Len on ITT last night
horwichallstars
Posts: 16,514 Forum Member
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Hello - I missed most of ITT last night. Someone has posted on the BBC POV forum that Len was making fun of disabled people (in particular those with Cerebal Palsy) when he was describing Letita's dancing?
Was this the case? I know he can be a pain in the backside at times...but this would surprise me
Thanks
Was this the case? I know he can be a pain in the backside at times...but this would surprise me
Thanks
0
Comments
Also toddlers are not usually ridiculed for their knock-kneed gait.
Personally I found it pretty offensive and not the way a professional judge should comment on a dancers performance.
He was a little close to the bone
I am absolutely sure he meant no offence in that (or anything he says).
I wish people would stop picking on the judges especially Len at the moment. I have never been offended by anything any of the judges have ever said.
Yes sometimes they get a little over excited and caught up in the heat of the moment.
I think the only reason Len uses descriptions like this is to make it simpler to understand for the viewing public, if he used a lot a technical words most viewers who are not dancers themselves wouldn't understand (myself included), I think he just tries to relate things, quite often in a funny way (and not at all offensive).
I thought so too - not the way a professional judge should behave IMO - Len has gone downhill in my eyes
He does use odd metaphors do describe what he is talking about but that one was below the belt
there are other ways of making the non dancing public understand what you are talking about
Take Karen and Phil or example - I totally understood what Karen was talking about when she was explaining about Letitias feet in her VW - Karen explained it perfectly, on the acutally sat night after their performance I didnt really get what any of the judges meant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElWp1BXIIJk
Think it is more his comments over the dancing.
Thanks Maltipom
Wasn't directing the reply just to you?
I know that
I didnt see anything of the sort. Len has this old London way of talking and expressing himself that alien to some of us that's all. For example calling claudia a gherkin could be viewed by some as offensive, but is it?
I've examined my own values, thanks for the tip.
As an old Londoner I know this way of speaking is used to parody those with mental or physical disabilities and it ain't confined to old london. Claudia saved him from making an unpleasant fool of himself visually on camera
IMHO
That has been Lens teaching style for years - he has made some of the most used teaching videos around and he has always used quirky phrases and descriptions the one your on about I've heard him call a monkey's gait - IS HE CRUEL TO ANIMALS THEN
I despair of some people - but are you judging Len by how YOU yourselves describe people of disability????
It didn't occur to you because he wasn't
Nothing wrong with being innocent, at you old age:), vivacious lady but hope you managed to have a bit of devilment in your yoof
At 2:53 Len says that Camilla is "going like the Wild Woman of Wongo" which could be interpreted as displaying a somewhat colonial attitude... again I don't think that means that Len sets out to be offensive, more that he grew up in an earlier era.