I have searched, and searched... And still I have yet to hear one person make any sort of a positive comment on Aliona.

She is the pro I am most looking forward to seeing this year. Agreed, she was criticised last year by the judges included, however with a celeb like Rav it would have been difficult to make any Rumba or Quickstep appeal to anyone. Yes, the Quickstep was particularly awful.

I really loved the Tango though. The mood, the look, the music, the choreography was good. Unfortunately, Rav wasn't. And lift-gate didn't help matters I suppose.

We never saw her on ITT after her elimination, albeit to stand up for herself and have a go which I commend her for.

She also got lumbered with the joke wild card contestant on the tour don't forget.

Aliona was however FLAWLESS on all the pro dances and stood out as one of the most capable and dynamic girls we've seen in a while.

She's sort of got that Nicole Cutler popularity in that she's never really been given a chance in competition and yet has performed amazingly outside of a partnership.

Please, someone else tell me I'm not the only one who's excited she's back for a second chance.

well i didnt know anyone hated her , but i did realise some people criticised her for showcasing herself more than rav in the rumba but he was a hopeless dancer so she didnt have much of an option.

Im looking forward to seeing what Aliona can do this year (dancing/choreography wise) with a decent celeb partner. I didnt really take to her on the show last year but she has since grown on me and I hope she is one of the pros who do well this year.

There's an appreciation thread for her, there are positive comments if you look where positive comments are likely to be!

I didn't like her dancing with Rav last year, but she and Matt Cutler were a fab partnership in their solo dances and on tour (especially the last day in Bournemouth when they both turned into master prank-players for the day! ). I'm going to miss seeing them dance together

Her and Jared are not a good match, he looks way too young for her (and too short!) and looked as if he was going to drop her a few times in the launch show!

But she and Matt [Baker] look to be getting on well, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what she can do with choreography for him. I hope they go far

I agree with you Sara. My only pet hate with Aliona is her hair as it seems to fly about all the time and I find it distracting.

You are not the only one excited to see her back! I adore Aliona

Oh that's one of my pet hates too lol. Katya is just as bad. Flinging and flicking their hair about like Timotei girls in a mosh pit Spoils the dances for me sometimes. It looks messy.

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I thought Aliona was a showoff last year but I didn't take to Rav either. Don't dislike her though, she was new. Hope her and Matt do well

Her hair is distracting to me too... I learnt to ignore it on the pro tour after the first couple of shows.

She didn't have much opportunity to make much of an impact last year and I think not being familar with her work before it's difficult to tell how much of the cheorography not working was down to her and how much to Rav just being no good - probably a bit of both but I think you can forgive her not pitching the cheorography right if that happened due to inexperience and what she had to work with.

I was pretty shocked how badly Rav cold-shouldered her after their elimination too - however badly her routinues served him that ain't no way to treat a lady and I am very glad she's got someone whom, even in the unlikely event that he won't be someone she can better showcase her skills with, will at least not be arse to her.

I've never been to the tour so I've no idea who she was partnered with.

Tp me she seem to focus on herself more than Rav and I know some are saying it was because he wasn't that great. He wasn't but she made him look worse.

Aliona is also a symptom of the BBC replacing older more talented woman with younger flashier woman, so instead of world champion it's whoever shows the most flesh. I think it's a dangerous message to send to any young girls watching. Don't be the best, be the one in the skimpiest outfits.

She also did something last year I thought was impossible: She put me off watching Matt Cutler dance.

She was very gracious partnering Ricky Groves on the celeb tour - they were quite clearly told to be a pantomime act and be the worst by a long margin, but she took it in good humour. And she and Matt were brilliant together on the pro tour. It's a different partnership to Matt & Nicole, but not a worse one in my opinion, Aliona and Matt have a great rapport.

And please don't make such sweeping generalisations that the BBC have replaced 'older, more talented women' with younger ones - that's implying that Aliona (and Katya, Natalie and possibly even Ola and Flavia if we're going back to when they started regularly introducing new female dancers) is less talented and less worthy of a place on the show, which is entirely subjective (I happen to disagree, I never liked Karen or Camilla), and quite demeaning of her. And she's not the costume designer last time I checked!

And how can you know Aliona made Rav look worse seeing as he only ever danced with her and not anyone else?

Well you are either very bad at searching or this is a wind up.

