She always seems to do a 'get down with the boys from the hood' type street dance. I guess she sticks to what she knows best. It was well done but I'm so over seeing street dance. I wasn't a fan when it was in fashion and that must have been in the 80/90s about 30-40 years ago.

I don’t know that I agreed with all of the judge’s remarks this week, and I’m getting really fed up of all the over marking. It’s making the standard of the dances meaningless.

Bill and Oti – American Smooth
Not bad, not bad. He almost had a collision with a bit of scenery but managed to recover. If I’m going to be really picky, I didn’t always think he was quite well positioned in relation to Oti (but maybe that’s Oti’s fault). There was a fair bit of gapping when they were in hold. However the judges all thought he was wonderful. To be fair, I thought he was pretty good actually. I don’t object to their score. I give them 8.

Maisie and Gorka – Salsa
A brave and exciting routine. I felt really sorry for them when she slipped. I’ve no idea if it was her fault or Gorka’s but it cost them top marks which is a great shame. 9

JJ Chalmers and Amy - Quickstep
A straight back says Shirley. Where? Immaculate arms says A’nton. Really? I don’t see it myself. He’s a lovely bloke but Shirley’s and A’nton’s 9s were ridiculous. 8 at the very most. 7 from me.

Clara and Aljaz – Samba
Yes, she missed the mark really. She lost her way I think, forgot her steps in the middle of the number which threw her completely. She stood on Aljaz at least once. I’m afraid it was only worth 6.

Jamie and Karen – Couple’s Choice – Street
Again, hugely entertaining. Though Couple’s Choice is turning into simply another showdance, I thought this was recognisably “street”. Jamie and Karen both attempted a “break”, his more successful than hers I thought. How do you mark a dance like this? Well I suppose it goes by how much you enjoyed it (a lot) and by how much they danced as a partnership (definitely). So would I give it 9? Most definitely. But Shirley, A’nton – no, not worth a 10.

HRVY and Janette – Tango
He was good, but power, C'raig? I don’t really think so, and the new King of Ballroom? That’s unbridled flattery. Shirley fancies him I think. She's becoming as bad as Arlene, and we know what happened to her. As to the marks, well now I’m afraid this was disgraceful. Two mistakes acknowledged  by all the judges do not warrant a 9. That is totally preferential treatment. Even if he’s wonderful, which I don’’t think he was those two mistakes would drop him two points. Are Shirley and A’nton really suggesting that if it wasn’t for the mistakes they’d have given him 10? Outrageous. I wouldn’t have given him myore than 8 so with the mistakes that should be 6, but I’ll let him have 7. Not sure he deserves it.

Caroline and Johannes – Cha Cha Cha
A “Carry On” film? "Are You Being Served?" No, this was the plot of every cheap porn film and because of that she became mutton dressed as lamb. The acting/staging was also vile. I don’t often think I’m a prude or a really G.O.M. but I found this demeaning and with no place in a show that children watch. How the judges could think this was a good number in the #MeToo era I fail to understand. How good was it? For the dancing, 7 perhaps, certainly not 8, but because it was in such incredibly poor taste. 3.

Ranvir and Giovanni – Argentine Tango
She wasn’t happy at the end. It seemed that she was a little embarrassed. I wonder if they accidentally kissed. Wardrobe and Wigs missed it tonight with Ranvir I thought. The dress did her no favours nor did the hair style. The dance did seem quite good but the adjectives used by the panel were completely overboard. A’nton’s 10 was ridiculous. A reluctant 8.

I did love the pro’s dance tonight. A big improvement on the insipid supermarket group dance of last week. (Was that the worst group dance we’ve ever seen?)
T&C looked lovely again though Claud thought it was musicals week and came as something from the Lion King.

Who did I like? Maisie and Jamie stood out for me, with Bill and HRVY just behind. I would be happy for Clara, JJ or Caroline to go this week, though Bill’s in a dangerous position on the leader board. That’s why I gave all my votes to him.

I'm afraid my one disappointment of the past two weeks has been A'nton. I always hoped he'd get on the panel and be a judge. I thought he'd be so good. He turned out to be completely tongue tied most of the time. Did he just not want to give bad crits as he was only there for two weeks? Did he really find it difficult to marshall his thoughts to speak when called on? Was he just being too careful? He's been brought up short before now for not being PC enough. Who knows. Anyhow, I was disappointed.

