Strictly quarter-finals/musicals
Dec. 8th, 2020 08:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessSaturday
I was gathering my TV supper at the beginning, but I approve of the show’s acknowledgement to the fact that theatres have been shut down for so long now. I’d excpected Andrew Lloyd-Webber to at least turn up to see Bill and Oti dance, but he watched them all at a theatre (potential way of getting Claudia and Tess to see the showdance in the final safely? I’ve also now realised that their way of filling the fial, when we won’t have the group number etc is to have loads of finalists – there could have been five couples left.)
I liked the pros dancing in formation and hope the three leads got zero sympathy from the female pros about dancing in heels. (I miss the recent trend of having a performer sing live and interact with the pros that we’ve been getting.)
Tess’n’Claud went for monochrome (of course) with Claudia’s outfit being more successful. Fortunately, Shirley and her blue drapey thing and Motsi and her FLOUNCE brought the drama.
JJ and Amy opened with a fun Charleston, in which he was really springy – I agreed with Craig about the elevation. I was expecting slightly higher marks, but this will be a test of his popularity.
We had an interesting summary of Waitress, and further evidence Giovanni has been to see the show from the beginning. As have I – it was the musical I had the most connection with of all those referenced - and while the routine mostly didn’t get me in the solar plexus (though I am a little sad that she’s had such body issues all her life), guh, Ranvir’s frame. For a change-up, Giovanni let her dance alone at the end. I thought maybe the transitions from hold to the stuff out of it needed finessing, but I was glad she got nines. She has been lucky in getting a run of ballrooms, but this is a pairing that knows exactly who its target audience is.
I really, really enjoyed Maisie’s jive. The styling was so wonderful, a mix of quirky and ladylike, and the whole thing was so high-energy, and of course she performed it. I was really glad she got praise for improving on the technique, and a pooped Gorka was re-energised when Shirley praised the footwork.
While a Phantom of the Opera Argentine tango is not the weirdest combo the show has ever come up with, it got in the way for me. I was almost trying to stare at the dancing while blocking out what I was hearing, which feels wrong? I thought there was good leg action and Bill seemed commanding, but I wasn’t responding emotionally at all. 8s all around for what was, from the judges’ comments, a high degree of difficulty. So cute that Bill needed Oti to break the character of Christine and tell him he’d done good.
In no way do I believe that Janette and HRVY watched the whole film. They just watched the final routine. But anyway, first time someone’s incorporate the stairs in their routine this series and it was effective, and then there was pure showmanship, with lots of flashes of HRVY the good dancer, so it was all really, really good, with the lifts fowing beautifully AND THEN Janette decided to give a show-offy series of lifts when he must be tired at the end.
Their judges’ comments deserve their own paragraph, with Motsi being extremely voluble, Craig nitpicking, because he is Craig, and then talking silly about changing his name, so that’s the second week running he’s spewed alphabet soup at HRVY. Yes, I know the boy’s name is silly, but come on. And then Shirley said nice things about Janette’s choreography, and she certainly is doing HRVY right despite my doubts.
Jamie had to follow that. And it was a good musical number routine, with prop use and maybe someone could put on a studio-based TV show of musical numbers while people can’t work on the stage (should I give the Royal Variety Show a watch?, I thought in the middle of it. Again, high energy, and I thought the comments and scores were fair, leaving him and Bill about where they were last week.
So, let’s see how popular JJ continues to be, because if he’s in the dance-off, he’s gone. I suspect Bill is still more popular than Jamie and Maisie, but did the latter do enough to save herself again. I ended up voting once each for the top three.
Results
Presenters and judges plumped for black, with a bit of metallic from Claudia and a bit more from Motsi.
I had’t been bothered about there being a routine from And Juliet from the terms and conditions bit, and…yeah. ‘Not for me’ is the polite version, as it seems to offer weak takes on the play via pop music. I’m not really sure what the song(s) had to do with the intro, and maybe she was nervous and out of practice, but the actress playing Juliet needs to sing the quiet bits clearly as well as the loud bits. Anyway, we were assured that all precautions had been taken for the performance.
To business: I assumed that if JJ was safe, he’d be called safe early and if not, he’d be informed second. Fair enough that HRVY was through, announcing Ranvir next put Maisie in danger (possibly it didn’t, we never know what the actual combined vots tally is). Jamie handled it well, already giving himself a pep talk about what he needed to do, but Motsi handled adding to that graciously.
