Ola is desperate to start a family. Hope her dreams come true. That would strengthen Aliona's position in the Strictly family. I liked Iveta but she is very slender like a ballerina. She reminded me of Camilla.

aw, is she? I didnt know that. I would like to think that Aliona will be asked back for the next series, I think she is a little like Brendan - people either love her or hate her (maybe hate is too strong a word but you know what I mean) and she does get people talking (esp on this forum) and her choreography (which I love) gets people talking too - fingers crossed eh but who knows

There were a lot of negative posts about Aliona when it was reported that Pasha refused to dance with her last year. She doesn't have a manager or agent and has said that she wants to be in control of her own affairs. Perhaps that works against her sometimes.

there are always negative posts about Aliona on this forum and I really dont think Pasha refused to dance with her last year either, I am sure that was just gossip - she has a manager now tho

Where did that gossip about Pasha refusing to dance with her come from anyway? I thought they looked really exciting together this year and think Pasha has had actually more shots in camera with Aliona than he ever did before during the pro dances - or maybe I'm just biased as I love both of them .

this forum I think - although I could be wrong!!

I try to be logical about things but there is also personal preferences and I like Aliona's personality and the hard work she puts into succeeding.

I think Aliona has been recognised as being one of the pros who is very good at the 'entertainment' side of the show and she is also very good at teaching. She is not short of new ideas for music, choreography costumes etc. We have seen from the Tour how well her routines go down and even against Kara, Colin Jackson, Ricky Whittle, Pamela and Chelsee, Aliona and her partner have won by a landslide in the last two years.

Aliona produced 8 dances last year which were start to finish dancing without props and she has shown with Harry she can teach a novice to a very high standard in Ballroom and if she had enough time to work on technique with Matt or Harry I think she could have improved their Latin a lot too. Those things may get missed or ignored by forumites, but they wont get missed by the producers if the producers know their stuff.

From this years series, IMO it was short of memorable dances and the controversy seemed to be a bit manufactured, whereas with Len and Aliona it seems to happen naturally. Len was quite nice during the second half of last year when Aliona was showing that she could easily do things by the book and do them very well.

So I think Aliona's credentials are very good and there to be seen by those that wish to see. IMO she should be one of the first on the teamsheet for next year.

Iveta is a very good dancer and said all the right things when on the show. She didn't get results with Johnny or Sid, but we wouldn't be able to tell for sure how she would do unless she had a series with someone who had a chance of doing at least reasonably well. If Aliona and Katya were both there next year, I wouldn't mind if they brought Iveta in to replace eg. Erin.
I haven't seen anyone I would rate above Aliona to bring in to replace her.

you are always very logical

I would like to see Iveta offered a full time but NOT at the expense of Aliona but I would be happy to see the backs of Erin and Kristina - I think Karen should be given the benefit of the doubt, I didnt rate her teaching of Nicky at all and was quite disappointed with what she achieved with him BUT having said that, I do think she should be given a second chance. Im not fussed on Katya if I am honest

It is very much a popularity and dance competition and some of the pros are good at one or the other and some - like Aliona - are good at both.
I'm sure Iveta would be good at the dance side of it.

hmm, I would say that in recent series it has become more of a popularity contest and less of a dance contest!

A very good post. The BBC promote SCD as an entertainment show rather than purely a dance competition. The contestants are of a wide range of ages and abilities to please the viewing public. Sometimes a contestant surprises us, like Pamela Stephenson who reached the final three but wasn't popular enough to win.

Karen got off to a shaky start but improved her choreography and teaching skills as the series progressed. The new Producers will probably give her another contract. I cannot see Katya being brought back into the main show even though she is going to tour again with Pasha. I will be very surprised if Aliona isn't in the lineup of pro dancers for series 11.

Hi all, just checked the tour site...what is Iveta doing? Understudy? She is not in the line up of professionals...... Not really into Karen, I think NB would have gone further with Aliona and given the girls a run for their money...

I am so pleased that I didn't buy any tickets for the tour.... I cannot see how the SCD champion who is not dancing with his winning partner is going to wow the audience. Dani without Vincent will be odd...the connection between Vincent and Dani is IMO the reason why their partnership worked so well.

I sincerely hope that Aliona is asked back for this years SCD....it was really dull without her......for the first time I have deleted all of the main shows, ITT and the final from my sky box. Only keeping a few result shows if Aliona was featured....

Karen's boyfriend is an expert Ballroom and Latin dancer, which must have been a help and could mean that she will be better prepared if she is in Series 11. I like Karen but I had Nicky down as one of the favourites and although he wasn't as good as I expected when he arrived on the show, he had done much more dancing than Harry had when he started.

They often have illness on the tour and the norovirus is very widespread and expected to get worse so Iveta may be a backup and with her 10 dance experience, a good choice.

I tweeted Iveta last night after Johnny's tweet .She tweeted back today -D8Iveta
@djlld28 Yes I am
Hide conversation - Ive asked her if she will be on next years show - not sure if I'll get a reply to that one. Like Olivej I wouldn;t mind Iveta = just not at at the expense of Aliona. I quite liked Karen this year too - she seems quite genuine and I;m not keen on Katya either . . Kristina or Erin if they're looking for a change .

I can only assume that she MIGHT be partnering Robin in the pro dances seeing as Kristina isnt taking part and she might possibly be a standing in if any of the female pros fall ill but no, she isnt on the web page is she

One of the things missing this year was chemistry between the couples. Only Pasha and Kimberley generated some, and that was only after Kimberley became confident at dancing and could start to bring more to the performance.

Chemistry is something Aliona tends to bring to the floor. I remember Kelly Brook asking Karen on the Red Button commentary if anything was happening between Harry and Aliona after watching the Waltz and Aliona even generated chemistry with Matt and Rav. Johnny might have been asking too much - chemistry wise, but I would have liked to see if Aliona could have made use of Johnny's personality to keep them in.

glad its not just me that thought there was a distinct lack of chemistry this year!!

Aliona does always manage to create chemistry with her partners - I honestly thought there was something between her and Matt before I discovered he was married

Aliona and Rav were very good together in the Tango and Rumba.

I probably knew Matt was married, but although I thought they got on extremely well I always thought they were able to relax together because they both knew that nothing untoward was going to happen. I think that's why they felt free to be such good friends. Matt didn't see himself as a big attraction to women, but Aliona saw that he could be and by the end of the series, by showing all his good qualities she had proved to him that he was.

Harry was much easier in that respect, but he was a serious young man and had to be really coaxed into performing. I got the impression Aliona found Harry attractive, but accepted he was off-limits, and she has said that she respects a situation where her partner is already spoken for.

As you may (or may not have heard).......Aliona and Matt Cutler have reunited to create a dance challenge for contestants on BBC One’s new Saturday night show Britain’s Brightest.

The series is due to begin airing on Saturday 5th January 2013 and tweets seem to suggest they will be appearing on the first show, although this has not been confirmed.

Great to see Aliona and Matt reunited. Is this for just one show?

Wonder if they will challenge them to dance the Hip Hop Samba?

yes, just one show and they will be doing a paso - they are on tomorrow night - Matthew has confirmed it

I guess it must be pre-recorded if Aliona is tearing around the double-black slopes of Aspen at the moment?

lol, yes, they pre-recorded early in December I think (cant remember the precise date - sorry)

Tonight's show (Episode 1) was recorded on 20th November.

whoops, I was well out with my date! thank you for correcting me - I remember Aliona tweeting she was off to Manchester to record the show, I just didnt think it was that long ago