Well said DavidJames, I couldn’t agree more. I’m not Ricky’s biggest Fan but it’s unfair to make an issue out something we haven’t clue about, especially sense the guy denied the 7 months training. We should let the matter die. People were quick to give the benefit of doubt to Austin Healey, why can’t they do the same for Ricky.

Surely we can’t expect the show which features young pop stars and ageing newsreaders in the same program to ever be on equal footing.

Anyway how boring would strictly be if everyone started dancing in the same level as the more terrible dancers in the show, yeah you might see improvement. But you can bet it would take a lot longer than 3 months.

Lol..

Well for someone who doesn't care you protest too much, and a lot of people do care and rightly so. In every SCD there are always a few better then the rest but I don't think we've ever seen someone as perfect as Ricky in his first week.

Thanks for posting his blog entry but I believe Richard to be an honest, decent chap also so we'll have to wait for his explanation of the 7 months training.

I know, strange world innit.


Funny, I felt the opposite. I mean, I appreciated his waltz, but I didn't like it. Whereas I thought the rhumba was stunning.

See - I can happily disagree with people's opinions


What, you mean you've never read Judge Dredd?

DavidJames, I'm not going to sit here and argue with you. I have already said that Ricky's blog has outlined the situation and so any thoughts of him being more trained than a few salsa lessons were wrong. Yes, I was personally was wrong as well.

I don't have any agenda and wasn't prejudiced towards him - like others in here, I was just discussing it and felt that Dunwoody's comment could be quite significant due to the Lilia link.

All comments on Dale were not based on nothing, but rather upon what I know of him as a dancer and teacher. MY friend has known him for 15 years and has always spoken a lot and very highly of his ability and teaching in various styles and was speaking to me just the other day about the success of his studio and students. I am assuming he would be well qualified to teach salsa, as from what I know of him, I don't think he would teach it if he wasn't well qualified to do so.

I care about people being dumb and spreading rumours.

I care about getting the truth.


What 7 months? There is no "7 months".

What part of that concept is difficult to grasp?

Ricky obviously really wants to win. This is not the first time he has applied for SCD. I read that he applied last year but was not accepted. Bit unfair on the others but shows his dedication and hunger to win.

Don't be so arrogant and conceited. You only want to believe one sided 'truth'. I'll wait for Richard to give his side of the story.

I see you're still as rude as ever. You're also accusing other people of having an agenda - oh, the irony!

Many people said Ray's prior experience was unfair -- even though it wasn't of ice skating (it was dance and rollerblading).

I can see this turning into another witch hunt. Why can't people just accept that young Mr Whittle just has a natural ability and clearly a quick learner.

There will always be those that attempt to stifle open polite discussion with aggression rudeness and name calling insults, it is a shame qwertyqueen.

True

I'm also still patronising and whatever else it was.

And, unfortunately, I'm right.

Don't you hate it when that happens?


What's my agenda then?

(Apart from spreading the rude of course.)

Out of interest, where have I called anyone any names?

And if open discussion is accepting conspiracy-theory type unsubstantiated comments like "There's more to this than meets the eye" without comment, then it's not worth much.

You obviously haven't read some of querty's posts!!

I wasn't particularly bothered in the first place (logged on late tonight) but I think Ricky's blog has answered the question. I'm happy to believe what he says.

I very much doubt that your use of the word ‘dumb’ was a self assessment.

Normal forum netiquette means you can say anything about a post, but you should not say anything bad about the poster personally.

I try to adhere to this. If you can point out where I haven't kept to this rule, I'll apologise.

Unlike others - who seem very happy to sling around personal insults like "rude", "patronising" and so on.

I think you will find the so called alleged outrage comes from this

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/...5875-21626517/

Strictly Come Dancing is at the centre of a “cheating” row after it emerged contestant Ricky Whittle has already been trained by one of the show’s choreographers.

The Hollyoaks star was put through his paces by dance guru Richard Marcel earlier this year as part of the Comic Relief’s Let’s Dance.

Now he danced for Comic Relief about 8 months ago ( note it was 8 months ago it occurred and not 7 months of training ) and had 15 hours training , and the same choreographer is working on Strictly, personally I dont see a probelm with that.

Many of the tv based celebs have been to drama schools and the like and have had dance coaching lasting a lot longer than 15 hours in the past, should they all be banned ?

You're too kind - I'd call it contempt.

Veri is right. Plenty of people said Ray's previous dancing and roller blading experience was unfair, even though he had only been ice skating 3 or 4 times in his life before. In fact, it was one of the hot topics of the whole series. Ray said on the show he thought the dancing helped him, but not the roller blading as the blades were so different that he kept falling over. Chris Dean said Ray would be good at any sport he tackled because he has natural talent.

I believe what Ricky has said on his blog as it makes perfect sense.

Actually I don't think that was what was bothering most people at all, as it was already well known. It was more the private lessons with Dale Bennett (Darren's brother) that was raising eyebrows imho.

It would seem that your attempts to stiffle a polite and open discussion have failed,


http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/...5875-21626517/


and your use of the word 'dumb' still remains a mystery.

It would also seem that 'unfair advantage' is a reasonable topic for discussion under the circumstances.

The usual view has been that it's ok to have dance experience so long as it's not specifically latin or ballroom.

The article in that link is dated 26/8/09.