It’s always a bit of a relief when the field is culled significantly. It reduces the time I have to spend thinking of pertinent comments for each contestant. But then they do something cruel by making the poor sods do two dances (as if they weren’t knackered enough) and I have to start banging my head repeatedly against the desk to make the words come out...
The one aspect where I feel the BBC has made changes not necessarily for the best, other than turning the show into glitzy propsville, is that there are so few of the celebs performing the same dance each week. I miss the old days, where you either danced a certain Latin dance or a specific ballroom. It was only later on in the series when it became ‘anything goes’. As a result it is so much more difficult to compare one performance with another.
This time however we actually got a couple of memorable Argentine Tangos to contrast with each other, more’s the pity for Anita. That makes it sound as if Anita’s dance was dreadful and it quite clearly was the opposite. Her dance had drive, passion and theatricality without it being an OTT caricature but she didn’t have the sharpness of performance or the energy that Harry’s Argentine Tango did. Whilst the choreography of both routines was fabulously tailored towards the skills of both dancers the precision of Harry’s footwork was always going to carry the day.
Controversial note here. I actually agreed with Len. There was a tiny degree of fire missing from Harry’s dance. Nothing major, and in my opinion not worth the 8 that Len awarded him: it was a 9 from my point of view. But I understood where Mr Goodman was coming from. I always feel that whilst Harry is infinitely watchable he rarely seems to be able to inhabit a character or display the required amount of emotion. It’s the one thing that for me at the moment is stopping me picking up the phone to vote for him. If he could just take it up one notch...
Vernon Kay (Mr Tess Daly) tweeted shortly afterwards to say that Harry’s AT wasn’t remotely at the same level of Ramps and Karen’s dance back in 2006. I have to agree: Mark led that dance so well, and Harry didn’t quite do that to the same level. It does seem that all ATs are judged retrospectively against that iconic Strictly moment (and usually found lacking)!
The judges’ bickering is starting to get wearisome. I suppose some might think that in these X-Factor days a little controversy goes a long way, but I find it uncomfortable. If Craig disagrees with Len, or Bruno with Len, or if Alesha tells Len he’s jetlagged and grumpy like an overtired toddler without his favourite teddy bear, does it matter? They are all there to give their opinions. I rarely agree with Alesha and find her constant awarding of 10s like they are Scooby snacks utterly ridiculous, but she’s there on the panel to give her opinion. Likewise Craig. Why does Len have to take everything so personally? Being head judge doesn’t necessarily mean he has to be the only one who’s right. Nor does it give him the authority to be rude to Craig.
Please stop it Len. You’re hurting my ears this year. Can we have the nice, kind Mr Goodman back that we used to know and love rather than the Grinch?
He did however spot one thing that I have been wittering away about for weeks. Holly needs to stop looking at the floor when she dances. Given that due to Artem’s back injury she had to train and indeed partner Brendan on the live show she did extremely well with her rumba routine, and I suppose if there’s one dance that you could almost get away with looking coy and bashful then this is the one. Still, you can’t do an entire show looking half-apologetic. It was beautifully choreographed by Artem and goodness knows how frustrating it must have been to sit on the sidelines and watch someone else dance with his partner. Props also to Brendan for stepping in the way he did. There actually seemed to be more connection between Brendan and Holly in that one dance than there had been these last few weeks with Artem.
As for Holly, I guess switching from one man to another must be the dance equivalent of borrowing someone else’s bike and realising you have to adjust the saddle height, the brake tightness, the level of the handlebars...and yet it was one of her better dances. I’m almost beginning to feel sad that she and Brendan weren’t together from the start. If anyone could have stirred her from her laid-back Aussie lethargy then he was certainly the one to do it, as I’m sure Fiona Phillips and countless others can testify!
I personally thought the Jive was James and Alex’s best dance. Like many at first I thought ‘oh god, not dancing with dolls, please’ at the start but thankfully James Junior’s appearances were kept to a minimum. The actual jive was brilliantly good, very fast and without any flagging at all. Craig however seemed to think Alex’s technique was wrong, citing the lack of pointed toes in the kicks and flicks or non-bent ankles in the Lindy Hop sections, thinking it a wishy-washy compromise of middle ground for both. James clearly disagreed but bit his lip this week. Sensible boy. Wembley coming up, don’t you know? All the weak dancers bar one are gone and arguably next in line it’s Alex, Robbie and Anita, all at the same sort of level. Throwing a strop isn’t going to get you to the big W.
Mind you, I know flip-all about technique in dance. I know when something looks wrong or when it looks very right, but I might not be able to say exactly what it is sometimes. In matters like this one expects the judges to point you in the right direction. So, you have Craig saying one thing. Then on ITT you have professional dancer James saying Craig’s got it wrong. Then you have the so-called knowledgeable folks on Digital Spy (everyone’s an expert on there) agreeing with Craig. And then Karen Hardy telling you something else. Confused? I sure as heck am! Someone find out the correct technique for Jive and tell the judges, please! Personally, I go with Karen. I’d be surprised as an ex-world champion of Jive and a professional judge that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about!
