Strictly - the night before Blackpool

[zico]

This is the last Strictly week before Blackpool and as we all know, celebs are always desperate to get to Blackpool, presumably for all the cultural delights it offers. We’ll be getting regular reminders about this after each dance, lest we forget. Tess has a bright red dress, with what appears to be a matching apron down the front.

Daisy & Aljaz (Salsa). Daisy Dance-Off is first up and this looks generally pretty good, but with a couple of little dodgy moments. She’s certainly got some nice fluid hip movement and is giving it plenty. Craig tells her she was continually disjointed through the dance. The others pick up on a few mistakes and she just gets 31. Not to worry, she’ll get another chance to do better second time round “tomorrow” night. Claudia has enlisted a mariachi band to help drown out the reading of the all-important Terms and Conditions.

Greg & Natalie (Paso). Very dramatic choreography from Natalie who looks great swishing her black and gold frock while Greg is wearing huge black dungarees that come halfway up his chest. He looks a bit stiff (as he tends to), but he’s certainly trying. Other judges say lengthy and vaguely critical things, which Len summarises nicely as “too much attack and aggression meant you lost finesse”. 31 for Greg to tie with Daisy.

Judge & Oksana (Foxtrot). The Judge said last week that his big ambition was to get far enough in the contest for his grandparents to see him dance the foxtrot. Well, his grandparents are in the audience, but the Judge is now saying they want to see him at Blackpool. Aren’t there rules against using family members for more than one sympathy vote? Music is Sinatra’s “you make me feel so young”, the routine and the dancing is really good and Oksana looks very cute in her nice frock. Of all the couples, Judge & Oksana is the one that makes me feel they’re really enjoying their dances. At the end, Judge says something nice about his grandparents’ generation, war and fighting for our freedoms to watch reality TV on Saturday night. Craig says he can now look at Judge’s face and enjoy it, to which the Judge replies “let me know if that ever happens to you, Craig”. They’ve got a good double-act going here. Darcey talks about glide and flow, and inevitably, his shoulders. Len tells him it’s his best dance yet and they score 33.

Ore & Joanne (Rumba). This is all a bit stop-start and not much more than a series of poses. It just feels (and looks) awkward. Didn’t enjoy that at all. Tess tells him the Rumba is difficult for a man, nicking Darcey’s favourite line. Craig tells him it lacked fluidity, but says it was wonderful apart from that. The judges’ pitch with Ore seems to be “you’re just so great, even when you’re a bit rubbish”. Ore gets emotional yet again while talking to Tess. Craig gives 8, but otherwise Ore gets 9’s for a stonkingly generous score of 35. Still, it should help keep the judges’ pet out of the dance-off this week at least.

Ed & Katya (Salsa). Last week we were warned/promised Ed is doing a salsa to Gangnam Style, and just the thought of it is surely enough to make anyone smile, except Yvette Cooper who will surely have had sleepless nights this week. Ed is dressed in a blue suit with black lapels like some overgrown Teddy Boy. Well, this is just brilliantly entertaining. Ed gives it full throttle, there are some great moments where Ed leaps in the air and lands sitting on Katya’s face, rocks the Gangnam dance moves and does a spectacular lift/throw with Katya that leaves her eyelashes brushing the floor, but she emerges miraculously unscathed. She’s got balls, in at least two senses (hopefully not three) of the term. Ed’s footwork isn’t bad either. Very funny, a complete and utter triumph and Ed has absolutely guaranteed himself a place in the Tower ballroom next week. Len says there are no words in the dictionary to describe what they just saw, Bruno gets excited and Craig says O-M-G. Impressed with the resident singer who sang the song in Korean. Oh, come on Craig, that’s surely worth more than a 4 (the dance that is, not the Korean vocals). I mostly like Craig’s realistic scoring, but that’s harsh. Darcey gives 7, Len 8 and Bruno 6 to give Ed 25.

Claudia & AJ (Viennese Waltz). Dull Claudia and the dullest of all the dances should be a deathly pairing, but in yet another surprise this week, Claudia actually isn’t dull. This routine starts with AJ sitting on a swing with fairy lights all around. A nice routine in which Claudia seems to be actually a dancer dancing rather than a gymnast moving her body in the way she’s been told. Bruno tells her she’s the cutest (only small people can be cute, it seems). 9’s all around for 36 and top of the leaderboard.

Danny & Oti (Argentine Tango). “Heard it through the grapevine” - suitable for tango? No, me neither. This routine is certainly a different (and welcome) take on this dance, a fiery and frantic routine, much quicker than most argentine tangos, and Danny performs very well once again. My word, Oti has long legs, and is happy to flaunt them, resting a leg on Danny’s shoulder while he drags her across the floor. Great entertainment, but it’s getting even more obvious that Danny has had a lot of dance experience. Judges are split with Craig and Darcey both say it’s too aggressive, with Len and Bruno loving it. 10’s from Len and Bruno gives them a total of 38. Bit of an awkward moment where Oti tries to hug Danny and he brushes her off.