Some interesting comments guys.  Overall I enjoyed the show although, after only ten minutes in, I did say to hubby that if they never mentioned Blackpool again it would be too soon (it’s his home town and even he was fed up with the over-use of the word).  Now that there are only three judges they need to set their scores for the first dance a notch lower.  The important thing is that, by the end of the night, the leader board is in the correct order but with two ties last night and the inconsistencies (IMO) with both Clara’s and Caroline’s scores things become a little blurred.  And, yes, A.nton is veering towards the Donnys rather than the L.ens.

Bill & Oti - another solid performance although I did notice some tension in his shoulders a couple of times.  Maybe just a posture thing resulting from standing up to play keyboards.

Maisie & Gorka - four lifts was probably one too many for me but I like how she picked herself up from the dance off and got on with the job in hand.  Easy to forget she’s only 19.

JJ & Amy - a bit too much charleston and not enough of the other traditional QS for me.  Lovely partnership but with only eight left in he is clearly towards the bottom of the pack.

Clara & Aljaz - not her best but she IS better than this and doesn’t deserve to leave yet.  Aljaz is my favourite pro and I’m not ready to lose him just yet.

Jamie & Karen - I really enjoyed this. Whether street dance has a place on Strictly is a different question.  The point is, it is here and it entertained me.  I’ve always said they should restrict each week to only one or two dances but then you’re getting back into competition level stuff and this programme is more about entertainment isn’t it?

HRVY & Janette - I didn’t enjoy the routine, thought there were hints of both Argentine tango and paso doble. I also didn’t like the music.  HRVY is becoming a bit grey for me.

Caroline & Johannes - I too thought there were shades of a porn film.  I felt she acted rather than danced the routine.  She’s doing her level best but is bottom two material for me.

Ranvir & Giovanni - great to see this lovely lady back on form.  And Geo is really impressing me this year.

Could be another shock DO but for me it should be between JJ and Caroline with the best on the night saving their place.

fiftynotout wrote:Overall I enjoyed the show although, after only ten minutes in, I did say to hubby that if they never mentioned Blackpool again it would be too soon (it’s his home town and even he was fed up with the over-use of the word).  

Absolutely agree! They seemed determined to remind us of what we were missing, why did they have to keep rubbing it in?

Quite miffed by last nights show tbh, I haven't got the heart to do my usual Sunday morning re-watch. None of the routines blew me away, and the judges' overmarking felt a bit farcical. Nobody deserved a 10, I'm not sure anyone deserved a 9 either. And yes, Clara had a bad week, but there was no way she should've been 6 points below Caroline. I was so cross that I gave all my votes to Clara and asked my family to do the same. I really hope she can avoid the dance off, will be peed off if she leaves tonight.
I'd been looking forward to A.nton as a judge...thought he did ok for the fortnight but seemed a little uncomfortable. Ironically, Motsi seems to give better feedback from a distance, I wish she was that constructive when she's on site.  
Before I forget....what on earth was C.laudia wearing?   Anyhow, a few thoughts...

Bill - elegant american smooth, though not particularly amazing.
Maisie - choreography was over-ambitious, I think she's the best dancer but she's losing my interest every week
JJ - I thought this looked a rather awkward quickstep, felt he was overmarked
Clara - horrible concept, ghastly costume, lumbering tempo.. even if she'd danced this well it would've looked awful.
Jamie - not as good as Bill's street CC from last week, this was ok but forgettable
Hrvy - easily my dance of the night, I really enjoyed this. Also loved the outfits and the music
Caroline - I'm firmly with Twirlie on this one, I found it rather repulsive to watch if I'm honest, especially the lick
Ranvir - I was disappointed by this, definitely not a 10 from me.

Overall I found it a rather flat show. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Clara can escape the dance off, as I think she's got a lot more potential and positivity than several of the others.

