She mentioned again that she is not 'classically trained'. Does she think Anne Widdecombe is a star of the Bolshoi Ballet?

I think Michelle is going to have to get a really good score tonight or she is in danger of going home.....the only think that will save her is that there are a lot of dead wood to choose from at the moment.

No, but then no one had high expectations of Anne (not from a technical viewpoint anyway!), whereas people presumed Michelle would be competent just because she was part of a girl group.

That's the difference.

Against H&S no doubt!


I really like her and do think people have got the wrong impression of her from some of the VT clips. From what I have seen of her elsewhere, she's getting a rough ride on here.


Exactly.

It seems to me that Michelle is going to be eliminated for the the same reason Martina was last year i.e. she had a positive attitude to the show and didn't hide the fact that she was going to do her best to win - after all it is a competition.

She didn't go down the lines of -

a. I'm just here to have a good time
b. I'm just here to learn a new skill
c. I just love the show and am so thrilled to be here
d. I've never danced a step in my life, so I'm not going to win

etc., etc. etc.

No, like Martina she was honest and foolish enough to admit she was going to do her best to win.

I still blame Brendan for training her for three weeks and then letting her take part in the first show thinking her performance was good enough to get 8s. If her legs were bad enough for every judge to comment on, then Brendan is at fault. Inside and outside the training room they are both having a whale of a time and maybe he should be acting a bit more like her teacher and less like her new best friend.

No wonder the girl was down last week. She's trying to put it behind her, but is sounds to me like people on here are just not going to let that happen.

Very good post!

I confess I have not seen much of Michelle so far - somehow always missed her! So haven't really got an opinion.

I do totally agree with you though that she has not gone down any of the "acceptable" routes including false modesty! To be fair, I guess celebs don't always mean it as false modesty.

Great post Buddy. I wish people on here would give her more of a chance but I don't think that's going to happen.

Personally I like the bubbly hyper Michelle although I know others don't. But i do wonder if she can ever please some people - if she's hyper she's a diva and a loud brash American and if she is more subdued then she's a sulky madam. Girl can't win either way.

shes american, americans are born to win

she is though

Not in the Uk she isn't. I reckon if you asked 100 people over 40 who she was about 2 would know who she was!

Im not over 40, and I wouldn't have known who she was

uk isnt the whole world though and i did mean worldwide

I had no idea who she was.......just thought that she thought she was a lot better than she was, and seemed shocked at not being judged the best.
Over confidence is a dangerous trait in an English show.

I'm not sure you can say that she's more famous than Martina Hingis.

More famous for pop fans but not more famous in general.

I'd say confidence is a dangerous trait full stop.


I still think Martina is the most famous.

Not many people would know Kelly Rowland, but I've always thought she was the better singer of the three.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZPec6J33K8&ob=av2e

I was actually quite shocked to read this thread and the incredibly negative comments about Michelle. In the launch show, I thought she was delightfully bonkers and probably high on something (yup, 12 sugars in your coffee will do that) and she had that open, confident air that is very prevalent in the US but is viewed with discomfort by many Brits. But public bravado often masks insecurities, and her insecurities were painfully revealed in Michelle's reaction to the judges' criticism. Rather than thinking she'd got some kind of comeuppance, I felt genuinely sorry for her.

I think the VT in tonight's show did a lot to undo any damage caused by this perception, though - it reminded us that she is a stranger in a strange land, far from her family and friends. Give the girl a break!

As for the dancing, I think people are right who comment that she has the wrong body shape for many ballroom and latin dances. She can't help having long legs, but she can learn to use them to her advantage and I hope Brendan will teach her how to do that. She really wasn't THAT bad, and her foxtrot was a darned sight better than her cha-cha, so I hope the British voting public give her a chance - she doesn't deserve to go home early.

I've thought this from the start, what was it Len said, " a fatal combination of long legs, short skirt and bad technique"?

I thought that we've been seening far too much footage of those two having a good time, but very little training, and then we had that terrible routine, with such poor cha cha technique. Where was Brendan ? what did he do in the three weeks that he had to get her into some kind of shape? not very much i'm thinking.

I've never seen that guy so relaxed in training, and my only thought was that in his mind she'd be able to give an Alesha type performance ( because i think that's what he was aiming for) without much effort, forgetting that Matt and Alesha put in 10 hours a week in order to get the results that they did.

I'm really not expecting them to hang around very long at all.

The judges seem to have it in for her, I don't know why (possibly a Brendan backlash?). For that reason alone I hope she stays in.

Sugary coffee! Yeah, that totally explains it.

I've been to a concert of theirs, crowd were blown away by Michelle's singing as we'd never really heard it before. Great Gospel voice.

Haha!

Really? I don't think that at all. I think they were being judges and - er - judging? Should they sugar the pill just because Brendan is building her up to much and she used to sing in a band that most people over 40 have never heard of?

I agree that Michelle seemed wounded in week 1 and - to me - quite guarded on ITT and obviously wanted to avoid going back over the judges' comments. I admit I was surprised, because I assumed that there would be continual feedback and criticism in her field of work, but perhaps her compatriots deliver feedback in a different manner?

I do feel sorry for her losing 12 sugars, though. Forget the judges' comments - a world without sugar is would make me cry!

Brendan must realise she is not that good, after keeping her sat on that bench for a while, gets up does a few steps and then she goes back on the bench. Thats probably where he should have left her

Well I meant that the judges were at least positive with their comments to the other dancers, even the not so good ones. there were very little positives in what they said to Michelle, it was mostly negative. Brendan had a point.

She is starting to come across as a sour puss though and definately needs to lighten up a bit.