No he didnt leave on rumba it was AS and either Salsa or Samba cant remember which but what I meant was it was his first below par week and he was gone.....mind you there was the dance off with Lisa but the public didnt vote him out of the danger zone.

Ahh right my mistake sorry

Ramp's Rumba (been told off about adding an "h") was dire and he managed to win the series, so it doesnt worry me in the slightest.

Mind you, Scott is only one of many favourites this year which may explain my lack of angst

Ah, but Ramps wasn't up against the tidal wave of voting for Ann Widdecombe!

Ian Waite : Denise Lewis then Zoe Ball
Lilia Kopylova : Aled Jones then Darren Gough then Matt Dawson (all in the top two males talent wise for their series)
Camilla Dallerup : Ray Fearon then Gethin Jones then Tom Chambers
James Jordan : Gabby Logan then Cherie Lunghi then Zoe Lucker and now Pamela Stephenson
Brendan Cole : Natasha Kaplinsky then Sarah Manners, Kelly Brook then Lisa Snowdon

Also in Vincent's first three series he got the best female dancer twice. As did Darren. In her first three series Erin also got the best male dancer twice.

It was ever thus.

Good point well made. Perhaps I just liked those pro-dancers and didn't mind them getting celebs with a bit of ability, whereas I find Natalie difficult to warm to, hence I noticed her "unfair" advantage!

I won't be at all surprised if they are top of the leaderboard again next week, but tonight was awful.

Tonight's choreography was all about Natalie.I think she has a real problem showcasing her celebs.

Completely agree, and perhaps that is why I've really had trouble warming to her.

Perhaps Scott asked her to make it easy for him this week. She must know she won't get away with her doing all the work.

The rumba is about showing off the female please remember. It's why many male celebs seem to suck at it, because it's an unbalanced dance.

But this was 95% her and 5% him looking like a pole. He had virtually no moves and nothing to do.

Exactly when they were with Tess Scott said the usual things the male celebs say that he did not want to do this dance etc and he found it so hard as it it is a slow dance etc.
I therefore think Natalie made it easy for him etc.
Also as others have said the Rumba is showing off the girl etc.

I loved Natalie's Rumba with Ricky and watching Scott's dance again I found it was OK not great but OK.

I am sure they will be back on form next week

She certainly did and out of five seasons she was never below quarter final - amazing teacher.

Both Matt Di Angelo and Colin Jackson performed very good rumbas

True, but they were the exception.

One mediocre dance doesn't a poor choreographer/teacher make.

All of the pros have 'off' moments with their choreography.

1. Usually in Rumba the woman has more moves than the man. The man's job is leading. Scott was leading Natalie through most of the moves. I was very impressed.

2. On SCD usually male celebs get even less steps because the dance is difficult for them, and if they move around too much their weakness becomes very apparent.

A good pro will try to hide his/her celebrity's weaknesses. Usually male celebrities can and will lead (in the case of poorer celebs, drag) their partners through all the moves. A female pro can't do that, specially not in Latin. So a natural solution to that is that the female pro will choreograph a routine where she has more moves, so that she can take away the attention from her celebrity's flaws.

That's what Natalie did this week. Scott admitted that he found Rumba hard, so Natalie reduced his role. If Natalie's role in that routine was as much as Scott's, the dance would've looked still and lackluster, much more so than it did tonight.

Agreed! Natalie is an exceptional teacher and choreographer. They have had a difficult week, which wasnt mentioned at all. I hope they can re-group and climb back to the top, where they belong.

I think they mentioned an injury on ITT. Perhaps he was still hurting and rather then banging on about it and milking a sympathy vote he did what he could, quietly. It would be especially painful in a slow dance when one has to sustain various positions.

Hmmm, all very true. But she does seem to choreograph for her rather than her partner, whether they have flaws or not. Last year she had Ricky, who was very capable, but she never (IMO) really gave him anything to reach his potential, and I cite their show dance as an example of that.

I don't know, may be I am just biased against Johnny-come-lately Aussies!

Ricky was clearly the best dancer last year but even so he had limited training time & I don't think we saw him reach his full potential because of that & don't think it's fair to blame Natalie at all.

I think you are wrong here as no one can deny that their QS was really good and pushed him. Also, (there was debate about his AS and the lift) but IMO both that and his FT pushed him too. I think in general Nat likes to push her partners to reach their potential and does everything she can to help them

Scotts arms ddin't look right, abit lack lustre imo, not sure how much time was spent on them but if he'd sorted those out i personally would've enjoyed it more.

My thoughts exactly Posy!.... all i was aware of in that dance was her over accenturated backward leaning posing, i can't stand the woman and was very happy when Craig gave them such a low score, shame for Scott, but was so pleased to see her taken down a peg or two and for the smile to be wiped off her face!........Oh... how nasty am i?, sorry couldn't resist sharing my thoughts!.....