The Clean and Jerk all they needed was the three red or green lights light in a weightlifting contest ...thats amused me now.

How was it executed very badly?

And in what rule book does it suggest that it had to be static?

I wasn't particularly excited by the body of the dance and the lift at the end didn't seem to fit at all. Indeed Natalie could have walked off stage to fetch a stepladder and climbed up onto Ricky and it wouldn't have looked any more incongruous. It was also very much like watching weightlifting with the lift up to the shoulders, the pause and then and the jerk up to lock arms. The descent on the other hand was much more elegant.

He can't win.The lift answers all the people complaining he doesn't do anything dramatic or memorable or entertaining - its there to entertain those people. On the other hand it will upset all the people who want a dance to be follow the music and story even f the story is understated and undramatic.

If it was another show he could try for a float spin too...though he can't match Clare for graceful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfD7M...eature=related

but Dancing on Ice with no ice is stretching it a bit.

I haven't got the impression that Ricky usually does understated dances

Everything he has done has been fast and dramatic and 'entertaining'. I've been annoyed that Natalie has not trusted him enough to do something a bit less frenetic.

The first time she does, it is rather out of character for the dance, but very good, then - she puts a crazily incongruous big 'strength' move in at the end, when an easier, more beautiful and congruous move would have been easier, more apt and much more pleasurable for me to watch anyway.

I don't think it's a case of 'he can't win' more that Nat should just get her act together.

I don't know how elegant it was. It looked like he was shoulder pressing her - which I guess he was. Looked more like a weight lifting achievement than a dance component.

Agree this last one was acted better until the lift introduced another play (show) I meant he wasn't making an impact before - you are right he is dynamic but it hasn't been to much effect. This time he tried for both markets and missed both. Thats why next week is important for him - he has to get the acting and the dynamic dancing to produce a result together. The worst case would be massive lifts and an unconvincing story and not much else in between - but that might get him the votes he needs from one set of eth audience anyway ?

The lift was pretty much the crowning 'oh dear' element in a dance that, for me, wasn't anything like what I was hoping for.

For starters, I can't stand that bleeding awful Eva Cassidy version of 'Rainbow', so they were on a hiding to nothing from my point of view as soon as the music started. The foxtrot step just looked slow and ungainly at that pace, and the lift, apart from looking amazingly awkward to get into, took up about 20 of their 90 seconds.

I did enjoy the beginning 10 secs with the co-ordinated arm movements, but apart from that it just all seemed a bit peculiar. I was gutted - I thought a more SCD-standard Fred n' Ginger style routine would've been right up Ricky's street and we got that

I thought for a celebrity male it was amazing and you could see by the quality of it in their VT that he must have practised it endlessly, but it would have been better in a showdance.

I agree with Kez about the dress. Totally the wrong colour for an AS.

Firstly, I think Ricky is a very good dancer, but I think he has been given the wrong partner this year.

Whilst I can see that the technique of their AS was probably very good (I'm not a dancer, but watched Strictly for a lot of years), it seemed to lack the pazazz of the AS, maybe because it was too slow. The dance itself lacked the showy (it's not a word) bit of the AS.

The lift was a difficult lift, but I'm with Len, it wasn't in keeping with the dance. I wish Nathalie wasn't so over the top "competetive". Maybe she would then choreograph something to show his skills off, without resorting to showy bits.

I didn't like it. It showed no skill other than pure strength, it took away from the dance in that there was extremely limited dancing time and thus actual steps and it didn't fit with the rest of the performance at all. Ola had to resort to that when she was dancing with Kenny cos he had limited skills - ricky is better than that imho.

I was interested to see the still of the lift .
I am sure he was concentrating very hard but poor Ricky looks very scared .

Such a shame, I thought it stuck out like a sore thumb.

Ricky bashing happens every day whatever he does.

I absolutly loved the dance and thought that lift by a male celeb as CRH said was amazing. What great trust Natalie must have in Ricky and I do not blame her wanting to please the public. The judges are there to comment and mark but the support comes from the public and obviously they liked it. I tried several times to vote and could not get through.

Is it ok to say that I didn't like the lift without being called a 'Ricky-basher'?

And surely it was Natalie's idea so any negativity about the lift is directed at her not him. He was just the poor sould who had to heave her over his head.

I don't see how not liking a part of a routine is "bashing"

I didn't like it either, it did look like weightlifting and didn't suit the dance, I like Ricky not keen on Natalie

It actually ruined the dance for me. I really enjoyed all of the dance that lead up to it for the first time from Ricky and Natalie. We finally get some quiet choreography at a tempo that isn't the speed of light, and I thought that Natalie had had a bit of a choreographic breakthrough. Then, there was the lift, which broke the entire subtle mood of the dance. Such a shame.

I thought it was entirely in keeping with the spirit of the dance. It's a crashingly literal interpretation of the song, and more than a little cheesy, but I think it worked on an artistic level. It probably would have been better if he hadn't stumbled a little when he lifted her higher, but I admire her ambition if nothing else.

All that faffing and whirling at the beginning was much more ugly so far as I'm concerned.

If they were dancing to Eye of The Tiger and doing a take on a Rocky film than yes the lift would have been good. I agree with Len it was out of place did not fit in with the music and was just a show off piece.

I was enjoying the dance up until the lift and then I just laughed it looked stupid.

Beautifully eloquent My thoughts exactly.

Only 2 dances they haven't had the highest marks for - V Waltz and now A Smooth.
I reckon the VW was going to be her (sorry their ) dance of choice in the [SF/Final?] to make it a clean sweep of the 12 and now it's dashed

I wish she would lighten up and let Ricky enjoy the experience more instead of every step being a 'life or death' performance - that way the viewers (at least on these boards) might enjoy the pairing better.
(As always - imo )

Well I was like "WWF"! But I missed the body slam.

Actually I think the lift explains why the AS was based on a slow fox. It was to help Ricky conserve enough energy for it.

It didn't work - if it had only been the same lift but with her on her back, draped in a soft way then it would have matched the softness and 'rainbow' qualities of the dance but she was ramrod straight and frankly looked like a plank of wood and it ruined the whole thing.

It felt a little show-offish too, like she thought it was a showdance instead of an AS.

I really like them both but fear they're losing it slightly at the moment. Too many gimmicks, not enough technique now.

[quote=tonydancer;36855802]Well I was like "WWF"! But I missed the body slam. QUOTE]



But seriously though, Ive watched it back a few times and I do like the lift and I thought Ricky made it look ridiculously easy tbh and he made the dismount look elegant on his own as well which is very important in a lift. You only have to look back at some of the lifts seen in AS and Showdances to see some shocking lifts which are made even worse by messy/dangerous dismounts. So props to Ricky for that.

The music called for a lift that arced rainbow-esque rather than a display of strength. Shame because Natalie often gets it right. It felt like she was trying to tick a box rather than choreograph to the music.