Strictly Common Sense!

What a difference a week makes! Whether it's because Strictly Come Dancing came from the most famous location for ballroom dancing in the World, or whether people have woken up to reality, but the outcome was right! And for the 1st time in 4 weeks, the 3rd place couple weren't in the dance off! A-ma-zing!

I still haven't watched the full programme yet, but I have seen some of the dances and the results! Although Ali and Brian's Viennese Waltz was excellent, I couldn't see that it was better than Ricky Whittle's Quickstep last week. But it is hard to create the same level of impact from a Viennese Waltz as it is from a Quickstep. Technically, yes it probably was perfect but I felt it lacked some of the emotion whereas Ricky Whittle's Quickstep really captured the fun and spirit of the dance.

I was pleased for Chris Hollins too who made the toughest ballroom dance look rather easy with his best performance of the series, and a showcase of his real ability and potential. The fear of going wrong seems like it may have left him too as he didn't make any mistakes. Once again Jade Johnson proved her all round abilities by performing a lively and light jive with good flicks and kicks. It can't be easy at her height, but she made it just that. I am hoping she will make it to the final.

Everyone I have seen so far seems to have enjoyed the larger and more vocal audience too. And just seeing the magnificent Tower Ballroom in all it's splendour makes you just want to get up and join in! Oh how I love the Tower Ballroom, there is nowhere more magical, and no better buzz than dancing at your best on that floor! Though it does seem they may have loosened the springs for Strictly Come Dancing as normally when I have danced there you can't tell it is sprung until there's 100+ people on it!

Strictly Lost It!

Once again I have been left wondering what I have just watched after watching the recording of last night’s Strictly. Craig should almost certainly be gone after that performance again … not Craig Kelly either, no, Craig Revel Horwood! A judge shouldn’t be affecting people’s opinions by being overly personal and massively underscoring contestants, which Craig evidently does. I like to think I am a pretty mentally tough person, but when he laid into Ricky Groves I had to think that I wanted him to stay because he had been so badly under-marked. Once again Len Goodman hit the nail on the head in that rumba is hard for a male celeb as you tend to either be too masculine and stiff or too feminine, basically because you overcompensate.

It is hard to say who should have been in the dance off because so many couple were so close, and the ones who weren’t as good in the judges eyes were under-marked, or like Craig Kelly, had made a massive leap forwards. There was another couple under-marked. Ricky Whittle and Natalie Lowe should have had straight 10s, especially after Craig’s comments that bandy legs and pigeon toes hadn’t stopped Brendan Cole becoming World Champion. I think he may just have lost a bit of touch with reality. Out of the 2 couples in the dance off I would have chosen Zoe and James to stay. Once again James has gone far too soon, I don’t know what he has to do to get further, once again he’s had a great partner. Maybe the judges were right with the bottom two. But Craig certainly doesn’t encourage sensible voting from the public!

This is turning into a bit of a rant over one of my favourite TV shows! Yes, I was left less than impressed by the professional group too! They didn’t quite look as polished as you might expect for much of the routine, but particularly in the lifts! And poor Aliona’s life must have flashed before her eyes when she nearly went flying over Matt. The situation was redeemed though by their excellent demo when they were left alone, which seemed like it may have had the hours put into it. Even the BeeGees took some warming up, and Robin was never quite on the note!

There were some real positives too though. The standard of dancing was actually very high, and overall the judges scores did reflect the closeness of the pack. Then there was Ricky Whittle’s quickstep which was probably the best quickstep I have ever seen by a celebrity, and one of the best dances overall. Craig? 9? What? I would like to see you do that routine better! So in summary I really enjoyed the show but the result and pro group dance were an anti-climax, and Craig should be sacked!!

Dancing through injury!

I started dancing over 4 years ago now, partly because my mates had better moves in the clubs, partly because of Strictly having gained fast popularity and also because it was recommended as a way to improve a foot injury. In December 2003 I was at rugby training and my right foot gave way whilst running on it. The pain was pretty intense, and I had to pull out of the exercise for a while. However I was enjoying myself a little too much, and when the pain went, I joined in training again. After about 5 minutes running, my foot went again, but this time I could barely walk on it. I sat out for the rest of training then went to hospital later for an x-ray fearing that I had broken something. The nurse told me it was likely to be ligament damage, gave me treatment and sent me on my way. After a while, I went to my GP because it wasn't improving, who advised me that it might benefit from physio but there was a 6 month waiting list, not saying that without this it wasn't likely to improve at all.

