Which Dance This Week?

Which will be the celebs opening dance of the season?

Karen tweets that she's teaching Mark to 'shake what his momma gave him'. Guess it's not the waltz then.

Caroline tweets 123 Cha-cha-cha. Doesn't sound like a waltz either.

According to 'This Morning' programme, Mark & Karen have the Cha-Cha-Cha as their first dance

Week 1 last year contained:

four Waltzes,
three Tangos,
two Jives and
six Cha-Cha-Chas

I hope it is cha cha and waltz - I remember last year that we debated the wisdom of celebs being given dances like the jive and tango on the first week!

This is something that I feel really needs tweaking as there seemed no rhyme or reason with the order of dances last year and we saw some celebs being given quite complex dances in the first few weeks - American Smooth for example - not good for us or them as we got some very basic watered down versions of some dances as it was too early in the competition for them to do anything too complicated, so we are robbed of the spectacle of seeing these dances done later when the celeb has learned more and is confident and can really create something memorable.

One thing I can never understand; your bog standard cha-cha from Miss Mitzy's school of dance, done well and with some attention paid to the basics would be a far better bet at the onset. These guys are not pros and with such a mix of shapes, sizes and ages, surely something simple but done well is more effective than flash and wallop done nervously. Anybody ever see Fred Astaire do a handstand or the splits? Some of the teaching might need a bit of looking at.

Last year I felt that some of the pros did not focus enough on teaching the basics particularly in the first few weeks and it showed. I know that they are under a lot of pressure to learn quickly, give a performance and shine but some celebs were still making elementary mistakes in technique way into the competition. The newer less experienced pros seemed to be more prone to this - I hope that the new crop this year don't fall into the same way of working.

I agree and would like to see some solid basics and moves that I can recognise. I love to see a good Cha-Cha but get a bit frustrated by the over worked show style mash-ups the Pros often give to the celebs. It's almost like they can't remember what a good basic Cha-Cha can look like. That's where I agree with Ol Pickled Walnuts when he says he wants to see more X, Y or Z.

I always thought Erin, Karen, Lilia and F.lavia were good at the teaching side of things (and Natalie amongst the current batch of females). I'm not sure I have as much faith in O.la, Kristina, Aliona, Janette, Karen to really IMPROVE their partner's dancing drastically - I get the impression they're more about flashy / showy choreography, looking for different ways to disguise a lack of skill progression in their celebrity partner.

Scott & Joanne's first training clip is up on the Beeb SCD site. Can you tell what it is yet? (I couldn't )

pic of An ton & Judy training in ballroom hold. An ton pushing Judy's head back. Judy says 'turning her turkey neck into a swan neck'.

pic of Alison & Alijaz on twitter. Alison leaning over stroking Alijaz's face who's on one knee looking up at her. Possible Waltz pose.

I've just had a look at the clip of Scott and Joanne on the SCD website - I agree B4P very difficult to tell what dance they are doing - mind you it is a very short clip. Didn't like all the robotic (DJ?) moves and unfortunately a lot of 'faffing about' which was what made it difficult to identify the dance. I thought I detected a few vaguely cha cha like turns, a glimpse of that criss cross step (can't remember what it is called?) quite a bit of side-to-side - cha cha anyone?

New training video of Caroline & Pasha on main Beeb site.
Caroline saying that training is harder than she thought and repeats that she is new to all this. She's training in flat shoes on the VT. Hasn't this caused some balance problems for other celebs when they finally put their Latin heels on? Maybe they mix and match it, but don't most of the female celebs wear killer heels day to day anyway?

Id like to see just two dances for the first week A lovely waltz or a Foxtrot! Leave the latin out and give them a chance

Scott, Caroline and Mark are all doing their cha-cha basics.

Is first week (Friday and Saturday) going to be scored by the judges only and the leaderboard scores carried forward to week two?

cellar-door wrote:Is first week (Friday and Saturday) going to be scored by the judges only and the leaderboard scores carried forward to week two?

