She stubbed her toe earlier in the week - she was on Breakfast Wednesday or Thursday I think it was showing the presenters.

It wouldn't be boring . If you define logical to include dance related reasons there's a real choice of styles between Ali, Ricky W, Laila, Jade and Zoe. You might also look at the competition and who is improving and who needs to stay because their improvement might take them somewhere - that probaly means keeping Chris and Nathalie till you see their potential. You would still end up with a quality final if the front runners got there or if someone overtook them. There would be 5 -7 people who might make it to the SF which is enough of a race for anyone.

Randomness where anyone can go however good and anyone can stay however poor, just isn't entertaining - it just makes it pointless starting the story as someone else will write a conclusion that doesn't fit anything that went before and most stories that you follow will end pointlessly. Noel Edmonds makes millions from shows based on watching randomness unfold but its a recipe for getting his audience and losing SCD's audience.

The problem is when people vote because the judges dared to say someone dances like a dad at a wedding when thats how they dance or because someone looks hunky or because someone wants to go to Blackpool.Thats got nothing to do with dancing and just ensures that the improving people who could get somewhere worth going don't get time to improve and the best in the competition don't make the end. That just produces poor finals and it gets worse next year as it probably puts more and more people off voting as they think the results will be nonsensical anyway.

If anything Jade's comments have been inflated and her marks realistic. She's frankly dull but the judges havn't made the point clearly as she's not an actor or a singer and they are not expecting more and she is getting better. Ali's marking has been tough love because they expect her to be the best and sometimes mark her on her own scale or penalise her for Brian's complexity. Ali acting too weakly is still more acting than Jade can muster.

Its perfectly possible to be fairly objective about whats there's and roughly what order the dancers should be ranked in if people are open about all the dancers . The problem is weighing factors and some people seem to think that sending the hopeless Craig to Blackpool or keeping people who show no sign at all of progressing beyond mediocre is more important than actually keeping the better dancers and the real improvers in.

I haven't seen Ali act, but whatever skills she possesses certainly deserted her on Saturday.

And that of course is their prerogative.

The comments do matter though, just as much as the scoring.

The scores and leaderboard do reflect on the whole what she deserves. Compared to most of the others she is technically superior.

But the comments don't often match. Instead they pull her technique apart and say they're disappointed that shes not fulfilling her potential etc etc and then give her decent scores. Or like on Saturday, they over emphasise how bad her injury was and then give her decent scores

The scoring reflected the complicated choreography she was dancing but what impression are the comments giving to the public?

When compared with someone who receives little or no criticism and is then scored low (reflecting their technical ability) the impression thats left for the audience at home is that she's a teachers pet who is being over scored.

When the scores didn't reflect what had been said with Ian and Jade it worked in their favour - same as with Natalie. The viewers think well the judges loved it and their scores don't reflect that - oh i know lets throw a vote their way.

The opposite is true for Ali because in actuality they are undermining her with the viewing public all the time - far from being a teachers pet imo

Given that she is pretty, blonde & a good dancer - I've been very surprised she hasn't been in the dance off before now.

I know by experience how British housewives vote.

The only surprise is that it took this long.

Oh, the old "envious older women" accusation.

Louisa Lytton was lovely and I found her enthusiasm delightful. I liked Kelly a lot!
Ali is just dull. So was Rachel. How does that square with the hypothesis?

Nothing to do with youth or attractiveness. All about personality. Or perceived lack thereof.

Are you hinting at us that you're Colleen Nolan?

The reason I don't like Ali has nothing to do with envy! I'm younger than her, for start. Laila is one of my favourites and she's STUNNING. Best looking female ever on SCD.

Oi i'm an older woman (well 38 lol) and i love Ali and voted for her

I think she has everything going for her. Just because shes not as loud and in your face as others doesn't mean she has no personality. Some people prefer more extrovert characters and some of us appreciate Ali's more gentle character.

I'd much rather see her showing her vulnerability than to put a false face on, bounce around like a demented bunny and pretend to be something shes not.

I'm older than Ali but I wouldn't vote for her and I'm certainly not jealous of her...there again I'm not a housewife either.

I don't buy that women are always jealous of younger, attractive types.

Never mind the smiling, I thought Ali and Brian's paso was really beautiful, so yes, I was surprised they were in the bottom two. I thought the coreography was pitched just right in terms of being manageable for Ali and showing off her strengths, yet it was still interesting and inventive. She really does have incredibly graceful arm movements, and the shape she made at the end was just lovely.

Agreed.

I also feel she's getting preferential treatment from the judges...take this week, they "took her injury into consideration." OK, that's fine. But why did they not consider Phil's injury a couple of weeks back?

Come on that just isn't true. If anyone got preferential treatment this week it was Natalie Cassidy

I agree , not one judge mentioned he clunky feet and lack of pointed toes, wide open mouth etc , Yet Alesha wanted to tape Chris mouth shut . Odd she didnt see Natalies then

It was beautiful. I normally don't like the paso but Ali's was lovely. So lyrical.

Forgive me - but since when was the Paso lyrical?

Arrogant, aggressive and autocratic - yes; but lyrical?

I think she was representing the cape so her dancing did have that flowing, swishing feel. SCD and X Factor are very similar in that people don't vote for quality.

And so she should after her previous training.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/...5875-21750964/

She was there from the ages 10 - 13, I went to gymnastics for that period of my life, I doubt I could do so much as a forward roll these days!!! PMSL at the lame attempt at the traditional "oh, they've had dance lessons" line.

I did Irish dancing from age 5 till I was about 10 .
I am quiet sure that I wouldnt be the lead dancer in RiverDance on the back of it !!! LOL

Pasos can certainly be lyrical. I personally hate the aggressive, posturing type of paso. That is the obvious way of translating the relationship that it portrays. To take what is seen by some as the beauty of the relationship is much more subtle.


Indeed. We are just shown the superficial, high impact type of paso as that is what the audience seems to want.

I thought Ali's Paso was beautiful! I tried to vote for her, but we had to pause the tv early on in the show to get medication down the guinea pig and do the washing up! Damn that 15 min voting window, I was too late!

In terms of personality I think Ali is coming across much better than Rachel, she is so silly in training and clearly has a great relationship with Brian, romance or not.

Do you really?

I'm a British housewife and I voted for Ali!