TBH I think the judges are marking everyone too high- if people are getting 8s and 9s this early, what will they be getting in a few weeks time?
Craig is the only one who isn't afraid to use the 1-4 paddles, and I find myself agreeing with him the most.

Undermarked Jade and Tufnell

Overmarked Natalie and Zoe

Ian was more peeved because the remarks didn`t match the scores to me. Tbh I thought their routine was more samba than salsa.

Even though I`m not a fan of Natalie and Vincent I thought their salsa was the best last night.
Ali just about kept up with Brian and the arm movements etc but lost the salsa feel because I think she had to concentrate too much instead of really enjoying the dance.

Off the top of my head, Zoe and James were overmarked. Her frame wasn't that great and Len's 9 was utterly ridiculous.

As was his 6 for Chris and Ola. According to him, the only people worse were Joe and Jo. Chris definitely deserved a few more marks. If Ricky's foxtrot was a 28 then Chris's salsa should have been the same.

Chris & Ola and Jade & Ian were both underscored, they gave the dance the right energy.

Ali & Brian and Natalie & Vincent were overated. For someone who is supposed to have 'sex' appeal Ali is lacking it when she dances. It doesn't matter how complicated or difficult the routine is (she danced the steps well), she failed to deliver a performance of actually enjoying it. It was made worse by Brian over dancing, he got to learn to tone down his movements.

Natalie & Vincent were overmarked - Natalie got the performance of the dance right, the total opposite of Ali but failed on the technique. She isn't as good as she thinks she is.

Zoe overmarked. Ridiculous 9 from Len

I agree with you on the Tufnell being way undermarked. I think Bruno and Len were the only judges who got it spot on here with their 7s. If Craig also thinks that Jo Wood and the Tufnell were on a par last night, he is mistaken which actually proves that Tufnell was undermarked. I didn't like Jade's routine though and I've also noticed that she doesn't really smile during a dance which puts me off a little. Her forward handstand at the end was so strong though and I loved it.

I think compared to Laila, Zoe was overmarked. I was asking myself the question this morning if Laila wouldn't have made that mistake would she have got a 10? Would she have deserved a 10? Natalie was far too far overmarked. At the end of the day she was actually stomping in my opinion which isn't actually dancing but then again, she was really good at getting the crowd to have a good time which was nice to see. Ricky W was also overmarked. I mean, how can he be a 'disappointment' according to Alesha, and then can she still justify giving him an 8? Hello? Contradiction? I mean, did she really want to get the 10 paddle out last night? Is that why she was 'disappointed'? It wasn't even that good and they (Ricky and Natalie L) are actually my least favourite couple. I don't like Natalie's "oh my god, is my choreography really THAT good?" 'act'. It's fake and tiring.
Last edited by Loverach : 11-10-2009 at 13:18

Over marked - Zoe top of my list followed by Ricky W and Linda (a 7 from Len?????)

Under marked - Phil top of my list followed by Chris

While i don't think Ali was undermarked i certainly don't think that Ricky W was as good or that Laila and Zoe were better

I thought they were all over-rated, it was a poor week..in my opinion. Len's marking appears to be almost meaningless, thankfully Bruno is becoming a little "tougher" this year. Craig remains the only one worth listening-to..again, only my opinion.
Lynda was again over-marked, but she's gone so we can forget about that. I thought they were a bit tough on Chris and Ola, he was very self-conscious but I thought it was an "ok" routine. Ricky Whittle annoyed me..it was a lazy routine despite the great back-flip, he is a very good dancer but now seems to think he can "coast through"..that might be his undoing.

Loved Laila and Anton's foxtrot but found Zoe and James' boring and lacking in substance compared to theirs. If the latter had danced after Laila and Anton I don't think the score wou;d have been so high. Finding it difficult to comment too much on the dances as the cameramen seem to have forgotton that the dancers have feet this year.

I didn't think it was Ricky's finest hour to date but I suspect, from the clips on ITT, that Natalie appeared to be learning the Salsa too - remember short shouty man being brought in to help the professionals in previous series.

