Recent posts in the Strictly Come Dancing category

There comes a point in every series of Strictly Come Dancing where you realise you’re about to enter the home straight, and that’s when the couples have to start dancing twice a week.

We’re at that point now, so more than ever it’s the couples who can cope best in both Ballroom and Latin disciplines who will fare best out of the judges’ marks. The couple with the biggest disparity of marks across disciplines is currently Lisa and Brendan. Christine and Matthew are more consistent, but their average scores are so much lower than the other four couples’ that their continued presence in the competition must be in peril.

After their perfect 40 last week, Rachel and Vincent leap to the top of the judges’ series scoreboard. Together with their consistent scoring in both Ballroom and Latin, they’re surely serious contenders now.

The layout’s changed slightly because of the change in number of dances, but the scoresheet is here:

Strictly Come Dancing 2008, week 11 scoresheet [PDF] (right-click and select ‘Save As…’ or similar to download to your computer)

As ever, come back during or after the show to discuss your opinions and share your scores; the TV Today review will be available on Monday.

Well, we may have been unexpectedly down to six couples rather than seven this week, but that didn’t mean the entertainment levels dropped at all. In fact, if anything, it showed that Strictly Come Dancing is more entertaining when you have a set of competitors who all have a chance, rather than some who can dance and some who are popular for being rubbish.

In the last week where all couples had one competitive dance, Lisa and Brendan kicked off with a lively Quickstep to Merry Clayton’s Yes. Smooth and lively throughout, nevertheless the choreography didn’t really thrill me at all. Even Brendan’s flamboyant leap which topped and tailed the dance added little to the overall thrill. Technically, though, it was good, although in common with nearly all the celebrities Lisa still has trouble with her gapping. I didn’t see her trip over Brendan’s foot as Craig claimed she did, but she knew what he was talking about and took his points on board.

The judges’ scores of 8 + 9 + 9 + 9 = 35 points were good, and appropriate to the standard Lisa has achieved. But would they be good enough?

Next up, Christine and Matthew danced a Cha-cha-cha to Pete Rodriguez’ I Like It Like That (instantly recognisable if, like me, your local cinema is an Odeon as they use it on a trailer before every film). Unfortunately, the song takes a while to warm up, and so did the dancers. Throughout it was a very stop-and-start dance, and while in places that was because the choreography was attempting to match the music, in others it felt more due to a hesitancy on Christine’s part. Her hips weren’t moving as well as they could — and as Arlene pointed out this time and has so often before, that’s often a result of not pushing through with the feet.

At this point, Len started berating Craig because he’d been a bit too critical. Normally I like Len, but in this case I thought Craig’s criticisms were perfectly appropriate. They weren’t presented nastily, and he did complement her finishes. Unfortunately, Len’s outburst made Craig seem the reasonable one on the panel. How often does that happen?

The judges’ scores of 6 + 6 + 8 + 7 = 27 were disappointing, but again appropriate for the quality of the dance. Christine does seem to be among the most variable of the competitors, and unlike some her consistency doesn’t seem to have any relation to the ballroom/Latin divide.

Talking of inconsistency, Jodie and Ian have struggled with most Latin dances, while coping well with the ballroom repertoire. Here, their Jive to Great Balls of Fire bucked the trend a little. It was certainly better than most of the couple’s Latin attempts to date, and all the more impressive given that Jodie was clearly suffering with illness. It did feel more like a week 4 or 5 dance rather than a week 10 one, though.

The judges’ scores of 7 + 7 + 8 + 8 = 30 were a little over-generous, I thought: personally I would have placed Christine just above Jodie.

So after two middling dances, it was time for the three main competitors to show their stuff. Of course, now that John and Kristina have bowed out, there will only be places for two couples in the final…

It’s all been kicking off this week, hasn’t it? Mark’s had a couple of posts already about the increasingly bizarre turns the competition has taken this week, so we won’t dwell on that.

What it does mean is that, rather unexpectedly, we’re down to six couples rather than seven.

On to the entertainment, though, and here is the Strictly Come Dancing scoresheet for week 10 [PDF].

