Yeah, the possibility of no Ian and Natalie is definitely my biggest disappointment from this - they were brilliant on the celeb tour and even better at the pro tour!

i love ian

Seeing them dance together was one of the highlights of the tour and I say that as some one who didn't even like Natalie. It is so sad that they will not be dancing together.

I didn't like her until the celeb tour, she was amazing there and very sweet climbing over the barrier to say hi to an old lady in the front row. Ian and Natalie are fab on the pro tour and I met her in Birmingham and she was an absolute sweetheart - I was gushing about her fairylight dress from the celeb tour and she got a dreamy reminiscing look in her eyes and agreed with me - said she wanted to keep it

I remember someone posting that about the old lady. The white dress she wore on the tour was to die for and my absolute favourite. Pure elegance.

That was probably me, I do like to ramble about the shows I've been to She was so disappointed she couldn't keep that dress! I meant to ask her how heavy it was but we were too busy chatting about how pretty it was

I was sitting next to the old lady and her daughter

*is now green with jealousy*

I was sitting behind and just a couple of seat down

Enough, enough!

Two interesting tweets from Arlene:

... could this be related? I hope not, I hate Arlene's choreography.

I agree. It'll be very interesting to see if the four do accept the offer.

Yeah I noticed that - it could be related to SYTYCD as well though, and hopefully it is!

I have to say I really hope they can afford not to - just to screw the idiot producers' plans ...

I know exactly what you mean. Maybe then the producers would think again and not just bring in even more new pros to replace all five.

If it was SCD related, then it would be really bad news.

Trouble is, the BBC have put themselves out on a limb. If they dont hire Lilia etc. where are they going to go? SYTYCD type show dances? Having removed some of the best, continue with last years show dance system?

Makes me wonder if they understand that SCD needed improving, not changing.

BBC Controller of Entertainment Commissioning Mark Linsey says "Strictly will be back this autumn with more world-class dancers and more spectacular dancing than ever before. I'm delighted to be welcoming three new fantastic dancers to Strictly and am really excited about the introduction of a professional dance group, giving us even more opportunities to feature different areas of expertise and more genres of dance than in any other series."

This sounds like a problem to me. I can forgive the more world class dancers hype, but the different areas of expertise and more genres of dance than in any other series promise tells me he is facing the wrong way.

I'm getting less confident these changes are intended to improve the show, and more concerned that they want to change it.

Unless they hire two new girls, Ian, Mat will have to dance with girls on the show. ie Natale & Ilona. Those girls will be doing a double shift. The show & the pro group. Will they get extra pay? Will the pro dance group get paid less since they are not featured on the show. I see nothing but problems with this arrangement. They need new girls for the pro dance group.

If Darren, Lilia, Matthew and Ian are not given artistic control over the pro dances, I would rather they walked than be used as a sop to us while the producers churn out a series of SYTYCD routines.

I would understand though if they decide to stay for the money. Everybody has to make a living, and if this year doesn't work, maybe there will be a move in the right direction next year - if there is a next year.

I think that as pros are eliminated they will join the dance group.

Yeah i think thats what this means:

Quote:
"And the professional group will be joined by other competing professionals and dancers, depending on the styles of dance each week."


So really this could mean that the 'four' offered positions in the dance troup may not perform each week, they will in the beginning probably but as more pro's get knocked out of the competition they will perform, and also the other dancers it mentions will also perform, so looking at it this way the dance troup doesn't sound great, but i guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Of course they still need to accept the offer, they could all still do a Brian.

Just picked this up off Greytop's thread:
http://www.people.co.uk/celebs-tv/ce...2039-22363562/


Now this is the People so could very clearly be nonsense. Otherwise, it means Derek is in the dance troupe. Which, yay. But still, a 'lucrative deal'? Especially compared to what he would have had as a regular pro on DWTS

And whatever on earth does it mean by a solo dancer?

I wish the BBC would release more details about the troupe, especially who else has been asked.

If this is true I suspect Derek's contract with DWTS is up and he did not resign.

You'd think if the BBC were going to get Derek Hough, they'd put him in as one of the main pros though

It kind of seems to me they might actually have purposely chosen the best choreographers for the dance troupe if this is true. It's hard to say whether it's that or if they've just made a really ridiculous mistake!

However the DM has a different take on the Derek story-
Kind of seems from their version of events that he's not even set up to work in the UK, let alone having an offer from the Beeb. I suspect that is more likely.

On a random note, I just noticed if you copy and paste text from a DM article, it automatically adds a read more: link at the bottom!

People will be twittering Derek and he will answer hopefully.