Strictly Come Dancing - week 1
Sep. 29th, 2013 08:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessFriday on Planet Strictly
I loved the intro for bringing in the viewers and the Strictly parties and the gold glittered props.
Then I felt sorry for the announcer, but he won’t be announcing all those celebs for long. I loved the look of Sophie and Aliona’s muted gowns, and when she was dancing, I liked Susanna’s.
Mostly I agreed with the judges, although Craig misjudged the tone of the room (of course, and the room forgot that his paddles go from 1 to 10, unlike the rest's) – but then Bruno snapped in the second dance and got away with it, I probably agreed the most with Darcy’s marking and Len...brought out the seven too early.
Ola and Aliona depended on the male dancer showing the woman choreography, so Iveta’s tango was refreshing. It is an actor’s dance, but Mark seemed good – it was surprisingly good enough to detract from the mask, which I thought I'd fixate on. I really loved Susanna’s jive for week one and I think that having a first dance she had to go full throttle for can only help her. But the energy and the way she sold it were impressive. She may also have stolen my heart in the clips of her interrogating Kevin while eating a banana. I liked Sophie’s waltz a little less than the judges – the top-line was distracting, but Brendan can build on her musicality and she has the secret weapon of a TV favourite! and crying!mother. (Has Janet Ellis been on before? Surely the producers are asking themselves that question.)
And in Natalie...we have our ringer. She did admit, after all, in the first show to having done dance training in her youth, til she got injured (Artem had better ‘ware that). The fringe was definitely hiding a lack of hip action, but her dancing was obviously coming from a better base than anyone else we’d seen all that night. And I don't like that. I suspect that neither will the voting public. We like to see the journey - someone who didn't think they could do this find out that they can, finding out that they love to perform. So, I mainly obsessed over Artem agreeing to dance to Ra-Ra-Rasputin and the costume the he wore...does he have no national pride?
Everything was in place, Bruce got a few laughs out of me and a ‘shut up’ and Tess’s dress choice was questionable (the colour). The only change was that we could see the musicmakers.
Strictly Saturday
This suffered by having nine dancers to last night’s six, I felt.
GREAT opening number from the pros, with great use of props.
Ben smiled his way through his dance. I’m counting down to when Kristina just gets him to do lifts. The revelation that he has lost 50% of his hearing means that how he’ll deal with that will be a fascinating element.
Then there was the first of tonight’s obvious themed dances. I wish they wouldn't as they mined the Bond theme so thoroughly with Colin last year. I still think pretty Fiona and the legs we’d all love at her age deserves better than Anton. It was okay, I loved the dress. The tangos were all much of a muchness markingwise providing pleasant surprises in content and performances.
I very much like what they’ve done with the crepe sleeves for Deborah, who conveyed that she was enjoying dancing to me.
Then DAVE. He had me at 'constipated peacock', but he had me again at the dance. I somewhat resembled Darcy, except for having to worry about the mascara. I don’t think he realises how bad it was, but it was epically entertaining.
Julian...should have channeled that exhuberance into the dance (the bits between the posing) instead of SHOUTING. Bruno worrying if he’d gone too far was one thing, but Bruce’s reaction and Julian SHOUTING was what made it awkward.
Vanessa reacted like the producers must have hoped she would to the pasting; I wanted Craig to pick on her hands.
Patrick’s jive was great. The points about needing finesse were right, but if the judges are going there so early, you’ve done well. And he did, apart from one thing, he shouldn’t have talked about wanting to win. Not even sportsmen can get away with that. Humble! So his jive might possibly have been better than Susanna's, but she wins on personality and playing by the unwritten rules of the show.
Rachel is better than she thinks she is, but Pasha’s decision to go so understated didn’t pay off – I think Sophie’s waltz got better marks and was more lyrical – BUT they really left the best till last. I admit to prejudice, because all I knew of Abbey was that she was a model/presenter/WAG, but I’ve been utterly disarmed by her. With her having issues with 'left' and 'right', I wasn’t expecting what we got, even though I knew they’d put her last on purpose. I know we’re all meant to be swooning over Aliaz (sp?), which is almost a given, so tall! that mole thing under his eye!! but I was really looking forward to the Male Russian Dancer Choreography duel of Artem and Pasha becoming a battle on three fronts. Boy howdy did it. I love that song and I thought the dance really did it justice. She looks like the real deal, she didn’t seem nervous and they have chemistry. The whole thing came together really well. And I was really pleased that she beat Natalie in terms of marks and bringing her nana. Who is in her nineties. That even beats celeb relatives.
So, um, yeah. I am so looking forward to It Takes Two: Is Oona going to come back to fill Julian’s space? It'll give even more chance to dissect all we've seen and to get to know people better. By the way, my reaction to the trailer was more ‘What is Zoe doing cheating on Ian?’ than ‘What is James doing cheating on Ola?’