As the competition starts to heat up, I’ve changed the table of all the couples’ results slightly to take note of how all the contestants compare with Ballroom and Latin disciplines. Perhaps unsurprisingly, every single couple who has danced both (which excludes our early exiting couples) has scored on average higher for Ballroom than for Latin. The most consistent across both disciplines, though, are Rachel and Vincent. Whether that will be enough to topple both Tom and Austin in this second half of the series, only time will tell.

and Dance!

Oh good grief, it comes to something when the brouhaha over John Sergeant and Strictly Come Dancing is being discussed on the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2. What next, a Panorama expose into the scandal of Sargegate?

Poor old JS hasn’t done anything wrong apart from saying yes to appearing on what is a popular light entertainment show. And let’s just stress the words “light” and “entertainment” there, just for the record. I’m not watching BE THE BEST AT DANCING ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD EVER!!!!!, I’m watching Strictly Come Dancing and loving tuning in to see John Sergeant being entertaining (ooh, there’s that pesky E word again). I also love seeing the other dancers strutting their stuff, it’s what the show is all about.

Before we get down to business for this week’s Strictly Come Dancing review, can I just say something? Somebody dancing well is more entertaining than somebody who can’t dance at all. All eight couples danced well tonight, with some making more mistakes or being more uncomfortable than others. I know who my pick of the seven couples to go through to next week would have been. Lovely as they are as people, John Sergeant and Kristina Rihanoff would not be among them.

Yes, Strictly is an entertainment show. But given the strong field shown this week, a programme without John could not in any way be less entertaining with his absence.

Ahem. With that out of the way, along with another apology to contributors to our You be the judge post who had their results show enjoyment spoilt by an inconsiderate person blabbing the result, let’s get on with the business at hand: reviewing one of the strongest Strictly competitions ever. John included.

Well, John Sergeant’s still here. How did that happen? On the bright side there are seven other couples that are all trying hard, and hopefully this will be the week that the voting public appreciates that good dances are far more entertaining than rubbish ones.

My attempt last week to order the scoresheet in accordance with the BBC’s running order proved, er, a little ineffectual, so I’ve gone back to arranging the couples in alphabetical order to be on the safe side. However, just in case, here’s the ordering as suggested by the official website:

• John & Kristina — American Smooth
• Tom & Camilla — Salsa
• Christine & Matthew — Waltz
• Lisa & Brendan — Samba
• Austin & Erin — Tango
• Cherie & James — Cha-cha-cha
• Jodie & Ian — Quickstep
• Rachel & Vincent — Rumba

To get ready for tomorrow’s show, download this week’s score sheet. See you back here for your scores, and our review will be online on Monday as usual.

There’s one element of the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing coverage which is a simple, but effective, innovation this year. I’m not talking about It Takes Two, the programme which provides many a tabloid hack with a one-stop shop for hastily constructed ‘stories’ about the Strictly competitors. While that’s fun to watch, it’s now in its fifth series and at times the struggle to provide something new shows a little too plainly.

No, the real innovation lies on the BBC’s Strictly website: it’s the fixed camera view.

From the comments we’ve received on our “you be the judge” post, one senses that at the public may be slowly wakening up to the fact that the longer John stays in the competition, the riskier it becomes for couples who have a genuine chance at this year’s title. But more of that anon — first, we have to get on with our reviews of each of the competitive dances…

First up were Tom and Camilla, dancing a Quickstep to A Town Called Malice. Now, given that Len had castigated the couple last week for too much faffing about before getting into hold, it was definite risk allowing Tom to do his own thing on the stage area before leaping into hold. However, it proved to pay off, as despite being one of the cheesiest moments so far in this series, it worked in setting the mood and style of the whole routine. Once into hold, the couple worked their usual magic together. In another daring move, Tom was either wearing white shoes or spats: I couldn’t quite tell which, but they certainly made his feet impossible to ignore and would have highlighted any dodgy footwork. Thankfully, it all worked out alright. I was less keen on his closing solo, although it did bring in some echoes of Billy Elliott, which uses the same song to similar uplifting effect.

The judges’ scores of 9 + 9 + 9 + 9 = 36 points were well deserved, and as well as being Tom and Camilla’s highest to date are also the joint highest of the series so far, joint with Austin and Erin’s dance last week (also a Quickstep). But would it give them clear water on the leaderboard?

