![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI have been given to understand that the messy giant lindyhop that filled the Tower Ballroom dancefloor was influenced by Upstairs, Downstairs, not Downton. I’m sure there’s an appropriate hashtag for that.
So, after the on-the-night (slightly) controversial exit of Jamelia, this was going to be the night when the seven ‘contenders’ were going to do two dances.
TessnClaud were almost equally balanced outfitwise. From a distance, Tess’s looked the best, because the stripes at the bottom of Claudia’s skirt were too eye-catching. In close up, where you couldn’t see them, she looked fine, and Tess less so because of the fold of her dress. However, Tess’s hair and make-up were definitely the best.
Kellie and Kevin first, with a pretty enjoyable samba. They’d built it up so that Kellie not getting a busted nose was a win, but I noticed that she lost fluidity in the transitions into the lifts before the judges pointed it out. She made the point that these were the first lifts she’d ever done, which a fair one. The marks were lower than I expected, so I adjusted accordingly for the play-along game of guessing the marks.
Second (?), Katie, (I’m not promising that the order is right from here on in, but I got them all) and I was starting to get worried that all the VTs would involve the celebs talking to camera at weird times of night and day. I have to say that that dark green sparkly heart thing on Katie’s chest was such a bad idea. It would have worked if the sparkly bits on her dress had all have been the same colour. The AT’s supposed to be sultry and sophisticated, no? And otherwise she fit the bill (ugh, I’m falling into the trap of talking about her looks). I quite enjoyed the dance and what they were doing with her legs. I thought her lack of core strength told against her, but then the judges were listing several billion things they’d noticed had gone wrong. Five (Criag) is a bit much in one short critique unless if they’re truly terrible.
The way Helen apologised for her emotional breakdown last week made me worried about her headspace this week and hoping she’d get through it all right. She did. Her Viennese Waltz was lovely. I adore her in ballroom. I liked that Aljiaz knew he only needed little moments out of hold, and the judges were right that she told a story throughout (although she IS an actress). I hoped her footwork would be all right – it was and Aljiaz was happy, in a way that suggested she danced that dance better than ever before on the dancefloor. A teary three tens, for a dance that demands a little more technique than the Charleston.
We had a Peter-centric rehash of last week. He did seem shaken by being in the dance-off in the VT. I liked the first glimpse of Janette’s dress when the show started, but the length of the skirt and the ribbon round her waist were really distracting me until the lifts, when the pink underskirt under blue made a lot more sense. I might as well admit I was mainly watching Janette, so I needed the judges’ comments about his topline. I was a bit iffy about the occasionally frenetic choreography, and, obviously, I am so over Peter.
Jay’s tango involved the return of Aliona’s tango ponytail. I think that they managed the updated traditional look well here, bearing in mind the music – and if it gives you the right mood, and isn’t too clinical, I don’t hate eighties pop songs for the tango. Oh, but this was good. While I didn’t see it in his face until towards the end when he managed some sneering, he always conveys the dance through his body. We had the usual lines and some really nice touches, plus definite intensity, though I wish he’d have paused in character at the end for two or three seconds longer before he did that thing where he basically gives away how the dance has gone. Heel leads done him in, but that’s still his best score and I’m so glad he’s strung together two good dances in a row.
The rumba of what will Gleb come up with came next, although the trail was about Anita (who I believe has probably had the least dance training of all the celebs left before Strictly) feeling exposed. Well, you would wearing a see-through sheet of an outfit. I wasn’t watching the beginning of the dance much, because I was trying to work out from where the page of text came – Persuasion, which is both clever and hilarious, because I very much doubt Austen was thinking of anything like a Strictly rumba when she wrote the novel. Anyway, what came next was beautiful until there was a jump (oh, Gleb, no!) and I thought Anita did what she was given quite well. But then came the judges and Len’s sourpuss face and we had the rumba choreography lecture, again, and the rumba this year has been a wash-out, really. But I do think Gleb, having seen what worked with the judges and what didn’t, could have made different choreographic choices. Joint bottom with Peter (it was at this point that I decided that, depending on what happened in the quickstepathon, I might vote for her).
This is the one week where the honour of being last was no honour at all, because of the quick change. The Final Countdown plus the paso is a genius combination, conceptually. It felt like the dance was fast, and Georgia was snatching at moves, although overall, you couldn’t fault her confidence. But the memory of Anita’s paso was hovering over it all. Again, the judges were a little pickier than I’d expected.
At least they had the sense to do a pre-record of Len explaining what was going to go on, because even though most of the rules were advice in disguise, it made more sense than it would have live. Claudia, for example, asked him what the dancers should do, and he rambled on about what was going to happen. I’m presuming that he did DWTS and is now knackered given how badly he responded, even for him, to the studio audience booing him for criticising stuff. We always reach that point at some time. Maybe someone could make him a hologram of someone doing a heel lead that would pop up every time he was feeling testy.
