"Lights. Camera. Strictly."
Oct. 9th, 2023 08:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessIt Takes Two
They don’t have to repeat Fleur recapping the weekend’s events via rap if they don’t want to in future, as far as I’m concerned, although the fact that her voice seemed a bit rough was probably more important. We learned that Adam hadn’t had much rehearsal, because of work, and neither had Jody because he wasn’t able to wear his prosthesis. They both probably needed said rehearsal.
Week 3 – movie night
I am not dignifying that ANTon Man opening with a comment.
So, for me, the show started with the Strictly/Disney love-in continuing. My snarky side was all, ‘Ah, so all those animated movies got made by a little bit of drawing, but mainly by DANCE. I see!’ My other side was loving the gorgeous dancing to the gorgeous music (instrumental Disney movie themes.)
Disney characters (we all needed to be told that was Daisy Duck, right?) escorted our presenters and judges in. TessnClaud wore dresses, Claudia in sparkly black and Tess in a fitted pinky/purple gown. Motsi went big in a white gown with SLEEVES, but Shirley’s silver thing was nice. She was pretty late in her leap to be caught by Anton, but didn’t get dropped.
Enter the contestants, and I was expecting most of it, if not Amanda and Giovanni’s outside layers. Kudos for Puss!Graziano. But: KAI’S COZZIE. Ded.
The VTs went big, but, fine, it’s movie week.
Nigel and Katya kicked things off with a 1960s Batman jive, so that would be a jive with capes, and as advertised, she was Robin. It was very entertaining, but the Batman concept perhaps overpowered the jive for me. I thought it was decent, but maybe he was a little slow. The judges’ consensus seemed to be, ‘Better than last week, but not living up to week 1.’
<3 Amy returned to do the Ts and Cs. <3
Angela R and Kai were doing a Sound of Music quickstep. She’s charm personified, mimed well and performed it, but the first half was slow, there was gapping and it suited her less than last week. I am unconvinced that it was better than Nigel’s jive, Motsi.
Zara and Graziano had a Puss in Boots paso. The swords were floppy, which is good from a safety point of view but they were a bit pitiful compared with Jowita’s fans of flame from last week. I liked the clawed hands detail and I liked that Zara was dancing to her height. I don’t know that she fully succeeded in being fierce and there wasn’t enough shaping. Confusing judges’ comments.
Layton and Nikia had a Grease Viennese Waltz, and like Nigel, he got an actor’s entrance, getting to perform his Rizzo (and ask if anyone fancies putting on an all-male Grease on the West End.) I thought it was quite lyrical and my main critique was why was his mouth so open, so it was a bit like Nigel’s VW when the judges Had Notes for me. Aww, Nikita’s family were there. Top of the leaderboard, but probably not for long.
Angela R and Carlos were doing a Damn Yankees! Charleston (and I remembered too late I’d meant to try to watch this clip.) So, there were two things going on here – Angela R was dancing a Charleston on Strictly, but it just happened to be an homage to a scene that most dancers revere by two legends. On the second front, an amateur who’d never heard of Bob Fosse a week ago, however much Irish dancing she’d done, is never going to pull that off.
But as a Strictly Charleston, that was splendid. I loved it. And I was so relieved Craig had minimal notes. Heh, Shirley got booed for her 8 when the others gave it a 9 (deserved! I thought it was the dance of the night.)
Tess did some ‘Dear Diary’ business introducing the next dance, about which I can only say: ‘Oh dear.’
Amanda and Giovanni produced a Bridget Jones’s Diary rumba (AKA first rumba of the series). Look, I thought she danced it really well (especially for a week 3 rumba) but I was weirdly confused by its story. They seemed so happy, and I wasn’t sure if that was just Gio’s delight at having a partner who’s good at Latin, because it went against the grain of the song lyrics. Still, I thought the 8s were fairer than Craig’s 6.