I think however we can agree that Alex’s Jive was very entertaining in a bouncy cheerleader way! One question remains however. Who got custody of James Junior???
Audley. Oh dear. I think it became clear very quickly that this wasn’t his dance. In fact I can’t even remember what kind of dance it was supposed to be, which just about says it all! It was something of the Latin variety, although it was definitely less Veni Vidi Vici and more I came, I saw, I shuffled from side to side. Poor Audley: he looked like a big, floundering fish out of water. Albeit one with a giant smile on his face.
Robbie I am finding very odd to sum up. He danced an American Smooth which was quite clearly from a technical point of view by far and away his best dance. And yet I am struggling to see his personality. Conversely in dances where we see his personality, we rarely see his technique. I think we’ve seen one dance so far where he managed to get both right. You could argue that perhaps the ballroom, where he seems far more natural, calls for less personality but there still has to be something! As a result I’m becoming rather bored with him, which is a pity because after that wonderful movie themed dance he did near the start I had high hopes for him. I think he’s got a few weeks left maybe, but then he may be in trouble.
As for Jason, I think he may have more than a few weeks left in him barring shock results. I admire a man who decides that if he’s going to do something he may as well put everything into it and do a good job. I don’t even mind that he’s so serious: you can’t change your personality off the floor just for the sake of a dancing contest. But at least Jason manages (for the most part) to perform and pull something extra out the bag come the performance. It shows better in the Latin dances where he can let himself go and have a bit of fun. The Viennese Waltz was beautiful, and almost brilliant, but again I much prefer the dance to have a fluffier side to it than a serious one. This of course is personal preference and has no bearing on the wonderful dance that they did on the night. As Craig said, it could have been perfect. Could have been. But just not quite...
Jason is great to watch, if a little distracting facially at times. He may even win the title, who knows? But he’s got competition in Harry, and especially Chelsee. She had a wonderful on-screen chemistry with ‘Pash’, even although she does give the unfortunate impression she has the same IQ as a bottle of correction fluid. Probably all put on: it seems, to quote the Kaiser Chief’s ‘Cool to Know Nothing’.
Damn. That song’s going to be in my head all day now.
I confess that she’s rather grown on me, which is surprising because I had convinced myself at the start she was going to be the one most likely to make me want to throw something at the screen. There’s usually one that surprises me every year, and this time it’s Chelsee, so fair play to her. I’m not convinced she enjoyed training for the Foxtrot and I think if you find things difficult or awkward in training, no matter how hard you try to perform in the live show, it’s never going to be brilliant. I personally thought that whilst (barring the slidey bit at the end between Pasha’s legs that didn’t really scream Foxtrot at me) it was a lovely routine that she danced well enough, but somehow it didn’t seem to have her usual stylishness about it. Craig picked up on the hoppy, pogo-stick turn towards the end, which I think everyone spotted.
Oh, except Alesha who gave it a 10. *groans*
Now, bearing in mind I championed the judges rights to score and speak as they pleased, don’t think me a hypocrite if I beg someone to swap Alesha’s 10 paddle with a lolly pop? Or a table tennis bat???
Russell performed in his usual wonderful way, that is to say in the way that only Russell knows how to. It was possibly the most unusual American Smooth you are ever likely to see, danced with customary feeling to ‘I Am What I Am’. Len had the quote of the night, saying ‘I am what I am, you are what you are, and that (the dance) was what it was’, before likening him to a dancing ‘Ferrero Roche’ thanks in no small part to the bling, gold sequined jacket and trousers he changed into half way through!
I don’t really have anything to add, other than I’m beginning to feel that I’ve sort of seen it all now with Russell. Last week I was looking forward to discovering what new angle he and Flavia could bring to the dances, but now I’m kind of feeling that it’s going to be more of the same. I still want him to get to Wembley, though. If there’s ever a stage that was made for Russell Grant’s flamboyant personality then that is the one. Let him go out in a blaze of glory and cheering from the crowds. Or, if he manages to pull something different and entertaining out the bag, let him continue. His enthusiasm for the show certainly isn’t put on, but it’s getting to the stage in the show that occurs every year, where we find ourselves asking if the better dancers should be knocked out by someone who is clearly and infinitesimally weaker, but brings a lot of joy to their routines.
Not surprisingly it was Audley’s turn in the spotlight again. He must have seen it coming a mile off. Slightly surprising was that Anita found herself sharing that unwanted podium position. I say slightly, because Anita had managed to get her best scores for her AT, although I commented to a few friends before the results that she was in a very dodgy position on the board where everyone would assume she was safe and vote for other people. I suppose someone’s got to fill that spot though, and it could just as well have been Anita as anyone else.
As predicted however it was the gentlemanly Audley who was finally given the boot. Which is quite funny when you think of it: I’m sure if you’d told him that at some point in his career he’d be KO’d by Anita Dobson he’d have looked at you as if you were missing your community carer! Kudos to Audley, who was heard to say he’d have stepped aside if Anita had gone out so she could be reinstated. Winning always becomes Mr Harrison, but even when he loses he does it with magnanimous grace and a large smile. Despite his lack of dancing ability, I rather think Strictly will miss him.
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