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!!

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!

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.

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.

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