Snooker Cham Ronnie O'Sullivan is rumoured.....

Possible partner for Aliona

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...-Strictly.html

Had to laugh at them calling it a sport.

Its in the Daily Mail, so I'm reaching for the salt.

Ronnie has a bit of skill at football, so might be OK on his feet. He does sound like he is really trying to find a better way to live.

Aliona seems almost always ready for some fun and probably a good match in terms of a contrast between them. He has a lot of fans, but seems a quiet undemonstrative kind of guy when I've seen him on TV, so he could benefit from being more lively if he did Strictly.

It would depend on which Ronnie turned up on Strictly, but if he gave it a real go and enjoyed learning to dance, it could be good for him.

lol, tbh I am reaching for the salt with all the rumours!! Its nothing more than rumour until the BBC confirm it

Thats how I saw it with Rav. I dont think he was that well known or popular when he started on the show but I thought he did have some potential. He had never danced before but I thought he looked very assured and good in the Rumba, which is one of the most difficult dances for men. I put that down to Aliona choosing what to teach him so he could look that good rather than try to give him too much to learn, but of course Len then criticised her for not giving him more to do.

Aliona was an unknown quantity then, so I can understand Rav giving more weight to what Len said.
I would take most of the pros opinions above Len's. That was the last year of the dance-off, so Len's influence has waned with that and the audience vote now being given precedence over the judges scoring. Those things have made it easier for Aliona to succeed now.

Its a pity that it went the way it did because Rav and Aliona seemed to be getting along well at the start. I liked the choreography of the Tango and for a first dance Rav did OK. There was a lot wrong with his posture and he was having to dance in hold, which is a lot harder than a CCC, but at least he tried to bend his knees. Chris never bent his knees in his Tango but got away with it.
I expect Aliona has done that jump/lift in competition and it was considered a jump. Again Len decided it was a lift and maybe Rav gave a bit more help than a pro dancer would. Maybe Aliona should have played safe and left it out or maybe the judges should have considered it like other situations where the celeb accidentally helps too much.

The relationship broke down before the quickstep and I remember not being impressed once when Aliona was telling Rav to practice the routine on his own, so its impossible to know what happened, but hopefully Aliona has figured out how to repair such a situation in future ( if possible). I can see that she has other aspects of Strictly and the tour really well sussed now even though she still indulges herself occasionally in the choreography.

I really enjoyed their tango too and for a first dance, it was pretty good IMO, (posture aside) its a hard dance to learn and Rav definately showed potential both with his tango and his rumba.

Whatever happened during QS week, we wont ever know but, to me, it looks like something did happen.....and it was pretty clear that Rav didnt really want to listen to Aliona......I dont see anything wrong with the pros telling the celebs to practise the routinue on their own, if I were on the show, i would be practising every second I could - either alone or with my partner

Its a shame that the final decision was down to Len as I dont think he "gets" her (if that makes sense) his dislike, or disapproval, towards her is evident and he makes no attempt to hide it

Here is a list from the main forum of roumoured male celebs

Sid Owen 5ft 7
Nicky Byrne 5ft 9
Matt Lapinskas 5ft 10
Ronnie O'Sullivan 5ft 11
Chris Evans 6ft
Michael Vaughan 6ft 2

Aliona is 5'5 so techinically she could be partnered with any of them although lifts with Sid Owen could be tricky

Yer or Nicky Byrne would be good for her I guess

That's an amazing video

It was the manner in which it was said that didn't sound right. Its difficult for the pros as they know more than the judges but there can be advantages in adapting to try to please the 4 moving targets. Len once praised Brendan for putting in an illegal lift and said it was the right thing to do. You cant get much more inconsistent than that.

I think Aliona was doing a good job at the time, but it was a combination of Len in particular and Rav rating the judges opinion above Aliona's which I saw as the cause of the problem. I dont blame Rav though as he was inexperienced and Aliona was too in terms of what the judges were looking for. Only Craig 'got' Aliona's choregraphy then, but I think Alesha and later Bruno began to appreciate it more in the last two series.

There hasn't been a problem like that in the last two series. I get the impression that Aliona explains early on that there is one professional dancer and teacher in the pairing and one pupil. Harry seemed to forget and offered a suggestion which presumably resulted in a sharp referral back to the first rule of Aliona Club.
However once the trust is established, Aliona seems quite prepared to let her partner contribute. She did that a lot with Matt and they had great fun coming up with the ideas for the dances and with Harry too there was a firm trust in each other established.

They were both top notch guys though. It will be difficult if she gets someone with a big ego who just wont listen. eg. I'm thinking Karen Hardy and that chef guy.

I agree with that completely - you could tell that Matt and Aliona were a real creative partnership together - that's why I loved their AS over any other male's in his year - it was stunning to watch and beautifully choreographed by Aliona.

