Oh and btw Matt C said once that Alesha will become known for her laugh and he wasn't wrong was he ?? ..........there are MUCH MUCH worse things you can become known for.

*flippin advert has ruined my post *

Hahahahahahaha! *flippin advert has ruined my post*

I have to commend your sense of humour...I know it's been somewhat tried of late

Ha, ha, you're so right, FG! I think, Matt C should be a mystic!

Your post is currently hosting an ad for frontline...very dignified

Hi guys,

I've been away so I'm just trying to catch up with this thread - and boy are the claws out already and there's still three months to go before the series even starts!


Hannelene you are perfectly entitled to your opinion, but you will find yourself in the minority on here especially once the series starts (and my comment is not a cue for all the Alesha haters to start posting ).

I'm look forward to seeing how you and SaraV1308 handle all the flack if you make comments like these once the new series starts. If you check the 'vote for your favourite XYZ' threads that were popular last series you will see you are criticising the most popular SCD contestant ever!

PS I can't get over how many posts you've made in the short time you've been a member!

I like Alesha and would quite like to see her as a presenter, although i would prefer Kate thornton who i think did an excellent job on the tour. (Neither likely to happen as it seems tess has signed a new deal)

I don't see her as suitable "judge" material though, and if Stu is reading this...... you may have to sit down or you may fall down from shock...... I think I would prefer Camilla

My objection to Alesha taking the judges chair is that I personally want a dance professional doing the job, and I'd have the same objection to Rachael, Jill, Gethin or any former contestant. I have no objections to Alesha the person though

Hahaha! This is a turn-up SR! I am now officially worried

Any thoughts about Hazel Newberry MBE replacing Arlene? The last British ex world champion still competing, this universally liked mid-thirties lady would appeal to both sexes, young and old.

She did appear once in SCD2, alas elminiated with Quentin Wilson in round 1 (on YouTube).

My reason for preferring Camilla, although don't get too excited Stu, I'm still not her number one fan, just trying to be objective.

I wasn't excited SR

Considering what I've read about Arlene and Alesha in the last few weeks, if I met Cam I'd advise her to buy a choc ice and sit in the Strictly audience with that excuse for a man of hers and be glad it's someone else working their ass off while taking casual abuse for a change

Does she judge much? Someone like that might actually be a really good choice, she's got credibility, a (very small) knowledge of what Strictly is like, and fewer known associations with the existing pros that Karen or Camilla. For all I know she is Erin's best friend, but people are less likely to pick up on that than they are to know about Camilla and Brendan etc.

The only thing really is that if they were going to have a judge with ballroom experience like Hazel's, it would be nice to have a latin judge as well. Which brings me back to Karen and Camilla...

I wonder if they would fill the position with a technical mark, which could be given by Hazel (or similar) for ballroom dance, and Karen for a latin dance.
I wouldn't say her fans are especially aggressive though- there are other celebs I'd be more nervous about criticising on here!

As you say, bent knees in ballroom is ok, although they should straighten on some steps, but as Alesha's knees in ballroom were always hidden, it was hard to tell, but a lot of her footwork was faulty.

But Alesha also danced all her latin on bent knees - and an essential part of rumba and cha cha technique is straightening the knees, which Alesha didn't do, and is what made her legs in those dances look so weak.

Apart from competing in uk, Hazel spends a lot of time abroad, competing, demonstrating, and of course earning her living as a teacher! I don't think she would have time to be a judge - not for a few years anyway.

But I will say this - Hazel is possibly one of the nicest, most genuine world class dance champions you could ever hope to meet.

Just out of interest who? I agree with you about Matteshans not being aggressive I'm just curious.

I'm surprised it's not Shirley Ballas taking over for Arlene as her family has basically taken over Dancing with the Stars in the USA. Her ex-husband, son, and two former wards, the Houghs, are on it. Plus Corky's scorned ex-girlfriend is on Strictly (Kristina.) And the Ballases trained (or claim to) several more of our pros - Karina Smirnoff, Edyta Sliwinska, Alec Mazo, maybe more.

But I hope it turns out to be UNTRUE because I love Arlene

Were on it!! Corky for one series only, Julianne has left to concentrate on her music/singing career,. and as far as I know Mark & Derek won't be appearing again either, because they too want to concentrate on their band.

And the Ballas's certainly have trained many many top pros.

Is this actually true or is it all chinese whispers at the monet??

I dance both Latin and Ballroom and so I understand the basic technique. I queried the post because it seemed to be about Alesha's ballroom (it referred to Alesha's long dresses covering up her bent knees) and as mentioned earlier her Latin dresses were very short. NB Alesha's ballroom dresses were nowhere near as long as Rachel's were last series and even then Len said he could tell if the footwork was correct, and so I do think the original comment about long dresses covering up her legs is somewhat unfair. I'm not sure what else she could be expected to wear.

Success on SCD is all relative. Alesha was far, better than anyone else who reached the end of her series.She might have had female competition but the public got rid of one of her real competitors early and another left the show early. She's one of the winners who won with a combination of ability and personality. Natasha and Jill had even less competition and Darren Mark and Tom won with less ability than either girls on their series or Alesha. Given Natasha is too busy and Jill probably is not right and unavailable anyway, Alesha would be the only credible choice as a judge.

Whether you would want her would depend on what you want your 4 th judge to do. If its to try and get the voters to listen to the judges and not support dud dancers it might work by making the judges look nicer. I doubt it. If you think another professional commenting on detail has any use at all alesha wouldn't work. If you want to add credibility to the judging team and add someone who is known to and popular with the audience your choice is limited to one of the established female pro-dancers. If you want to appeal to a youth audience you need some younger celebs and to make it worth their while you need to change the voting so that a much older audience can't vote them out in favour of attractive middle-aged males or the people who try less and achieve much less.

You want me to identify (and anger) aggressive fan groups? I'm not insane!

Seriously, it's not really a problem in the off season because by and large the people who still post on here know more about each other and manage not to aggravate one another. In fact people joke about their different loyalties, as they have done on this thread. During the series, there are lots more posters and the whole thing becomes a lot more anonymous.

(I was going to name a celebrity, but chickened out!)

Fine, I will.

Those Willie Thorne fans are ****ing terrifying.

I admit, that was who I was thinking of!

If i had the time i'd go and seek out a few pics of Alesha in ballroom dresses to illustrate the fact that you could always see her feet

It's already been mentioned about Len.......he is a well known absolute stickler for correct footwork in ballroom,i think he would have mentioned it constantly if a lot of Alesha's footwork had been faulty,and as i said yesterday Alesha herself made it plain she agreed when Arlene mentioned about her bent knees.

It is only is a matter of opinion but isn't some of the appreciation of dance emotionally connected to what it makes you feel ?? someone can be technically perfect but leave your heart stone cold,Matt and Alesha's ballroom (and latin for that matter) always touched my heart in one way or another whether technically perfect or not so it was perfect to me/for me and obviously a lot of other people.

Anyway,she still won the series whatever anyone think's of her suitability to do so and i'm onto this judging thing now.......or not as the case may be


.........and btw i'm only aggressive before my first cup of tea in the morning ........mind you sometimes it takes two or three cups

Oh yes, as an Alesha fan I agree we are not aggressive, but we can be very vocal!

I quite like the idea of Hazel too - I wouldn't go with Camila and Karen is going to dance. Shirley Ballas would also be great!



I've not got the nerve either LOL!

I can take an educated guess,but believe it or not i come on here for a bit of light relief from the big bad world out there so i'm a chicken as well !!!!!!!