Never thought I would disagree with Karen but I don't agree that Cola deserved 10s. Yes, it was very entertaining but I found it a bit untidy and not sure how true to a Charleston it was.

Would have made a great showdance!

[LIST][*]In your opinion - not all of us worship at the shrine of St. Alesha.[*]To score a 10 for the first dance of the night must be very rare - it gives the judges nowhere to go if someone betters it. [*]Hallelujah.[/LIST]

You NEVER cross the floor in a Vienesse Waltz. You stay in a continuous circle with the only break being going into the centre for the fleckerl. Crossing the whole way across is just asking for collisions and it's bad dancing etiquette. It's a small floor, so difficult to do a group VW, however Brian should have been aware of this and perhaps slowed down. Especially when he saw a cluster ahead. If he couldn't slow or overtake to avoid bumping into a couple, he should have steered Ali into the middle with a fleckerl.

It's not picking on him - hes utterly fabulous - but he was wrong on Saturday night during the VW. I think he was trying to show off a bit and went around too quickly and narrowly, but then failed to follow the line of the dance and got in the way of other couples.

I'm sorry what a load of rubbish - she gave a ten for something that most certainly didn't deserve it

For your second point, fair enough, it was just a theory on why he did.

On the first point, he had another choice than to go crashing across the floor. Firstly, Ricky wasn't going all that slowly. Secondly, although Ricky was poorly positioned in cutting a corner by that much, he cut the corner so much that Brian could easily have adjusted his speed fractionally and had plenty of room to go around him.

By the way, I am saying this having Ricky as my least favourite dancer, so there's no bias here.

EDIT: Just saw Erinfan's post, she put it much better than me.

Even though I couldn't stand his gurning, his performance would certainly have been a 10. The dance side of it however, was scored correctly methinks.

In your opinion maybe.

Alesha made the mistake of overmarking Chris with a 9. When she saw that Ali's dance was better, she had no choice but to give her a 10.

I thought that and then wondered why it was that Ali got a ten. I know that it was Brian that was driving but still...

That was excellent! That nifty move was fantastic but I was also mesmerised by his legs which looked like they were elastic and 'bendy'.

Can anyone tell me what was so great about his Charleston to deserve a 10, because I really am totally baffled.

It was a funny clip and he is a super dancer! You do realise it was a 'set-up' don't you? A very a good one too!

Karen has never been a World Champion. However, she was a regular finalist and she is a respected international judge.

He is very 'bendy' and he has dancing eyebrows! I laugh at him every time I watch him - but in a good way, as he's just very charismatic. He's storming up the pro ranks with a different partner nowadays, but he and his old partner were brilliant amateurs. World champs, untouchable and so good they could show off his personality at every opportunity...and his floorcraft!

Totally agree. Brian also caused problems for Anton, who did some, as would be expected, clever dodging!

By the way, it's wrong to cut across the floor in any ballroom dance!

yes i agree, and if they make it to the final, which i think they will given their public support, it would be a great idea for their showdance.

It's quite baffling all the snide commets and barbs against different couples, it's sometimes hard to believe we are all just discussing a saturday night tv show! I love Ali and Brian but i would be happy to see any of the other couples win, that's the nature of the show, our favourites can't all win

I guessed it was a set-up to begin with, but then I got told by a couple of people who knew the couples that it wasn't. With Franco, nothing would surprise me...

This is confusing. Franco won Blackpool Amateur Latin 2002-2004 partnering Oksana Nikiforova. Since October 2007 he has partnered Oxana Lebedew, the pair currently World Number 3. Hard to see them overtaking Yulia and Joanna though?

Yep, the similarly named Oksana and Oxana is very confusing!

They seem to be suddenly surging forward and they have moved ahead of Sergey and Melia in recent months. Franco and Oxana also beat Riccardo and Yulia in two dances at the recent World Champs and nearly took second place overall. I can't see them leaping ahead of Riccardo in many comps, but they certainly have a lot of support and momentum right now.

I sort of agree with Karen on Chris's scores. Face it: he was never going to receive 10s for the first ever score for that dance, and neither, I suspect, would anyone else in a similar situation (including Mark and Karen in the Argentine tango had they been the first to dance). Had he danced later, might he have received 10s? Possibly, but it's difficult to say. I will say that when I watched the dances again, I thought Chris and Ola's dance was far better than Ali and Brian's - far more entertaining, and far more content too.

On penalising Brian for his steering during the VW, I'm sure that would have been the case in a "real" competition. The problem is that on SCD you can't really mark down the celebrity who is being marked because of a mistake or mistakes by her professional partner.

It was better than the dance they gave 9. Simple as that.

With Brendan and Kelly's Tango, I remember Len saying it didn't matter who'd made the mistake (Brendan admitted to going blank for a second and forgetting the choreography.) He was going to deduct marks regardless because the routine wasn't perfect.

Withe Strictly coming into the home straight the judges feel obliged to beat the drum for business (not least for bums on seats on the impending Tour and their own lovely cut of £11K+ per week). To give the illusion of progress they will wave 10 like confetti, just like Gordon Brown printing money like confetti.

Um, why? I don't get it! He's ok, but he's no Austin or Matt!
People wouldn't just stop watching because Chris was illiminated!

Exactly - just as your comment was your opinion!!!

Quite honestly I am sick of all the Chris (and the other not so technically good dancers) bashing comments - as a complete non dancer I prefer to be entertained and would (if given the chance to be a judge) mark a good proportion on "entertainment value"

BBC used to have a purely "dancing" show - it got scrapped for lack of viewers

Interesting that since this post, no-one has felt able to take up Paace's challenge.
Perhaps because no-one can think of a valid reason why it deserved a 10?