Over to the Latin dances, and Jodie and Ian kicked off with a Samba to Help Yourself. They certainly needed more help, as Jodie really struggles with Latin dances, and struggles when out of hold — so here she doubly struggled. She had all the grace of a line-dancing hen party this week, which is such a shame as in the ballroom dances she and Ian work so well together.

That said, when the scores came in (3 + 6 + 7 + 7 = 24 points), I did think Craig’s score was a little harsh — although I also thought Len and Bruno were over-generous, so it all balances out.

Now that the number of competing couples is down to single figures, the competition really starts to hot up. Can John Sergeant escape elimination again? Will Heather and Brian have to perform a fourth dance-off? Will Bruce get through all of his links without fluffing once? We shall see…

This week’s scoresheet has one more change: thanks to the BBC now revealing more information in advance, I’ve been able to arrange the competitors in the order we’ve been told they will be dancing in. Things, as always, may change at the last minute, but fingers crossed that things will be a little easier if you’re playing along at home.

Strictly Come Dancing week 8 scoresheet [PDF]

• Looking for dance-related gift ideas? Have a look around The Stage Strictly Store, powered by Amazon.co.uk. The Strictly Annual 2008 is currently £7.79 - over £5 cheaper than the store price. There are also dance instructional books and DVDs, as well as biographies of Len and Craig and more…

As we approach the halfway stage of the competition, this week all the contestants were given a different dance style to master. The variety of the performances lifted the whole programme, I thought — although it does make it harder to compare couples directly against one another.

First onto the dance floor this week were Austin and Erin, with a Quickstep to ‘Swonderful. Erin’s enthusiasm for this dance style is obvious, and it also rubbed off on Austin: there was no sense that the smile on his face was in any way forced. In terms of footwork it was exceptionally good — I noticed one slight slip, but the recovery was so quick that he had rectified it within a beat. The conclusion to the dance came far too soon, but Erin’s peck on Austin’s cheek before flinging herself back summed up the delight the dance gave.

The judges loved it: 8 + 9 + 10 + 9 = 36 points making it the highest scoring dance of the competition so far, the first 10 of the series and propelling Austin and Erin to the top of the overall series leaderboard.

Next up, Heather and Brian delivered a Cha-cha-cha to Estelle’s American Boy. I actually thought that Heather did much better this week, certainly in terms of selling the choreography. Heather still had a problem with her footwork in places, though, which tied in to not enough hip movement and the overall feeling that her posture wasn’t all it could be. It is nice, though, to see her actually smiling at points during the dance, which makes a pleasant change. For a minute, Brian’s closing slide through Heather’s legs looked like it could topple his partner as he caught the inside of her shin — thankfully disaster was averted.

The judges weren’t too keen: 5 + 5 + 7 + 6 = 23 points, on a par with the couple’s week 4 quickstep and week 5 samba — a precariously low score when most couples are improving at a quicker rate.

Third up were Jodie and Ian, performing a waltz to Sandy’s Song. As I’ve said before, the classic ballroom disciplines really allow Jodie’s height to work in her favour, as opposed to the Latin dances that make her look so ungainly. Here, she and Ian captured the romantic spirit of the dance and the song.

Len pointed out that her footwork still needed improvement, as her heel leads need major work. Overall, though, the judges were charmed: 7 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 31 points, making it their highest scoring dance yet, just a point above their American Smooth from week 5.

Andrew and Ola were next, with what we were told was a Samba. How odd, then, that it should start with a Paso Doble-style opening. Apparently it was a last minute change to replace a knee slide that Andrew couldn’t manage due to an injury sustained earlier in the week. The revised opening worked, though. In fact, it was probably the best part of the whole dance. Full marks to Andrew for trying, bless him, but dance does just not come naturally to him, and he’s neither bad nor charismatic enough to divert any of the sympathy vote away from John Sergeant.

The judges’ scores of 4 + 5 + 7 + 5 = 21 points were only just below Andrew and Ola’s series average of 21.5 points, but it still ranked as their second worst dance so far, beaten only by their excruciating American Smooth two weeks ago.

More dances after the jump.

This week, our remaining ten couples will each be doing a different dance from the Strictly Come Dancing repertoire. As a result, there just wasn’t room on this week’s scoresheet to include all the historical information about each dance, as we’ve done for the last couple of weeks. On the upside, that did mean that (with a bit of jiggery pokery) the scoresheet is back onto two pages.

