I thought a 7 for Matt and Aliona's Quickstep was fair.

It looked too frantic to me and you could tell by their faces while they were dancing that it had gone wrong at one point.

However, Len should have lowered his score for Peter. A 6 would have sufficed.

Len always rates both Erin and Anton's traditional Ballroom dances (particularly Erin's) very highly, probably because it's closest to his own personal tastes of how he thinks the dances should be choreographed. Outside of the tango and a couple of week 1 waltzes, he hasn't gone below a 7 for her since series 1, which is pretty good given some of the duffers she's had.

That 7 for Matt and Aliona was only two higher than Bruno, Alesha and Len gave Ann ? Of course, I'm not suggesting that the judges have favourites. Scott ....cough ( Not Scott's fault though ! ).

I don't think Matt was undermarked. 7 was fair for that routine and his performance of it. I think it looks bad because Peter was overmarked.

That's it Tangerine_82, Matt's was better but it wasn't reflected in the marks so it looks odd.

I should think Len has probably forgotten more about dancing than Matt will ever know.

Looking at Michelle`s routines I would definitely say dancing in a pop group hasn`t given her an advantage

Len was rather cool about Matt's fabulous performance in the cha-cha. He said "Best Cha-Cha Of The Night, Well done!" I suppose this is a sort of praise but he did tend to "spit" the words out as if he resented having to say it. I really feel he is showing bias here. We shall see what happens in future rounds.

Yes, I'd agree with those saying that the issue isn't so much that Matt was undermarked as that Peter was overmarked. I thought the judges marks for Matt were about right when they were given to be honest, whereas I do think Peter was marked too highly.

Monkseal, that's interesting that Len never really goes below a 7 for Anton or Erin's ballroom. I did like Erin's choreography for Peter I must admit (it was one of those routines that I'd love to see someone else perform ) but though it's not going to make much difference in early rounds, I hope he doesn't keep penalising Matt for Aliona's choreography all the way through.

A sort of praise?? It's unqualified praise!

Yes, Matt looked very strained at a point during the performance - any advantage he gains from a gymnastics background is balanced by the advantage gained by actors like Scott, Patsy, Kara, Felicity, Tina, Pamela...

I've said elsewhere, "level of difficulty" doesn't seem to be taken into account. The wonderful Pamela had a much easier dance to negotiate than either Matt or Scott.

If Len scores lower than Craig you know something's wrong. That really jarred, but when Peter was given the same mark I nearly... um... resigned from Strictly

It's really bugging me, I wish Len could be put in stocks until he explains himself.

parthena

Matt's an actor - he did a degree in drama and acting.

That doesn't mean he is any good at it. I have a friend who did a drama (Performing Arts?) degree and she can't act at all.

Well I'd say quite a lot of the actors who've been on this show haven't been much cop at it. I mean, some of them were in HOLLYOAKS for chrissakes...

I take your point. But the tone with which it was uttered was not nice. He merely used words with no feeling.

[quote=Jan2555*GG*;44887132]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./QUOTE]

I think he said that was the last time he had danced - not the only time, on being asked if he does any dancing. I didn't get the impression he was trying to pretend that he has no dancing experience at all.

Maybe Len doesn't score Matt as much as the other's because he doesn't think he's as good? Isn't that possible? More than that, isn't that fair? Just because you think he's the best doesn't make it so. I don't mean to sound offensive but it really drives me crazy when people say 'Len doesn't praise my favourite enough, it's a conspiracy' without stopping to consider that maybe he doesn't score him as high because he's not as good as some of the others.

Not that I think this matters BUT, wasn't Matt trained by Lilia and Darren on Blue Peter to see if he could enter an amateur dancing competition and fool the judges and he did and it worked and he won?

Totally agree with the part in bold.

To be honest, looking back a couple of series, I think the judges are doing Matt a huge favor by underscoring him just slightly. The over scored couples haven't won at least in two seasons, the public will tend to side with those who are good but clearly not the judges pet.
In my opinion, Natalie is a better choreographer than Aliona, although I like Aliona much more.

Also, I am tired of hearing that the Rumba is more difficult than the quickstep. That is not necessarily true, for some the Rumba is going to be more difficult but for others the quick step is going to be impossible. the difference is whether you have a control over your body inch perfect or have an ability to learn complicated fast choreographies.

I don't know why people insist on trying to compare the two. I think latin and ballroom are both difficult and require talent and hard work and trying to compare them is like trying to compare The Godfather and Spinal Tap. Both are genius but they're entirely different.

Must have been because Matt was sweating and Peter wasn't.

I'm sure if Matt had danced like Peter, he wouldn't have got a seven - he'd have got a list of things to work on.

Maybe 7 is Len's lucky number and he thinks if he uses it a lot, he might win the lottery.

When he has ten numbers to choose from, its amazing what a high percentage of dancers are worth a seven.

Yes he would have because he's better than Peter and therefore they expect more from him. You can't have it both ways - either he's bad and they've overscored him so far or he's good and when he doesn't perform to the best of his ability he'll get criticised.