Maybe she shouldn't have scored them differently if its not raining as they say in Spain

I suspect the poster meant the people in here house.

Just thought - are you one of them?

No I wasn't, but that's a good point.

I disagree, he gets high marks with mistakes because even with them he is head and shoulders above anyone else in natural talent. He's not my favourite, Chris is, but I can see he is the best dancer. If Ali wins we will have the dullest, most boring winner ever on SCD.

I missed the Cola Charleston and only saw the 'vote now' clip, which I thought was hideous because of the stupid faces he was pulling. However, I've now seen the whole thing on youtube and yes, I think Cola were best, they really captured the spirit of the age imho.

To be fair to all the competitors though, if he makes several mistakes in a routine, which he often does, then he should be marked down accordingly and certainly should not be awarded nines. Why should he be judged less harshly than others just because he has the most natural talent?

I loved both Team Cola and Laila and Anton. For me, they both demonstrated the exuberance of the dance. I found Ali and Brian's routine boring and was amazed at the marks they received.

I thought all three Charleston's were brilliant, but having said that I preferred Chris & Ola's to both Laila and Ali. I actually thought Ali's was the worst of the three. I appreciate that she'd had an injury and did well to dance but she stood there for the best part of 20 seconds at the beginning of it. I thought Chris and Laila were both undermarked and Ali totally overmarked.

Technically I have no idea who was better, but for enjoyment it was Chris for me.

I think the reason Ali got such high marks, apart from the fact that it was fantastic, is that she was the only celebrity who managed the foot swivelling. The others tried it but she got it off to a tee!

Ola and Chris certainly moved about entertainingly. But it really was not a Charleston. It was more a goofy 60's parody pastiche of silent movie gestures.

Chris failing to realise the Egyptian seemed to betray the shallow cultural contact or context their performance had with the Charleston.

Both Laila and Ali performances depended more on Charleston dance moves and less on theatrical goofy tricks.

This reli isnt fair to Ali, yes Chris and Ola were more entertaining but Ali and Brian had far more content (apart from the first 25 secs or so which set the story) and as the judges said she got the swivel through the feet perfect. Plus can't we give ali some credit, she totaly downplayed he injury, proving she no way wanted the sympathy vote unlike some other couples on the show. Shes a nice girl, and if anyone is getting favoured its ricky w remember the judges totally slated her jive and salsa.

If Ali and Brian don't win, I hope its Chris and Ola

That's interesting lotty, because I could hardly take my eyes off Ali and thought she did brilliantly, though I do agree that they kept her bouncing steps to a minmum.

Could this mean, lotty, that it's a boy sees girl / girl sees boy thing?
Perhaps the two of us should simply apply for membership of the Guild of Heterosexual Artistes. You know, the club that, according to JohnfromWales in this week's Musings, Matt Cutler tried to join and got rejected.

I'm a heterosexual girl and my eyes switched from one to the other when they were the one dancing. After the worry about Ali's foot, it was wonderful to see her come to life from being a limp puppet/doll. Nobody is going to convince me that this wasn't the best routine and the best dancing by the celeb. I've watched all three Charlestons again and there was a lot of Lila & Anton's routine where only Anton was dancing or they were faffing about. It's a question of fitting in with the story being told by the choreography. The 'wow' factor in Chris & Ola's routine was largly down to the choreography, which I think was done by the guest choreographers and not to Chri's dancing.

Chris and Ola were fantastic. The hit of the night in my opinion. I was shocked when Ali and Brian got higher marks as I found their "doll" dance rather dated and not as entertaining as Chris and Ola's routine. I think the judges are rather biased towards Ali and it kind of reminds me of the time we had Emma Bunting (Baby Spice) on Strictly and she could do no wrong in the eyes of the judges. I find Ali and Brian rather boring and their so-called (never confirmed or denied) romance rather ridiculous!! I know it is not their fault if the publicity department try and suggest they are having a "relationship" but all this stupid "fake relationships" between the dancers and celebs has been done time and time again on Strictly to get headlines only to find out that after the competition the couple NEVER see each other again!!!!!

I have to call you on this last sentence: are you seriously saying that the couple performing the choreography made no difference?!

The whole reason Team Cola's routine was so brilliant was because THEY performed it. They brought the chemistry between them to the dancefloor - it was filled with THEIR personality and, because the dynamic between them is so discernible and filled with fun (remember that?).

That is why people engage with them: contrast them with Ricky-bot and shark-eyed Natalie or nice Ali and lovestruck Brian and they are so much more alive. Technical perfection may get the judges excited but when that's all there is, leaves many viewers cold.

If you don't like Chris and Ola, fine. But please let's not pretend that anyone could have gone out and done that routine: they couldn't.

I actually think Ali & Brian's dance had the better choreography technically speaking - they had more of a storyline which is historically what the audience engages with. Chris & Ola on the other hand had a more populist, engaging, music choice.

I think saying that Ali & Brian's routine was technically perfect but nothing else is entirely inaccurate. She performed out of her skin.

Quite.

I've been thinking today about why I thought Chris and Ola's charleston was the weakest. I think it boils down to having no narrative drive, where both Ali and Brian and Laila and Anton did. In comparison, Chris' felt more like a series of crowd pleasing moments sewn together into a "charleston".

Ali and Brian's broken doll routine was well thought out (with her getting "stuck" at the beginning as well as the end), and performed with considerable aplomb - far better than we'd seen of her previously. Anton's wooing of Laila, too, had a strong and obvious story, and again was performed far more convincingly than Laila had managed beforehand. Chris and Ola's was certainly entertaining, but it had no storyline. That is not to say that it necessarily needed one, but I would have preferred something to tie those crowd-pleasing elements together.

Having said that, of course, all three charlestons were very good, even if I prefer some to others.

Thought the three Charlestons were knockout and all 3 couples put on a great show. So in fact, I can't say IMO which was better/worse because they were all so different and each captured a different facet of the era. Loved Ali/Brian for the choreographic and her lines, Laila and Anton for the cheekiness, and Cola for the fun and verve.

I did LOVE Cola's. If you could run it in black and white it would belong to any film musical of the era.

Well I dunno if this means much but Chris and Ola's Charleston is killing it on Youtube compared to the other dances of the night. It's received over 1,000 more viewings than its nearest rival, which is Laila and Anton's.

Like I say might not mean that much, maybe Chris' Mum is watching it on loop.

That strikes me as about right - it was very crowd pleasing.

Yeah in the interest of fairness I feel compelled to point out that Ricky Whittle's Quickstep in W7 has had double the views of any of the other dances from that week. So maybe people are voting based on the dances they like, if they are repeat watching based on that too.

Edited to say Actually the top watched dance overall is Chris and Ola's Paso it's gazillions ahead of anyone, so I'm back to thinking people just love the little fella.

Well, I think both Ricky's quickstep - which was very fast and very intricate - and Chris' charleston have the crowd pleasing thing in common. They were both spectacles! They were the most entertaining dances of their week.

Of course, whether I think they were necessarily the best dances of the week is irrelevent.

Or maybe he's just loved by people who don't own their own DVD recorders?

Possibly
I've just been trying to look for a bit of evidence outside of forums as to who people might like. He's had 100,000 views for that dance the next nearest I think is about 25,000 for one of Ricky W's.

Betcha Lisa Snowden's showdance beats them both.