Martina was not more talented than Laila - she couldn't transition, her balance was dodgy and she didn't have as much fluidity and natural movement. She still didn't deserve to go in week one, but she was no where near being better than Laila.

He's not a god, but Matt's a very good teacher and some people just happen to think that Laila has the potential to dance a lot better than she is doing at the moment in latin. This is because when she does the basics, she actually does the steps quite well, she then just goes on to get lost in the bizarre choreography. This is why it's frustrating to watch and why the judges are getting annoyed.

It would have been interesting to see her learn latin with one of the latin pros - but then again, Anton's doing a brilliant job teaching her ballroom.

Darren dances beautiful ballroom. All of his partners have done just as well in ballroom as in latin- apart from Jill, and that was only because her latin was so exceptional- her ballroom was still good. That's why people say that Anton's partners get the short straw- because his latin routines are nowhere near as good as the ballroom routines produced by latin pros. He's just not an all-rounder like Darren and some of the others are.

The ultimate all-rounders are Vincent and Flavia who are professionals on both sides, but Darren, Lilia, Matt and Ian are also very strong. And funnily enough of those six, three have won, and all six have made the top three at least once. They've also brought very unlikely contenders quite a way into the competition.

The latin pros who are not good at ballroom are the Jordans, and in the past Karen and Camilla.

Anton retains his place because it's an entertainment programme and he is well-liked.

The dancing is sometimes secondary. They spend more time @rsing around making jokes or having rows or showmances and being on ITT than the dancing business. Well, that's the way the BBC edits it anyway.

I think his 39/40 American Smooth with Jill last year, his 37/40 Waltz with Emma and 36/40 Foxtrot with Letitia would beg to differ .

Sums it up for me too

Was that the Christmas Show?
It's too early/late for me - I've just sat for 5 minutes trying to fathom out who Jill was when Jessie was his partner last year

Yes it was.

Slightly off topic but could someone please enlighten me on how to pronounce samba. Is it said as sarrmba or SAMba (as in the name Sam)? Thank you.

Find myself agreeing with you yet again Katie. What people don't realise is the likes of Ian, Matt and Darren who danced as Juniors competed at ballroom it is very rare for junior competitors to specialise indeed their level of ballroom is good they have had a sound grounding in it.

Anton never competed Junior and from what he has said just concentrated on Ballroom - not having a grounding in latin is very obvious. It should at least be a minimum requirement for the professional on the the show to be competent in both styles.

He is generally tagged on here as being the best at ballroom too - by achievement he is not that goes to Vincent and Flavia - Anton was a 'middle' of the road competitor when he competed in the top 48 Uk at the time but nowhere near the top six.

Me too - and as much as I like Laila, I suspect she is real handful to teach - for anyone.

No one could tell really, not alot to go on, he has only performed it once and that was with Kate Garraway!

So I really don't know if he can produce a good Salsa, but until I see evidence to contrary its innocent until proven guilty. I think it could be quite good. We all know the Samba is Anton's least favourite dance, he never could be bothered with it.

I find it ammusing that your accusing other posters of having an agenda in another thread when you keep posting this comment? Do you think we are all stupid? We are aware that he's gay so its not like your letting us in on a big showbiz secret. Anyway, its probably the worst hint ive ever seen in my life.

For the record I dont believe you've ever met him or any of the pro dacners, your just a WUM.

So take your trolling and your undercurrent of homophobia and sling your hook.

Im inclined to agree. As a fully paid up member of the LGBT dancing scene in london and a regular at the rivoli ive never heard anyone call it 'GAY Night at the Rivoli'
its almost as if you are coughing and saying homosexual at the same time... silly.
Ive met Matthew, just once, at the Riv, and he was charming.

I know. I dont get it? Im sure most people are aware that Matthew is gay, and oh my god shock horror Ian is too

The way this poster is talking its like its a huge secret that some of the dancers are gay.

Maybe they read the Mail. We're all going to die unnatural deaths according to Jan Moir.

Gay Night is the first Saturday of every month at the Rivoli! It's been known as that for years. Certainly all my friends there and those who I see at the White Swan on Sunday nights call it that!

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back to the dancing eh?

It's not really off topic as this was part of the thread title. I was waiting to have my annual chuckle at Anton's pronunciation, and he did not disappoint.

What amuses me is not the mistake, but that Anton clearly thinks that he's getting one over on the rest by pronouncing it correctly. He just doesn't quite make it.

It's hard to represent the Brazilian way of saying samba in English letters. It's something like saammhhba, the m is very breathy. Anton has too much 'aa' and not enough 'mm'.

Let's be honest. Laila can't really dance. Anton doesn't seem a great teacher but if Laila had been with Brendon the results would have been the same.

She looks great. She looks like she *should* be able to dance. But she can't. That's not really Anton's fault. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors at play.

Good luck to her but... can't see her lasting long.

- I like your style.

you can say that again!

MY adult son walked in when Anton and Laila were dancing and assumed that Anton was the celeb and hadn't quite got to grips with the dance!

he clearly needs a loan of phil tufnell's t shirt...

There really are some nasty people on these boards, aren't there?! Don't you have anything better to do? And all over a jolly, entertainment programme. Then again, I don't suppose we're seeing anything approaching a true representation of the 8m viewers' concensus here!

My 18 year old sister also assumed the same thing!