Moving forward to around Easter of 2005 and I took up a ballroom and latin american dance class, and low and behold, some of the pain started to ease as my foot gained some strength back. All was going well until the cold and damp weather set in, when my foot started playing up again, and swelling. This was a recurring problem anytime there was dampness in the air, be it cold or warm (England doesn't get hot!) but I stuck with it, taking some supplements and aspirin. I started taking glucosamine sulphate at first, which had a slight effect on my foot, with it's natural anti-inflammatory properties. This still didn't help on dancing exam days though where my foot was pretty much guaranteed to swell!

The next supplement I added was Devil's Claw, a natural pain killer and anti-inflammtory and once again there was further improvement. I had been taking solely these two until earlier this year, when I was introduced to alkaline water. At first I was very sceptical that changing the water I drank would make a difference to my foot (as you would be), but Paul invited me to try some, and to my amazement you could really taste the difference between the alkaline water and tap water. As time has gone by I have moved from 8.5pH to 9.5pH water as gradually my foot has improved, and weeks where I have drank purely tap water, that pain has come back! Many scientists have tried to play down then benefit of alkaline water, and as a non-scientist I can only speak for the experience I have had of it, which when I have taken it in conjunction with my supplements, there has been a vast improvement in my foot.

If you research alkaline water online, you will no doubt read scientific reports suggesting that it is a placebo effect, and that there is no evidence to show that alkaline water has benefits. However before I drank alkaline water my foot used to physically swell and become painful to the point some dances I had to stop, however I have not had any swelling since drinking alkaline water and the pain has been cut down to a minimum! Physical swelling I'm sure, cannot be affected by a placebo! I would suggest to anyone else who has an injury to ligaments etc that they try alkaline water. The water ionizers aren't cheap, but may well be worth the investment.

Strictly Latest Opinions!

I have been very busy for the last couple of weeks either working, dancing or generally not being around to blog! This year's Strictly is slightly strange because they are largely so good that it's hard to forget that it's only week 4, and that to me the person who had the biggest lead has had a couple of disappointing weeks, despite being top last week. Yes Ricky Whittle. I thought his paso was a bit weak due to his crab movements and also maybe the choreography was to blame a bit in that he wasn't given as much intricate steps to perform as some of the celebs have had. However his posture, attitude, arms and timing were all spot on, but after his amazing rumba I was hoping for a bit more I think. Again his salsa tonight was another step down. Once again the choreography wasn't all salsa, and there was something I can't quite put my finger on that was missing from the performance. He has had a very busy week though apparently so hopefully he may regain his excellence.

Again, last week, I thought that Jo and Joe both had public induced escapes and should really have been in the dance off. Rav and Lynda were much better and shouldn't have been there. I wasn't convinced that Rav should have gone either, though after Lynda's dance off performance tonight maybe it was right, we'll never know! Having said that I thought that despite some very dodgy marking and comments from the judges the final outcome tonight was right. I would have said Jo and Joe should stay for their vast improvements and that left Lynda and Craig in the dance off by default. No-one else should have been close to a dance off, they were all far too good. Again, I agreed with the judges for saving Craig due to the man having to lead, and this is particularly tricky in the Foxtrot, yet Craig seemed to have no problems there. Both couples did turn up the heat in the dance off, and although Lynda did dance slightly better the fact Craig lead so well really swung it in his favour.

Dodgy Judges Comments
There were 2 occasions that really stood out tonight for the judges behaving erratically. One of which was with Joe Calzaghe. I have to admit my timing can sometimes be off, and the foxtrot is a nightmare dance to get the timing right, but Bruno saying that Joe still had no musicality was slightly ridiculous. I thought that was one of his biggest improvements that he found timing. Did anyone notice that Darren and Lynda were nowhere near the beat in their dance for quite a period of time?? Then for Craig to disagree with all the other judges and say there had been no improvement was dispicable. Everyone could see that there had been a vast improvement.

Then there was Jade Johnson who got such great comments, performed what was one of the best dances of the night and got average scores! Didn't quite get the same choice expletives as Mr Revel Horwood's comments about Joe, but a good shouting!

Strictly Come Dancing Week 2 Preview

Strictly Come Dancing week 2 will feature the 8 couples who didn't dance in week 1 performing a ballroom dance and a latin dance each. We have been given an insight into each celebrity's ability with the group dance and there were some obvious ones to watch for the right and wrong reasons! The training footage shown on It Takes Two usually sheds some more light as to the level of dancing. Tonight's training footage showed some extra surprises to me in the form of Jo Wood performing far better than in the group dance, and Phil Tufnell showing some real ballroom promise! Hopefully we will get more of the training footage later in the week.

