The point of this post is purely to gauge others' opinions similar or not to my own.

Did anyone else really NOT take to this pro last year?

Her comments today on DS have only annoyed me more. She came across, in my opinion, as smug, arrogant and generally fake and annoying. Gutted she returned frankly this year. Thought she might have gone the way of Hayley "dumped-by-text-message" Holt. Unfortunately not.

That is such a beautiful, lyrical thread-title it belongs in the Appreciation Threads.

Just like Natty herself.

What did she say? I'm a bit out of the loop lol

She said she wanted to win this year and she thought Scott could be a great dancer. I don't see any problem with that.

I think she did a great job with Ricky last year. I like her.

I didnt like her on series 7 after seeing her interact with the public after both the celeb and pro tours I changed my opinion. However I do wish she would learn that over competitaveness does not go down well, with the public.......think it all you like just dont say it out loud. I am hoping that Scott will be a bit more personality than Ricky so we will see.

It makes me feel defiantly feminist when people don't like competitive women... if Brendan said exactly the same things Natalie said (in fact he has before) everyone would just take it as completely standard behaviour for someone who competed regularly as part of their profession.

I thought she was absolutely fantastic and she was brilliant dancing with Ian Waite. It's a shame he has been demoted to the dance troupe and she now has to dance with Brendan in the pro dances

Why shouldn't she want to win? I think you will find that all the pro's want that - you don't get to their level without being incredibly competitve.

I don't think she is suited to Brendan at all dance wise. She and Ian made such a lovely elegant couple, and Ian's ballroom is so much nicer to watch than Brendan's.

Thank You!
I don't mind Natalie, I hope she does endear herself more to the public this year though as last year I know lots were a bit put off with her over competitive nature. I don't think she realises how it can come across sometimes to the viewers.

You mean over competitiveness doesn't go down well with some of the British public.

In most other countries people actually expect people to be competitive in a competition - no matter whether its the Olympics, or a competition largely based on fun. Come to that, there are even some Brits who appreciate seeing someone try hard to improve what they are doing in order to try and win a competition.

Yes, I know all about SCD being "entertainment", but it's entertainment based on competing.

For me it started with the whole Ricky's going to be the first to get a 10 for his first dance, followed by the fake open-mouthed "shocked" expression when Len gave them glowing critique on the first show.

I will say she appeared to be a very competent teacher by all accounts, but less of the gob and more with feet tends to go down better with the public.

Brendan is also one of my least favourite pro's for similar mouthing-off reasons... Regardless of his gender as pointed out.

I dont mind that she wants to win.......they all want to win..........but personally I just think she (and all of them for that matter male or female) need to be careful how they phrase it, being over competative can come across as an unattractive quality and even though Strictly IS a competition it is also (like it or not) very much based on public popularity and not just dancing, so how the public 'see you' is all important.

I don't think she's over-competitive at all. She came across as wanting to win, and wanting her partner to get as high a score as he was capable of. That's pretty much exactly as competitive as she should be.

She didn't, as other pros and celebs have in the past, complained about the quality of the dances carried out by other partners, whined about the scores other teams got, bitched about the scores her partnership got, stormed off, complained that the judges don't know what they were talking about, bitched that other couples shouldn't still be in the competition, made excuses about lack of training time and Ricky's injuries, stated that her partnership should win, or pulled a collosal bitch-face upon elimination.

She's a confident, competitive woman, and I'm glad, given that female competitors on the show are generally required to spray low-self-esteem around like cheap perfume (oooh, I just want to last a few weeks, I hope my pro has patience, ooh I'm really nervous, ooh I don't want to be sexy, oh no I was in the bottom two *CRIES FOR A WEEK*). Hence why they mostly lose these days. Cause it gets BORING. The pros generally are increasingly anodyne anyway - Lilia, Erin, Ian, Darren and Brendan in particular said things in the earlier series that make Brendan's occasional piss-fit now look mild.

She's AUSTRALIAN for chrissake.

To be fair to both Natalie and Ricky they were hardly ever on ITT so it was hard to show tons of personality in a short edited vt where they were more interested in learning the dances that Ricky had very little time to do due to very long soap hours.

Unfortunately Natalie and Scott may have the same trouble this year but at least they are based in London and not travelling up and down to Chester.

I liked Natalie last year but then again Ricky and Natalie were my favourites. She is competitive but so are the rest of the pros but she just more vocal about it.