I loved the embellished tops of the ladies’ gowns but the stripy skirts did not match! Two were in deeper colours, while the others were rather muted.
After all the hype, the quickstepathon disappointed, I thought. (Ah well, better this than Blackpool because it was quite short.) Not so much the lack of carnage/someone ending up on the audience’s lap, as that I had no sense of what was going on. The judges took an age to decide on the order. I like the principle of several couples being on the floor doing the same dance for comparison purposes, but can’t they just put two couples on or something?
Predictably, it was always going to be harder for the couples with a male celeb (ha, Peter!) so I think Jay can take coming fifth as a win. I have no idea what happened with Kellie and Kevin, who’d done a good quickstep last week. But I have no idea about most of anything that happened during the quickstepathon. That Helen triumphed over Georgia was telling – although I think Helen was a little fortunate in the dances this week (but then, so was Katie in that it was a quickstep). And, actually, it didn’t affect the two ends of the leaderboard much, now did it?
So, I voted for Jay and Anita.
I didn’t engage much with the opening number, just had random thoughts like: Oti must come back next year; that’s the Strictly version of a cut-off dungaree, but how does it even work?: who is that blonde dancer?; the men haven’t much to do except quick changes and being The Sandy from Grease in this one.
Tess beat Claudia in the fashion stakes, but she showed off her terrible comic timing again.
I was glad of another look at the leaderboard to guess who would join Peter. In hindsight, as the quickstepathon mark did bring Kellie down and she’d been in the bottom before, I should have guessed it would be her. (Next week will mean someone is in the dance-off for the first time.)
Like Claudia noted, suddenly the lack of numbers is very striking. Musicals next week, eh?
Adam Lambert’s song was only interesting when he sang in his higher register, but I loved Karen and Kevin’s fusion, which somehow worked, bringing in contemporary, traditional and more. My only quibble is that I’d rather she’d have worn black trousers and a black blouse too instead of something that screamed JLo.
I could have done with more scrutiny of the couples as they did the quickstepathon in Len’s Lens (although if they’d looked more closely at others, would it have shown the judges up?). Peter really can’t kick.
Il Divo did their usual slot and I didn’t care until Natalie and Gleb came in to dance. I’m thinking they did a tango that morphed into an Argentine Tango. Anyway, it was brill.
Confirmation that Peter was out, because Kellie would have to forget all her steps and be dropped by Kevin to be voted off. Interesting that the judges were now asked to explain why they wanted to save a couple – I think they’ll claim the show was running short, and there was a lot of time for chatting, but cynical minds will assume that it was because of the response to their sending Jamelia home.
So, after the on-the-night (slightly) controversial exit of Jamelia, this was going to be the night when the seven ‘contenders’ were going to do two dances.
TessnClaud were almost equally balanced outfitwise. From a distance, Tess’s looked the best, because the stripes at the bottom of Claudia’s skirt were too eye-catching. In close up, where you couldn’t see them, she looked fine, and Tess less so because of the fold of her dress. However, Tess’s hair and make-up were definitely the best.
Kellie and Kevin first, with a pretty enjoyable samba. They’d built it up so that Kellie not getting a busted nose was a win, but I noticed that she lost fluidity in the transitions into the lifts before the judges pointed it out. She made the point that these were the first lifts she’d ever done, which a fair one. The marks were lower than I expected, so I adjusted accordingly for the play-along game of guessing the marks.
Second (?), Katie, (I’m not promising that the order is right from here on in, but I got them all) and I was starting to get worried that all the VTs would involve the celebs talking to camera at weird times of night and day. I have to say that that dark green sparkly heart thing on Katie’s chest was such a bad idea. It would have worked if the sparkly bits on her dress had all have been the same colour. The AT’s supposed to be sultry and sophisticated, no? And otherwise she fit the bill (ugh, I’m falling into the trap of talking about her looks). I quite enjoyed the dance and what they were doing with her legs. I thought her lack of core strength told against her, but then the judges were listing several billion things they’d noticed had gone wrong. Five (Criag) is a bit much in one short critique unless if they’re truly terrible.
The way Helen apologised for her emotional breakdown last week made me worried about her headspace this week and hoping she’d get through it all right. She did. Her Viennese Waltz was lovely. I adore her in ballroom. I liked that Aljiaz knew he only needed little moments out of hold, and the judges were right that she told a story throughout (although she IS an actress). I hoped her footwork would be all right – it was and Aljiaz was happy, in a way that suggested she danced that dance better than ever before on the dancefloor. A teary three tens, for a dance that demands a little more technique than the Charleston.
We had a Peter-centric rehash of last week. He did seem shaken by being in the dance-off in the VT. I liked the first glimpse of Janette’s dress when the show started, but the length of the skirt and the ribbon round her waist were really distracting me until the lifts, when the pink underskirt under blue made a lot more sense. I might as well admit I was mainly watching Janette, so I needed the judges’ comments about his topline. I was a bit iffy about the occasionally frenetic choreography, and, obviously, I am so over Peter.
