[List][*]Admin Edit: This thread is a continuation of Strictly Come Dancing...'it takes two'..chat thread.. [/List]
Did we see Zoe and James on the Friday panel? I missed a bit of the show and wanted to see how they've got on since they were guests.

Nope, they showed Lynda, Ricky W, Laila, Ricky G, Jade, Chris and Natalie. Joe and Kristina showed us some of their 'Paso' at the end too.

Ooops! We've just been split again!

Could it be Joe is an inexpressive man even in private? That he expresses himself through explosive action? If only dancing was done with hands and not feet.

Why dont they make ITT longer, at least for the first weeks of the show when there are more contestants? Poor Claud is always running out of time and we dont get to see all the contestants.
I love ITT

I was thinking earlier about how ungrateful we are. We have Strictly EVERY WEEK DAY, for half an hour, which should be an absolutely spectacular huge amoutn of time. Instead we're all (including me) petulantly stamping our feet and demanding that it's not enough.

Watching the clip of Joe and Christina at the end he doesn't seem to have made any improvement to when they first showed him a few days ago. Surely you just can't walk around like he was doing, don't you have to make some effort to dance.

That's because we've got used to Strictly EVERY DAY for the last couple of years, so now we are missing one day's worth!


I must admit I thought we'd see some improvement especially given they were dance at the end of the Friday show, but they were terrible - and from her face I'd say Kristina knows it too.

She kind of gave the game away there didn't she

What about making ITT a hour lojng on Monday and Friday- seeing as there is so much material to work with

I think when she first met Joe she probably thought he'd make a great dancer as he should be light on his feet, co-ordinated and fit. Ooops!

That is my problem with the paso: it opens the door to the celeb moving from pose to pose, with various intense expressions on their face, rather than dancing.

Good pasos don't do that, sure, but no one would even consider doing a waltz that way, or (say) a cha cha cha. The paso allows it.

I am guessing we can now look forward to alot of masking that fact by Kristina . Swirling around him , distraction , taking our eyes away from him
Then , walk to the judges in a coquetish way , eyes down and look coy and sweet and take all attention away from Joe ,

You're so cynical Len will say you came ahht and gave it some welly.

Unlike the waltz evoking the rise and fall of the sea, the paso dramatises a matador facing a bull, one of them destined to die. The final moment as the matator plunges his sword with professional precision is silent with stillness and tension but the absence of movement speaks volumes. If stillness is to be as eloquent as movement, the body and face will have to be very convincing indeed.

In her rumba, motionless Emma took her time to raise her leg, her pointed toes stretching the long grace. Her posture was so good that viewers savoured every lingering moment.

As for matter-of-fact walking round the floor to reach the spot for the next pose, we can see that for free in the street.

Joe did not look good, a lot of walking, however I'm hoping he will be good tonight. I think he freezes when he is being watched, because when he is just training with only Kristina he is so much better. He just needs to overcome his stage fright.

Easier said than done. I think that performers nerves or stage fright is sometimes treated too cavalierly, especially out of their comfort zone as Heather Small was last year. Barbra Striesand on Jonathon Ross last night said she didn't like singing live and avoided it. She doesn't even like to see her own acting. Joe might need some drastic help if he stays in again tonight, maybe something like Lillia did with Matt Dawson, an acting coach brought in.

That is a good point, very well put.

I agree that, especially in moments of stillness, the face has to be convincing. But I don't think that calls for expressions that are greatly exaggerated (Lynda, Natalie, Ricky G) or irrelevant (Natalie, Ricky G).

And in dance stillness gets much of its eloquence via contrast with movement: movement that led to the stillness, or that will follow it, or that could be happening instead (Emma could have done it more quickly, though still with grace).

Very good idea. I may go over to their appreciation thread and suggest it as I know Kristina reads the posts. I have warmed to Joe so much, I am willing him to do well. Babara was so fantastic last night, she may not like singing live, but you would never tell.

I was crying when she sang "If You Go Away". Love the song, but she's still superb and that I adore...
...but yes, I think it's a great idea if you did that and Kristina does read the posts as I think Joe knows that the Welsh might phone in droves to save him. He has really sweet eyes and I feel for him. So great idea go do!

Maybe if more do she might do it; forgot I could too.
Last edited by JukeJive : 03-10-2009 at 15:30

Wasn't there a so called "curse" last year that the couple who showed a bit of their routine on a Friday on ITT were the ones to be voted out?

True, the couple televised on Friday rehearsing in situ in Shepherds Bush was invariably evicted. I have the vague recollection this pattern was broken only once, at a very late stage near the Final when the dynamics would have been different.

Did not watch ITT last night. Who was televised rehearsing? Where? If it was not done on the Strictly dance floor I am not sure if the curse carries full potent force.

It could be that the wily Claudia with an instinct for news subconsciously invites the likely evictee on Friday to a prologue, then after the storm she invites the same on Monday to an epilogue.

Joe and Kristina.

Someone on ITT this week (one of the pros or judges) said the dancers should never be still in the Paso and that the dancer should be one of continuous movement. I'd say that's true of the fabulous pro Pasos we've seen. Movement in the Paso doesn't need to be frantic or sharp to be effective, slow and smooth can work well too.

I think it was Lilia on the mid-week report wasn't it?

I can't remember, but it stuck on my mind as I didn't know that before.