A Little Bit of Honesty.

A very intersting DO - we've missed witchy Kate, our vital statistician, this year. I'd love her take on events, Abbey must have polled far less votes than quite a few others to have landed in the DO. I can only assume An.ton's fans are voting in droves, because I definitely thought she would be in it.  

Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee apart, because they've had anti-voting innoculations, and with Rachel gone, it's beginning to get interesting now. Natalie is a class above everybody, but Abby, Sophie and Ashley aren't fireproof yet. Fiona seems destined shortly for watching videos of her great dance adventure, Patrick is moving up a notch, Ben is proving useful and Susanna has big and growing support. Only ten in the frame now
and hopefully, time for some common sense from the chips and fish cavalry. Dave, Mark and Fiona out in whatever order, then a right royal battle. Bring it on.  

allsewnonbyhand wrote:A very intersting DO - we've missed witchy Kate, our vital statistician, this year. I'd love her take on events, Abbey must have polled far less votes than quite a few others to have landed in the DO. I can only assume An.ton's fans are voting in droves, because I definitely thought she would be in it.   

Ant.on's fanbase is a fallacy though allsewnon - or else he would have at least made it past the first few weeks in the past which he hasn't. The real injustice in any case was Dave avoiding the dance-off and this week Mark got lucky.

Something else in the salad: The red-tops have reported that Karen was nasty to O.la during the group dance rehearsal reducing her to tears. BBC had to step in. Karen's behaviour could scupper Dave

Dave has now avoided the dance off whilst four better dancers have been voted off. For all the stick and boos the fabu-u-lus darling one Revel-Horwood gets he hit the nail smack on the head tonight. He lambasted the viewers for failing to vote on dance ability alone - well said the fabu-u-lus darling one.

hatlady28 wrote:Something else in the salad:  The red-tops have reported that Karen was nasty to O.la during the group dance rehearsal reducing her to tears.  BBC had to step in.  Karen's behaviour could scupper Dave

As reported on Digital Spy. .


http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s104/strictly-come-dancing/news/a528444/strictlys-put a vest on you strumpet-jordan-left-deeply-upset-by-karen-hauer-argument.html

CC- C.raig might have lambasted the GBP for not voting on dance alone, but we all know that isn't the point of the public vote. Actually, I think he missed a more important point, ie, don't assume the 'good' dancers are safe, they still need votes- clearly Abbeys fans weren't voting last night.

There's always a shock dance-off around this time. Last year it was Kimberley and a few years ago it was Rachel Stevens. I honestly don't think Abbey has a lack of support but voters got complacent and they can't afford to do that when there are so many ties on the leaderboard because the gap between the top and the bottom shrinks.

In a way I think it's nice that Rachel got to leave on a dance that she enjoyed and which suited her. She would most likely have run into another horrible Latin number next week. I thought she was was lovely and gracious at the end. I've found Pasha a teeny bit 'distant' this series though.

As for Dave, I expect a lot of angry people out there will be complaining he's still in but won't have voted themselves! Got to vote. And those that choose to vote for Dave (as annoying as he is to me) have as much right to do so as those who vote for Natalie or Sophie or Fiona or anyone else. I don't think there are any "wrong" decisions as such, just ones we might not like.

Ben's music......only more dancing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDbA3VUgWso

Okay, on ice skates But nice to see a well performed Monster Mash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az06jFRd8ng

Well said Sid.
To underline my point, I voted for Mark (so shoot me) because I like him and thought he was dealt a rum Halloween hand last night, but I also voted for Susanna because I like her dancing, her partnership and the whole strictly fun that she is having and I thought she might be 'forgotten' by the voters last night.
Like Mr D, I don't really care in which order Dave Fiona and Mark leave now, as long as they do leave- but of course my preference would be the order in which I wrote them  

allsewnonbyhand wrote:Well said Sid.
To underline my point, I voted for Mark (so shoot me) because I like him and thought he was dealt a rum Halloween hand last night, but I also voted for Susanna because I like her dancing, her partnership and the whole strictly fun that she is having and I thought she might be 'forgotten' by the voters last night.

*whispers* I've voted once for Mark every single week! And the rest of my votes last night all went to Sophie. And if someone told me what the dance-off would be in advance, I'd still have voted the same way. Some couples you become more invested in, that's the nature of the show.

Well I nearly fell off my chair when they announced who was in the dance off even though I wouldn't have voted for either of them.
Nothing against them but I do like a bit of a shock with the voting every now and again, it seems to keep it a bit more interesting.

