Strictly Come Dancing, Week 4 [video]

First up, and illustrating this week’s ballroom dance of the quickstep, were Christine and Matthew, dancing to Scouting for Girls’ She’s So Lovely. To an extent the song worked against them, requiring a bit too much preliminary choreography before getting into the main dance itself as the chorus kicked in. Len expressed his dislike of people spending too much time ‘on the stage’, but here I think the couple exonerated themselves by ensuring that much of that work was at least in hold.

The rest of the routine was light and enjoyable, and while Arlene said that they needed to keep the momentum going, I think they did well on that front considering the music basically comes to a dead halt halfway through the song. With the judges giving it scores of 6 + 6 + 7 + 7 = 26 points, they dropped a point from their week 2 foxtrot.

This week’s Latin dance was the rumba, and Jodie and Ian attempted the dance’s sense of heightened sensuality to I Can’t Stop Loving You. I’m not sure they were entirely successful: at times, Jodie was clearly struggling with the need to act out the emotion, and at others her footwork seemed a bit heavy. But there were moments, too, where she clearly showed potential, and was quite clearly improved from her last competitive dance a fortnight ago. A shame, then, that the scores of 4 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 22 points where a whole 3 points lower than her foxtrot scores.

Back to the Quickstep, and Heather and Brian came up with quite a pleasant routine to Old Man Time. Unfortunately, it started off badly, as Heather was completely out of step with Brian before they got into hold. Once they were together, though, their footwork united and ended up with a nice, light routine. I actually liked it better than Christine and Matthew’s, but the judges disagreed, marking it 6 + 5 + 6 + 6 = 23 points, three points lower than their impressive salsa two weeks ago.

Cherie and James were next up with a rumba to Songbird that epitomised the romantic and sensual qualities of the dance. A delight to watch, Cherie’s acting ability really sold the emotion of the piece, helped by the great chemistry she has with her professional partner. Cherie and James really complement one another on the dance floor, which helps enormously. Great footwork and some dazzling spins scored them 9 + 9 + 8 + 9 = 35 points, the highest score of the series so far, the highest Strictly score for a rumba ever, and ensuring that they stay at the very top of the judges’ scoreboards across the last four weeks, with a total of 68 from two dances beating Austin and Erin’s combined score of 66.

Update: Apparently Colin Jackson and Erin Boag got 36 points for their Rumba in Week 8 of Series 3, and the same score when they reprised it in the final. That’ll teach me to believe Tess Daly!

Back to Earth with a bump, as Jessie and Darren struggled to entertain with their quickstep to The Beatles’ Help!. At times Jessie looked as if she was being dragged around the dance floor, and at others even Darren’s usually impeccable beaming smile looked more than a little forced. Not a complete disaster, then, but clearly the weakest dance of the competition this week. The judges’ scores concurred, with 3 + 5 + 5 + 6 = 19 points meaning that only Gary and Karen scored lower this series.

Thankfully, we returned to some classic elegance with Lisa and Brendan’s Rumba to Suddenly. This is the sort of choreography that Brendan loves, with lots of long, elegant lines, quick spins and a splash of melodrama. It was a masterclass in how taking a moment in a routine to be still doesn’t necessarily kill the momentum. After their comparatively poor salsa two weeks ago, they redeemed themselves with scores of 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 32 points, a whole ten points up on two weeks ago, and moving them up to 5th on the leaderboard that we’re including in our downloadable scoresheets.

The final competitve dance of the evening was Rachel and Vincent’s quickstep to Little Green Bag. And while they possibly took longer to get into hold than either of the other quickstep couples this week, they were the first to look completely in step with each other throughout. Light and bubbly without ever becoming too skippy, I’d say that this couple are shaping up to be real competition for the top spots of the competition. The judges’ scores agreed, with 8 + 8 + 9 + 8 = 33 points putting the dance in the top five highest scoring dances of the series so far.

The boys’ group dance this week was a Rueda. It was clearly a lot of fun for all concerned, most especially John — who seemed to quite forget where he was at numerous points, but bore all the airs of one who didn’t give a fig. While the judges praised Austin, the points at which the camera was on him didn’t show us too much of his footwork. For me, the only ones to really stand out (for the right reasons) were Tom and Don. Full credit, though, to the whole group for the amazing lift at the end.

This week’s dance-off was, I suspect, always going to feature Jessie and Darren — but who would be joining them? I personally was expecting Jodie and Ian to be in there, but the public vote went for the next lowest-scoring couple instead, so it was a duel of the quicksteps against Heather and Brian. Both couples looked remarkably improved, perhaps illustrating for both that nerves played a big part in their earlier flaws. Ultimately, though, my preferred couple remained Heather and Brian, and thankfully Craig, Arlene and Bruno agreed, ensuring that the battle of the EastEnders stars was well and truly over in just the fourth week of the series.

Next week, all twelve remaining couples are in competition, which should produce some real competition. Cherie, Austin, Rachel and Tom are clearly the serious contenders, but after this week Lisa must surely be nipping at their heels. While there’s still some dead wood to be eliminated, I think we’re headed for a classic year of dancing.