Louise & Kevin (American Smooth). Smooth and Louise should go together well. They dance to “Big Spender” a great song which is always a crowd-pleaser. In rehearsals, Louise talks about the Bob Fosse moves they are putting in – didn’t spot any of those, but it’s a good routine. Louise uses two big fans in her routine – no, not Craig and Bruno, she has genuine fake-ostrich black fans. She looks great with a glam frock and it’s all very competent and smooth again, without ever giving the feeling she’s totally involved. Darcey tells her about putting shoulders down and Craig loves her musicality. She’s told she gives it both barrels, personally I think she gave it just the one barrel. Only superfan Bruno gives her a 10, so 37 for Louise.

Danny tops the leaderboard, while Greg and Daisy are in the danger spots of next to bottom, just above bulletproof Ed (for this week at least). I reckon Daisy is a cert for the dance-off, but predicting the second person is a lot trickier. I reckon he’ll be joined by Ore.

Results Show

It's broadcast on Remembrance day so there’s a dance homage to Basil & Madge, two people who met in World War 2, and have been happily married ever since. Two dancers pretend to be them and act out bits of their lives, which sounds horribly sentimental, but works better than it sounds and it’s all quite sweet. Tess has a flying fox cape attached to her dress.

Ore is put through first and looks shocked, then Danny, Claudia and to nobody’s surprise, Daisy is first for the dance-off. There’s a bit of footage of celebs and dancers out and about selling poppies. Musical interlude with a gurning Andre Rieu and his bevy of ballgowned female musicians tackling “Hallelujah”. Leonard Cohen would surely have appreciated them waiting until he’d died before doing this version.

More results, and Ed inevitably goes through, followed by Louise with Kevin’s equally inevitable victory punch, and the last spot is between Judge and Greg, with Greg being put through to the DDO.

Art imitating life this week, pitting a big strong guy with very little experience at what he’s doing and not a clue about what he’ll do next against a woman who’s somehow not as popular with the voters as you might expect her to be. This could be a close dance-off, as the judges dislike both couples equally. However, Daisy has pretty much given up, all her pzazzz has gone pfft, and she’s just going through the motions this time round. Greg does a bit better than first time round, so it should be a simple choice for the judges. Craig and Darcey pick Greg, while Bruno goes for Daisy, perhaps to be kind to her or maybe to make Len be the bad guy to knock her out – which he duly does.

Around this stage of Strictly is my favourite time, when it gets very close to call, you’ve got people who are entertaining for different reasons, and who goes through actually depends quite a bit of how well they do on a particular week. By contrast, the final is just down to a simple popularity contest unaffected by how anyone dances.

A few predictions from me for order of eliminations. Greg to go next, then Ed, Claudia, Judge, Ore, Danny 2nd and Louise to win it. I think Ore will be in the bottom 2 fairly regularly from now on, but keep getting saved by the judges until he pleads with them to let him go. What do you think? Usual plea, no bookies odds!

[dionaeamuscipula]

Some random thoughts:

I don't much like the rumba, and Ore's version hasn't changed my mind. I thought it was poorly danced, comparatively, and heavily overmarked. MrsDM couldn't believe the judges were watching the same dance. Its traditional to overmark someone who was a surprise entry in the previous week's DDO though. In Ore's defence he's had two unsuitable dances in a row. He may have reached his limit as someone who's never previously danced. Same with Greg.

I agreed with Bruno's description of Ed's dance as the Best Worst dance he'd seen. After a significant improvement last week, it was back to stomping this week, but then they did a spectacular lift at the end - I couldn't help imagining Ann Widdecombe doing it. All the real weakies have been rooted out now, and good dancers are beginning to go too, I can see Ed retiring after Blackpool if he doesn't get booted out next week.

We thought Danny's dance was terrific, fast, accurate, amazing footwork. Best of the series so far for me.

I couldn't work the orchestra out. Rieu may as well not have been there, I couldn't hear him. In fact there was no obvious microphonography at all, leading me to suspect that it was pre-recorded. Did they have any blokes apart from Rieu?

Its been a bad couple of weeks for Daisy, her relationship having crumbled in the face of all the work she was putting into Strictly just a week before she suddenly found herself out of it.

DM

[hectorcat]

Some random thoughts:

I agreed with Bruno's description of Ed's dance as the Best Worst dance he'd seen. After a significant improvement last week, it was back to stomping this week, but then they did a spectacular lift at the end - I couldn't help imagining Ann Widdecombe doing it. All the real weakies have been rooted out now, and good dancers are beginning to go too, I can see Ed retiring after Blackpool if he doesn't get booted out next week.

DM

I agree re Ed - on 'It Takes Two' last night Karen was talking about choreography said that if the pro thinks the dance isn't that great for the celeb they can throw in a WOW lift at the end which is what the audience will remember hence boosting the vote.

I was impressed that Katya was prepared to let him do it after the botched lift a couple of weeks before.

HC