Hi CD.
I've just copied this from the main Beeb site.

Week One Live Show
In week one all 15 celebrities and their professional dance partners will take to the floor. Six couples will dance on 27th September and the remaining nine couples will dance the following day Saturday 28th September.

The judges will score and provide feedback. However there will be no public vote this first week and, hence, no couple will be eliminated at this stage. The judge’s scores will get carried over to the following week’s show.


From Week Two and Going Forward (until Semi Final)

From 5th October, all couples will dance and the judges will score each couple after they have danced. The phone lines will open towards the end of the show on Saturday after all couples have danced and the viewers will get the opportunity to vote for their favourite couple/s. The phone lines will close later that night. Viewers will be informed of closing times on a week by week basis as this depends on the scheduling of the programme. This year, for the first time viewers will also be able to vote online (during the same vote opening time as the telephone lines) by accessing the following link http://www.bbc.co.uk/strictly Voting online will require to register/log in with BBC ID https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/id/signin and will be free. The results of the telephone vote and the online vote will be aggregated prior to any announcements.

Mark's training clip is up. As CD says it seems like a Cha-Cha-Cha.
Frankie's training clip is also up. A waltz.

B4p wrote:

Week One Live Show
In week one all 15 celebrities and their professional dance partners will take to the floor. Six couples will dance on 27th September and the remaining nine couples will dance the following day Saturday 28th September.

The judges will score and provide feedback. However there will be no public vote this first week and, hence, no couple will be eliminated at this stage. The judge’s scores will get carried over to the following week’s show.


From Week Two and Going Forward (until Semi Final)

From 5th October, all couples will dance and the judges will score each couple after they have danced. The phone lines will open towards the end of the show on Saturday after all couples have danced and the viewers will get the opportunity to vote for their favourite couple/s. The phone lines will close later that night. Viewers will be informed of closing times on a week by week basis as this depends on the scheduling of the programme. This year, for the first time viewers will also be able to vote online (during the same vote opening time as the telephone lines) by accessing the following link http://www.bbc.co.uk/strictly Voting online will require to register/log in with BBC ID https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/id/signin and will be free. The results of the telephone vote and the online vote will be aggregated prior to any announcements.

Thank you!

Did you see the clip of Frankie and Kevin? Their chemistry is strong, and she has beautiful ballroom line already! I think that'll with me a beautiful waltz they did there (with that multiple classic pivots Kevin did with Susanna last year)...

Hi CD

Jake and Janette's first day training video has just gone up on the main Beeb site. Ballroom and looking good

First dances so far:

Frankie - Waltz

Judy - Waltz

Caroline - Cha-Cha-Cha

Alison - ? Waltz

Greg - Cha-Cha-Cha

Mark - Cha-Cha-Cha

Scott - Cha-Cha-Cha

Jake - Waltz

Well least we haven't got four different dances for the first wee.Not so sure about the early training clips.I so wish the BBC woild listen and rotate a live cam freed from the training rooms each week.

Yes I'm glad that they seem to be being sensible about the first week dance choices

Pixie & Trent's training VT is on the main Beeb site. Pixie & Trent both repeating that Pixie has never done anything like this before. I wonder if Pixie thinks the judges will be harder on her?
Lots of kick-ball-changes, finger-clicking, high kicks and 'top-hat' miming. ??Jive. Doesn't look like a Cha-Cha.  (L en's gonna have a field day)

I read somewhere Steve and O.la have got the Samba

I wouldn't wish the Samba even on a Jordan for week one!

B4p wrote:Pixie & Trent's training VT is on the main Beeb site. Pixie & Trent both repeating that Pixie has never done anything like this before. I wonder if Pixie thinks the judges will be harder on her?
Lots of kick-ball-changes, finger-clicking, high kicks and 'top-hat' miming. ??Jive. Doesn't look like a Cha-Cha.  (L en's gonna have a field day)

Those are definitely jive steps.