Nikita and Gorka were doing a Clueless jive (I was kvetching that Cher wouldn’t dance with Tai’s boyfriend.) It was fine, given my low expectations and that Gorka clearly wasn’t pushing her choreographically. I just feel that Nikita is missing the point a lot of the time. Didn’t Craig give her a higher score than last week? That’s an improvement.
Ellie and Vito had an Encanto VW, and it was really, really good. She sold it, obvs, but I thought the dancing (with more in hold and more spinning which she found tough) better than last week and I’m loving these foundations she’s laying in ballroom. Positive judges’ comments.
Bobby and Dianne did a Romeo and Juliet samba, and I got a bit distracted by Dianne’s wings sensibly being gone by the time she reached the dancefloor and her brown hair (night of wigs.) But yeah, pretty good from Bobby, actually, in his first proper Latin. His hips got praised.
Jody and Jowita were doing an ‘Up’ American Smooth, and the VT covered how he couldn’t practice for much of the week. This was based on the scene that makes everyone cry, so it was properly emosh. You could tell he was under-rehearsed and had been cheated of the chance to finesse, and it feels like a shame because he’s clearly going to be stronger in ballroom. I wonder if the lift on the floor was a change to take pressure off the inflamed stump.
Eddie and Karen were doing a Men In Black couple’s choice (street, and I kind of think that was Karen’s choice.) I scrawled ‘Nice. No mistakes. In sync.’ Clearly, Karen outdanced him, but he was charming. Hilariously, Anton was the only judge with an actual critique, but oh Shirley, that WAS too early for a 10. However, Karen totally had the response of a pro who never gets 10s, and Katya, at least, recognised that in the Clauditorium. (Compare hers with past Anton reactions!)
Annabel and Johannes were doing a Breakfast at Tiffany’s waltz. I believed that this would be better for her than the quickstep, as it would be slower and build on some of what she’d learned for that, and for the first two thirds, it definitely was, and reminded me of how much I love waltzes. She was elegant until she wasn’t. JoJo was moved by the dance and then staggered by the scores, as they bagged two 8s.
Adam and Luba had a Super Mario Brothers jive and it was all ‘for the kids’, but, actually, it was so much better (than Nikita’s jive, obviously, but also) than his previous dances. I agree with Motsi that a lot of things came together for him (and it didn’t look under-rehearsed.) However, his whole puppy energy on the mother show and ITT is getting to be a bit much for me.
We ended with Krishnan and Lauren’s Cabaret Charleston (possibly the wrong Fosse Charleston to close on, show, although this is less obscure.) It was very entertaining, he went for it (so true about his investment in all this) although I thought he could have gone even bigger. But it was an improvement.
I know the costume design got a lot of praise, but the singers had even more styles than usual to cover. FWIW, I’d seen six of the movies referenced (possibly also the Batman movie, I’ve only seen bits of Grease, and have zero intention of watching the Super Mario Brothers movie.)
New top of the leaderboard again! Some reflection has pointed out that the better comparison point for Layton is Ellie, as they were both following, than Nigel.
Nikita is an easy pick for being in trouble, because she was in the dance-off last week and didn’t improve much. I felt sorry for Jody, but not enough to vote for him*, and I didn’t take in the leaderboard well enough to work out where Zara was in relation to people you’d have previously assumed were safe (and thus might not have voted for.)
*I had forgotten at the time that I could vote three times online, because I’ve phoned for so long, so I could have and for couples I preferred, which would probably have been Angela S and Carlos’s Charleston and Ellie and Vito’s VW. I will try to remember next week.
Results
We opened with the homage to Barbie (obviously, the true choreographic challenge would have been a homage to Barbenheimer), which made the mistake of starting with Nadiya, making everyone (me) think, ‘There’s your stereotypical Barbie.’ Because Dianne’s wig was awful. Her dancing and pep were commendable, though. Gorka and his six pack was Stereotypical Ken, and they got all sorts of references to the movie in, but Neil as Allen? Perfect on a meta level.
