Strictly 2016

So are we doing a thread this year? Was away and not seen any of the dances yet. So no idea how they went or whether Greg did OK?

 

«134

Comments

  • Greg was incredibly boingy.  I think he'll do very well.  Natalie suits him.

    No Anne Widdicomes/Judy Murrays this year.  Ed Balls and Leslie Joseph and the Melvin Odoom (surely a made up name) are the weakest, but still streets ahead of previous years' duffers.

    Judge Rinder, who I had never heard of before, and who I assumed from googling him that I'd hate, is either going to be a complete riot or will wind everyone up.  Quite a remarkable dance.

    Sadly, no obvious "journey" material this year.

     

  • yeah spot on Nessie. I'm guessing Ed Balls will struggle with the Latin but he wasn't terrible

  • Pre series I assumed Ed would struggle and may well not get votes.

    However only watched Friday's show so far, will watch Saturday's tonight.

    Greg indeed looked good (Natalie is a good choice and my favourite pro anyway) although his foot placement is so unlike what he trains for he will take a few weeks to adjust. Showed in some of the flicks and kick but Jive first week is tough.

    I also agree there were no hopeless cases on Friday's show,  Not sure what I make of Rinder yet myself. I guess he danced OK. 

    I guess we will see how they all go with the other dance this weekend (Ballroom or Latin swap) and then the show truly starts.  Journey material may depend on how well somebody progresses. An OK starter may yet turn into a real star.

    Also I didn't like Ore's Tango. Wrong music, too much not really Tango BUT he showed he can dance.

    The problem at this stage is being early and if no obvious duffer then voting will come down to personal favourites. Either people won't vote much yet and it will go pretty much with judges or it will come down to likes and so Ed as a politician is nailed on favourite to go  I suspect. The other usual favourite would be the foreigner but actually Anastacia seems to have got into the swing of this unlike say Pamela Anderson or any of the previous Americans.

     

  • OK so Ed wasn't that bad actually. No not great but not bad, I would have been happy to do that!

    For me it was actually better than Melvin. I didn't like that at all, Also Tameka didn't really do it for me either

    Daisy, Louise and Danny were good.

    Anastacia was a strange mix of mistake and some really good stuff.

    Claudia OK but may well improve a lot. I do agree that she needs to be careful not to do too much Gymnastics though.

     

  • This week's dances are

    • Anastacia and Brendan will be dancing the Salsa to 'Sax' by Fleur East
    • Claudia and AJ will be dancing the Waltz to 'You Light Up My Life' by Whitney Houston
    • Daisy and Aljaz will be dancing the Cha Cha to 'Forget You' by Cee-Lo Green
    • Danny and Oti will be dancing the Viennese Waltz to 'Never Tear Us Apart' by INXS
    • Ed and Katya will be dancing the Charleston to 'The Banjo's Back in Town' by Alma Cogan
    • Greg and Natalie will be dancing the Tango to 'Jump' by Van Halen
    • Judge Rinder and Oksana will be dancing the American Smooth to 'Marvin Gaye' by Charlie Puth ft. Meghan Trainor
    • Laura and Giovanni will be dancing the Waltz to 'If I Ain't Got You' by Alicia Keys
    • Lesley and Anton will be dancing the Cha Cha to the Pussycat Dolls' version of 'Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps'
    • Louise and Kevin will be dancing the Viennese Waltz to the kd lang version of 'Hallelujah'
    • Melvin and Janette will be dancing the Tango to 'Moving On Up' by M People
    • <a href='http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/47HzBgPl0Chdjb7b9VByTTP/naga-munchetty' target='_blank'
    • Naga and Pasha will be dancing the Cha Cha to 'Fool In Love' by Tina Turner
    • Ore and Joanne will be dancing the Cha Cha to 'Hot Stuff' by Donna Summer
    • Tameka and Gorka will be dancing the Charleston to 'Yes Sir, That's My Baby' to Firehouse Five Plus Two
    • Will and Karen will be dancing the Jive to 'Rock Around The Clock' by Bill Haley & His Comets

     

  • Music seems OK to most but the Tangoes in general,  both last week and this,seem to have some strange choices

  • Hello. Some amazing dances so far. I thought the chap from holyoaks was under marked. Can't remember his name. 

  • Go Ed Balls. I usually agree with Craig but not tonight. Not it wasn't brilliant but he gave a performance there and better than Melvin's Tango.  Other than Ed I was pretty much on Craig's wavelength.

    Greg did OK. A bit stompy when slow but better when fast.

    Always thought Naga would look better with longer hair and that wig proved it She is going to be more ballroom than Latin I think..

    Daisy wasn't quite as  good as last week and we mentioned the lift at home as well.

    Danny was superb again (the Hollyoaks man Soup)

  • Evening.

