Strictly Come Dancing

I agree with you completely, and I find him and Stacey together almost unbearably irritating. I don't think she's anywhere near as good as her marks suggest, and as I fully believe she'll win by miles, we will therefore have another year where the best dancer doesn't win.

The show is about people learning to do ballroom and Latin American dancing, not dancing full stop.

Personally, I don't normally mind if they can dance a bit beforehand. It all adds to the mix. But Ashley (much as I love watching her) is maybe taking things a teeny step too far. And talking of Steps...I don't get the indifference for Faye. She's been one of my favourites since the beginning and I adore her partnership with Giovanni. (ThankYOU! ThankYOOOOOUUUU!)

Kevin has said he looks at a dance and finds out which steps his partner can and cannot do and really pushes the ones they can to and maybe doesn't make them continue to try to learn ones they might struggle with. His reasoning being if judges see steps done well they have to mark those up and he may put filler around this so some of his routines may not have the content say Pasha has but he feels this way gets him and his partner the best marks they can. 

It isn't irrelevant - yes, no matter what the dance there is maybe an advantage in terms of picking up choreography (though some people's brains are just wired better to do that anyway), but dance styles are vastly different, so not all experience is good experience. For example, Debbie McGee's ballet experience helped in some ways (core strength) but hindered in others (she seemed incapable of doing a heel lead in any ballroom dance). And it's simply untrue to say that people with dance experience have an advantage in terms of performing in front of a crowd - anyone who has ever done live TV or theatre has that.

People seem to blindly assume that dance experience is a good thing and is the only relevant experience, when in reality it is much more complex than that. The only purely advantageous experience is previous ballroom and Latin.

Nope. That one has totally passed me by. No idea what you're talking about.


(Presumably @ryan's scuttling down to the basement and dusting off his copy of this as I type...)

Yeah, I kind of did! 

Could have been worse you know - she could have been singing in the same indeterminate language as Russell. Took me two listens to determine that it's a kind of Northern Italian....I think...? (And I'm not talking northern Italy here! ) Makes me look on Giovanni's yodelling in a whole different light.

But it once again just showed how disrespectful it is to the guest singers on the Strictly results show to make then share the stage with a pair of professional dancers.  I know it is the format of the show but I found it particularly annoying last night when so much prominence was given to the dancers while I wanted to concentrate on enjoying Adam Lambert's performance.

Who was singing I Dreamed A Dream?

I don't mind the occasional cut-away to the dancers, but the audience being made to whoop over Adam Lambert every time Neil lifted Katya 2 inches off the floor was taking the biscuit somewhat.

I wish both the BBC and ITV would stop insisting on that - everyone in the audiences I've been in has hated having to do it...and hated it even more during the re-takes when forced to do it again because we hadn't whooped loudly enough the first time. Leave it to the Xcraptster where it's necessary to drown out the caterwauling. 

I thought they were more respectful to Adam Lambert than they've been to other singers this season. He got the opening verse and a whole chorus just before the finale with no dance interruption or stupid whooping. More than most people get.