Claudia did the ‘Congratulations, you’re through to the semis, where you’ll have to do two dances!’ HRVY might be able to eke out a half-decent rumba. Ranvir’s niece was super articulate.
I was actually looking forward to ‘Climb Every Mountain’, but it suffered from a similar problem to the first song, in that the opening was dire. If you can’t sing it traditionally, then, er, do a more you-friendly adaptation. So, I concentrated on Dianne and Anton’s lovely, lovely dancing – I bet Dianne was thrilled after everything to be dancing ballroom with Anton.
The most interesting bit of the dance debrief was Claudia pointing out Craig has given Bill 8s for weeks now and asking why. Technique is a fair enough answer. Otherwise we had Bruno being catty to Craig, Shirley breaching tohe 2 metres (which is predictable when they asked that question), and Bruno pretending he hadn’t known he was being filmed when he did his Phantom thing. Pfft.
The producers tortured Maisie and Gorka some more. (A HEAVY METAL TANGO and Maisie’s schedule woes were trailed.) Shirley gave JJ a ‘soldier up’ pep talk, but given the marks and the demands of the routines, I was fairly sure who’d go home, and didn’t change my mind after watching them dance again. HOWEVER, it is interesting that Craig apparently saw no mistakes, Motsi saw one, and Head Judge Shrley saw them both do one each. Closer than I expected, but a fair result given JJ wasn’t doing ballroom and Jamie’s all-round improvement.
I did get swept along by JJ and Amy gushing about each other, because they have been one of the strongest partnerships and their last dance was one of the better ones this series.
Monday’s ITT was mean for making Amy do the pro challenge bit after her leavers interview. With JJ talking a litte more about his disability, it would have been interesting to have heard more about how they tackled certain steps and challenges. Anyway, he’s one of those that you hope will keep (ballroom) dancing for his health.
We also learned that HRVY and Janette will have a Charleston to save them if the rumba doesn’t go quie to plan, although they seemed to be approaching it by saying that as the only one that’s been all season, it’ll automatically be the best. Noted that there were SIX last year, although atm I can only remember Kelvin’s and Catherine’s. Suspect Janette and HRV’Y’s will be more like the latter than steamy given that he’s a very young man and that’s how they’ve played their relationship.
I was gathering my TV supper at the beginning, but I approve of the show’s acknowledgement to the fact that theatres have been shut down for so long now. I’d excpected Andrew Lloyd-Webber to at least turn up to see Bill and Oti dance, but he watched them all at a theatre (potential way of getting Claudia and Tess to see the showdance in the final safely? I’ve also now realised that their way of filling the fial, when we won’t have the group number etc is to have loads of finalists – there could have been five couples left.)
I liked the pros dancing in formation and hope the three leads got zero sympathy from the female pros about dancing in heels. (I miss the recent trend of having a performer sing live and interact with the pros that we’ve been getting.)
Tess’n’Claud went for monochrome (of course) with Claudia’s outfit being more successful. Fortunately, Shirley and her blue drapey thing and Motsi and her FLOUNCE brought the drama.
JJ and Amy opened with a fun Charleston, in which he was really springy – I agreed with Craig about the elevation. I was expecting slightly higher marks, but this will be a test of his popularity.
We had an interesting summary of Waitress, and further evidence Giovanni has been to see the show from the beginning. As have I – it was the musical I had the most connection with of all those referenced - and while the routine mostly didn’t get me in the solar plexus (though I am a little sad that she’s had such body issues all her life), guh, Ranvir’s frame. For a change-up, Giovanni let her dance alone at the end. I thought maybe the transitions from hold to the stuff out of it needed finessing, but I was glad she got nines. She has been lucky in getting a run of ballrooms, but this is a pairing that knows exactly who its target audience is.
I really, really enjoyed Maisie’s jive. The styling was so wonderful, a mix of quirky and ladylike, and the whole thing was so high-energy, and of course she performed it. I was really glad she got praise for improving on the technique, and a pooped Gorka was re-energised when Shirley praised the footwork.
While a Phantom of the Opera Argentine tango is not the weirdest combo the show has ever come up with, it got in the way for me. I was almost trying to stare at the dancing while blocking out what I was hearing, which feels wrong? I thought there was good leg action and Bill seemed commanding, but I wasn’t responding emotionally at all. 8s all around for what was, from the judges’ comments, a high degree of difficulty. So cute that Bill needed Oti to break the character of Christine and tell him he’d done good.
