I'm another newbie to Strictly

Really enjoyed last night show..apart from Bruce. He's so cringey. Also not liking Bruno. Find him really irritating and OTT :sleep:, even if it is "his thing"




But what's this about no jumps? I think it was Rav and Aliona's dance where Len penalized them for their jump. What are the rules regarding jumps?

*whispers - they are called lifts - jumping is what horses do!*

I wish they'd allow jumps and lifts in the latin, thats why I love Dancing on Ice so much. There's this danger element thats missing from Strictly.

Soooooo why aren't they allowed lifts (thank you olivej)?

Its because it would give some dancers a huge advantage over some of the others (other than their dancing skills of course). For example Brian could do some amazing stuff wit Ali Bastian, but I am guessing that Darren may struggle a bit of Lynda Bellingham. It also would give many of the female celebs a massive advantage cos although its not just about the guys of course doing the lifts, but the male pros are more easily able to lift their female partners than the males celebs who have in many cases never done anything of the like before.

It levels the playingfield. they are allowed two lifts in the American Smooth (a Ginger and Fred type hollywood stylee dance) and if they are lucky enough to get to the final they can have as many lifts as they want in the show dance.

Because jumping (lifts) aren't dancing, and by being showy they take the emphasis off dancing. So you sometimes see people like Brendan chucking them in partly to get people talking about his celeb more than their talent merits, and partly because it probably looks better than the celeb spending the equivalent time dancing badly.

Jumping on its own is fine- if they really wanted they could do a potato sack race in time to the music- but if the jump involves the other dancer supporting the jumpers' weight, technically it is still a lift.

They are allowed to add lifts into the American Smooth, Argentine Tango and their freestyle, but for the other dances, the female must have one foot on the floor at all times - them's the rules.

ETA: yes, as Katie P says, the rules don't apply if the woman's jump doesn't need the assistance of her partner.

Ah I suppose that makes sense. Tis a shame though, I like the lifts

I'm LOVING the outfits too!!

Also, can someone tell me how SCD works? So we saw 8 couples last night, but we're seeing them again tonight?? Not the other 8? Are they on next week? How is that fair? And have there always been so many couples? 16 sure does sound like a lot!

Last year they split them into boy celebs and girl celebs for the first couple of weeks. this year they did a random draw to see which celebs would be in which groups. I think from what I have seen and heard that this week is the tougher draw.

The two night thing is a new thing for this year - I think its to just do something different. I quite like it.

All change this year .

The same 8 will dance again to night; each will have danced one ballroom and one Latin .One couple will be voted off tonight

Next week the remaining 8 will dance twice and one will be voted off.
from week 3 onwards it reverts to one show a week , everyone dancing , one couple voted off .
Well sent home by the judges really .

PS I am happy with no lifts except in AS and AT

The number of couples has gradually increased over time to 16.

Due to this large number, it's impossible to have everyone dancing on week 1 as the show would be too long. They used to solve this by having all the male celebs dance one week and then females the next. Last year this happened for four weeks.

This year they've done a random draw to split the couples into two groups. The first are dancing this week, doing a ballroom on Friday and latin on Saturday. They will combine the judges' scores to give a total then the public votes. The two couples with the lowest combined judges and public score will go into a dance off where the judges will decide which couple to save.

The remaining couples are doing the same next week. Then from the following week they will all dance together on a Saturday, only doing one dance a week until there are fewer couples.

The dances they have to do are...

Ballroom: waltz, tango, quickstep, American smooth, foxtrot, Viennese waltz
Latin: cha cha cha, rumba, jive, samba, salsa, paso doble

In the semi final the remaining couple all do an Argentine tango.

Hope this makes the whole thing a little clearer for you and welcome to the show!

HA !

One of my favourite posts ever on these boards .


Just a standard rule in ballroom dancing that they've encorporated into the show. DWTS does it too, but they're not as strict IMO. Len seemed a bit patronising though when he went "I know your new here but lifts aren't allowed".

Another rule they seem to have disregarded though this year is breaking hold during ballroom dances. Kristina and Joe clearly broke hold in the middle for some reason yet none of the judges said a word (although the could quite possibly have dozed off by then...).

Oh ok. So the 8 last night were picked randomly. Because I'd be pretty peeved if someone got an extra week to practice just because they were chosen to.

Ooooh I'm loving being part of a new forum!!! And it's PINK!!

