Strictly Come Dancing – week 1

[shallowness]

The cheap jibe about the opening routine is that Oti would actually be dreaming of winning the glitter ball trophy last year. But mostly I thought the opening routine was lovely, from the way they transitioned into the dream, brought everyone in to managing the costume chane.

Enter Tess in a metallic dress, Claudia in a trouser suit (black and white, natch). Shirley’s outfit was too fussy, although it worked better when she was seated. I loved the colour of Darcy’s dress, but she went OTT on the probably fake tan. Bruno and Craig wore clothes also.

I honestly don’t remember what I thought of Gemma. But apart from seeing everyone dance for the first time, we were obviously seeing Shirley judge for the first time. She seemed willing to offer constructive criticism and aware that it was the first week. Her marking seemed mostly sane, although for a while she and Darcey were sticking to the middle ground between the others. Her marking got a little more quirky later on, but there were 15 dances. Like the celebs, I had no idea what most of the steps she mentioned were, but I enjoyed her flashing her ballroom and Latin expertise, and best of all, she corrected Darcey on the technical stuff. Ha. We’ll let the name slip and mishear pass for now.

I thought the props were a mistake for Brian, but others had props too. However, giving him red shoes and purposely drawing attention to his feet was unquestionably a mistake.

Alexandra was indeed emotive. I think she and Gorka have oodles of chemistry. No surprise that she has musicality. I look forward to seeing lots more of dances (with more content in hold?) from them.

Simon was terrible. I repeated ‘Oh dear’ about seven times during his routine. I feel sorry for Karen being given this after last year’s Will Young weirdness. FWIW, I thought Brian was better.

Charlotte was indeed very elegant (but lost in the overall show? I had to check where she was in the running order. And while it was nice to have all fifteen dancing in the same show for comparison purposes, because a short Friday show has a different feel to a longer Saturday one, this was quite the marathon of increasing hysteria.) I had my annual gripe that the foxtrot is a mean dance for the first week.

The start of Chizzy’s routine was gimmicky. I was most impressed by her recovery from the wardrobe malfunction, but that was my main take-out from her dance.

I have such a soft spot for Jonnie, and thought the choreography was taking. I think it’s a partnership with potential what with her being strict and competitive, and him being competitive and fully into the show.

It’s also too early for the jive, simply because it demands such a lot of stamina. While I liked Joe a little less than the judges (but I liked the routine more in hindsight), he was so light on his feet and did more, better dancing than Ed managed all of last year, so I’m happy that Katya is happy.

Well played, Susan and Kevin. So hammy but enjoyable, because she was thoroughly going for it, even though she was skippy. And he’s coming off as much more likeable because he’s got a duff candidate who embraces it all fully.

Debbie was AMAZING. I know she has a dance background, and if I’m picky, I though there were moment where she was unstable, but her shaping, suppleness and attitude were great. I think she got a little too full of adrenaline, hence the improvisation that threw Giovanni. But do you want a glitter ball, Giovanni? Then go along with the dancing cougar.

Davood and Nadiya didn’t seem to have chemistry in the VT, but I did cover my eyes by the time the Pearly King and Queen turned up, so I wasn’t expecting the dance. He was rather, er, commanding.

Ruth did indeed look good in her gown – I wasn’t convinced by all the dresses with fringing around the waist until the ladies started dancing in them. On a night when nobody else had massively gone wrong, they had to pick up on her doing so.

Richard’s entrance left us in no doubt of what to expect. I know I will get annoyed with him eventually, although he didn’t deserve a 6, SHIRLEY. But you could see the little boy he once was in his dancing, which was endearing,

Mollie’s jive had less content than Joe’s and wasn’t as good. Given how irritated I have been so far by her personification of the dumb blonde, I don’t mind that she underperformed.

We closed with Mr Showman. I mean Aston. Again, his musicality shouldn’t be a surprise, but I was impressed by all the details – could be Janette’s best chance of getting to the finals. (Shirley clearly hadn’t realised the import of the glory slot.)

I noticed less irony from the celebs over the VTs. It’s early yet. There will be plenty of nonsense for them to carry out. There was lots of celebs bringing their pro to work, possibly because of the ‘but who are these people?’ reaction.