    Ed Balls wasn't that bad was he? Font like him but fair play to him for getting into character 

    Anastasia is annoying me. Love her music but not her dancing, and Brendan is fawning all over her.

    Danny my favourite image

    No idea who might be going but for my money it would be Melvin

     

  • Soup,  So I guess we both had Melvin down to go and he did which was right.

    I was a bit surprised that Anastacia was in the dance off but I guess I did say early on that the foreigner often doesn't get votes but thought she had got more into it than most of them have in the past. Her injury was unfortunate given her history. She has had a mastectomy and the scar tissue tearing is not great. My concern there is I am not sure how quickly that will heal and she could well have to pull out anyway. No her dance wasn't great but some would have pulled out on the day given that injury and she did go ahead so fair dues to her  Not surprised they stopped her dancing again though. So some early issues but Melvin was the right one to go.

    No real favourite yet, although Greg is a local to where I live and Natalie is my favourite professional dancer so I guess they are at the moment and I did vote for them.

    Movie week next week,; that feels like it has come around really early this year.

  • NessieNessie ✭✭✭

    No issues with Melvin going out - he was definitely bottom 3 performance-wise, and at this early stage it's a bit of a lottery.

    Agree with Soupy - Danny is my favourite from a dancing perspective.  From an "I'm not sure why, but I like him" perspective, it's got to be Judge Rinder, although I reserve the right to change this to annoying tw*t at any stage in the future. He seems annoying, then comes out with a class dry comment that makes him really funny.

    I find the height difference between Claudia and AJ a bit off-putting.  They look really awkward in ballroom hold, but she's so teeny that would be the same with everyone.  She'll be good in the fast Latin, I think.

    Both the Charelstons were incredibly entertaining - Tameka's was brilliant, and Ed's was just so unexpected. 

  • I have to confess - I voted for Ed! I don't want him to go home yet. I know he's not the best but I thought his timing was really good and all the steps were there -  just a bit slow for a charlston

    also enjoyed Tameka. Greg and Will a bit disappointing but hopefully better things to come image

  • Been on holiday so still catching up, but from what I've seen so far:-

    Will - might be one to watch.

    Louise - talks herself down, she's a dark horse.

    Ed - was entertaining and I thought his Charleston was quite good.

    Hollyoaks guy - Very very good but I think he has to watch he's not too cocky.

    Judge Rinder - I love him already, he's a hoot, but I don't think he'll win. However, he's the first contestant to be intelligent, quick and brave enough to quip back at Craig and for this, I adore him!

    Daisy - hmm not convinced.

    Claudia - fab little dancer and I don't see any issues with using her gymnastics talents to enhance the dances, so long as it's in keeping with the style of dance she's doing.

    And that's it really, think the rest are pretty average, altho Tameka is already getting on my nerves......

     

  • Jenni  I voted for Ed as well because I thought his Charleston deserved it and for me Melvin was worst. Also he has the biggest disadvantage.

    Many of the rest are either singers (so used to following music and Rhythm) or  actors (a benefit in acting the dance).

    We have two sportspeople so they will at least be fit and one is a Gymnast which is really art not sport anyway (that statement could be controversial image)

    Daisy is a model so movement should be good.

    OK so there are some presenters, Laura, Judge Rinder, Ore, Laura but mostly relatively young (less so the Judge).

    Ed has nothing going for him; never danced, older, no musical or acting background, half the country won't vote for him politically and given what is happening in the Labour party at the moment a lot of them might not either.

    Given all of that he gave it a good go last week and for was the second worse behind Melvin.  He will have to go some to get a vote from me again this week though because he is likely to be bottom in my mind as well but let's see.

    • This week's dances
    • Anastacia and Brendan will be dancing the Viennese Waltz to 'A Thousand Years' by Christina Perri (from the Twilight Saga)
    • Claudia and AJ will be dancing the Charleston to 'You Give a Little Love' by Paul Williams (from Bugsy Malone)
    • Daisy and Aljaz will be dancing the Quickstep to 'Spoonful of Sugar' (from Mary Poppins)
    • Danny and Oti will be dancing the Paso Doble to 'The Train' by James Horner / 'El Sombero Blanco' (from The Mask of Zorro)
    • Ed and Katya will be dancing the Samba to 'Cuban Pete' (from The Mask)
    • Greg and Natalie will be dancing the American Smooth to 'Everything I Do (I Do It For You)' by Bryan Adams (from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves)
    • Judge Rinder and Oksana will be dancing the Charleston to 'Meet The Flintstones' (from The Flintstones)
    • Laura and Giovanni will be dancing the Salsa to 'Rhythm of the Night' by Valeria (from Moulin Rouge)
    • Lesley and Anton will be dancing the Quickstep to 'A Couple of Swells' by Judy Garland and Fred Astaire (from Easter Parade)
    • Louise and Kevin will be dancing the Cha Cha to 'Flashdance... What A Feeling' by Irene Cara (from Flashdance)
    • Naga and <a href='http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/12ng941GJ4
  • Hi everyone - missed the dance off show last week but seemingly didn't miss a dance off.

