The mind, in a very real sense, boggles.

It follows from observations such as yours, that the Charleston has "given Chris and Ola the dance they needed to win".

What it's given them is given them an opportunity to pack a routine with crowd-pleasing non-dance elements, which can then be preferred to far better dances -- even to other Charlestons that are better dances -- by those who don't care much about dance or have a problem with the good dancers.

Looked like dancing to me! You try it!

But it wasn't really that much proper dancing. It was alot of acrobatics, rolling about, pulling faces etc. The actual dance bits were quite small. Unless you count that awful chicken move as dancing

Argh Veri.....Nothing changes.....You always call a spade a spade on the BB forum and likewise here....I personally loved the Charleston's tonight...Laila being my favourite.

Well, I LOVED it! Brilliant, spirited, exuberant, it had moves .. it had steps.. it had coreography .. musicality .. it sure looked like dancing to me. (Of course, I'm not an expert on 'proper' dancing .. THANK GOODNESS!)

As a dancer, I love the Charleston. Chris and Ola's Charleston was excellent.

You really are such a happy bundle of joy , arent you Veri

After tonight, I hope we see The Charleston again next year - I loved it!

It was just tonic.

Scrap RnR though. I thought Ricky and Natalie got the raw deal there.

I don't see the point of having RnR and Jive

There was some interesting discussion in this thread, but as a kind of shortcut, here are what I think are the best Charlestons:

First, two danced by Ginger Rogers, starting with a Charleston scene from Roxie Hart (1942):


Then one from one of the Lucy shows:


They have: plenty of dancing, no rubbish non-dance acrobatics, minimal (for a Charleston) gurning and ham acting, and no irritating criss-cross hands on knees nonsense.

I do not think there will be any Charlestons like that in SCD, but I'd love to be proved wrong.


That one's also relatively good, and well worth watching, though I can't help thinking it would have been better of they'd left out the Charleston aspects. Also, since it's silhouettes, it takes out much that comes with gurning and over-acting.

If someone on SCD did a Charleston in that style, that well, I'd at least have to admit it deserved high marks.

But as other Charleston clips show, a Charleston can have a lot of ham acting, gurning, pointlessly exaggerated and distorted positions, and even acrobatics, rather than dancing.

I thought Ali and Brian's was by far the best of last year's SCD Charlestons.

I love it!!

Once I'm a famous celebrity and taking part in Strictly, I'm gonna dance it to "Won't you Charleston with Me" from the musical "The Boyfriend" (Can't link as I'm posting at work and youtube is not allowed )

Well, a girl can dream eh?

Veri you won't have to worry about it too much as you announced you are fast forwarding all the dances/dancers you don't like this series

You will only have to endure Peter and Kara's if I remember correctly.

That's been working pretty well too. For example, there were threads about some dance Flavia did, and I didn't know what they were talking about.


Unfortunately, the Charleston is such a horrendous nightmare that even the merest glimpse of a gurning ham "performing" it ...

Fast-forwarding might be safe on the faster settings; watching training footage on ITT, however, isn't. I've struggled unsuccessfully to forget Jimi's Charleston face for days.

Also, I'm pretty sure I reserved the right to change my mind (if not, it was an omission, and I do it now). I saw the training version of Tina and Jared's rumba on ITT and now they're among my favourites.

So if they're doing a Charleston ... (and after all I do occasionally like one, such as Ali and Brian's).

I also dislike the Charleston. It's silliness taken to the nth degree IMO and I'm sad that it's back. I like Strictly because it's supposed to be about traditional ballroom/latin dancing. If I wanted any of kind of dancing I'd watch SYTYCD or DWTS.

My post from last year..I've not changed my mind.

I think there's a difference between Charlestons that are packed with dance -- like the Ginger Rogers ones and the other one I re-posted links to earlier today -- and ones that are a lot of ham acting around a little bit of dance.

The Charleston may make sense as a dance discipline when it's treated as a dance, but not when it's just taken as an opportunity for gurning, ham acting, jazz hands, and rubbish "acrobatics".

Oh no, not this again! The Charleston is a legitimate dance and it does require skill and technique and it is fun to watch. Just because some of you don't like it doesn't mean that the rest of us should be deprived of it!

yeah we know that. but i think its cause it isnt a latin dance.

Jared mentioned the technicalities I think in his ITT bit. I may be dreaming that!!

Veri- I want to see Tina and Jared's dance this week- it looked pretty good on ITT

No you're not
He was comparing the merits of the Charleston and Swing of which he's champion.

Thanks- its been a long week!!

I think some of the charlestons look like they will be great fun- but I liked them all last year too

Me too
They were a breath of fresh air!

Bonnie96- we can be the founder members of the Charleston Appreciation Society then!

I am hoping for a fab night all round with the Tango's too

Can't wait- have goodies and Slanket ready and waiting already!

I personally would like to see many more dances from the 20's. Isn't this what SCD is supposed to be about? Dances that are not seen in nighclubs in this day and age broadly but of a bygone age?

I used to love the period drama The House Of Elliott which was set in the 20's and one of the best bits about it was when they showed them in their 20's outfit dancing the quit snazzy and cool dances of that decade.

Charleston should have been bought in earlier but I would like at least one more dance of the 20's to be bought in at some point.

A couple of years ago before the charleston came in they where reapeating the same old dances over and over again and it was getting a bit boring.