I agree with your views on Ruthie, and do agree that both Ruthie and Jason tend to get more say. However, I think that the combination of Robin, Nicky and Karen is much stronger than that of Len, Craig and Bruno, although I suppose it could be argued that Robin was a figure skater rather than an ice dancer. (However Robin has been so successful in his career, and is such a likeable but firm judge that no-one has ever challenged his right to be head of the panel. )

Robin is an amazing judge - agreed. Everyone of them could learn from him.

I never thought anything would happen that'd make the production of last year's semi final look competent...obviously I underestimated the stupidity of the BBC.

Albert Einstein once stated:

"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. "

there are a number of main differences as far as I can see, firstly Cheryl gives her opinion, she does not contribute marks or have any say really in which contestant goes through until the judges' vote for the final two. Alesha gives her opinion and her marks or I presume she will, can you imagine the furore if Matt and partner are kept out of the bottom 2 by her marks?

Also, neither Cheryl or Ruthie Henshall ever appeared in the show they are then going on to judge, they had no relationship with contestants beforehand, either good or bad.

And finally, I do think that Alesha as a judge will harm the show, it will harm the great reputation that it has and it will certainly harm the show if she is either wishy-washy (which she may have to be as she knows virtually nothing about dance) or seen as biased which is bound to be at some point. This could be a disaster, especially if the dynamics of the show are altered and there is a lot of resentment and bad feeling. Look at what happened with Danni/Sharon, the public can definitely pick up on bad vibes. She was very popular, but already people are turning on her and there hasn't been any controversy yet.

After last year, I really thought that everyone would have kept their heads down and tried to get the good will of the public back, but noooooo, they do something even more disastrous!

Ruthie and Jason are VASTLY more qualified to be "performance" judges than Alesha is, giving than they both made their careers out of visual performance. Alesha did not and does not.

Jason's a choreographer, which on some levels is fair enough, but don't forget we're talking about ice dancing here. As far as I know he's never been on a rink.

But Ruthie is a singer/actress, so I don't get your position on her. In fact, her form of singing, musical theatre is probably less 'visual' than Alesha's pop performance version.

I agree with the differences you point out. I never suggested that having Alesha was exactly the same as having Cheryl or Ruthie, just that there were some similarities.

I think the fact that she has such a close bond with Matthew could be potentially problematic.

I think that most of the people on this board are very heavily invested in the show and care about it. But there are lots of others out there who don't particularly care about the technicalities. Alesha's beauty and character could become a very positive attribute for these people.

I'm much more into the technicalities of singing than dancing, and from my point of view, Cheryl makes an absolutely rubbish judge for x factor. But from the point of view of the general public, her beauty, her connection with the contestants has made her a total hit.

Personally, I'm not thrilled about having Alesha as a judge, mostly because of the message that's being sent out about older females on tv, but I really doubt it will be a total disaster. I can imagine it being quite successful actually.

Have you seen Ruthie in Chicago, for example? She has to dance in musical theatre too.

Ruthie, Jason, and Alesha, are not there to judge technique (although I agree that they should be). They are there to judge performance.

Ruthie is a trained dancer, singer and actress. Jason is a choreographer. Alesha is a singer. See the difference? When judging dance performance, Ruthie is an experienced dancer and performer, Jason is an experienced dancer and choreographer, and Alesha is an experienced, er... singer.

Having just glanced at her wiki page, Alesha's had as much (if not more) dance training as Ruthie has. She was in a girl band remember.

I fail to see how dancing in chicago translates into being qualified to judge an ice dancing competition.

Alesha knows the basics of ballroom, which is far more than can be said for Ruthie and ice skating.

Being in a girl band was not dance training. I've seen Mis Teeq live numerous times and they did not dance. They just bounced around a bit.

Ruthie is actually a trained dancer. She went to school and college and trained for it.

I don't think Alesha does know the basics of ballroom. She knows how to perform the routines Matt choreographed and taught her. That doesn't come close to knowing the basics of an individual dance. If someone told her to dance a basic cha cha she would not know what to do, other than try and fit her "Crazy in Love" routine to whatever music was played.

I'm not having a go at Alesha- this is true of all Strictly contestants.
Given that this has apparently been done quite secretly, it's not impossible that the pros have already signed up without knowing anything about the Alesha situation.