I am going to hazard a guess at some of the celebrities, as far as their dancing standard goes. However to guess who will go out would be crazy due to the public vote which doesn't always follow the dancing alone!

The Good
The one that really stands out in this section has to be Ricky Whittle. He has natural rhythm and movement as well as an understanding of shapes and lines. From the brief glimpses so far he can go a long way. He has many attributes of a great latin american dancer already, let's see what he can do in ballroom too!

The Not So Good
Having seen the group dance there were a couple of celebrities who you have to worry for, Richard Dunwoody and Jo Wood. I think the wood in their surnames may sum the problems up a bit! Richard didn't seem to know where he was or what he was doing in the group dance, and Jo was all out of sorts too. However in training footage, Jo Wood appeared to improve somewhat!

The Surprises
There could be a few in this section! Jo Wood's improvement in training footage was a surprise, whether it lasts or not will be the key! There were 2 who had a hint of style about them that I would never have expected. Phil "Tuffers" Tufnell showed some real promise in both the group dance, with his aerial heel taps, and in training he looked a rather refined dancer! Again Natalie Cassidy looked fantastic in training. It's hard to believe that it's only coming up to week 2. And does Anton finally have a good partner?? Let's hope she's as good as she looks because his latin american has come on a lot from last year.

Strictly Come Dancing - Controversy in Week One?

In reality the controversy over Strictly Come Dancing started long before anyone saw a dance floor this year! Accusations of ageism in the BBC, scheduling wars with ITV and we'd not even started with bad public voting!


Week 1 set off with some surprises, not least that the celebrities are largely at week 3, 4 and beyond level and having to do 2 dances straight off. You may recall every other year they have put many weeks in before tackling 2 dances and been told how difficult it's going to be then!


This year has high lighted to me that no-one should now get voted out in week 1. They should all get chance to do 2 weeks before anyone goes. It is such a tight competition, and many people have been willing Joe to do well it seems, and he suffered with nerves the most. He did however show potential and I think the public saw that. However, if it was purely on this week's performance he probably should have been out.


Some forums have people complaining about Len's decision to save Rav Wilding this week, but I agreed with him that Rav really improved in the dance off, and Martina Hingis didn't. Len was spot on there. Yes I may have preferred looking at and watching Martina, but Rav was a better dancer. He had more control, and generally better technique, performing what is arguably the hardest latin dance for the male celebrities.

Strictly Come Dancing News

I was very pleased to find out that Strictly Come Dancing will be filmed from Blackpool Tower on 7th November, for the 1st time in 5 years! As with many BBC shows, there is a draw via the website, with limitations on tickets. As you may have guess I have entered myself into this draw!

As the BBC website says, Blackpool Tower is the spiritual home of Strictly Come Dancing, as the original Come Dancing was filmed there too. It is also a fabulous location for dancing, boasting a huge floor, as well as a magical you will only ever understand if you dance there. Sitting in an audience is great but when you actually take to what many say is the World's best dancefloor, you can begin to realise what they mean.

I will keep you posted as to whether or not I manage to get tickets to this. There will apparently be 9 couples remaining at this stage. Maybe one day they will film another final there too, as they did in 2004. Having never danced on the BBC studio floor it will be hard to say, but the Tower Ballroom has a very unforgiving floor and it will be interesting to see if this will affect the celebrities, especially at a relatively early stage!

Paso Doble Video from Evening of Dance

I have now posted the third and final video from an Evening of Dance, due to a couple of requests. The Paso Doble is the only other dance I filmed that James & Ola performed.

I am looking forward to see what they do in Strictly Come Dancing this year, as I don’t think we’ve ever seen the best of them! If you watch the Paso Doble video, you may agree!

Personally, I love the passion and the drama of the Paso Doble and it’s a shame so few couples perform it. Having said that it is one of the hardest dances to perfect in terms of the performance and look of it especially if you don’t feel the music. Yes I love Paso Doble! It still maintains a slight air of exclusivity about it when you dance at socials too as very few places seem to teach it. I do thinks that it’s a dance that formerly playing rugby really helps too! You have that bit of aggression, mixed with passion that is required to really carry the Paso Doble.

Salsa!

After a good 12 months away from salsa, I decided to have a second crack of the salsa whip! I had a good 12 months at it previously but found it got monotonous and fell out of love with it, whilst I was learning step, I wasn't retaining them too well, which the normal salsa practice of partner swapping doesn't help. I also found at 27 I was one of the youngest at the lessons and a lack of young partners also affected my attitude towards it.