Yes Mr T - Flamenco is an art form all of it's own - not related to ballroom or latin american dancing, but I like it when people incorporate it into the Paso. I would love a rumba danced to Guantanamera - I think I have told you before that it takes me back to spanish holidays with my parents in the 1970s.

I too like nightclub latin particularly New York style - a la Ray Barretto, Joe Cuba -anything off the 'Fania' label - Soul Drummers by Ray Barretto is the most sublime cha cha track I have ever heard. I seem to remember Brian Fortuna and Kristina in their first year on SCD doing some NY style mambo which was brilliant.

My previous post related to a dialogue that Mr T was having with Tina Sparkle earlier in the day - sorry it seemed a bit random.

I've been in London all day (got persuaded to buy an £8 christmas pudding from Fortnum and Mason) so I am just catching up on all the posts and the DO show etc. Well - that was a turn up for the book - I did feel however that there might be a shock tonight simply because there were so many 'forgettable' performances and more weak ones than good ones. Abby did an ok rumba but nothing spectacular but it could have been any number of celebs in the DO and Abby would not have been my first choice to be there by a long chalk so don't really understand that. I feel that it was probably time for Rachel to go - it was time last week I thought, but it was a great shame as she put in a decent performance this week and almost seemed to turn a corner which we will not see develop now as she has been 'sacrificed on the altar of Dave' - but probably better to go out on a good dance. Glad that Fiona did not end up in the DO.

Dave, Mark and Sophie got lucky breaks tonight. Mark and Sophie need to use this as a wake-up call - or rather their pros do - particularly in Mark's case.

Very pleased that the Hallowe'en Special is 'dead and buried' for this year and let's get back to normal for next week -none of it felt right.

I actually think that CRH completely missed the point because the nature of the competition is that we have to vote people in not out, so with 11 people left you can't expect the public all to vote for every single person they want to not be out. I don't suppose there was anyone out there who wanted Abbey out - it wasn't her lack of popularity that failed her, it was people doing the best they could to save people in the middle of the leaderboard in the hope that a bad dancer (Dave) would go out first. I didn't vote for Abbey. It doesn't mean I wanted her out! I just had to make some decisions so I voted for people more likely to need my votes. I wasn't that surprised it happened - it's impossible to save all the good ones with limited votes! it happened to Kimberley last year but she made the final. If CRH had wanted to be nice to Abbey, he should have pointed out that this was most likely complacency - what he said implied that people were deliberately choosing the likes of Dave over her, which is really not true. I think most people are probably hoping/expecting for an Abbey presence in the finals - they just couldn't vote for everyone.

Or perhaps C.raig was having a dig at those who evidently voted (in their droves) to save Dave? The fact that the BBC boosted my hopes by leaving Rachel and Dave until last angered me. I would sooner they had just announced him safe straight away as I really thought tonight was the night we were to lose by far the worst dancer on the show.

Biggest problem with the voting, I suspect, is that many people (like me) no longer bother voting at all. The whole thing is a bit ridiculous for a talent competition because how many of us are actually qualified to judge beyond our own personal opinions? " I think he/she is lovely" is hardly a criteria for judging dance but it's probably one that gets more people voting than any skill level. "What's Love Dance got to do with it?" By some major twist of fate, it usually comes out right in the end. How that is I've no idea. Divine intervention?  

Never really like Hallowe'en week and felt the same yet again. However, over the years there have been a few memorable performances - Scott and Natalie, Michael Vaughan and ???, Louis and Flavia. I'm sure there were one or two others that will spring to mind eventually.

I am now getting really fed up with the use of props - am I remembering correctly that way back in the early days they used to have a 'props week' and that every other week it was just dancing? I thing that too many of the pros are using props and long intros meaning that the dance content is so much less. Rules need to be changed otherwise it will only get worse!!

And who keeps telling Dave that he can dance?? Every year there is always one celeb who stays several weeks past their sell by date - and this year it's Dave! Of course it's the same problem as normal - he stays and at least 4 others better than him are knocked out earlier. Despite the fact that they would not have won, we are deprived of the chance of seeing them develop over the weeks.


Sorry about that - feel a bit better now!!!

I forgot to use my free vote (It would have gone to Patrick-much improved) Yes previous shows Austin/Rachel/Gabby/Jimi have all succumbed to the oh their at the top they will be ok brigade! The more C.raig or anyone lambasts GBP more idiots will vote for comedy acts-recall the facebook campaign to promote a song for number one against the XF? Their campaign huge & it did its job.
Abby hopefully will shake off the Do & shine next week.Karen may go OTT on charm offensive & Rachel went out on a high a good dance.

Wonder if Dave might do a JS?

Well the Dave business is all getting rather embarrassing. I watched closely as the result was named and Rachel was in the dance-off and he looked dumbstruck and there were no celebrations from him - even he knew the injustice dealt out.

