I think they are going to give Kristina a decent celeb this year after last


Don't remind me of that

Ben Sheppard has a degree in dance though, can imagine the uproar now if was on it.

winnie

oh God I can see the outcry's already
Maybe he won't be a contender then

That'll rule out Geri Halliwell then- dancing in pop videos

Jiggling about in pop videos hardly compares to a dance degree! Unfortunately going on past series, there will be an outcry about Geri's experience and Ben's will go unnoticed.

I seem to remember in series five, someone on my local radio deciding they were going to vote for Matt DA, as Alesha must have known how to dance before she started. Never mind Matt and his ballet lessons at Sylvia Young

I'm sure there were other reasons

That was the justification they gave though. It sounded a bit ridiculous, but a lot of people assume that men don't have dance experience, whereas women who act or sing are automatically assumed to have had formal training.

Lol..that's ridiculous....I have noticed people seem to come down harder on the ladies than men on dance experience.

However, if Ben's is a specific degree in dance I'd have thought if he did the show, people would go nuts. Only because you can't really clarify the level of tuition at stage school, or how much experience you get from jigging about on stage or hip hop dancing, its all a bit vague. Whereas a full on degree in dance is like well.....further education in dance.

I'm not sure if I'm communicating what I'm trying to say very well.

So going on the post of the OP we are looking at this being a possible early line up

Geri Haliwell.........................Darren Bennett
Sharon Osbourne.................Vincent Simone
Chris Moyles.........................Ola Jordan
Ben Shepherd......................Kristina Rihanoff
Carol McGiffen......................Brendan Cole (please)
Paul O'Grady........................Erin Boag
Teddy Sheringham...............Karen Hardy
Adrian Chiles........................(New pro)
Alice Beer.............................Matthew Cutler


Those pairings are a bit of idle guesswork

Hmm.. having a look at wiki, it does say his degree was in Dance, Drama and Theatre Arts, not just dance. Actually sounds quite similar to what Aled Jones did, and he was good but not amazing. He may not have done all that much dance if he was mainly into acting. Birmingham don't seem to run that course any more, otherwise we could see from the syllabus what he had done.

I do agree with what you're saying though, but I still bet he gets away with it and Geri doesn't!

Paul has said at least twice that if he did Strictly he would want to dance with Lilia. If they've got a load of short men then Lilia would have to dance with one of them, but otherwise I think it will almost certainly be Paul and Lilia (sadly).

She'd need five inch heels

Yay - the previous experience threads have started early!

Matt, like every trained actor, will have done some dance as part of his foundation training. It's commonplace and not really that big a deal. As far as I'm aware, Alesha had no formal training.

Ben would almost certainly be a contender. Cue the bitterness from some quarters. If Kara Tointon is in this year's line-up, expect similar mud-slinging about the week she spent training for her Comic Relief routine with Ramps.

As for Halliwell, I would guess that any comments about her 'previous experience' would be overshadowed by an antipathy to her pathetically desperate attempts to get the British public to like her again. :yawn: All we'll have is a magnified repeat of Emma Bunton/Rachel Stevens - where the judges liked them but the public didn't take to them.

None of this is particularly promising ... then again, after the fiasco last year's SCD became, they may have a job convincing celebrities to take part.

Ola is the same height as Lilia, and James is 6ft.

Really - I thought James was 5ft 11

You might be right actually, I had 6ft in my head but perhaps I was thinking of Brian.

However Ola also danced with Andrew (6ft3) last year, so I really doubt the BBC would have a problem pairing Paul and Lilia.

Brian is 6ft

True about Andrew with Ola- and I suppose Lilia would be in for a bit with a popular celeb such as Paul

Yay another rumours thread

Chris Moyles is still very vehemently denying having anything to do with SCD! - should he be telling porkies, it would be good to see him with Karen

I don't see Paul as a very good prospect however nice a guy he is. Personally I would be very pleased if he was NOT with Lilia! He's a bit too old realistically and also has heart problems.

Don't they get checked over medically to see if they are in good physical shape

I'd like to see Karen with another sportsman- but you have a point it would be fun

Sorry if this is a obvious question and I look stupid
Who picks the pairs for the show?
Is it the producers?

I believe so

werent katie and peter supposed to be "in talks with producers" at some point!! that doesnt appear likely to happen now does it?

OMG - don't give them any ideas- Peter I wouldn't mind- but not her please