    Think Ed is way, way better and putting more into it than the normal obvious candidates to go early in previous series and agree with some of comments above that he deserved a bit more credit from Craig for that.

    I really like Naga but her first two dances have been really bad and think she is lucky to be getting away with it - her footwork last week looked really clunky and this week it was all over the place when she was in hold. I think she will be in first 5 to go.

    Of the others I haven't managed to pick a favourite yet, just lots of them I don't like and hence don't want to win. Danny is ridiculously good and that spoils it a bit for me, like when Ray Quinn was on Dancing on Ice.

    In other related news my wife has finally convinced me to go for lessons with her - week 3 tonight. Out of the 10 couples we reckon we might be top of the class, the only problem is that is still a long way worse than even Ed Balls at the moment!image

    PS I used to make fun of how bad Claudia was at presenting but I'm now converted!

  • Claudia is just wacky and I like it but some will and some won't and it is a bit marmite.

     

    Agree on Naga. She is near the bottom and I am a little surprised as I believe she did some Indian dancing when younger. Yes different but would expect maybe some rhythm. Then again I did some Scottish Country Dancing with my wife a few years back and don't think that corrected my two left feet issue!

    She may still improve but on current form agree she will be a first 5 out.

    However remember we are still only coming up to week 3. Still early days and some people will improve a lot from here so long as they don't go early.   

     

    SFF - good luck with your lessons, hopefully the teacher doesn'

    t give you a Craig critique image

  • NessieNessie ✭✭✭

    SFF - don't compare yourself to Ed, he has one-to-one coaching all day every day.  You are probably getting 2 hours max of "classroom" time, dancing with another novice, once a week.  Huge difference.

    Can you post a YouTube link so we can give you scores....image

  • Good request Nessie.

    Alternatively SFF just choose one from the following:

    1. Seveeern

    2. Very Stompy

    3. Disaaaaster darling

  • Definitely 3 at the moment!

    Enjoyed tonight's show - lots of high performers this year.

    For me the girls are in trouble tonight - Naga, Lesley and Anastacia.

    Anastacia to go?

  • Thought it was a really good week and Movie week theme really worked.  Everybody gave  it a good shot.

     

    Danny was stupidly good, A bit if a different Paso but spot on for the theme and music


    Claudia's Charleston very good with loads of swivel.

    Really disappointed by Rinder. Thought he would really impress with the Charleston and I didn't think it was very good at all with a lot of timing issues although the flip was impressive.

     

    Ore was great and really captured that dance. Outstanding effort.

    Greg was great as well and the lifts were spectacular (not sure what Darcy was getting at, I understood what she was trying to say but didn't see it myself. I saw somebody who did powerful lifts but more to the point it didn't look like he was preparing for them three steps before,  they were seamless

     

    Daisy was OK BUT and I really mean this I thought Lesley's quick-step was better. She was hugely undermarked in my opinion and that was on face value before you add in anything for the fact she is 70 !  So I voted for Lesley. I also voted for Greg and Ore. Only three allowed so couldn't do any more.

    More quickly then.  Will; agreed with Len it was more Bollywood than Salsa. It was good but not enough Salsa for me.  Louise was good and looked good too. Took me back to me teens!

    Laura and Tameka both solid mid table performances (but that was the problem of course).

     

    Already talked about Lesley and undermarking. Definitely better than Anastacia and Rinder efforts.

    Naga was disappointing. She seems to forget what she is doing,

    Ed - well he was a revelation again. No not a great dance but he really got into it and some entertainment value and better than Rinder, Anastacia and Naga for me.  However with three votes for good dances I didn't vote for him this week

     

    However obviously a lot did.  The dance off wasn't the right two BUT they are in classic strictly territory, especially early on; in that they were right in the middle of the table. So people don't think they need votes but they don't have enough judges points to be safe. Tough to call but on balance I think Tameka going of the two was right. 

    I thought Anastacia might go but obviously for all the people complaining last week there were a lot that had sympathy for her. I think I heard she has Rumba next week though - oh dear; dance of death!