From Hayley

Yes Hayley, that AS was strange in that I could see a few things that I thought weren't quite right with it and the sound was faulty at the start, but it is still one of the few dances that really moved me on Strictly. Hard to explain why but I'm sure Matt felt the same way about it. I thought he really understood the dance and it was one of if not his best performance.

Totally agree with that for me his best performances were the AS, the Samba, the Tango and the Foxtrot.

From Hayley

BIB, yes, totally agree, top notch guys, eager to learn and hard working, I honestly think if she doesnt an "older" man or the "duffer" this time the main forum will probably self combust!!

Out of the suggested male celebs rumoured I wouldnt mind seeing her with any of them, lots of posters on the MF want her with Chris Evans (seeing him as the duffer) but I think he could be a lot of fun (he has a cheeky smile and a twinkle in his eye), he doesnt seem shy and I do think he would work hard - whether he can dance or not is a different matter but Aliona is an amazing teacher and will definately get the best out of him

its my favourite AS since series 1 (yep, I have watched since the first series )

Well a few people might self-combust.

The bigger picture is that the producers have to succeed. They may even pair Aliona with Nicky or some other real contender. It depends on what the new producers opinions are. Its a strange 2 producers situation where one of them has experience of strictly and the other is from DOI.

The British way is not to encourage repeat winners, so I think it is likely Aliona may not get one of the very best celebs, but IMO she has contibuted a lot to the shows popularity with viewers. Even though the Tango with Harry had a lower amount of Tango than I thought it should, I expect it was very good entertainment to the viewers. So my guess is they may try to give her someone who maybe wont be capable of great dancing but could still get to a level where Aliona could make her choreography look good to the viewers.

I wish they would extend the training before the show back to 6 weeks. Harry had only got in tune with how the human body learns to do something like dancing by about halfway through the show last year and if they had had 6 weeks before the show Aliona could have had him doing full length better quality routines from the start. With more time Aliona would have had Harry's hips and hands sorted and maybe he would have been performing more with his face rather than having to concentrate so much. But for someone who arrived with pigeon toes, only having had 5 days Paso training with Ola (and he was never going to dance the Paso again) and being penalised a weeks training loss because of that, Harry and Aliona did very well. With more time they could have done even better.

Vincent and Rachel were a good example of how good it could be with more time to train the celeb before the show.

How long do they get before the show starts? Is it a month of training?

I didnt realise there were going to be 2 producers this time around - I wonder how that will work

Yes, definately the British way is not to enourage a pro to win more than once and I dont really understand why - DWTS has had the same pro winner on several occasions, Cheryl Burke has won 3 times I believe

I would love to see more training on Strictly, I hate those comedy VT's with a passion - they are a complete waste of time and take time away from training for the pro and celeb to have to film them - baffles me why they did it!!! Just let the ITT crew film the training and show that, that is what we all want to see anyway

Its a shame they didnt get to do a paso but I understand the reasonings why

They got 3 weeks training last year - except for Aliona and Harry who only got 2 weeks.

Harry would have been better off with no CIN Paso the previous year and an extra week with Aliona.
Ola did a good job even though Harry wasn't that good in the Paso because he had never been taught to dance before, but Ola would have known that he had the potential to eventually be very good once he had enough time in training.


I wonder if Aliona was allowed to teach Harry the stretching exercises that cured his pigeon toes, before they started dance training? I remember Ricky Whittle having the same problem and he didn't really improve it until near the end of the show, which may have been down to him working a full time job too. It was interesting though that Aliona recognised that Harry would be popular enough to stay in for the first few weeks at least and she took a long term view with getting his pigeon toes cured early.
She also seemed to take a long term view after the problems with the Foxtrot and cut the content back to try to go for more quality and performance at the expense of quantity, then from the AT onwards it was full length performances.

I read in an interview with Harry that they would do stretching exercises to cure his pigeon toes at the start of each training session but I dont know how long that went on for or if they did that for the duration of Strictly.....

I wish they had had that extra week, I personally dont think it was fair to penalise Harry *shrug*

so now Aliona doesnt know how to use props correclty whatever next!!

So I gather. Hilarious isn't it

Well she does need to keep her neck and spine in line and her left arm should be straight.

http://twitpic.com/a7rwye/full

Aliona always seems to have good style dress wise etc. I'm sure if she took lessons she would be a stylish golfer too.
She's been quiet on twitter, but hopefully have a really good break in the USA and Bulgaria.

its the funniest most ridiculous post I have ever read on here!!!!!

The BBC are starting to get the website updated for series 10.

Aliona was born in Russia. Good start..............

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006.../aliona-vilani

http://www.alionavilani.co.uk/ has had a makeover

Hope you like it.......

love this show and she's my No 1.