...because of her 'experience' with Mark Ramprakash...part way down this DM article:



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...iddecombe.html

Not sure how they are going to 'police' this!!???

I suppose it is reasonable and will stop people saying that she has an unfair advantage.

But she did a Samba with Mark, and it's going to be either a Waltz or Cha Cha for the first week so how's this going to benefit Kara ahead of the others?

Isn't all the training filmed for use in the VTs? And on ITT they frequently give a rundown of each couple's total training hours, so the Beeb must have a good idea of what's happening during training and who's training when. Besides, I'd imagine the BBC hires dance studios for each couple to train in so they'll probably book Kara's to start a week later than everyone else.

Sure, but they could always sneek off to non-BBC gym somewhere

I would anyway!!

Not exactly the most reliable source in the world!! I doubt it's true tbh, she's not the only one with some kind of dance experience.

Did they do this with Jade last year? 1 week is hardly going to make much difference & I imagine she will still be better than many despite 1 week's less training.

Those who want to throw around the unfair advantage tag will do so regardless - it won't stop after week 1.

If she's performing a Cha Cha, then some of the basic moves might overlap.

I think it's a fair decision. Although I wouldn't have been outraged or anything if she had three weeks.

No biggie in the grand scheme of things.

Will Matt Baker have a week less as well, as he was a gymnast?

i dont really think its fair tbh because she did that show almost three years ago now because it was filmed in 2007 and she didnt have long to do that practise for that performance anyway... they didnt do it with jade to i cant see them doing it now

IF it is true, then it makes sense to me.

She must have had some relevant dance training to dance as well as she did with Ramps for Sports Relief SCD. Many people don't think she should be on the show at all because she did the charity thing, so I guess this is a compromise.

Personally unless the previous experience is relevant as Kara's would be, then it isn't the same thing.

This can't possibly be true. How is training with Mark comparable to training with a pro? I mean, he's good but he ain't that good. Or did they have some help? And how long does Michelle have to sit out of training? : )

Either way, it just doesn't sound right.

I doubt very much if Mark did the training - I'd have thought he would just be regarded as the 'experienced' partner.

Fair enough if it's true, though personally it wouldn't bother me either way. I suspect that the first week is spent on general ballroom and Latin training rather than learning the first week's routine (if only because otherwise it would be a massive culture shock going from three weeks to learn a routine to one week!), which is probably how they'd say it evens out as presumably she did a week's training for Sports Relief. Truthfully though if she did a week's samba training 3 years ago I'd be very impressed if she could recall anything helpful at all! And in my experience, the basic samba technique and steps have very little overlap with the cha cha cha (or the waltz, obviously! ).

There are always going to be contestants with more general dance experience than others and I doubt they'll bother trying to police that once they've established that a celeb is eligable for Strictly. In terms of male gymnasts though, I'm not sure they'd have a much bigger advantage than many other sportsmen, beyond being happy to perform while wearing skimpy costumes. Male floor routines (unlike female ones) are not set to music and generally have no dance elements in them. As they don't do beam, none of their other routines will contain dance elements either.

I didn't mean Matt had dance experience - what I mean is that he is bound to be flexible and able to follow the instructions of his pro partner because of the discipline of gymnastics.

Fair enough, but I don't think this was necessary because they didn't make Jade do this.

I'm pretty sure that Karen H helped Mark and kara with their sport relief training... and the other SCD pros helped out too.

If they didn't make Jade wait out a week last year, why should kara have to wait to start her dancing training?

That's right, she did. Mark thanked Karen for her help in his spech after they were named winners.

It's all irrelevant anyway, because isn't week 1 no elimination?

Sid, completely diffrent dances. If it had been the rumba she'd learnt it would have given Kara some advantage in learning the cha cha (very similar rhythm and step pattern, with straight legs, non bouncy), but the samba is unlike any other dance (bouncy, bent legs, different rhythm/step patterns). Similar rhythm (i.e. 1 a 2) and bounciness to the jive but that is all. It would give her no advantage in ballroom at all.

In any case, once she's learnt a particular set of steps, she can practice them at home without a partner and so keeping her out the studio doesn't necessarily make much difference. Sometimes that's the best way to practice.

I think the week out is a bit pointless really, but Kara is likely to be so good, it won't make a lot of difference..
Last edited by Vivacious Lady : 12-09-2010 at 20:05

Ah right, I stand corrected

If none of the skills Kara learnt are going to be useful for the upcoming dance, then I say give her the full three weeks worth of training like everyone else.

And because he has entered, and won, a latin dance competition for Blue Peter, and was actually trained by Darren and Lilia?

[/stirring]

Perhaps my statement was a bit sweeping. Maybe just one or two things thinking about it such as stepping forward on the ball of the foot, turning out the feet and pointing the toes. But not enough to be a huge advantage.

Give her 2 and a half weeks!

(I'm being silly now)

Its clear Kara has an unfair advantage.