  • This week's dances

    • Anastacia and Brendan will be dancing the Rumba to 'The Way We Were' by Barbra Streisand
    • Claudia and AJ will be dancing the Foxtrot to 'I Really Like You' by Carly Rae Jepsen
    • Daisy and Aljaz will be dancing the Rumba to 'Careless Whisper' by George Michael
    • Danny and Oti will be dancing the Quickstep to 'I Won't Dance' by Fred Astaire
    • Ed and Katya will be dancing the Paso Doble to 'Holding Out For a Hero' by Bonnie Tyler
    • Greg and Natalie will be dancing the Salsa to 'Wrapped Up' by Olly Murs
    • Judge Rinder and Oksana will be dancing the Viennese Waltz to 'Boom Bang a Bang' by Lulu
    • Laura and Giovanni will be dancing the Quickstep to 'Ballroom Blitz' by The Sweet
    • Lesley and Anton will be dancing the Charleston to 'Won't You Charleston With Me' from The Boy Friend
    • Louise and Kevin will be dancing the Foxtrot to 'Tears Dry On Their Own' by Amy Winehouse
    • Naga and Pasha will be dancing the Charleston to 'Minnie the Mermaid' by Firehouse Five Plus Two
      • Ore and Joanne will be dancing the Jive to 'Runaway Baby' by Bruno Mars
      • Will and Karen will be dancing the Viennese Waltz to 'Say Something' by A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera

    Except Will won't be dancing as he has left.

    I am sure it is nothing to do with the Len spat. If it is then he is being silly. I would assume family illness.

     

    Two Rumbas this week so is going to be interesting.

  • Can't wait!!!!!!  Really looking forward to Ore's jive - considering he's never danced before, he has been exceptionally good so far.

    Unfortunately I think Will has left because of the Len thing.  I love Will, but rumour has it that he is quite a diva to work with and I'm pretty sure he's still smarting from Len's comments.  It's silly, because he was really good, and I think he had the potential to make the final. Shame really.

  • I can't believe Will would leave because of Len's comments - he should know how these things work! shame because I really like him and was looking forward to seeing how he got on

    I nearly always hate the rhumba, and I also think Naga will struggle with the Charleston 

    Ed Balls doing a Paso Doble - can't wait image

  • JFF - yes I don't get the Rumba so never like it. The only one I ever thought was good was Rachel Stevens and Vincent Simone.

    Naga - let's see; I keep expecting her to suddenly make a breakthrough but not happening yet.

    I also can't believe Will Young left due to Len's comments and frankly if he did then no time for him. I think it was a bit off from Len but not that bad and in the heat of the moment and he would have talked to Will afterwards. If Will is really reacting to that then it says very little about him BUT I don't believe it.

    If it is a family illness then just say that; he doesn't need to go into details if he doesn't want to. The trouble is that if it is personal reasons and he doesn't want to make them public then it is difficult. Perhaps he is just upset that Judge Rinder is camper than he is?! image

     

    Actually on Len he has said a couple of things this season.  An early comment to Ed Balls about you went to the country before and that didn't work out well was also a bit out of order. It is early evening light entertainment, we don't need party politics being brought into it!  It is his last year, perhaps he intends going out with a bang or perhaps he has just reached the cantankerous period of his life image

     

  • So disappointed in Will. The public have voted for him so he should at least give a reason for leaving. Full details not necessary but secrecy isn't on.

    I also dread the rumba. I cringe. 

  • NessieNessie ✭✭✭

    Will has suffered from depression and anxiety in the past - I think the high profile and stress of a show like Strictly probably isn't a good place to be if you are prone to that.  If it is related, hopefully he's getting out at the first signs of a problem, rather than it making him ill.

     

    Getting to the stage now that there are no obvious candidates for leaving.  On a performance/dance level, Ed, Lesley and Naga are probably the weakest, but will probably get votes because of who they are - comedy value/admiration/Breakfast TV vote - so it's anyone's to call.

    Glad Oti has a good partner this year.  She went out too early with Antony Ogogo last year because of his injury.  The choreography on that Paso was stunning.

    I think Naga might struggle on the Charleston - she's not found enough confidence yet and may not get the acting bit right - but I'd love to be proved wrong.

  • I agree Nessie it will be interesting. The three you mention are possibly the obvious likely candidates but as you say may have votes for various reasons.

    I am not sure Ed is comedy actually. I think people like the fact he is giving it a go. It isn't awful but is quite entertaining. It will be interesting to see how this Saturday goes because the Paso was where Sergeant did the sack of potatoes drag of his partner which was comedy! 

    Naga is getting votes but depends how she does.

    Lesley I think is doing well actually. She isn't going to win but is still there very much on merit.

    I wonder about Judge Rinder. I suspect he is a bit marmite. I was really disappointed in his Charleston last week.

    The there is Anastacia - I said from the beginning that the foreigner is always at risk and although I thought she was approaching it better she has had quite a bit of drama. It might settle down this week and I wonder if she will get votes and she does have a Rumba!

     

  • So Danny is a complete natural and thought he  might get at least one ten but ORe completely backed up last week's performance with that Jive - wow.

    In general the judges are right and the dance off should come from the bottom four.

    Voted for Greg as he was pretty good and in mid table danger area.

    Also voted for Lesley. She tired a bit at the end but she is in her 70s and that was a great performance.

Sign In or Register to comment.