Hi all loving the comments as Im sorry to say I slept all of yesterday. Missing The Rugby and SCD.
I have this image in my head now of our couples dressed as Fish n Chips, Chicken Curry & Spagetti Bolognaise dancing together now! I may have thrown in a Mozzerella & Basil Pizza too definately no Pineapple.
My mom rang to advise me about SCD and her favourite Clara had a mare of a dance!
Ill try and watch later on . I accomplished a shower today and now sapped of energy.
Ty for great comments

Well it was a bit of a confusing and frustrating night with lots of talking points so here are my thoughts:-

Bill and Oti (American Smooth):- This dance had the right music and great costumes but for me the dance itself was just not quite as polished as Bill has been in previous weeks. Don't get me wrong it was still very good and gor an 8 from me but I was expecting a bit more I suppose. His hand shaping annoyed me but what do I know as CRH loved them.

Maisie and Gorka (Salsa):- This was a party dance that suited her and she nailed it - all apart from a stumble on landing which obviously subtracts a mark. On the whole excellent and worth 8.5 from me.

JJ and Amy (Quickstep):- His singing along was an annoying distraction but his timing and steps were all good but now and again seemed to be too bent at the knees. Worth a 7.5 from me.

Clara and Alijaz (Samba):- I thought this dance would really suit her but it did seem to go flat at times but she can sell the dance as she has great rhythm. Not her best though. A 7 from me. Judges seemed overly harsh on the comments and marking for her.

Jamie and Karen (Couples Choice):- This dance was not my kind of thing but I could tell he nailed it. A great performance which he gave not in hold and timing was spot on. A 9 from me. His enthusiasm is infectious.

Harvey and Janette (Tango):- He began with some nice staccato moments that were sharp and snappy but seemed to lack full-on attack maybe caused by errors. A very good effort though and gets an 8 from me.

Caroline and Johannes (Cha Cha):- I didn't like the theme of the dance or her off-putting facial expressions throughout. She needs to dance with her legs and arms not her face. Seemed to want to be a comedic routine so came across as a cop out to me. The judges drooling was very annoying too. Sorry An.ton you were wrong as were Shirley and CRH. It would have got a 6 from me certainly not worth the 8's all of the judges gave her.

Ranvir and Giovanni (Argentine Tango):- This was really well-danced and had real sultry feel to it. She coped with the steps very well too and I felt the chemistry between the pair. Gets a 9 from me.

To me Caroline should be in the dance-off and on last night's dancing then Clara was next weakest. I can see the judges saving Caroline if that scenario comes about even though Clara is patently the better dancer with more potential to blossom further.

Great and fair summations from all. Just one thing that constantly bugs though is "aeroplane arms". It isn't nailed enough by the judges. My regular example is "When you reach out to turn on a light switch, you do it with a slight angle of flex/bend, in the arm not a rigid stab.  There must be a natural flow about arms and hands that at least I agree with C.R.H on. Watch any Fred and Ginger routine and you'll see perfection of natural arm movements not a glider in evening dress or a bad imitation of Stavros Flatley doing Riverdance.

Dance on....

I so agree about the arms Mr T............

I'm glad others felt the same about Ranvir - never has a hemline so detracted from my enjoyment of a routine!

Some real talking points this weekend and we are certainly split on some of the routines. I have absolutely no idea or hunch as to who might end up in the DO this week as I think it could go a n umber of different ways as there were a few 'marmite' love or hate dances last night. I think JJ, Caroline and Clara (sadly) could be in the ball park but then again to me HRVY did a bit of a forgettable routine with which he did not look comfortable - although I know that a lot of you really liked it - and we still don't know if Maisie is popular with GBP or not...............................

mauveangel09 wrote:Yes I too had a grumpy night -  there was some great dancing as always but the scoring as you said D+P was bonkers.  

I started off thinking that it was going to be a week of the judges pulling back on scores - particularly after Bill's scores - I really thought A nton would give him a 9 as he was so complimentary about the routine which seemed just up his street.  Then 9 s for Maisie after HRVY got a 10 for a similar routine last week - but then it started to go awry -  9 for JJ whereas it was  8s for Bill??   5 for Clara?  Ok so it wasn't her best but wasn't that bad - no-one who is left is in the '5' ballpark now.    A '10' for Jamie and Karen's 'Couples Choice' - it seems like everyone is getting their turns at 10 this series!   HRVY made mistakes but still got '9's - then it got worse -  couldn't believe Caroline's marks tbh and bringing up the end of the show, an Argentine Tango which whilst good, wasn't exactly a classic and no way was worth '10' in my book!!!