Ricky is performing a routine choreographed by her and she probably tailored it to the circumstances of limited time - not an excuse (others have had the same difficulties in previous series - Matt di A and Tom spring to mind) but it is a reason for the lack of content/polish.

Overmarked Laila and Anton
Lynda and Darren
Craig and Flavia

Undermarked Phil and Katya
Jade and Ian

Y'know what, after watching Jade's 'salsa' again today I revise my opinion. There is almost NO salsa content in that dance, and most of the moves in there were more cha-cha than anything else.

Ian's red trousers were getting to me too, like what Anton did to me when he danced that infamous jive with Jan Ravens.

Bad. *Gasp*, I think now that Jade had been fairly scored, purely because there wan't much salsa to talk about in her dance, if at all!

Hi SCD-O. Salsa's the one dance I don't mind being inauthentic - mainly because I find authentic salsa about as fun to watch (and a similar experience to watching) a lump of meat in a blender. I'm not a huge fan of the hybrids we see on Strictly either, but I'd rather see something like Jade's performed well to something like Ali's not. I'd give Jade a little more than she got, if only because in terms of enjoyability, it ranked very highly for me.

Overmarked

Natalie Cassidy and Vincent
Zoe Lucker and James Jordan
Ricky Whittle and Natalie

Undermarked
Jade and Ian
Chris and Ola

Pro I most miss
Matthew

I said the same earlier but thought there was more samba than salsa in their dance.

If Jade's dance had "enjoyability" why wasn't she showing it? She did most of it with an expression of intense concentration. To be expected from a salsa novice but not on a competition dance floor. Ian ought to have picked up on that in training.

I thought Ali and Chris both did well. Even if some posters see her as the Kelly or Rachbot of this year's competition, I don't think she sees herself that way at all. She found the salsa moves embarrassing at first, to judge on the admittedly limited evidence on ITT. For Chris it was the same, if you compare it with the film of his training, his performance was fantastic and he should be congratulated on it. Ola seemed pretty surprised and delighted too.

Laila's marks were right because the FT was just so well conceived by Anton and she was able to follow him.
I don't think Craig was more than one mark wrong with Phil's salsa because most of it was "plant your feet and sway those hips". I expected Phil to do badly this week because of his surgery, and IMO he escaped the judging with barely a scratch. I was glad. I like Phil's whole attitude and hope he can give his full attention to training next week.

I thought Jade and Ian were under-marked and so did Ian obviously whom is unusually quite gracious about his marks.

Ricky W I was disapointed with and I think was marked fairly.

Overmarked

Natalie Cassidy and Vincent
Zoe Lucker and James Jordan
Ricky Whittle and Natalie

Undermarked
Ali Bastian and Brian Fortuna

overmarked

zoe (just can't see it...), laila (not THAT good but better than Zoe), Natalie (too stompy and yet at the same time skippy), Ricky (he's good but coasted that one)

undermarked

tuffers, chris (enjoyed both their dances), jade (ian was right)

Ali about right, very good but didn't 'feel' it

exactly, he seemed more 'cocky' than 'underrehearsed' which one of the judges received his dance as and he made some mistakes which he knew he was making but at the same time kind of expected the judges to gloss over. That's how it seemed to me anyway. I had to leave the room when he was getting his scores because I knew that he wasn't going to get the lower Middle of Leaderboard type scores he deserved to get.

*points an accusing finger at zan*

You are beguiled by that red trousers!

OVERSCORED

Zoe, both Rickys, Natalie a bit, Joe, Jo, Craig, Lynda

UNDERSCORED

Ali, Jade, Tuffers

ABOUT RIGHT SCORED

Laila, Chris

Overmarked

Laila, Zoe, RickyW.

Undermarked

Ali, Tuffers, Chris

About right

Natalie/Jade/Ricky G

Couldn't care less scores

Joe, Jo, Craig, Lynda