Like I said, I've never properly watched SCD as I always used to watch The X Factor, but the audition stages this year have really put me off. Plus, I always get annoyed with the "talent" it produces anyway so I'm glad I'm not watching it.

As for Arlene being replaced by Alesha, I'm not just jumping on the band wagon here, but I do think it was a mistake. From the clips of Arlene I did see, I thought she brought a lot of class to the programme, and obviously, she knew what she was talking about more than Alesha...imo

And SCD is now always live so no heavy editing like those audition stage in the Z-Factor.

Welcome!

So there are only two types of dance? Ballroom and Latin, but there are also types of dance within those main two types?

Is Argentine tango the hardest dance?

They were dancing the Tango, that's why. They can lift in the Viennese Waltz and The American smooth, and possibly more. Latins have more lifts.

Argentine Tango is interesting in that it's not strictly ballroom nor is it a conventional latin. It's a hybrid of the two.

AT is very difficult, technically and performance wise. So it's left till the near end.

The ballroom and latin is just broad category, because all the dances look somewhat different (though there were similarities between them of course). Watch It Takes Two on weeknights (6.30pm BBC Two every week-night) and you'll surely learn more about the dances and the couples.

BTW, I enjoyed DOI last year, except watching that cringe-inducing Loose Woman who nearly got into the finals!

It was a random draw, picked by last year's winning pro, Camilla.


There are a lot of things I may use to describe Arlene - from my personal pov, I'd go for 'cringeworthy' over 'classy'. She had a terrible tendency to use pre-rehearsed sound bites which sounded ridiculous and wasn't shy in drooling shamelessly over an attractive man.


Pretty much. Ballroom dances are generally done in tight hold where the couples are close together. Most of the dance has to be done in hold, with the exception of the American Smooth.

Latin has the couples dancing apart.


Er...sorry about this but...

There are no lifts in the Viennese Waltz. They can only be done in the smooth and there is a limit. None of the latin dances in the competition allow lifts.

The only time lifts can be done are in the smooth, the Argentine tango and the showdance in the final. Any other time and the couple will be penalised for it.

They let them do lifs in the argentine tango which i think is good because it suits the dance but i think you shouldnt break rules

Ballroom and latin competitions in the UK are usually based on international style where the following dances are performed (no lifts allowed):

International Standard
Slow Waltz - Tango - Viennese Waltz - Slow Foxtrot - Quickstep
International Latin
Cha-cha-cha- Samba - Rumba - Paso Doble - Jive

Most of the pros specialise in the latin category. There are a few who are ballroom specialists and fewer who are 10 dancers (dance both categories).

American Smooth, Argentine Tango and salsa were introduced into SCD as the number of contestants increased. American Smooth is an 'American Style' dance from North America which has elements of international style but a more open position dancing than international style ballroom. I believe strictly has introduced its own rules regarding lifts in the AS. i.e. they do not reflect the commonly applied competition rules in the US. Not sure about AT.

It isn't true to say that one dance is more difficult than the other. Different dances suit different people. Most of the pros are not specialists in salsa or argentine tango though. Any pro dancing outside their main area of expertise will find the dance more difficult.

Strictly's American Smooth is a bit of an invention really - Smooth ballroom only takes in waltz, Viennese waltz, foxtrot and tango. There's no such thing as a Smooth quickstep in the strictest sense, though we've seen a couple on Strictly. Oh, and the addition of lifts is just a Strictly thing, too.

I'd like to see a Smooth-style tango, though. That would be very interesting.

Faye, thanks for the clarification. I wonder why quickstep was excluded, since I'd have thought it would still be in the spirit of the overall dance? I agree that a smooth tango would be very interesting, but I suspect we're not going to see one

I don't know the history of Smooth - I have an American friend who dances it competitively, though, so I'll ask why quickstep's excluded. I've always thought it's because it's too bouncy and sprightly a dance to be smooth!

I once mentioned the possibility of a tango-based American Smooth to one of the Strictly pros. He thought it would be interesting but finding the right music might be hard, and with so many great foxtrot songs to use, why make life difficult?

Still, if he does a tango Smooth this year, I'm taking full credit for the idea.

Coz it's the bleedin' rules.

Jumps and lifts are crowd-pleasers, they have very little to do with partner dancing.

There were two rules in this show.

No lifts and no breaking hold during ballroom dances.

Now we are a pastiche version of DWTS, that seems to be all out of the window.