Strictly Come Dancing 2024 – week 1
Sep. 22nd, 2024 09:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessA total marathon at, what?, two and a half hours. Double Kylie, some songs we’ve heard before, but in Chris, a totally new challenge for him, Dianne and the show, as well as a new mix of personalities under different circumstances. (The Unpleasantness.) I mostly could have done without the dances that had something to do with what we knew the celebs for.
Most of the people I expected to be good were, while some people pleasantly surprised me. I agreed with who was bottom of the leaderboard, but the judges and their scoring were the most surprising thing. I mean, it’s no surprise that Craig ranged from 2 to 8, but so did Shirley! They squabbled, mainly over what level of critique it’s appropriate to give during week 1, but sometimes it was personalities or egos. Claudia continued to be the best, able to cope with the wittiest (Chris, Wynne), a bit of chaos (Carlos and the cake, Sarah and Vito), and post-dance babblers. Tess…was Tess.
I laughed at the antics with Pete’s hair in the credits, but I don’t know how long that will last. The Latin-flavoured opening pro dance routine was excellent. I loved the duality going on, the interesting ways they were dancing in threes (the balance involved!) and as a group, even as Vito and Jowita were the stars. I hope his hands weren’t as sweaty as his chest!
I think my favourite dance (apart from the joke shop because of Miranda nonsense/concept) was Sarah and Vito’s quickstep. She was so on it, so graceful yet energetic! (Helps to have some dance experience.) I also really liked Montell’s foxtrot. I take on board the judges’ points that she was better open than in hold, but her confidence at hitting the accents when she’s an athlete was very promising.
As for the rest of the top of the leader board, Tasha…looked like a pro dancer dancing a style she’d started learning two weeks ago (shades of Layton.) It will be interesting how the formula of RINGER! + disability they need to adapt for + the return of Aljiaz works. The other pro with a feelgood narrative is, of course, Amy, who came straight after, and while I could see that JB was good, I didn’t feel their waltz (weird, in that I generally like them) and thought it could have been smoother, but it’s early days.
I really liked Tom’s tango. I think it helped that it wasn’t a dance where he had to project outwards and could concentrate on partnering (which he did well), but it more than cleared the low bar of ‘be better than Toyah’s tango. Funny that they gave the tango to one of the shortest celebs and one of the tallest.) The most entertaining routine was Chris’s cha cha, and kudos to Dianne, now a guide as well as everything else, for the crowd-pleasing choreo. He showed that he has got rhythm and a willingness to go for it. Anton was a bit patronising, but that was FUN. I also really liked Punam’s cha cha. She won on the costume front (red fringing), but that was confident, and she's got relatability working for her.
Jamie can move. They had one of those dramatic VWs and to the untrained eye (mine) looked good. But then the judges tore into him and they were talking about posture and footwork, I wonder whether the turning did for him. In the samba off, Shayne had confidence (and ridiculous hair) while Wynne had musicality, and I could see he was attempting the technique. He won for the judges, not sure whether that’s the case for the audience, but he did get to close the show. Although there were ragged bits to her foxtrot, Sam showed that there’s potential there. Nick opened proceedings with a jive, and he was lighter on his feet than I expected, though it seemed like not much was being asked of him by the end of the routine.
I liked Pete’s intent! The judges did not – this was one of the times that Shirley really leaned into ‘the purity of the dahnce’, and I thought was criticising Jowita’s choreography as much as how he did it. But Toyah – oh dear, oh dear. I don’t think Neil will have long with this partner. They put the most effort into Paul’s VT. Poor Karen. I think the did the best that she could with choreographing an American Smooth to ‘Vindaloo’. It meant that Paul was the only one doing lifts, which he managed, but like Craig said, it was stilted. (Props to Wynne for representing Wales as the Clauditorium shouted ‘Ingerland’, fewer props to the producers for giving him a Tom Jones song.)
As ever, week 2 could change perceptions of a lot of celebs.
Most of the people I expected to be good were, while some people pleasantly surprised me. I agreed with who was bottom of the leaderboard, but the judges and their scoring were the most surprising thing. I mean, it’s no surprise that Craig ranged from 2 to 8, but so did Shirley! They squabbled, mainly over what level of critique it’s appropriate to give during week 1, but sometimes it was personalities or egos. Claudia continued to be the best, able to cope with the wittiest (Chris, Wynne), a bit of chaos (Carlos and the cake, Sarah and Vito), and post-dance babblers. Tess…was Tess.
I laughed at the antics with Pete’s hair in the credits, but I don’t know how long that will last. The Latin-flavoured opening pro dance routine was excellent. I loved the duality going on, the interesting ways they were dancing in threes (the balance involved!) and as a group, even as Vito and Jowita were the stars. I hope his hands weren’t as sweaty as his chest!
I think my favourite dance (apart from the joke shop because of Miranda nonsense/concept) was Sarah and Vito’s quickstep. She was so on it, so graceful yet energetic! (Helps to have some dance experience.) I also really liked Montell’s foxtrot. I take on board the judges’ points that she was better open than in hold, but her confidence at hitting the accents when she’s an athlete was very promising.
As for the rest of the top of the leader board, Tasha…looked like a pro dancer dancing a style she’d started learning two weeks ago (shades of Layton.) It will be interesting how the formula of RINGER! + disability they need to adapt for + the return of Aljiaz works. The other pro with a feelgood narrative is, of course, Amy, who came straight after, and while I could see that JB was good, I didn’t feel their waltz (weird, in that I generally like them) and thought it could have been smoother, but it’s early days.
I really liked Tom’s tango. I think it helped that it wasn’t a dance where he had to project outwards and could concentrate on partnering (which he did well), but it more than cleared the low bar of ‘be better than Toyah’s tango. Funny that they gave the tango to one of the shortest celebs and one of the tallest.) The most entertaining routine was Chris’s cha cha, and kudos to Dianne, now a guide as well as everything else, for the crowd-pleasing choreo. He showed that he has got rhythm and a willingness to go for it. Anton was a bit patronising, but that was FUN. I also really liked Punam’s cha cha. She won on the costume front (red fringing), but that was confident, and she's got relatability working for her.
Jamie can move. They had one of those dramatic VWs and to the untrained eye (mine) looked good. But then the judges tore into him and they were talking about posture and footwork, I wonder whether the turning did for him. In the samba off, Shayne had confidence (and ridiculous hair) while Wynne had musicality, and I could see he was attempting the technique. He won for the judges, not sure whether that’s the case for the audience, but he did get to close the show. Although there were ragged bits to her foxtrot, Sam showed that there’s potential there. Nick opened proceedings with a jive, and he was lighter on his feet than I expected, though it seemed like not much was being asked of him by the end of the routine.
I liked Pete’s intent! The judges did not – this was one of the times that Shirley really leaned into ‘the purity of the dahnce’, and I thought was criticising Jowita’s choreography as much as how he did it. But Toyah – oh dear, oh dear. I don’t think Neil will have long with this partner. They put the most effort into Paul’s VT. Poor Karen. I think the did the best that she could with choreographing an American Smooth to ‘Vindaloo’. It meant that Paul was the only one doing lifts, which he managed, but like Craig said, it was stilted. (Props to Wynne for representing Wales as the Clauditorium shouted ‘Ingerland’, fewer props to the producers for giving him a Tom Jones song.)
As ever, week 2 could change perceptions of a lot of celebs.