In no way do I believe that Janette and HRVY watched the whole film. They just watched the final routine. But anyway, first time someone’s incorporate the stairs in their routine this series and it was effective, and then there was pure showmanship, with lots of flashes of HRVY the good dancer, so it was all really, really good, with the lifts fowing beautifully AND THEN Janette decided to give a show-offy series of lifts when he must be tired at the end.
Their judges’ comments deserve their own paragraph, with Motsi being extremely voluble, Craig nitpicking, because he is Craig, and then talking silly about changing his name, so that’s the second week running he’s spewed alphabet soup at HRVY. Yes, I know the boy’s name is silly, but come on. And then Shirley said nice things about Janette’s choreography, and she certainly is doing HRVY right despite my doubts.
Jamie had to follow that. And it was a good musical number routine, with prop use and maybe someone could put on a studio-based TV show of musical numbers while people can’t work on the stage (should I give the Royal Variety Show a watch?, I thought in the middle of it. Again, high energy, and I thought the comments and scores were fair, leaving him and Bill about where they were last week.
So, let’s see how popular JJ continues to be, because if he’s in the dance-off, he’s gone. I suspect Bill is still more popular than Jamie and Maisie, but did the latter do enough to save herself again. I ended up voting once each for the top three.
Results
Presenters and judges plumped for black, with a bit of metallic from Claudia and a bit more from Motsi.
I had’t been bothered about there being a routine from And Juliet from the terms and conditions bit, and…yeah. ‘Not for me’ is the polite version, as it seems to offer weak takes on the play via pop music. I’m not really sure what the song(s) had to do with the intro, and maybe she was nervous and out of practice, but the actress playing Juliet needs to sing the quiet bits clearly as well as the loud bits. Anyway, we were assured that all precautions had been taken for the performance.
To business: I assumed that if JJ was safe, he’d be called safe early and if not, he’d be informed second. Fair enough that HRVY was through, announcing Ranvir next put Maisie in danger (possibly it didn’t, we never know what the actual combined vots tally is). Jamie handled it well, already giving himself a pep talk about what he needed to do, but Motsi handled adding to that graciously.
Claudia did the ‘Congratulations, you’re through to the semis, where you’ll have to do two dances!’ HRVY might be able to eke out a half-decent rumba. Ranvir’s niece was super articulate.
I was actually looking forward to ‘Climb Every Mountain’, but it suffered from a similar problem to the first song, in that the opening was dire. If you can’t sing it traditionally, then, er, do a more you-friendly adaptation. So, I concentrated on Dianne and Anton’s lovely, lovely dancing – I bet Dianne was thrilled after everything to be dancing ballroom with Anton.
The most interesting bit of the dance debrief was Claudia pointing out Craig has given Bill 8s for weeks now and asking why. Technique is a fair enough answer. Otherwise we had Bruno being catty to Craig, Shirley breaching tohe 2 metres (which is predictable when they asked that question), and Bruno pretending he hadn’t known he was being filmed when he did his Phantom thing. Pfft.
The producers tortured Maisie and Gorka some more. (A HEAVY METAL TANGO and Maisie’s schedule woes were trailed.) Shirley gave JJ a ‘soldier up’ pep talk, but given the marks and the demands of the routines, I was fairly sure who’d go home, and didn’t change my mind after watching them dance again. HOWEVER, it is interesting that Craig apparently saw no mistakes, Motsi saw one, and Head Judge Shrley saw them both do one each. Closer than I expected, but a fair result given JJ wasn’t doing ballroom and Jamie’s all-round improvement.
I did get swept along by JJ and Amy gushing about each other, because they have been one of the strongest partnerships and their last dance was one of the better ones this series.
Monday’s ITT was mean for making Amy do the pro challenge bit after her leavers interview. With JJ talking a litte more about his disability, it would have been interesting to have heard more about how they tackled certain steps and challenges. Anyway, he’s one of those that you hope will keep (ballroom) dancing for his health.
We also learned that HRVY and Janette will have a Charleston to save them if the rumba doesn’t go quie to plan, although they seemed to be approaching it by saying that as the only one that’s been all season, it’ll automatically be the best. Noted that there were SIX last year, although atm I can only remember Kelvin’s and Catherine’s. Suspect Janette and HRV’Y’s will be more like the latter than steamy given that he’s a very young man and that’s how they’ve played their relationship.
