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shallownessSaturday’s show ended with me knowing who I wanted to be in the bottom two (Nicky and Lisa – I thought they were clearly the weakest dancers left), but not sure who I thought deserved to be in the final, working on the assumption that three couples will be left (?). I generally know who I want to win or who deserves to win, and usually conflate the two by this point, but this year I am confused. And so I voted for Dani, Louis and Kimblerley.
For Denise and James fumbled again – not as badly or obviously, perhaps – while the other three improved. (Can I just say that I loved Craig’s scoring for most of the night? He was consistent and didn’t box himself into giving equal scores to undeserving dances, and balanced out others’ overmarking.) I got the impression that James was clearly worried and the leaderboard meant we would probably find out how popular some people (okay, Lisa) were.
As for dance fusion, I’m leaning towards leaving it. I didn’t think it was an abomination, but with the better dancers I wanted more of both dances. I thought one or two of the fused dances were too far apart – samba/AS foxtrot (although a better technician than Nicky might have done better with the choreography) and, well, tango/the other stuff, for which I preferred Flavia’s solution – the lift worked really well in the context of the shift, better than Robin’s idea, which nearly was another clothing disaster. Where the dances fitted better, the all-mixed-together approach did work (also, I suspect that I’d have been bored by Dani and Vincent’s Charleston without the quickstep).
Bruce annoyed me more than usual. When he said ‘I wish you’d laugh more’ to the audience, I longed for a heckler to say ‘tell better jokes’. He does jump between ‘self-deprecating’ and ‘laugh at everything I do, I’m that good’. He also seems to want the judges (Craig...ooh and Darcey) to ignore glaring faults and pretend that energy (Lisa) and showmanship (Nicky) and hard work make up for them, which isn’t fair to the better dancers, who deserve praise and high scores, and for those scores to be meaningful - and if the viewers agree that Craig is cruel to their darlings and keep them on, they know what they have to work on. I found it hilarious that Robin was finally shown as being strict with Lisa. Perhaps it would have been better if he'd done that earlier and got her technique stronger then? I also preferred the training VTs where people kept falling/hitting each other/lying down in exhaustion than the ‘comedy’ ones.
Anyway, the top three for me were as follows: Dani and Vincent’s quickstep/Charleston. It was entertaining and quality. Like I said, I thought the Charleston stuff they did wasn’t exactly fresh, but it worked in context. I also really liked Louis and Flavia’s rumba/tango. I was back to ‘clever Flavia!’ re the choreography and I thought he danced with confidence in both styles and drew us in. And then Kimberley and Pasha – the fact they’d been given the closing slot after all we’d seen was intriguing. I thought she danced it absolutely fabulously and I was glad she got all the 10s (LOVED her reaction; the Tess hugging was genuinely sweet because it was so artless), but for me, the dance was too schizoid for coherence. So, there was stuff I loved about the top three, and I thought they deserved to be there (although, on her day, Denise is obviously their equal, it’s just that that day seems to be drifting away, and they all have a better journey).
Sunday's show started with a wonderous number, I love the song, I loved Ola’s giant eyelashes, I loved the take on Alice in Wonderland*, and then the way they worked the choreography and the camerawork in Anton and Erin’s dance to Buble’s song was brilliant – after so-so performances in the results show, it felt like a step up conceptually.
Results: ugh, so Lisa is more popular than Denise (if it comes down to it, I will vote for Denise because I’m exhausted by Lisa’s guff and Denise is clearly the better dancer, and it’s not like Lisa has improved much.) Nicky’s time to go, obvs, but Nicky Byrne, trained dancer, you made me laugh. Not as much as Claudia. Tess’s dress would have been better had the sequined rosettes been in a contrasting colour. I saw from the ITT trailer that I’ve missed all the Miranda Hart appearances. This saddens me.
*but given the theme, why no dormouse?
For Denise and James fumbled again – not as badly or obviously, perhaps – while the other three improved. (Can I just say that I loved Craig’s scoring for most of the night? He was consistent and didn’t box himself into giving equal scores to undeserving dances, and balanced out others’ overmarking.) I got the impression that James was clearly worried and the leaderboard meant we would probably find out how popular some people (okay, Lisa) were.
As for dance fusion, I’m leaning towards leaving it. I didn’t think it was an abomination, but with the better dancers I wanted more of both dances. I thought one or two of the fused dances were too far apart – samba/AS foxtrot (although a better technician than Nicky might have done better with the choreography) and, well, tango/the other stuff, for which I preferred Flavia’s solution – the lift worked really well in the context of the shift, better than Robin’s idea, which nearly was another clothing disaster. Where the dances fitted better, the all-mixed-together approach did work (also, I suspect that I’d have been bored by Dani and Vincent’s Charleston without the quickstep).
Bruce annoyed me more than usual. When he said ‘I wish you’d laugh more’ to the audience, I longed for a heckler to say ‘tell better jokes’. He does jump between ‘self-deprecating’ and ‘laugh at everything I do, I’m that good’. He also seems to want the judges (Craig...ooh and Darcey) to ignore glaring faults and pretend that energy (Lisa) and showmanship (Nicky) and hard work make up for them, which isn’t fair to the better dancers, who deserve praise and high scores, and for those scores to be meaningful - and if the viewers agree that Craig is cruel to their darlings and keep them on, they know what they have to work on. I found it hilarious that Robin was finally shown as being strict with Lisa. Perhaps it would have been better if he'd done that earlier and got her technique stronger then? I also preferred the training VTs where people kept falling/hitting each other/lying down in exhaustion than the ‘comedy’ ones.
Anyway, the top three for me were as follows: Dani and Vincent’s quickstep/Charleston. It was entertaining and quality. Like I said, I thought the Charleston stuff they did wasn’t exactly fresh, but it worked in context. I also really liked Louis and Flavia’s rumba/tango. I was back to ‘clever Flavia!’ re the choreography and I thought he danced with confidence in both styles and drew us in. And then Kimberley and Pasha – the fact they’d been given the closing slot after all we’d seen was intriguing. I thought she danced it absolutely fabulously and I was glad she got all the 10s (LOVED her reaction; the Tess hugging was genuinely sweet because it was so artless), but for me, the dance was too schizoid for coherence. So, there was stuff I loved about the top three, and I thought they deserved to be there (although, on her day, Denise is obviously their equal, it’s just that that day seems to be drifting away, and they all have a better journey).
Sunday's show started with a wonderous number, I love the song, I loved Ola’s giant eyelashes, I loved the take on Alice in Wonderland*, and then the way they worked the choreography and the camerawork in Anton and Erin’s dance to Buble’s song was brilliant – after so-so performances in the results show, it felt like a step up conceptually.
Results: ugh, so Lisa is more popular than Denise (if it comes down to it, I will vote for Denise because I’m exhausted by Lisa’s guff and Denise is clearly the better dancer, and it’s not like Lisa has improved much.) Nicky’s time to go, obvs, but Nicky Byrne, trained dancer, you made me laugh. Not as much as Claudia. Tess’s dress would have been better had the sequined rosettes been in a contrasting colour. I saw from the ITT trailer that I’ve missed all the Miranda Hart appearances. This saddens me.
*but given the theme, why no dormouse?
