OK, I thought it'd be nice to have a thread discussing the dancing on Strictly Come Dancing.

So, here it is.

Please do not discuss anything other than the dancing on this thread.

I'll kick us off:

For the salsa tomorrow - what do we expect? Cuban? Mixture? Strange combinations of samba?

Well well well , a thread on dance ! On the SCD board , how exciting and surprising .
Just while speaking of the dance , any bets on who will be first to sit on the step and sulk ?

Salsa is a mix. I think Ali and Brian will go with the street salsa routine like the one he did with Heather.

According to Wiki, he made a CD called "Latin Jam" which contained several tracks ideal for salsa dancing. I hope he uses it in the show!!!

Expecting a lot of overarm thingys (tech talk )

Expecting the foxtrot will be a lot of walking abaht a bit with hopefully some elegance.

if just for once they'd play a hot Cuban number

Oh hang on, none of them can do Cuban salsa

Ricky W might surprise you.

I'm expecting a few pros to put random samba moves into their salsa, but I think Vincent and Brian will be quite authentic.

No it isn't. There's Colombian, Puerto Rican, New Yorkican, Cuban and Disjointed English.

And then there's Ballroom salsa which is a bit like porridge.

It's a dance with different influences (moves) and flavours, but it's not 'a mix'.

Mind you, ballroom takes liberties with all real dances and distorts them in a quite mindboggling and rhinestone blue eyshadow kinda way.

Is this just Joe C's effort?

I really love the foxtrot, it can be so elegant, I am really looking forward to it

Oops. I only heard of Len saying it's a mix, like a sauce (well, salsa is a sauce). He mentions you can have elements of cha-cha, mambo and samba in a salsa.

You have a point there. He has some of the elements instinctively without knowing it. He leans forward for instance.

I could teach him the rest

Yeah, but Len is ballroom innit? He would say that. All he knows is Penge Ballroom. What does he know about real salsa. Silly old man.

But foxtrot is difficult to choreograph to look spectacular. Cue in Rachel's foxtrot. She did fantastically, proper pure foxtrot with all the heel turns and leads, but it didn't move me.

Camilla did a good foxtrot choreography with Gethin, but it was because she did the intro and ending quite long and cut the proper foxtrot in the middle down in size. Her choreography with Tom wasn't half as bad either.

For me, the best foxtrot I've seen so far was the one done by Alesha, even though there was supposedly a large chunk of the routine made-up.

Yeah, why not. And get Natalie out of the way. Yeah! Win-win!

Oops, we are suppoosed to discuss dancing.

You're absolutely right. It's a superb dance but you have to have incredibly neat, light dancers,a great music track and a great sense of humour in the performancce. I always think 1930's wit and glamour when I think foxtrot and tend to sway towards being a bit camp, with a dollop of Ginger Rogers.

Yay! Shift it you.......


Oh, sorry. *sits on naughty step with SCD Ob*

With washing or a half an Orville hanging off their arms.
The women that is ... obviously ...

Did I hear someone on ITT this week saying they had a "disco-themed salsa, or did I imagine that? Either way, I think it's likely to be a mix of styles in large part because apart from Brian, the Strictly pros are by no means salsa experts. I'm hoping his will be more "authentic," by which I suppose I mean he'll use what we'd call basic steps in any other dance (I don't know what the syllabus is like for salsa, though I've read somewhere there is one), rather than using the rhythm to fit in disco/ cha cha/ samba steps and not worrying too much about the technique! I don;t know what type of salsa he does admittedly. New York style perhaps? So I suppose I'm *hoping* for some New York or Cuban style salsa with lots of cross-body leads (can't spell the Cuban equivalent!) and complex arm movements and turns. I'm mainly *expecting* a random combination of salsa plus other bits that seem to fit. I'd like to just say as well that I loved Katya last night telling Claudia that actually, salsa was one of the easiest dances not one of the hardest at all. That amused me a lot! Finally *someone* on ITT admitting that not every dance is the hardest one of the lot!

For foxtrot I'm hoping for some classic music, poise, grace and elegance from the celebrities (or, you know, as much as they can manage given time and ability constraints!), and an improved ballroom hold compared to their last ballroom dance.

Can I just add as well that I like this thread! I'm scared of most of them at the moment!

Ricky W, I think

White suits ho!

Speaking of 'pure' salsa, I actually think Katya might be the one who'll do so. She did say she'll keep her choreography simple and clear, alluding that she'll not faff about with Phil and just get on with it.

My forecast for tomorrow is for Brian Fortuna and Ali Gator to sweep the board!!

Actually, Brian is a Salsa specialist, and he dances in a very American way, so we should see something spectacularly different from the others. In Ali he has a pupil which should allow him to show them both off.

JJ

A thread about dancing....what has become of this forum

I will be waiting eagerly with my clicker to see to see if anyone manages to beat Cherie Lunghi's record for number of arm cross-over in one dance.

I couldn't agree more!

I am so looking forward to seeing so many good couples dancing - I think we could see the first 10 tomorrow night.



Have you thought about joining the Strictaholic Anonymous thread?

Chuffing Nora, a thread about dancing? Are you insane?

Tomorrow I reckon Ali and Brian may top the board. Salsa is his special area after all. Jade looks good also, having seen ITT. Ricky W may be a bit meh actually (from what was on ITT), but technically it looks polished.

Also the music shoices (if we can mention that in this thread) seem rather appropriate, especially in contrast with last week.