It would have needed to be worse than Peter's and Erin's from start to finish to deserve the same marks.

I liked both routines from Matt and Scott. Scott did look more relaxed, I could see the cogs turning in Matt's head and the look of concentration on his face. Thankfully, he remembered to smile and bless he looked relieved to get through it. Maybe Aliona over complicated things, if she's excited that she's got a good partner that's fair but I hope she doesn't overload him.

I was nervous watching him because I've tagged him as one to watch to see how he develops and how he meshes with Aliona. Also because his training footage wasn't encouraging at all. I'm not that keen on Natalie's choreography but tonight's QS was the first thing this year she's done that I really liked.

As for the marks Matt was better than Peter.

I wish she would stop doing this, if she isn't carefull she will end up messing things up for them both.

I thought Peter and Erin were badly overmarked, they should have had 24 at the most.

Matt was very good, but I thought the mistake was quite obvious too. I have thought Scott was ove3rmarked every week so far, but credit where credit's due, he did dance the best quickstep of the night in my opinion, I hated the start though - that's the second week running a brilliant routine has been spoilt by a naff start and end (last week it was Matt & Aliona's Foxtrot).

ooh you are so right. Scott is really not that good, and yet they fawn over him like he's some sort of sex god...yeah right.

I couldn't understand why Mat was pulled up for not pointing his feet but nothing was said to Scott, who had dreadful kicks

I agree that technically Scott isnt as good as Matt, however, Matt is a former Gymnast, and lets be honest that kind of core strength is going to help you in dance (Posture and positioning of the arms etc is also more importmant in gymnastics than it is in most sports - and if he did the floor, interpretation of music is also very important). Though i do agree this training doesnt mean that the person will be a great dancer, but it sure helps.

As for the Scott vs Matt point tonight. To me Matt has higher expectations put on him due to his background, and to be honest it did come over that he was really trying to keep up, rather than living the dance if that makes sense. Im also not always that convinced with Alionas choreography.

Scott to some extent will always have less expectations on him, as he doesnt have Matts background. So to be honest if Matt and Soctt produced exactly the same dance, Scott would probably get a slightly higher mark. With Scott he seems to be living the dance, really into it, and he seems in control (in a way that Matt didnt tonight). I also think that Natalie is also a great choreographer, who is amazing at actually interpretating the music, in a way that Aliona doesnt. Look at the salsa last week, scotts solo bit fitted really well with the music, and the words of the music at the time (the lyrics were saying about how great the boy was, when he was showing on his own what he could do). She used the mezzanine (sp?) as part of the dance, but ran down the stairs and on with the dance very quickly.

As for Alionas weird bits vs Natalies flaffing about. Alionas just seem to be put in for no reason, other than as a gimmick to look different, and add nothing to the dance or interpretation of the music. For me tonight, yes Natalie had a bit to much flaffing around at the start. However, it linked to the music, and also got over to the audience Scotts playful nature, so i can see why she did it and it comes over less gimmicky than Arionas bits.

...yes this is true but also just want to point out he did gymnastics up to about age 15 or so. He's now nearly 33!
Last edited by tvtv : 16-10-2010 at 22:27

I think it depends on whether you like the pro and their choreography style, I really dislike Natalie and quite like Aliona so I would reverse virtually everything you said!

BUT, I think Aliona and Natalie both have a problem in drawing the line in choreography between being challenging and being impossible. They both push their partners way too hard sometimes to the point where I think that the men forget to enjoy themselves because they're too busy learning complicated routines. They then get too uptight to relax.

This is where I think Erin and Flavia are far better partners, they know just where to push their partner to in order to get the best performance, but they don't go over the line.

Ola and Lilia could also win with far less able partners just because they know the importance of a good partnership where trust is built up and the audience can connect with them and enjoy their routines. The public don't want overly complicated routines sometimes, they just want to see the partnership grow and enjoy themselves.

It's why I think that Pamela and James may have a better chance of winning than Scott or Matt.

It also looks like Kara may have done some gymnastics from that cartwheel.

LOL I think she's stealing his moves!