Tess’s blouse was weird, so that’s a win for Claudia. The stat they went for in the recap was that Bobby’s samba was the highest in week 3 ever. They put Amanda in the middle group, and I suppose the scores dictated that, but it felt unfair, because she had done a good rumba. Surely you get a bonus for a rumba!? Nigel was in the bottom group.
First batch of names, and the public had saved Jody and Jowita, which put Zara in trouble. What Anton actually said out loud was all encouragement (the subtext was ‘hope enough people voted for Nigel because they thought he was undermarked.’) More Adam’s kids are cute stuff in the Clauditorium.
The dance debrief gave me a chance to appreciate Motsi’s sparkly dress and Shirley’s colourful one, while Anton trampled all over Claudia’s snark about him matching the furniture. All four judges got to give mostly positive comments, and instead of hearing Motsi sing the song from Encanto (what I feared) they got to see Angela R and Carlos’s reaction to their 9s, which they seemed to enjoy.
Some new on me popstrel gave a good vocal, but not a great vocal despite the ‘it’s all about the music’ staging. Well, it wasn’t a great song either, although neither was it the worst. Anyway, to make up for not being Barbie, Nadiya had a starring role and was partnered by Nikita, which was nice, because his parents were there to see. And they and/despite their unruly hair, rumbaed away gorgeously. (I’m hoping this will be a good year for rumbas.)
Second batch of names, and I was pleased they relieved the minds of all the couples they should have first. Who knows, Nigel might well have had loads of votes and the producers were just torturing him for the narrative – we all knew Zara should win against Nikita. But the red light fell on a glum Nikita, Craig recognised she just needed encouragement, not notes on retraction. But the dance-off was a foregone conclusion – those knee length socks did her no favours when it came to hiding her leg action. Nikita was pretty upset because of the mistakes (although even if she hadn’t made them, she’d still have been voted out). The producers went for ‘I’ve Had The Time of My Life’ for her final dance and instead of a group hug, they had a group bop.
They don’t have to repeat Fleur recapping the weekend’s events via rap if they don’t want to in future, as far as I’m concerned, although the fact that her voice seemed a bit rough was probably more important. We learned that Adam hadn’t had much rehearsal, because of work, and neither had Jody because he wasn’t able to wear his prosthesis. They both probably needed said rehearsal.
Week 3 – movie night
I am not dignifying that ANTon Man opening with a comment.
So, for me, the show started with the Strictly/Disney love-in continuing. My snarky side was all, ‘Ah, so all those animated movies got made by a little bit of drawing, but mainly by DANCE. I see!’ My other side was loving the gorgeous dancing to the gorgeous music (instrumental Disney movie themes.)
Disney characters (we all needed to be told that was Daisy Duck, right?) escorted our presenters and judges in. TessnClaud wore dresses, Claudia in sparkly black and Tess in a fitted pinky/purple gown. Motsi went big in a white gown with SLEEVES, but Shirley’s silver thing was nice. She was pretty late in her leap to be caught by Anton, but didn’t get dropped.
Enter the contestants, and I was expecting most of it, if not Amanda and Giovanni’s outside layers. Kudos for Puss!Graziano. But: KAI’S COZZIE. Ded.
The VTs went big, but, fine, it’s movie week.
Nigel and Katya kicked things off with a 1960s Batman jive, so that would be a jive with capes, and as advertised, she was Robin. It was very entertaining, but the Batman concept perhaps overpowered the jive for me. I thought it was decent, but maybe he was a little slow. The judges’ consensus seemed to be, ‘Better than last week, but not living up to week 1.’
<3 Amy returned to do the Ts and Cs. <3
Angela R and Kai were doing a Sound of Music quickstep. She’s charm personified, mimed well and performed it, but the first half was slow, there was gapping and it suited her less than last week. I am unconvinced that it was better than Nigel’s jive, Motsi.