As much as I like Brendan, I completely agree Natalie and Ian were a better together as they were well suited and brought the best out of each other's dancing. I think Brendan looks shorter when he is dancing with Natalie if that make any sense.

Lack of ITT time is not an excuse - that's no-one's fault but Ricky's for taking on Strictly before he left Hollyoaks. Questionable editing maybe, but that's happened to everyone.

I am a Natalie fan though. I didn't like her at all last series, couldn't warm to her. But I started to like her when I saw the celeb tour, and she was lovely when I met her after the pro tour (not to mention that she and Ian dance superbly together).

And having seen her dance with Ian in cabaret since, and meeting her again in the process, I still like her a lot. She freely admitted to being a perfectionist, but that's not a crime, and she said it in the context of wanting to give every audience the best possible show (we were talking about the pro tour, but the same applies to Strictly itself), which is perfectly fair to me. She competed for years, and still has the competitive edge that many of the other pros also have.

Definitely! I miss the days when the pros were openly competitive, although I must admit I did judge some of them for it at the time

Paraphrasing:

Ian: Oh no, I didn't want to come top every week!
The male celebs are all useless

Erin: 10 is saved for perfection, and Zoe was good but not perfect
We might have the first male 10 here (followed by a dance that got 8s all round, followed by complaints of undermarking)

Darren: I wanted to set the standard for the other celebs to try and match

Brendan: Am I supposed to dance at Fiona's level, or come out and show people what I can do? [Duh...]
Sarah let herself down on Saturday


Kind of missing out Lilia and to a lesser extent Darren, not cos I don't believe you that they were just as bad, but I'm struggling to think of direct quotes as opposed to general competitive attitude with Aled, Jill and Emma in particular!

So was John Byrne and his intro VT in series 1 is still the most cringe-worthy, self-righteous load of cheese ever broadcast on Strictly ever.

Aussies are renowned to be very VERY competitive.

I will join you on that one!! As you say Brendon has said it before and I think he has said something similar this year with Michelle. All the pros are competitive Natalie is just a lovely honest person.

Natalie is an incredable dancer and teacher and her and Ricky were amazing to watch. I think she will do well with Scott they look good together.
Good luck to her and Scott.

I think that was my point. Can we expect her to be anything less?

I don't have a problem with them being competitive myself anyway but lord knows people like a good old underdog lol. And like you said others have said and done worse in other series.

Just to add, I preferred Natalie with Ian aswell but I'm sure Brendan will do .

I agree with you that it is not an excuse , I wasn't making an excuse I was only pointing out that you see more of the pro personality through ITT than on the main show and that when people are training with limited time frame they tend to concentrate more on the dancing than having fun or showing personality - another example was Colin Jackson.

I always saw Natalie as more of a perfectionist than anything else.

Personally I prefer people to say what they really feel rather than some PR driven fake modesty. Natalie may be competitive but as many have said including you she came across very well on the tours so it doesn't mean she isn't a nice person. I hope her & Scott do well.

Can I also add my name to the list of those who will really miss Ian & Natalie dancing together?

And should we expect her to be anything less?

I could see why people didn't warm to her last year. She didn't make funny comments, she had no need to spend time reassuring Ricky or comforting him through a loss of confidence. Plus of course she's openly competitive and we saw little of her on ITT.

However I did end up liking her for her honesty and straight-forwardness. The comment about wanting a 10 in week 1 did make me raise an eyebrow, I admit, but I think for the precision of the comment more than anything else (as in, she didn't hint that the dance was going to be good, she came out and said she thought there was a possiblity of getting a 10 for it. Dangerous words! It's only going to raise expectations). After that though I came to have a lot of respect for her throughout the series. To me she came across as a hard worker, a hard taskmaster and as someone who just wanted to give her best and allow her celeb to give his best in each show. Frankly I expect the pro dancers to be competitive and inclined to perfectionism, even if after so many series most of them have learnt how to play the PR game with the British public. The fact that she had a very strong dancer will also have helped foster the impression that she was incredibly competitive. Think of Erin for a moment- with Austin I thought she was very focussed on the competition, with Wille Thorn she was sweet and kind, with Ricky last year she just tried to keep things fun. With a different student, maybe Natalie would have had a different approach. I look forward to seeing what she does this year, though I will miss her partnership with Ian in the pro dances- I still remember the pro quickstep she choreographed last year!

I have to say a little bit of me would like to see how she would have coped with a Craig Kelly or a Joe Calzaghe, ofcourse we have no idea how Scott will turn out so maybe she has got a Craig or Joe and its all bravado.