At the end of the day its where they are on the leaderboard that matters and Matt was equal 3rd with Kara which is probably about right for me.

interesting what Len said though
Matt you are a good dancer
and
Scott you are becoming a good dancer

Flavia is a question mark in my mind at the moment. I do like her a lot and she's done some choreography I really like but she can be a bit hit and miss. At the moment with Jimi it seems to be mainly 'miss'.

But does Jimi seem to be having fun? That's my point, Flavia and Erin take a few weeks to settle their partners down and guage their ability and then start choreographing accordingly.

Natalie and Aliona - I feel like they have choreographed every dance before they even meet their partners and are determined to make them do as much of it as possible.

They are willing to let their partner fail to prove how well they can choreograph.

Surely that's because Matt's had the same score each time whereas Scott has edged up to where he is now. It doesn't mean Scott was worse than Matt tonight, it means Matt has been consistent and Scott has improved.

Although as a rule I don't expect anything Len says to have any consistency anyway.

Oh, I see what you mean.

Len does have a tendency to be spiteful for reasons best known to himself. He had a long spell a couple of series back when he really did have a grudge against Brendan. A bit of an old woman at times methinks. I think he is jealous.

Of Aliona?

Jealous of Matt because Len is no longer a young popular dancer himself.

I said on the M&A appreciation thread that I don't think the rules should have changed to allow for props/gimmicks. I'm afraid it will just end up with the pros putting more in to try and outdo each other at the expense of their celeb thinking it will catch our attention when all it will do is put the audience off.

They should know by now less is more, we are in series eight after all!!!

And I agree Matt was better than Peter, so deserved a better mark. I hate when the judges overmark it does put the audience off and not help the couples.

At risk of repeating myself, while Matt's gymnastics will give him an advantage in some things, male gymnasts do not do floor routines to music. Female gymnasts do routines to music that include dance elements but male gymnastics floor routines include no dance elements and are not set to music. Having watched the gymnasts at the Commonwealth Games recently, none of the male floor routines contained anything other than tumbles and strength elements. Matt's disco dancing experience may give him an advantage in terms of musicality, his gymnastics won't.

After preferring Matt for the past two weeks, I did think that Scott performed better tonight. I'm pretty sure Matt's music was faster and that was a hard routines he had to master, but Scott's wasn't exactly a walk in the park either and he looked far more comfortable with the quickstep than Matt did. It looked to me as though Matt's been reading/ listening to people saying that he's the front runner because of his previous experience and he's letting the stress, pressure and frustration get to him, so I'm hoping he'll be able to let it go in time for next week. Having said that, his dance was clearly of a much higher caliber than Peter's. I know Len's marking didn't hurt Matt, but it still made me raise my eyebrows because no matter how you judge it (technicality, difficulty, performance), I don't see how Peter could be said to have danced to the same level as Matt. Personally I'd have marked him below Jimi.

I'm a Matt fan but Scott was better to watch tonight. Matt's dance was harder, but it was too hard for him. Scott's was easier, but he did it all well. I know nothing technical about dancing, but as a viewer I want to see something entertaining, where the dancers look like they are enjoying themselves, and Matt looked stressed, whereas Scott looked relaxed.

Not sure where all the Natalie unpopularity stuff comes from either? I've not heard people saying anything negative about her. Aliona's not really been on my radar til this year though.

Why are people saying Matt has experience. What experience! He has not done gymnastics since aged 15 and is now 32 when on BBC Breakfast on Friday morning he said he does not dance but the last time he 'danced' was at his BiL's wedding four years ago and as we know you can't usually call something like that dancing, especially if a few drinks have been had by all.

If anyone has dance experience we should look at Michelle, she danced in Destiny's Child as did Alesha in Mis'teeq but no-one questioned her dancing when she took part and won the competition in fact they took great pains to explain that the style of dancing she did in the group gave her no advantage.

Matt also worked as a dancer (disco yes but still being paid to dance) and had some (not a lot but some) ballroom training with Darren and Lilia on Blue Peter, so that combined with the gymnastics is where the experience is coming from. To say he has only danced at weddings is less than truthful.