Strictly week 3 – Movie week
Oct. 14th, 2025 08:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessWatched live: The episode opened with a ‘Wicked: For Good’ group dance tribute, with all the dancers being Elphaba or Fiyero. No green faces, but some of the men’s wigs were distracting.
Celebrity guest mentor Cynthia Erivo meant that the judges’ table was crowded, she would comment, but not dish out any scores. Stefan and Dianne had got a bye because he was ill.
Opening the competition up with a Sound of Music American Smooth were Amber and Nikita, dancing to ’16 Going on 17’. Her footwork felt a little careful, but her form in the lifts was beautiful, and she ended by posing on a bike. She got the first 9s of the season from everyone bar Craig, and Nikita went even higher in pitch than Amber in his excitement.
Thor!paso from Chris and Nadiya (both playing Thor) to ‘Sweet Child of Mine’. There was no resistance and his face was more of a ‘I’m concentrating’ face, but I agreed with the judges that he had improved, which was reflected in his scores.
George and Alexis’s couples choice was to K-Pop Demon Hunters’s ‘Soda Pop’ so we got the first ‘getting to know you better’ VT. I was impressed by his ease of movement and flow as someone with no dance background, and I disagreed with Craig about the lack of synchronicity, although it’s always amusing that he gets picky about dance styles he knows better than the others. Motsi seemed to think K-pop and hip-hop were interchangeable.
‘Sweet Child of Mine’ was in my head all that night.
Watched on catch up: La Voix and Aljiaz danced a graceful waltz to ‘Feed the Pigeons’ from Mary Poppins. I realised I didn’t like the skirt of Claudia’s dress at this point.
Ross and Jowita’s Thunderbirds paso was a set-up for Craig to use the word ‘stiff’, which he did. Ross tried to be imperious, but it was the weakest dance of the night.
Balvinder and Julian were doing a ‘Fred and Ginger-inspired’ (specifically ‘Swing Time’) foxtrot to ‘The Way You Look Tonight’, which would be her first ballroom dance. She looked good out of hold, but she was a bit stumbly when they got together.
Karen and Carlos were doing a cha cha to ‘She’s a Lady’ ‘from’ Miss Congeniality. Big smile and great fringing on her dress, but my overall take was that this was crying out for more finesse.
Jimmy and Lauren performed the first rumba of the series to ‘No Time To Die’ and he was confident and competent. Anton praised his continuous movement. (It turns out that this was Lauren’s first rumba with a partner and it’s her favourite dance.)
Vicky and Kai’s The Great Gatsby Charleston was full on (loads of lifts, with some neat tricks). I didn’t think it was as good as Balvinder’s, possibly not helped by the music being a modern take on the era, and she got increasingly ragged. She crumpled up as Craig and Shirley bemoaned the missing swivel and the flat-footedness, but then she got a few 7s and went wild.
Ellie and Vito were doing a disco samba as Barbie and Ken, respectively, to ‘Dance the Night Away’, and she absolutely threw her whole body into it (but also flung her arms away at times.) It was a joyous routine, though, and she was another one who improved.
Alex and JoJo’s The Devil Wears Prada quickstep (to ‘Suddenly I See’, which lodged itself in my head that night) was thoroughly entertaining, as she danced it in character as haughty Miranda Priestly throughout. There was visible gapping.
Harry and Karen had amazing costumes (although I still wonder whether Harry was meant to be topless) for their Lion King: Mufasa salsa. I loved the African flavour, the story of joyous fraternity, and it was fresh and he did show more control. His best dance and score, and fair enough.
They kept the best paso til last, as Lewis and Katya closed with a The Mask of Zorro paso to instrumental music, and it was obviously the best dance of the night. Lewis’s control, shaping and ability to match Katya’s energy deserved all the complementary comments (and she’d got the balance right in the choreography.) Arguably, Motsi has reached for the 10 paddle too early, but it was deservedly top of the leaderboard.
If I’d have voted, it would have been for Jimmy, Harry and George. Cynthia as mentor worked, although I could have done with less adulation. At this point, I felt that a paso off between Ross and Chris would have been fair, but absent Stefan, Vicky and Karen were quite low on the leaderboard.
Results show (also watched on catch up): no room for Cynthia at the judges table this time.
They stuck to the same pattern for calling the results as last week, which had the same upsides and downsides. The second to learn he was safe, along with the highest scorers? Chris, which meant we might get a shock. Lots of singalongs in the Clauditorium, and all the female pros admitting they were telling their celeb partners to ‘Be more Johannes’ when it came to posture.
I did not get the Minecraft group number, and again, was reduced to noticing the wigs (did they overspend on them or getting Cynthia Erivo? Because it also occurred to me that they’d reined in the augmented reality effects this week.)
Cynthia joined the judges debrief, where it was notable that they were all in very dull colours. It ended with a nice nod to the scenic team for their work.
Ellie was too excited to learn that she was safe to hug Vito. More singing along in the Clauditorium.
Lang Lang and some guy on some kind of stringed instrument and Nancy, aided by Kai, put on a beautiful and expressive Mulan dance.
The last four standing learned that Balvinder and Julian were in the dance off (ouch as the highest scoring couple of the lot of them, which suggests that they have a popularity problem) against Ross and Jowita (meaning that Shirley probably wouldn’t need to use her casting vote.) Getting two judges to give advice at this point is overkill.
I don’t know if Ross had cleaned up that mistake under the judges’ noses, but I thought that Balvinder looked better in hold this time around, and it was an unsurprising unanimous save for them.