However, on Friday night, complete with a new salsa partner, we took off to Copacabana in Manchester. Having never danced salsa together before, and both having a considerable time away from dancing salsa, we took a basic lesson which was actually very good as the teacher really focussed on foot and weight technique, which I've never experienced at the start before. He also only went through the very basic salsa steps, which I'd never covered particularly thoroughly before either.

Much to my surprise I really enjoyed it! It does help having a partner who is close in age though and ability, oh who can remember steps very quickly too! That always lets me down with dancing, remembering steps quickly. I tend to get the com,plex ones but get baffled by simple ones.

I'm now hoping that we will be able to salsa together regularly as we got a comment from the teacher about our good movement ... yes it caused the odd giggle!! I am going to look for a salsa class where you don't have to switch partners as I find it much better to learn with the same one until you have a lot of experience (and so does she). Many people prefer swapping partners at salsa, because if one of the couple gets it they may be able to help the other, however after having the same partner for ballroom and latin for over 3 years, I am rather used to not changing and like it that way!

I think this time round I may be able to reach my potential at salsa, which never happened before, admittedly because I lacked a lot of confidence at it, but learning simple steps from the beginning and with a much more suitable partner good salsa things could happen!

Strictly Come Dancing Lineup

It's a couple of days since the lineup for the new series of Strictly Come Dancing was released, and once again it seems full of face I know but few names I recognise! Maybe I don't keep up with the world of celebrity enough?? Again there's the mix of sports stars, soap stars and assorted others, and once again they have an awful lot to live up to.

The standard of dancing has risen throughout all the series' as the public demand more and the professionals become more competitive. However with 3 new lady pros and one or 2 format changes we will see what happens with the standard. Each year it improves and the dancers get better, dancing more complex routines but you wonder if it has to peak sometime, or if it has.

Very few celebrities start off by looking at all like dancers then the surprise comes when they start getting very good at dancing, a few weeks in. I am looking forward to seeing their 1st tentative steps, and am currently wondering who he ones to watch will be. I have to say that without seeing any dancing I would guess at Joe Calzaghe and Jade Johnson to be 2 strong ones, due to their competitive nature and excellent partners. Having seen Brian and Kristina dance live, it will be exciting to see what she can come up with for Joe. While Jade is dancing with Ian Waite, and does anyone remember how far he went last time he had an athlete. Even that may not have been far enough! Ian and Denise Lewis were something else on most dances. Only 3 weeks until the 1st show. We will see how they all go. Can't wait!

Ballroom Dancing at the Muni

What:	Ballroom Dancing
When:	Saturday, August 22, 2009 8:00 PM to Sunday, August 23, 2009 12:00 AM
Where:	Colne Municipal Hall Albert Road Colne, Lancashire BB8 0BP   UK

We will be dancing at the monthly ballroom dancing night on Saturday. These nights include ballroom dancing, latin dancing and sequence dancing. There’s always a friendly and relaxed atmosphere at these popular dance events. You tend to find you get dancers of all ages from children right up to grand parents attending, all at different level but all who love dance.

Being so friendly, no-one is afraid to get up on the dance floor either and join in. With some of the sequence and social dances you are encourage to join in, as there are a number that 1st timers could quite easily pick up. There is also free parking on a decent sized car park round the back of the Colne Muni which is really handy with a lack of on-street parking. You don’t always want to have to walk too far after a few hours of dancing!

This is one of a few regular ballroom dance nights that happen in Lancashire and I will post details of others when I get them. There is a dance night in Lower Darwen every fortnight on a Saturday that we need to try yet. But it’ll probably be a few weeks off until we make it to that dance.

Rumba Video from Evening of Dance

I have uploaded a rumba demo video from the Evening of Dance with James & Ola Jordan. This is a beautiful routine, danced to Fields of Gold. Click the link to watch this Rumba. It is a great demonstration of the “Dance of Love”, and possibly my favourite of all the 9 latin and ballroom dances that I dance. My favourite dance does vary though and it usually depends on what is going well!! But at the moment I am really loving and feeling the rumba!

More Strictly Come Dancing News!

Wow, the producers are really going to town and ringing in the changes to Strictly Come Dancing this year. Not only have a judge and pro gone, to be replaced, they are now dropping the Sunday night show and extending Saturday night. The BBC News Article is online now. Only time will tell how successful these changes are. The BBC are citing the unpopularity of the Sunday show, but for some of us it was light relief for a boring day, and allowed some extra pro demos and dances you might not otherwise have seen. It’s a bit sad really, but we’ll see how extended Saturday night’s show gets!

