I know that neither of these papers is exactly the most reliable but...

According to the Mirror:

According to the Express:

Two completely different stories but, either way, it doesn't sound like Derek Hough will be on Strictly this year.

I wouldn't think it was true... whether the papers are reliable, I definitely think it's true that the BBC couldn't afford him. Still, we can live in hope!

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...#ixzz0tXnmzLKC

...seems to me the producers don't have a clue in hell what they're doing!

It sounds like they are taking a page out of DWTS with rotating pros. They will skip a season with a celebrity and do a lot pro dances, then come back the next season with a celebrity but do much less in the way of pro dances.

I don't think the BBC producers realized that skipping a season for a favoured and well loved pro is just not going to go over well for SCD. The DWTS fans seemed to absorb the shifting of pros better and bringing in new ones and having them work alongside the established pros. It mixes the show up a bit. The new ones can end up being favourites when they have a good first season. Derek is example of a new pro on DWTS that worked out great and Brian Fortuna is an example of one who didn't and was not asked back for any subsequent seasons.

I thought it might be like that - most of the moves the show's made recently (cutting back on the number of competitors, introducing the Charleston and Lindy Hop, recruiting from Burn The Floor, having a dance troupe at all) just seem to be aping DWTS, so no surprise really. Maybe they can have a Celebriquarium as well

And i take it the BBC have also not thought at all about what happens if any more of them say no, or if this year's competing pros say no to the dance troupe next year and pull out of the show then?

i know the Sun isn't reliable at all, but if that's true then the BBC really do not have a clue...

Vincent and Flavia talk about the new series and dance troupe in this video.

http://www.whatsontv.co.uk/reality/s...tly-video/9656

Dear God no. I hate that thing!

Meh, Vincent and Flavia have made the dance troupe thing sound pretty minor to the series. I hope the four remaining pros say no to it so I can stop watching for good.

For goodness sake, why didn't they say about rotating them in the first place??!!!!
If this is true i think that the original statement came out before they had planned and not everything had been decided yet.
Or i wonder if the producers have been on here and seen the uproar




I can't decide whether or not i liked that, i know though i like the Tess pit so don't want that to change.

I actually thought they just made it sound like there is gonna be twice the amount of pro dances, with the new dance troup doing some and the competing pro's doing the others.

If the competing pros do as many pro dances as before, what relevance does the dance troupe really have? It will just be filler.

That's what I was getting it from also. Many more pro dances. How can a pro spend all day with a celebrity and then rehearse even more full out pro routines on a weekly basis. If the other pros leave it looks like that is what the remaining will be doing though.

Not necessarily, I assume they have got new dances for the troupe already, as currently there's only one female. I'm sure they can rustle up a few more.

I agree but perhaps theirs will be grander, more spectacular?

Yes, thats the way I picked it up too, and am quite pleased if it works that way.
I know its alright for me to say that as a V & F fan, I'm getting best of both worlds, but I took it to be that while the competing pros still get to do group dances...the dance troupe will be in both the group dance, plus other group dances over and above the ones the competing pros will be in so all in all we'll be getting more pro dances than ever before which I'm happy with.

Is this even a word?

I guess I'm just cynical about it. I don't really see what's in it for the pros who have been asked to be in it. I don't think they need Strictly enough to do this.

So will the dance troupe 'grow' each week as each pro gets eliminated or will the eliminated pros only do the ordinary group dances same as they did when they were still in the competition?

Perhaps they have already said no and that's why this rotation of the pro's story has come out?

Who knows but really if they want a serious dance troup then they should be doing the dances every week, and everyone else doing it however they decide who dances usually.

I wouldn't have thought any of them has said no, if so we would have heard.

Or do you mean the BBC may now be bargaining with them, and that's why we're starting to hear about rotations? Not sure that rings true either, unless the BBC are really desperate to get this dance troupe going. After all they didn't value the dancing troupe pros enough not to replace them with younger models! We'll see I guess.
The whole thing is a bit of a mess really isn't it! Surely it would make sense to include eliminated pros, but might only work if they have another eliminated pro of the opposite sex to dance with. If only male pros are eliminated for the first few weeks (this actually happened in series three, up to at least week four IIRC), they can't be incorporated very easily. I know they did some dances last year with odd numbers, but it's a bit limiting I would think.

On the other hand if it was me being a dancing pro, I would want to know that there was something distinct about what I was doing, not something I could have been doing all along if I was competing. So I would want the dance troupe to be separate, apart from the pros who got to compete.

Yeah this, but really it's anybodies guess.

Well if that's the case, they must be really into this dance troupe idea. I wonder if the chosen pros were also hand-picked, rather than just being the pros they no longer wanted to have a big part in the show. Otherwise they wouldn't care if they all said no.

I'm still of the opinion the BBC need to work to make this worthwhile for the dancing pros, even if that is the case.

DWTS often have pro dance routines that include pro dancers who are not competing in that particular series - in several previous series, Louis Van Amstel, for example, was often seen in pro-group dances, though not competing. Then, in the last series, he again had a celeb partner.

It seems to work for dwts so can't see why it shouldn't work for scd.

I would hope they'll join the dance group! If my favourite pros get rubbish partners (as at least one is likely to do), get eliminated say week 3 and then are only seen in fewer dances than the dance troupe pros I won't be happy either.

I still can't see how the BBC can turn this into a winning situation