Zara and Graziano had a Puss in Boots paso. The swords were floppy, which is good from a safety point of view but they were a bit pitiful compared with Jowita’s fans of flame from last week. I liked the clawed hands detail and I liked that Zara was dancing to her height. I don’t know that she fully succeeded in being fierce and there wasn’t enough shaping. Confusing judges’ comments.
Layton and Nikia had a Grease Viennese Waltz, and like Nigel, he got an actor’s entrance, getting to perform his Rizzo (and ask if anyone fancies putting on an all-male Grease on the West End.) I thought it was quite lyrical and my main critique was why was his mouth so open, so it was a bit like Nigel’s VW when the judges Had Notes for me. Aww, Nikita’s family were there. Top of the leaderboard, but probably not for long.
Angela R and Carlos were doing a Damn Yankees! Charleston (and I remembered too late I’d meant to try to watch this clip.) So, there were two things going on here – Angela R was dancing a Charleston on Strictly, but it just happened to be an homage to a scene that most dancers revere by two legends. On the second front, an amateur who’d never heard of Bob Fosse a week ago, however much Irish dancing she’d done, is never going to pull that off.
But as a Strictly Charleston, that was splendid. I loved it. And I was so relieved Craig had minimal notes. Heh, Shirley got booed for her 8 when the others gave it a 9 (deserved! I thought it was the dance of the night.)
Tess did some ‘Dear Diary’ business introducing the next dance, about which I can only say: ‘Oh dear.’
Amanda and Giovanni produced a Bridget Jones’s Diary rumba (AKA first rumba of the series). Look, I thought she danced it really well (especially for a week 3 rumba) but I was weirdly confused by its story. They seemed so happy, and I wasn’t sure if that was just Gio’s delight at having a partner who’s good at Latin, because it went against the grain of the song lyrics. Still, I thought the 8s were fairer than Craig’s 6.
Nikita and Gorka were doing a Clueless jive (I was kvetching that Cher wouldn’t dance with Tai’s boyfriend.) It was fine, given my low expectations and that Gorka clearly wasn’t pushing her choreographically. I just feel that Nikita is missing the point a lot of the time. Didn’t Craig give her a higher score than last week? That’s an improvement.
Ellie and Vito had an Encanto VW, and it was really, really good. She sold it, obvs, but I thought the dancing (with more in hold and more spinning which she found tough) better than last week and I’m loving these foundations she’s laying in ballroom. Positive judges’ comments.
Bobby and Dianne did a Romeo and Juliet samba, and I got a bit distracted by Dianne’s wings sensibly being gone by the time she reached the dancefloor and her brown hair (night of wigs.) But yeah, pretty good from Bobby, actually, in his first proper Latin. His hips got praised.
Jody and Jowita were doing an ‘Up’ American Smooth, and the VT covered how he couldn’t practice for much of the week. This was based on the scene that makes everyone cry, so it was properly emosh. You could tell he was under-rehearsed and had been cheated of the chance to finesse, and it feels like a shame because he’s clearly going to be stronger in ballroom. I wonder if the lift on the floor was a change to take pressure off the inflamed stump.
Eddie and Karen were doing a Men In Black couple’s choice (street, and I kind of think that was Karen’s choice.) I scrawled ‘Nice. No mistakes. In sync.’ Clearly, Karen outdanced him, but he was charming. Hilariously, Anton was the only judge with an actual critique, but oh Shirley, that WAS too early for a 10. However, Karen totally had the response of a pro who never gets 10s, and Katya, at least, recognised that in the Clauditorium. (Compare hers with past Anton reactions!)
Annabel and Johannes were doing a Breakfast at Tiffany’s waltz. I believed that this would be better for her than the quickstep, as it would be slower and build on some of what she’d learned for that, and for the first two thirds, it definitely was, and reminded me of how much I love waltzes. She was elegant until she wasn’t. JoJo was moved by the dance and then staggered by the scores, as they bagged two 8s.
