Strictly week 5
Oct. 24th, 2021 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessSo somebody brand new will be in the dance-off, which is to say Judi had tested positive for COVID and so was out for this week, at least (hope she isn’t too sick and recovers fully and soon, naturally.)
Tess wore a blush-coloured dress, I guess, Claudia was practically wearing a black dress, and as Mosti was in some OTT multi-coloured splurge, Shirley looked the best in a green dress with nice detailing. Craig’s suit was marginally less boring tha Anton’s. More importantly, the colour palette of the couples was lighter and brighter than last week.
A nice mood and clever choreography for Dan’s Viennese Waltz from Nadiya. He continues to be better than we all expected, which was acknowledged by the critique he got. Bonus likeability point for celebrating being top of the leaderboard.
Instead of a double denim samba from Adam, Katya made him strip off and do it in a tight white t-shirt. Mixed bag, some of it was good, some of it I couldn’t watch, yet for all that and that Katya had retooled it on the Tuesday, it was the highest scoring samba (though I enjoyed Nina and Judi’s more.) I don’t think this partnership is working particularly well.
Sara and her unlikely hair seemed a bit hesitant to me in her rumba, so I kind of got what Craig was talking about. Probably, if she’d improved on what the other judges talked about, it would have had more flow and worked better. They tried to make it a spat about sexy vs. demure rumbas, which felt beside the point. Obviously, the 4 from Craig was harsh.
Tom’s salsa was a bit of a relief after all that, because it was mostly good. There were a few moments where he seemed to stop, for me, but it was confidently performed, and it was good for him to be commended on improving as he’s had a week less than most of them.
Tilly produced a very graceful foxtrot, and as Shirley observed, stayed glued to Nikita. Deserved her straight 9s, which means that she joins Sara and Rose, in actually beimg better than AJ in ballroom.
Bits of AJ’s Argentine tango didn’t captivate – I think I may need to rewatch it – partly because of the music the choreography needed to respond to, and maybe the lighting didn’t much help me, but the last third had truly impressive legwork and all around intensity.
Ugo’s arms were particularly poor, I thought. And after all the chat about types of rumba, this definitely went for chocolate sauce, but fundamentally, it wasn’t very good. (Craig was boxed into giving him a 3 because he’d given Sara that undeserved 4, and we all knew she was probably going to do the better rumba of the two of them.)
After a VT that tried to emphasise the Charleston’s history and steps, snerk, John really kept up with Johannes, bar a few bit where he clearly couldn’t spin like a pro, or whatever. The changes of speed were particularly fresh. I call the dance a Gimme, but it was really very well done (but is it really nine years since Denise’s Charleston? I suppose it is.)
Rose was so strong in her VW – the balance of her dramatic skills and beautiful ballroom dancing led to another magnetic performance. First 10 because Motsi doesn’t care about incomplete fleckerls. (What a shocker, Gio coming p with a dramatic Viennese Waltz, but at the same time, that was my favourite routine of the night.)
Rhys, playing Gene Kelly, closed with an American Smooth, and while he was super stylis, especially out of hold, the crit seemed fair, but meant it was a shame that this was the running order, especially as Claudia had to fill a lot, when we all knew (including Nancy, who couldn’t force herself to gush dishonestly, heh) that the scores would only be good, not great.
I voted for Rose, Tom and Rhys, because by only being good, the last two were in the middle. The big takeout is, with lots of people getting their best scores/first 10, a lot of them are proper good, but they should all be desperately hoping to avoid the samba or rumba as a result. Even without all the injuries/infections/withdrawals, it’s an odd year. ‘Sugar Watermelon High’ ‘I Keep on Falling’ and, ugh, ‘Always a Woman To Me’ or whatever they’re called have stuck with me the day after.
Tess wore a blush-coloured dress, I guess, Claudia was practically wearing a black dress, and as Mosti was in some OTT multi-coloured splurge, Shirley looked the best in a green dress with nice detailing. Craig’s suit was marginally less boring tha Anton’s. More importantly, the colour palette of the couples was lighter and brighter than last week.
A nice mood and clever choreography for Dan’s Viennese Waltz from Nadiya. He continues to be better than we all expected, which was acknowledged by the critique he got. Bonus likeability point for celebrating being top of the leaderboard.
Instead of a double denim samba from Adam, Katya made him strip off and do it in a tight white t-shirt. Mixed bag, some of it was good, some of it I couldn’t watch, yet for all that and that Katya had retooled it on the Tuesday, it was the highest scoring samba (though I enjoyed Nina and Judi’s more.) I don’t think this partnership is working particularly well.
Sara and her unlikely hair seemed a bit hesitant to me in her rumba, so I kind of got what Craig was talking about. Probably, if she’d improved on what the other judges talked about, it would have had more flow and worked better. They tried to make it a spat about sexy vs. demure rumbas, which felt beside the point. Obviously, the 4 from Craig was harsh.
Tom’s salsa was a bit of a relief after all that, because it was mostly good. There were a few moments where he seemed to stop, for me, but it was confidently performed, and it was good for him to be commended on improving as he’s had a week less than most of them.
Tilly produced a very graceful foxtrot, and as Shirley observed, stayed glued to Nikita. Deserved her straight 9s, which means that she joins Sara and Rose, in actually beimg better than AJ in ballroom.
Bits of AJ’s Argentine tango didn’t captivate – I think I may need to rewatch it – partly because of the music the choreography needed to respond to, and maybe the lighting didn’t much help me, but the last third had truly impressive legwork and all around intensity.
Ugo’s arms were particularly poor, I thought. And after all the chat about types of rumba, this definitely went for chocolate sauce, but fundamentally, it wasn’t very good. (Craig was boxed into giving him a 3 because he’d given Sara that undeserved 4, and we all knew she was probably going to do the better rumba of the two of them.)
After a VT that tried to emphasise the Charleston’s history and steps, snerk, John really kept up with Johannes, bar a few bit where he clearly couldn’t spin like a pro, or whatever. The changes of speed were particularly fresh. I call the dance a Gimme, but it was really very well done (but is it really nine years since Denise’s Charleston? I suppose it is.)
Rose was so strong in her VW – the balance of her dramatic skills and beautiful ballroom dancing led to another magnetic performance. First 10 because Motsi doesn’t care about incomplete fleckerls. (What a shocker, Gio coming p with a dramatic Viennese Waltz, but at the same time, that was my favourite routine of the night.)
Rhys, playing Gene Kelly, closed with an American Smooth, and while he was super stylis, especially out of hold, the crit seemed fair, but meant it was a shame that this was the running order, especially as Claudia had to fill a lot, when we all knew (including Nancy, who couldn’t force herself to gush dishonestly, heh) that the scores would only be good, not great.
I voted for Rose, Tom and Rhys, because by only being good, the last two were in the middle. The big takeout is, with lots of people getting their best scores/first 10, a lot of them are proper good, but they should all be desperately hoping to avoid the samba or rumba as a result. Even without all the injuries/infections/withdrawals, it’s an odd year. ‘Sugar Watermelon High’ ‘I Keep on Falling’ and, ugh, ‘Always a Woman To Me’ or whatever they’re called have stuck with me the day after.