You have detailed the discrepancies very well and very exactly - I concur wholeheartedly!

mauveangel09 wrote:

Maisie and Gorka - Salsa - 9
Actually I didn't feel that it was particularly salsa like - more like some indeterminate latin n umber

JJ and Amy - Quickstep - 8
I liked the routine a lot - I felt it had a slower tempo than what you sometimes get with a QS but I felt JJ's timing was spot on and the steps were neat. I didn't think that it was worth more '9's than Bill's American Smooth though.

Clare and Alijaz - Samba - 7
I agree with B4P that CRH's comments about it being a dance that didn't suit her were wrong - it could have suited her fine if she didn't have to prance around in that awful costume to a ponderous tempo and if she hadn't have gone wrong I think the dance would have been ok.    I was so disappointed in the awful theme and costumes which had no relationship at all to the track - which is a great song and which should have been speeded up to its normal rhythm and they could have worn funky 70s costumes.   The whole thing seemed laboured and was not danced with abandon.   Such a misplaced theme I'm surprised that Alijaz agreed to this.   I don't think latin is really his strength but neither was the routine the disaster that the judges made it out to be......... CRH's 5 was ridiculous..................I so hope Clara doesn't end up in the bottom two.   I threw some votes her way.

Jamie and Karen - Couples Choice - 9
I I'm also getting bored with Jamie and Karen doing 'side to side' routines the whole time.  I really want to see some more ballroom from him.

HRVY and Janette - Tango - 7
I felt this was a very fast Tango - and more paso like at certain points.  I would have liked to have seen a bit more light and shade from the dance.

Caroline and Johannes - 6
I think I'm out of kilter here because I didn't think it was fun at all - I thought it was cringey and a sort of attempt to fall back on the comedy angle to get the votes - which didn't work on me.  e.

Ranvir and Gio - 7
It was a good attempt - I think she came across as confident    Did anyone else feel that the length of the dress was wrong and should have been a bit shorter to show off the leg moves more.

All of this!

And I am very much with you in being out of kilter on Caroline.  It was cringey (try reversing the gender roles and have a male pro lick a female sleb and see if it wouldn't make you uncomfortable...) and I just thought she was too placed and careful - no hips at all.  Which is why she was the worst as far as I was concerned. Clara made mistakes, but when she was on it, she was on it.  And (along with  Bill and Jamie to be fair) she DANCES - she throws herself in it.  Caroline seems to be doing the acting, but the body is doing it by n umbers... I love her, love her and Johannes together, but she hasn't really got to grips with actually dancing
EDIT:a fair few of you seem to be saying the routine was icky and uncomfotable,so perhaps there is no out of kliter-ness after all - we are all singing from the same strictly song book

I like Ranvir's dress (I think someone else described it as school marm, but it was very Flavia AT tango sylte with the long sleeves and high neck), but agree that - again - they got  the length wrong.

In complete contrast, for once they Caroline's dress length spot on...

mauveangel09 wrote:
I so agree about the arms Mr T............

I'm glad others felt the same about Ranvir - never has a hemline so detracted from my enjoyment of a routine!

Some real talking points this weekend and we are certainly split on some of the routines.  I have absolutely no idea or hunch as to who might end up in the DO this week as I think it could go a n umber of different ways as there were a few 'marmite' love or hate dances last night.  I think JJ, Caroline and Clara (sadly) could be in the ball park but then again to me HRVY did a bit of a forgettable routine with which he did not look comfortable - although I know that a lot of you really liked it - and we still don't know if Maisie is popular with GBP or not...............................

Something mischievous inside me would like to see Caroline in the dance-off against Harvey or Ranvir. The judges fawned over Caroline overly much last night so part of me would like to see how good the judges really think her dance was and force them to choose between the golden boy or last night's favourite with the judges Caroline.

OK Caroline's gone. Thank goodness, I've been ready for her to go for a few weeks now.

Well Caroline (for me) was the weakest dancer left in. Once she was put up against Maisie there was only going to be one result. Clara dodged a bullet like JJ did last week. However, Clara has potential to improve and be a finalist whereas Caroline does not.

Maisie must be gutted to realise she hasn't got the public on her side.

Billy Ocean - off key

Clara is obviously doing 'Proud Mary' next week. It doesn't seem like 5 minutes since the last one with Alexander Burke