Evening of Dance

We attended the Evening of Dance at Blackpool Tower on Friday night. These are great nights with a combination of ballroom dancing, latin dancing, sequence dancing, some fun dances and demonstrations from youth formation teams and professional ballroom and latin dancers. Friday night was the turn of James and Ola Jordan from Strictly Come Dancing. As I put in my previous Evening of Dance post, James and Ola are latin dance specialists, and they didn’t disappoint! They performed a Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble and Cha Cha. I have posted a video of their Samba routine. I will post more videos shortly, as seeing is believing. They take latin dances and apply their own unique style to them, which I have to say, I do like, as did the rest of the audience. There was plenty of opportunity for us to practice our ballroom dances and latin dances, with our Rumba probably turning out best on what is a very demanding floor. We have agreed that we need to spend more regular time there to get used to the floor, which is very hard and tightly sprung compared to what we are used to. However many people believe it is the best floor in the World. I have no doubt that is is one of the most magnificent ballrooms.

Back to the Ballroom

After having a week off from dancing, Thursday was our 1st night back and it felt good to be on the dancefloor! A lot of work on Foxtrot was done by all! It’s rather a nice routine though, if, as with all good Foxtrots, rather tricky. I was also pleased to have remembered the top line style for a move in Quickstep, called barrels. Now I need to get the footwork back and the move should be ready for perfecting! I will try and post a video at some point as trying to describe the step is very tricky.

All the improvements I had made to my rumba style were still there too. I think more of the same is needed to squeeze a bit more out of my hips, then I need to somehow train my arms to become fluid! Easier said than done. I have tried several times, each no less self conscious than the last. I was intending to post this yesterday but had to leave for Blackpool.

Wedding Dance

Although this isn’t anything like ballroom dancing or latin dancing, it is all about fun! Dancing should always be fun and if you can do something special for your first dance at your wedding then everyone will smile!

Please watch this & pass it on, the happy couple having fun in their first dance. Please also categorise it under wedding dance.

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Strictly Come Dancing Shocker

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It has been reported today that the BBC have sacked Karen Hardy from Strictly Come Dancing. This would seemingly be a blow to the show and to Karen, after she came out of retirement to dance again on the show. The series she won with Mark Ramprakash in 2006 showed her true ability, despite being the most senior member of the professionals. She has shown us in show dances too what a great dancer she is, more than matching many of the younger dancers.

After replacing Arlene Phillips, albeit with the very talented Alesha Dixon, the BBC have made yet another odd move in replacing the old with the new but are we really going to get the choreography insight and comments like “I just want raw sex” from Alesha. She can dance, yes, but is replacing someone with many years experience really the right move when dancing is something that is benefitted so much by experience. Only time will tell I suppose, but the replacement dancer will certainly have some very big, adept shoes to fill!" 

Evening of Dance

What:	Evening of Dance
When:	Friday, August 7, 2009 7:00 PM to Saturday, August 8, 2009 12:00 AM
Where:	Blackpool Tower Ballroom Promenade Blackpool, Lancashire FY1 4BJ   United Kingdom

We will be attending the Evening of Dance on Friday 7th August.

It will be exciting to see James & Ola Jordan for the first time at the Tower. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the names, they dance on Strictly Come Dancing, and specialise in latin dancing, with extremely sensual rumbas. These nights tend to be great as there is a mixture of dances from the professionals, along with dances from some of the best junior formation teams in the country, and the rest of us get to take to what is arguably the best dancefloor in the World too. There is certainly a magic atmosphere and buzz on the floor and always some great dancers in attendance. It is usually a pretty well packed night with little space on the dancefloor, despite its huge size, but it just teaches what is commonly known as floorcraft, i.e. learning to avoid other couples!

Photos from the Evening of Dance will follow.

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You will be treated to regular updates including discussions about classes and steps, which will hopefully be useful and/or inspirational!

Ballroom and Latin Dancing Intro

The Ballroom and Latin Dancing blog is the view of dancing from an amateur!

I have been doing ballroom and latin dancing for 4 years now, taking exams through UKA. My partner and I like to help beginners along the way too, as it is a very daunting experience dancing for the first time, especially if there are more advanced dancers in your class! I have found however that dancing classes generally have friendly people in them that understand that starting to learn dancing is a tricky step to take. Ballroom and latin dancing are particularly so as they are structured forms of dancing, I.e. each one has certain set moves that you will learn, and the timing is strict.

Technorati Tags: latin dancing,ballroom dancing,amateur dancing,dancing