Jay’s tango involved the return of Aliona’s tango ponytail. I think that they managed the updated traditional look well here, bearing in mind the music – and if it gives you the right mood, and isn’t too clinical, I don’t hate eighties pop songs for the tango. Oh, but this was good. While I didn’t see it in his face until towards the end when he managed some sneering, he always conveys the dance through his body. We had the usual lines and some really nice touches, plus definite intensity, though I wish he’d have paused in character at the end for two or three seconds longer before he did that thing where he basically gives away how the dance has gone. Heel leads done him in, but that’s still his best score and I’m so glad he’s strung together two good dances in a row.
The rumba of what will Gleb come up with came next, although the trail was about Anita (who I believe has probably had the least dance training of all the celebs left before Strictly) feeling exposed. Well, you would wearing a see-through sheet of an outfit. I wasn’t watching the beginning of the dance much, because I was trying to work out from where the page of text came – Persuasion, which is both clever and hilarious, because I very much doubt Austen was thinking of anything like a Strictly rumba when she wrote the novel. Anyway, what came next was beautiful until there was a jump (oh, Gleb, no!) and I thought Anita did what she was given quite well. But then came the judges and Len’s sourpuss face and we had the rumba choreography lecture, again, and the rumba this year has been a wash-out, really. But I do think Gleb, having seen what worked with the judges and what didn’t, could have made different choreographic choices. Joint bottom with Peter (it was at this point that I decided that, depending on what happened in the quickstepathon, I might vote for her).
This is the one week where the honour of being last was no honour at all, because of the quick change. The Final Countdown plus the paso is a genius combination, conceptually. It felt like the dance was fast, and Georgia was snatching at moves, although overall, you couldn’t fault her confidence. But the memory of Anita’s paso was hovering over it all. Again, the judges were a little pickier than I’d expected.
At least they had the sense to do a pre-record of Len explaining what was going to go on, because even though most of the rules were advice in disguise, it made more sense than it would have live. Claudia, for example, asked him what the dancers should do, and he rambled on about what was going to happen. I’m presuming that he did DWTS and is now knackered given how badly he responded, even for him, to the studio audience booing him for criticising stuff. We always reach that point at some time. Maybe someone could make him a hologram of someone doing a heel lead that would pop up every time he was feeling testy.
I loved the embellished tops of the ladies’ gowns but the stripy skirts did not match! Two were in deeper colours, while the others were rather muted.
After all the hype, the quickstepathon disappointed, I thought. (Ah well, better this than Blackpool because it was quite short.) Not so much the lack of carnage/someone ending up on the audience’s lap, as that I had no sense of what was going on. The judges took an age to decide on the order. I like the principle of several couples being on the floor doing the same dance for comparison purposes, but can’t they just put two couples on or something?
Predictably, it was always going to be harder for the couples with a male celeb (ha, Peter!) so I think Jay can take coming fifth as a win. I have no idea what happened with Kellie and Kevin, who’d done a good quickstep last week. But I have no idea about most of anything that happened during the quickstepathon. That Helen triumphed over Georgia was telling – although I think Helen was a little fortunate in the dances this week (but then, so was Katie in that it was a quickstep). And, actually, it didn’t affect the two ends of the leaderboard much, now did it?
So, I voted for Jay and Anita.
I didn’t engage much with the opening number, just had random thoughts like: Oti must come back next year; that’s the Strictly version of a cut-off dungaree, but how does it even work?: who is that blonde dancer?; the men haven’t much to do except quick changes and being The Sandy from Grease in this one.
Tess beat Claudia in the fashion stakes, but she showed off her terrible comic timing again.
I was glad of another look at the leaderboard to guess who would join Peter. In hindsight, as the quickstepathon mark did bring Kellie down and she’d been in the bottom before, I should have guessed it would be her. (Next week will mean someone is in the dance-off for the first time.)
Like Claudia noted, suddenly the lack of numbers is very striking. Musicals next week, eh?
Adam Lambert’s song was only interesting when he sang in his higher register, but I loved Karen and Kevin’s fusion, which somehow worked, bringing in contemporary, traditional and more. My only quibble is that I’d rather she’d have worn black trousers and a black blouse too instead of something that screamed JLo.
I could have done with more scrutiny of the couples as they did the quickstepathon in Len’s Lens (although if they’d looked more closely at others, would it have shown the judges up?). Peter really can’t kick.
Il Divo did their usual slot and I didn’t care until Natalie and Gleb came in to dance. I’m thinking they did a tango that morphed into an Argentine Tango. Anyway, it was brill.
Confirmation that Peter was out, because Kellie would have to forget all her steps and be dropped by Kevin to be voted off. Interesting that the judges were now asked to explain why they wanted to save a couple – I think they’ll claim the show was running short, and there was a lot of time for chatting, but cynical minds will assume that it was because of the response to their sending Jamelia home.