In all the comments about Sophie and her problem with jive bounce and kicks, LOOK AT HER SHOeS. They were much too high. This is a repeat of what I wrote on the costume thread, but I think it is very important so am repeating it here. Her Charleston was done in little t-bar gold sandals that had a heel of about 1 inch. The jive is done, often even by professionals using lower heels or even flats. Sophie was up to 3 inches if not higher. If you re-watch you will notice she had trouble keeping her balance in quite a few places. If she had been in lower heels, her stability would have been much better and bounce, kicks, and the madness of a good jive would have been possible. Sophie is being slammed by costume issues when she does Latin with the exception of the wonderful Charleston.

As always it's great to read the comments on here.   There seems to be a high level of agreement - unusual for a forum!!

I enjoyed Saturday (see - the first thing I do is disagree ) but I suppose it's because I enjoy Strictly anyway and I think the bunch of celebs we have are an entertaining lot.   I probably enjoyed Patrick's dance more than anyone's, I've no idea what role he was in but with the hat and that slightly stooped stance I saw him straight off as one of those voodoo witchdoctors (Live and Let Die?) and I thought Anya's choreography was top drawer.  I think Fiona and A.nton were let down by a rubbish concept (Worzel Gummidge?) and on replaying it the dance was better than I remembered.  Mark and Sophie were the main disappointments for me, the latter so much so that I find myself wondering whether we haven't already seen the best of her.  That said, I'm sure Hat Lady's nailed the source of the problem - flats from here on in please.   I was sorry to see Rachel go out, especially when she'd finally shown that could dance, and dance well, but she was never going to make the final and she left on a high - good for her.

A couple of other thoughts: I saw L.en's monologue to Abby about "no dance training at all" as something of a warning shot to Natalie and Artem.  For me the subtext was he would be taking the issue of previous experience into account when scoring in future.   The other thought was about the voting.  The introduction of Internet voting will definitely be changing the pattern of voting compared to previous SCD series.  I'm still trying to work out how that change will pan out but I suspect that people are probably using it to save people, rather than vote for their favourites.   Of course now that they've got Internet voting, they should use it - getting people to rank the dancers in order (as the judges do) would bring a sense of balance to the whole process.  Now that would make a change!!

hatlady28 wrote:In all the comments about Sophie and her problem with jive bounce and kicks, LOOK AT HER SHOeS.  They were much too high.  This is a repeat of what I wrote on the costume thread, but I think it is very important so am repeating it here. Her Charleston was done in little t-bar gold sandals that had a heel of about 1 inch.  The jive is done, often even by professionals using lower heels or even flats. Sophie was up to 3 inches if not higher.  If you re-watch you will notice she had trouble keeping her balance in quite a few places.  If she had been in lower heels, her stability would have been much better and bounce, kicks, and the madness of a good jive would have been possible.  Sophie is being slammed by costume issues when she does Latin with the exception of the wonderful Charleston.

Think you nailed a very valid point there H.L. I used to dance for a rock and roll team and the girls, despite being the height of fashion elesewhere, wore tennis shoes for competitions. Jive probably highlights the need for flats more than any other dance.

Hatlady & Mr D - ultimately would that be B.rendan's responsibility to ensure Sophie is wearing the right size heels? If so, bit of an oversight on his part. I'm sure a lower heel would have made things easier for Sophie though I'm still not convinced we'd have got a great performance out of her. I don't think she's properly embraced the Latin yet. Costumes & footwear not helping though.

David Tee wrote:  I probably enjoyed Patrick's dance more than anyone's, I've no idea what role he was in but with the hat and that slightly stooped stance I saw him straight off as one of those voodoo witchdoctors (Live and Let Die?) and I thought Anya's choreography was top drawer.

Yes! That's the image that came to my mind too, Dave  

I really enjoyed it. Now if Patrick could just be a little more engaging off the dancefloor....

Sid wrote: Yes! That's the image that came to my mind too, Dave  

I really enjoyed it. Now if Patrick could just be a little more engaging off the dancefloor....

Did you notice my Baron Samedi comment in the Patrick write up? He's one of the voodoo lords, known for his top hat and tailcoat.  

TANGOLERO wrote:Did you notice my Baron Samedi comment in the Patrick write up? He's one of the voodoo lords, known for his top hat and tailcoat.  

I didn't know that was the name of the fictional character in Live & Let Die Mr D! Excellent referencing Almost wish Patrick & Anya had danced a Paso to that song now (but no, the look probably wouldn't have worked as well then because you can't Paso in a top hat....or can you?!).