Download the Week 7 scoresheet [PDF]

While you’re here, why not check out these other offerings from The Stage:

• Hear Len Goodman talk to Matthew Hemley about the show’s win at the National Television Awards, taking a week off from Dancing With The Stars and his man-flu

• Read our review of Britannia High, Arlene Phillips’ new project for ITV

• Looking for dance-related gift ideas? Have a look around The Stage Strictly Store, powered by Amazon.co.uk. The Strictly Annual 2008 is currently £7.79 - over £5 cheaper than the store price. There are also dance instructional books and DVDs, as well as biographies of Len and Craig and more…

When Strictly Come Dancing was announced as the winner of last night’s Most Popular Talent Show at the National Television Awards, the show’s top judge Len Goodman was not there to join the rest of the programme’s team in collecting the gong. For one, he told me he is currently suffering from a “man cold”, meaning if he had gone he would not have been “on top form”. But more than that, he just doesn’t like the hype and attention that comes with big awards shows like the NTAs.

I would not have gone anyway. I don’t like red carpets. I like being there but I can’t stand walking up the carpets. It would have been lovely to have gone but I am glad I didn’t.

This week, our eleven remaining couples had to contend with either the romanticism of the Viennese Waltz, or the fiery passion of the Paso Doble. Nearly all of them struggled this week, with some of the strongest contenders slipping up, while one or two of the stragglers really tried to up their game. But all in all, it did feel like one of the weaker shows of the series so far — at least until John Sergaeant took to the floor…

Full reviews of each competitive dance, with video, after the jump.

Now that all our couples are competing against one another, it really does feel as if the competition has started in earnest, doesn’t it? Still, it carries on from now until Christmas, which I’m kidding myself is way, way off…

After last week’s mammoth 12-couple score sheet, I’ve streamlined this week’s a little. The dancers’ and Sunday dance-off score elements now fit back onto two pages, leaving page 3 for the leaderboard and a Strictly history of this week’s dances, the Paso Doble and the Viennese Waltz. Plus, there’s a plug for something that may be of interest as you’re planning for the aforementioned festive season…

Strictly Come Dancing scoresheet, week 6 [PDF] (right-click and select ‘Save As…’ or equivalent)

If you’re looking for any Strictly Come Dancing-related Christmas gift ideas, check out our new store, powered by amazon.co.uk. You’ll find this year’s official annual, the new CD of music from the series, the DVD of the live tour and much more, including Len and Craig’s biographies, various “teach yourself” dance DVDs and more. If you, a friend or relative love Strictly and you’re looking for Christmas gift ideas, where else would you need to go?

After last week’s stats trivia fest, there’s not much new statistics-wise to report, except possibly that in the entire run of all the series (excluding, as ever, Christmas specials where everybody votes as if they’ve had a little too much sherry), so far the judges have awarded 12,499 points between them over the course of 443 competitive dances.

No surprises for who has awarded the fewest points (Craig, with 2,857). Arlene is third with 3,041, beaten by Bruno with 3,263 and Len with 3,338.

All those stats mean that Craig will, with the next lift of one of his voting paddles, award the 12,500th point in Strictly Come Dancing history. Let’s just hope that the dance in question is good enough to merit a few more points on top…

In this week’s print issue of The Stage (and also reproduced online), a writer to the letters page wonders whether racism is a reality in TV talent shows:

I just wanted to get the chance to bring up an issue that has repeatedly come to my attention over the last year observing reality TV shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, I’d Do Anything, Last Choir Standing and The X-Factor and which I’m sad to say has very much been the case since these programmes began.

In these shows contestants of ethnic minorities are repeatedly voted off by the British public in situations where they are held in better esteem by their fellow contestants/judges/leaderboards than their white rivals indicating the ‘support your own ethnic/class group’ mentality of the British public, which surely makes any of these competitions unfair and must be very dispiriting for an ethnic minority performer in Britain.

Last week, of course, we had a Strictly Come Dancing dance-off between the only two ethnic minority celebrities, actor Don Warrington and singer Heather Small, despite three other couples receiving lower marks from the judges.

So does our letter writer have a point?