Dance Weekend of the Year (so far!)

As you may be able to tell from my lack of posting in the past few months I have been rather busy (with work and dance) but regular updates about someone's lessons aren't particularly interesting! This weekend however is a little bit of a busy one. My partner and I are in a show ... albeit not for very long, however for the second year running we are taking part in the DAPA show. Our theme is Back to the Future and all 3 movies & time periods are covered in a mixture of dance styles, song and acting with around 230 people of all ages taking part! As well as ballroom and latin sections (to which we belong, dancing a mambo) there is contemporary dance, jazz, tap dance, ballet, belly dance and a bit of street, too! It's a mammoth task to put it all together and we have had about 9 weeks of rehearsals for 3 shows, 1 tonight and 2 tomorrow. I can't wait, although I'm not sure getting roped into working the car park on these rainy days was my finest hour!



After the shows are done I hope to try and relax a bit on Sunday ready for Sunday evening when I take 4 exams, 2 ballroom and 2 latin across 10 dances. I will be taking President's Award and Majestic Award for each, to add to the other 8 exams I have already taken for each! I would normally take them every 6 months however a busy schedule at the end of last year meant cramming 2 this time round!

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!!