I saw Aliona on the pro tour too and she went up in my estimation after seeing her dance, so I'm hoping she'll stay around a bit longer this time - but with her her more under control!

I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that a lack of positive comments about Aliona means she's hated.

I just don't think she's had a chance to make too much of an impression yet. Viewers are still making up their minds about the girl.

I like her look and her personality, she's cute, but she will need to improve her choreography this time round.

Having read her twitter, I love Aliona. A girl that wants to be stuck in a lift with vampires and Matt Cutler thrown in as well has to be ok in my book. She is also doing a pretty good job of trying to corrupt the boychild dancer.

I loved her tango with Rav, I thought the mood of it was great. I can understand putting in the illegal lift. It made her stand out which is important when you are one of 3 new dancers trying to make an impact. Her quickstep choreography wasn't great but will reserve judgement on that until I see more on this series.

I would have choreographed in cartwheels too, rather than get super-solid Rav to attempt anything like a decent quickstep. The judges said at the time it was a crying shame he hadn't got the paso, which would have suited him a lot better.

I loved Aliona with Matt and can't honestly see how people can feel ready to bin her on the strength of three dances with a distinctly mediocre-to-poor celeb. But then I've never been known to agree with jill1812 on anything

Doubt I watched more than a hour or so of Strictly in total, last year and so Aliona hadn't really registered.

But having watched the training clip, she's certainly one I wouldn't rush to kick out of bed (......and same goes for Katya), so Aliona is O.K. in my book for this reason alone.

Pleased some of the 'oldies' have either been sidelined, let go off or have just decided to leave the show. Would have liked Anton, Erin and Brendan to have been given the boot too.

There you go OP:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s....php?t=1130028



Job done. Now, to coin a phrase "Can We Get Over It Already?"

I like Aliona, her and Matthew are a brill partnership and I can't wait to see her with Matt this year.

I didn't realise anyone did hate Aliona. I can't say I agreed with some of the choreography she put together last year, as it wasn't always suitable for a non-dancer, although I'm not sure any choreography would have turned Rav into a good dancer (Shame 'cos I liked him!).

I agree about the hair, but this is more a BBC hair & make-up department "thing" than the choice of the dancers (one of the worst ever was Alisha's - drove me mad).

Professional dancers probably know more about hair & make-up than any BBC make up person, so I just wish they were left to see to themselves!!!

An absence of positive comments doesn't indicate hate, it indicates indifference. I don't think that's surprising given how little air time she has had.

It will be interesting to see what Aliona's choreography will be like for Matt, who we already know has some aptitude for Latin. I don't entirely agree that Rav not being very good lets Aliona off the hook- some very weak celebs have been made to look reasonably watchable by pros who know what they're doing. However some pros have grown better at choreographing for their celebs after their first series, so maybe not fair to judge on that.

If this year's choreo is similarly weak, the BBC should move her to the dance troupe. She's clearly very skilled at producing interesting pro dances, and of course it would be nice to see her dance with Matt again.

Good points. In addition, though, I don't remember there being a lot of hue and cry about any of Aliona's choreography at the time apart from the quickstep, which, OK, was pretty bad...but still, it's just one dance. I remember Rav's tango and rumba being fairly watchable, though it's not like the standard was dazzling last year.

Plus, I can think of countless examples of when pros have just got it wrong for their celebs and nobody's called for their removal. Ola's cha cha for Chris, Katya and Phil's samba (which was admittedly hampered by his knee injury and their lack of prep time), Natalie's salsa (I think) where Ricky did the backflip, and even Brian's jive and salsa, where he crammed in moves that poor Ali just couldn't handle all at once, were IMO examples of not giving your celeb a fair platform for their skills.

And that's just last year. Going back further, we could get into Karen Hardy finger-pointing/Gary Rhodes chopping territory - where I for one don't want to go

Please no I'm about to go and have dinner, and I'd like a nicer image than that in my head!! *goes hunting for Chris & Ola's Charleston on YT*

I like Aliona & agree she perhaps doesn't have the fan base of some of the other pros as she only had a short run last year so hasn't really showcased herself properly. I suspect those of us who went to the pro tour have warmed to her a lot more.

Loved her dancing with Matt though & I am gutted we won't see that this year - not sure about her & Jared as a partnership. I feel the same way about Natalie & Brendan too.

Would you prefer Andrew Castle head-banging territory?