Adam and Luba had a Super Mario Brothers jive and it was all ‘for the kids’, but, actually, it was so much better (than Nikita’s jive, obviously, but also) than his previous dances. I agree with Motsi that a lot of things came together for him (and it didn’t look under-rehearsed.) However, his whole puppy energy on the mother show and ITT is getting to be a bit much for me.
We ended with Krishnan and Lauren’s Cabaret Charleston (possibly the wrong Fosse Charleston to close on, show, although this is less obscure.) It was very entertaining, he went for it (so true about his investment in all this) although I thought he could have gone even bigger. But it was an improvement.
I know the costume design got a lot of praise, but the singers had even more styles than usual to cover. FWIW, I’d seen six of the movies referenced (possibly also the Batman movie, I’ve only seen bits of Grease, and have zero intention of watching the Super Mario Brothers movie.)
New top of the leaderboard again! Some reflection has pointed out that the better comparison point for Layton is Ellie, as they were both following, than Nigel.
Nikita is an easy pick for being in trouble, because she was in the dance-off last week and didn’t improve much. I felt sorry for Jody, but not enough to vote for him*, and I didn’t take in the leaderboard well enough to work out where Zara was in relation to people you’d have previously assumed were safe (and thus might not have voted for.)
*I had forgotten at the time that I could vote three times online, because I’ve phoned for so long, so I could have and for couples I preferred, which would probably have been Angela S and Carlos’s Charleston and Ellie and Vito’s VW. I will try to remember next week.
Results
We opened with the homage to Barbie (obviously, the true choreographic challenge would have been a homage to Barbenheimer), which made the mistake of starting with Nadiya, making everyone (me) think, ‘There’s your stereotypical Barbie.’ Because Dianne’s wig was awful. Her dancing and pep were commendable, though. Gorka and his six pack was Stereotypical Ken, and they got all sorts of references to the movie in, but Neil as Allen? Perfect on a meta level.
Tess’s blouse was weird, so that’s a win for Claudia. The stat they went for in the recap was that Bobby’s samba was the highest in week 3 ever. They put Amanda in the middle group, and I suppose the scores dictated that, but it felt unfair, because she had done a good rumba. Surely you get a bonus for a rumba!? Nigel was in the bottom group.
First batch of names, and the public had saved Jody and Jowita, which put Zara in trouble. What Anton actually said out loud was all encouragement (the subtext was ‘hope enough people voted for Nigel because they thought he was undermarked.’) More Adam’s kids are cute stuff in the Clauditorium.
The dance debrief gave me a chance to appreciate Motsi’s sparkly dress and Shirley’s colourful one, while Anton trampled all over Claudia’s snark about him matching the furniture. All four judges got to give mostly positive comments, and instead of hearing Motsi sing the song from Encanto (what I feared) they got to see Angela R and Carlos’s reaction to their 9s, which they seemed to enjoy.
Some new on me popstrel gave a good vocal, but not a great vocal despite the ‘it’s all about the music’ staging. Well, it wasn’t a great song either, although neither was it the worst. Anyway, to make up for not being Barbie, Nadiya had a starring role and was partnered by Nikita, which was nice, because his parents were there to see. And they and/despite their unruly hair, rumbaed away gorgeously. (I’m hoping this will be a good year for rumbas.)
Second batch of names, and I was pleased they relieved the minds of all the couples they should have first. Who knows, Nigel might well have had loads of votes and the producers were just torturing him for the narrative – we all knew Zara should win against Nikita. But the red light fell on a glum Nikita, Craig recognised she just needed encouragement, not notes on retraction. But the dance-off was a foregone conclusion – those knee length socks did her no favours when it came to hiding her leg action. Nikita was pretty upset because of the mistakes (although even if she hadn’t made them, she’d still have been voted out). The producers went for ‘I’ve Had The Time of My Life’ for her final dance and instead of a group hug, they had a group bop.