I loved the intro for bringing in the viewers and the Strictly parties and the gold glittered props.
Then I felt sorry for the announcer, but he won’t be announcing all those celebs for long. I loved the look of Sophie and Aliona’s muted gowns, and when she was dancing, I liked Susanna’s.
Mostly I agreed with the judges, although Craig misjudged the tone of the room (of course, and the room forgot that his paddles go from 1 to 10, unlike the rest's) – but then Bruno snapped in the second dance and got away with it, I probably agreed the most with Darcy’s marking and Len...brought out the seven too early.
Ola and Aliona depended on the male dancer showing the woman choreography, so Iveta’s tango was refreshing. It is an actor’s dance, but Mark seemed good – it was surprisingly good enough to detract from the mask, which I thought I'd fixate on. I really loved Susanna’s jive for week one and I think that having a first dance she had to go full throttle for can only help her. But the energy and the way she sold it were impressive. She may also have stolen my heart in the clips of her interrogating Kevin while eating a banana. I liked Sophie’s waltz a little less than the judges – the top-line was distracting, but Brendan can build on her musicality and she has the secret weapon of a TV favourite! and crying!mother. (Has Janet Ellis been on before? Surely the producers are asking themselves that question.)
And in Natalie...we have our ringer. She did admit, after all, in the first show to having done dance training in her youth, til she got injured (Artem had better ‘ware that). The fringe was definitely hiding a lack of hip action, but her dancing was obviously coming from a better base than anyone else we’d seen all that night. And I don't like that. I suspect that neither will the voting public. We like to see the journey - someone who didn't think they could do this find out that they can, finding out that they love to perform. So, I mainly obsessed over Artem agreeing to dance to Ra-Ra-Rasputin and the costume the he wore...does he have no national pride?
Everything was in place, Bruce got a few laughs out of me and a ‘shut up’ and Tess’s dress choice was questionable (the colour). The only change was that we could see the musicmakers.
Strictly Saturday
This suffered by having nine dancers to last night’s six, I felt.
GREAT opening number from the pros, with great use of props.
Ben smiled his way through his dance. I’m counting down to when Kristina just gets him to do lifts. The revelation that he has lost 50% of his hearing means that how he’ll deal with that will be a fascinating element.
Then there was the first of tonight’s obvious themed dances. I wish they wouldn't as they mined the Bond theme so thoroughly with Colin last year. I still think pretty Fiona and the legs we’d all love at her age deserves better than Anton. It was okay, I loved the dress. The tangos were all much of a muchness markingwise providing pleasant surprises in content and performances.
I very much like what they’ve done with the crepe sleeves for Deborah, who conveyed that she was enjoying dancing to me.
Then DAVE. He had me at 'constipated peacock', but he had me again at the dance. I somewhat resembled Darcy, except for having to worry about the mascara. I don’t think he realises how bad it was, but it was epically entertaining.
Julian...should have channeled that exhuberance into the dance (the bits between the posing) instead of SHOUTING. Bruno worrying if he’d gone too far was one thing, but Bruce’s reaction and Julian SHOUTING was what made it awkward.
Vanessa reacted like the producers must have hoped she would to the pasting; I wanted Craig to pick on her hands.
Patrick’s jive was great. The points about needing finesse were right, but if the judges are going there so early, you’ve done well. And he did, apart from one thing, he shouldn’t have talked about wanting to win. Not even sportsmen can get away with that. Humble! So his jive might possibly have been better than Susanna's, but she wins on personality and playing by the unwritten rules of the show.
Rachel is better than she thinks she is, but Pasha’s decision to go so understated didn’t pay off – I think Sophie’s waltz got better marks and was more lyrical – BUT they really left the best till last. I admit to prejudice, because all I knew of Abbey was that she was a model/presenter/WAG, but I’ve been utterly disarmed by her. With her having issues with 'left' and 'right', I wasn’t expecting what we got, even though I knew they’d put her last on purpose. I know we’re all meant to be swooning over Aliaz (sp?), which is almost a given, so tall! that mole thing under his eye!! but I was really looking forward to the Male Russian Dancer Choreography duel of Artem and Pasha becoming a battle on three fronts. Boy howdy did it. I love that song and I thought the dance really did it justice. She looks like the real deal, she didn’t seem nervous and they have chemistry. The whole thing came together really well. And I was really pleased that she beat Natalie in terms of marks and bringing her nana. Who is in her nineties. That even beats celeb relatives.
So, um, yeah. I am so looking forward to It Takes Two: Is Oona going to come back to fill Julian’s space? It'll give even more chance to dissect all we've seen and to get to know people better. By the way, my reaction to the trailer was more ‘What is Zoe doing cheating on Ian?’ than ‘What is James doing cheating on Ola?’