More hits than flops if we’re carrying on with the movie metaphor, but though she seemed to do a sterling job as mentor, it did feel as if Strictly was trying to start a new religion with Cynthia as its deity this week.
Celebrity guest mentor Cynthia Erivo meant that the judges’ table was crowded, she would comment, but not dish out any scores. Stefan and Dianne had got a bye because he was ill.
Opening the competition up with a Sound of Music American Smooth were Amber and Nikita, dancing to ’16 Going on 17’. Her footwork felt a little careful, but her form in the lifts was beautiful, and she ended by posing on a bike. She got the first 9s of the season from everyone bar Craig, and Nikita went even higher in pitch than Amber in his excitement.
Thor!paso from Chris and Nadiya (both playing Thor) to ‘Sweet Child of Mine’. There was no resistance and his face was more of a ‘I’m concentrating’ face, but I agreed with the judges that he had improved, which was reflected in his scores.
George and Alexis’s couples choice was to K-Pop Demon Hunters’s ‘Soda Pop’ so we got the first ‘getting to know you better’ VT. I was impressed by his ease of movement and flow as someone with no dance background, and I disagreed with Craig about the lack of synchronicity, although it’s always amusing that he gets picky about dance styles he knows better than the others. Motsi seemed to think K-pop and hip-hop were interchangeable.
‘Sweet Child of Mine’ was in my head all that night.
Watched on catch up: La Voix and Aljiaz danced a graceful waltz to ‘Feed the Pigeons’ from Mary Poppins. I realised I didn’t like the skirt of Claudia’s dress at this point.
Ross and Jowita’s Thunderbirds paso was a set-up for Craig to use the word ‘stiff’, which he did. Ross tried to be imperious, but it was the weakest dance of the night.
Balvinder and Julian were doing a ‘Fred and Ginger-inspired’ (specifically ‘Swing Time’) foxtrot to ‘The Way You Look Tonight’, which would be her first ballroom dance. She looked good out of hold, but she was a bit stumbly when they got together.
Karen and Carlos were doing a cha cha to ‘She’s a Lady’ ‘from’ Miss Congeniality. Big smile and great fringing on her dress, but my overall take was that this was crying out for more finesse.
Jimmy and Lauren performed the first rumba of the series to ‘No Time To Die’ and he was confident and competent. Anton praised his continuous movement. (It turns out that this was Lauren’s first rumba with a partner and it’s her favourite dance.)
Vicky and Kai’s The Great Gatsby Charleston was full on (loads of lifts, with some neat tricks). I didn’t think it was as good as Balvinder’s, possibly not helped by the music being a modern take on the era, and she got increasingly ragged. She crumpled up as Craig and Shirley bemoaned the missing swivel and the flat-footedness, but then she got a few 7s and went wild.
Ellie and Vito were doing a disco samba as Barbie and Ken, respectively, to ‘Dance the Night Away’, and she absolutely threw her whole body into it (but also flung her arms away at times.) It was a joyous routine, though, and she was another one who improved.
Alex and JoJo’s The Devil Wears Prada quickstep (to ‘Suddenly I See’, which lodged itself in my head that night) was thoroughly entertaining, as she danced it in character as haughty Miranda Priestly throughout. There was visible gapping.
Harry and Karen had amazing costumes (although I still wonder whether Harry was meant to be topless) for their Lion King: Mufasa salsa. I loved the African flavour, the story of joyous fraternity, and it was fresh and he did show more control. His best dance and score, and fair enough.
They kept the best paso til last, as Lewis and Katya closed with a The Mask of Zorro paso to instrumental music, and it was obviously the best dance of the night. Lewis’s control, shaping and ability to match Katya’s energy deserved all the complementary comments (and she’d got the balance right in the choreography.) Arguably, Motsi has reached for the 10 paddle too early, but it was deservedly top of the leaderboard.
If I’d have voted, it would have been for Jimmy, Harry and George. Cynthia as mentor worked, although I could have done with less adulation. At this point, I felt that a paso off between Ross and Chris would have been fair, but absent Stefan, Vicky and Karen were quite low on the leaderboard.
Results show (also watched on catch up): no room for Cynthia at the judges table this time.
They stuck to the same pattern for calling the results as last week, which had the same upsides and downsides. The second to learn he was safe, along with the highest scorers? Chris, which meant we might get a shock. Lots of singalongs in the Clauditorium, and all the female pros admitting they were telling their celeb partners to ‘Be more Johannes’ when it came to posture.
I did not get the Minecraft group number, and again, was reduced to noticing the wigs (did they overspend on them or getting Cynthia Erivo? Because it also occurred to me that they’d reined in the augmented reality effects this week.)
Cynthia joined the judges debrief, where it was notable that they were all in very dull colours. It ended with a nice nod to the scenic team for their work.
Ellie was too excited to learn that she was safe to hug Vito. More singing along in the Clauditorium.
Lang Lang and some guy on some kind of stringed instrument and Nancy, aided by Kai, put on a beautiful and expressive Mulan dance.
The last four standing learned that Balvinder and Julian were in the dance off (ouch as the highest scoring couple of the lot of them, which suggests that they have a popularity problem) against Ross and Jowita (meaning that Shirley probably wouldn’t need to use her casting vote.) Getting two judges to give advice at this point is overkill.
I don’t know if Ross had cleaned up that mistake under the judges’ noses, but I thought that Balvinder looked better in hold this time around, and it was an unsurprising unanimous save for them.
More hits than flops if we’re carrying on with the movie metaphor, but though she seemed to do a sterling job as mentor, it did feel as if Strictly was trying to start a new religion with Cynthia as its deity this week.