If it was me I would be offended if someone with very little basic knowledge started criticising someone I had spent a long week teaching. As far as I can see, even if she directs all her remarks to the dancing of the celebrity, those remarks are still directed at the work of the pros- their abilities to teach, choreogaph and help their celebs as much as possible. To hear the celebs criticised without any knowledge to back it up would be pretty galling.

Ruthie does know about performing though i.e. the artistic side of things.

I don't agree that Arlene, Craig and Bruno are only there to judge on the performance. I think that is simplifying things a bit too much and that they are all well qualified to judge dancing in general as basic technique is important. Len is the only one qualified to judge ballroom/Latin dancing.

Hopefully Alesha having gone through the whole SCD experience, will at the very least be able to tell when a performance is artistically good or not and whether it had easy or hard choreography having trained almost daily for months on end. Will she be able to comment on heel leads etc,? No, but someone else will i.e. Len.

You may well be right. We'll have to wait and see.

While I agree with you for the most part, I'm not sure that this is entirely true. Every time Alesha forgot parts of her dance (which if I recall happened in the Foxtrot, Waltz and Paso Doble) she managed to make it up, with varying degrees of success. That shows Matthew did teach her the basics. I daresay she doesn't know a huge amount though and certainly not for all dances.

As a ballroom dancing teacher myself I know there's no way Alesha could have possibly gained enough knowledge on the show to be able to judge it. I do feel bad for her in a way because she was probably honoured to be asked and didn't realise what the public reaction would be. I feel the BBC have made a big mistake here though, they are giving out the message that a few months lessons qualifies you as a judge and are ignoring the years of training that pro-dancers go through, most of them since childhood. I don't know why the BBC felt the needed to bring in a celebrity judge, surely Karen or Camilla are well known enough now, and I doubt Alesha's appointment will be enough to bring in new viewers anyway. The pro-dancers will probably be publically supportive of Alesha because its in their contract, but I'm sure privately most of them are fuming about this. I know I would find it very difficult to listen to someone with a few months experience judging what I had taught a pupil. If one of the pro's decide to answer back and question Alesha's judgement I think we could be in for uncomfortable viewing.

Alesha trained at something called Dance attic.

They're both primarily singers who do some dancing on the side. You say the name Ruthie Henshall to most people and they'll tell you she's a singer. That's what she's famous for.

Er.....is this 100k per episode or 100k for the entire series?

I hope its the former but some has told me its the latter

I just think the BBc's attitude towards the pros stinks, whether they benefit from publicity or not.

I think of her as a musical actress.

Yeah, fair enough.

I'm being picky i know but here goes

MC admitted on ITT that it was he who forgot a step in the Foxtrot which caused M&A to improvise for maybe 15-20 secs of the dance........the mistake in the Paso was his to call as well from what i remember.

So Alesha knew enough/had enough presence of mind to improvise in both dances and produce a good routine (esp the Foxtrot)........so it wasn't always sort of dancing by numbers,a compliment to MC's thorough teaching.

I don't recall them going wrong in the Waltz ??

I was opposed to Ruthie Henshall (no objection to her personally)joining the judging panel of DOI on the grounds that she isn't a skater and they judge ice dancing.

Craig has demonstrated on ITTthat he does know something about ballroom dancing whereas Bruno is good for little more than comedy value and his scoring is erratic.

Whilst I agree with you about what Alesha will have learned from dancing with Matthew, her inclusion doesn't correct but accentuates the bias that already exists in the judging panel.

This is a blatant attempt to rival X-Factor and will not go down well with the section of the viewers, like myself, who do not watch that show. I'll give it a go, but I could well stop watching.

In actual fact what Craig said on ITT was written for him by a professional dancer (not one of the Strictly pros). Whether this was because he couldn't be bothered to do it himself or because he didn't know enough to do it well, who can say?

I agree about Bruno, I would have got rid of him before Arlene (although I can't say I'm sad Arlene has gone, just that her replacement is so unsuitable).

I should imagine the dancers are unhappy as are the other judges.

This situation smells just the Kelly Brook one on BGT. Alesha only lasts a week , Arlene comes back and Strictly has loads of publicity into the bargain.
I don't like any of it , I feel sorry for Arlene and Alesha.

Strictly dancers furious at appointment of 'gimmick' judge Alesha Dixon