Ann had ballet lessons as a child in Singapore (1956).

Wow! All that previous dance training and she still looks

Rearrange his face! That did make me laugh.

I took that face to be embarrassment rather than anger, given how the footage was him disco-dancing in a John Travolta-style white suit (if memory serves) in a very exuberant way during his salad days. I thought he was pretty good, it reminded me of the Bee Gees scene from Airplane! for some reason.

I take his disco-dancing from a decade ago to be less of an advantage than his general fitness and gymnastic background, but if we're going to start penalising people for being fit on this show, then no wonder we often get a winner who isn't the best dancer.

I like to see people learning on the show and would like to know what their starting point was. I'm not so much against previous experience as wanting to have an idea of how much they are learning.

Some celebs may have done quite a lot of dancing but don't seem to improve a lot and others do visibly improve on the show.

Austin and Ramps were examples of guys who seemed to have only done some social home-designed dancing, but were very quick at learning the SCD dances.

Its hard enough to get real characters on the show without excluding those who have danced a bit.

Yes, I thought Matt looked embarrassed when they showed the cringeworthy early dancing experience too. I certainly would have. Amazing how differently people can interpret the same thing.

As for a level playing field - how impossible is that to achieve? You would need to get people of roughly the same age, same background (i.e. no acting, or sporting experience either), same pleasability (a word I just invented) in terms of looks. Wouldn't it be boring.

If you have a natural talent learning must be easy, but no amount of training will help if you don't.

Quite right Bobajot! She's younger than me too, and I never, ever did ballroom dancing. My sister who's nine years older than me did, but I was definitely into Elvis and rock and roll, and wouldn't be seen dead doing a walz! I do wish they'd try to get these things right.

Michelle Williams being a case in point as someone who must have had extensive dance training of some nature within her career (and far more than the others, I would imagine) but moves around the room like Brendan is lugging around a 2 x 4.

I think it matters generally to the audiences. People from a music or acting (/assumed stage school) background tend to drop out earlier than their scores indicate, whereas people from a sports or presenting background (ie presumed no dance experience) tend to do better than their scores indicate they should.

The minute you get "actors" who went to drama school (like Scott & Jimi)...chances are they did some kind of movement/interpretation classes....is this dancing???

"Sports people" may still be quite fit (depending on when they retired) and might be expected to have some kind of stamina/physical control...is this an advantage???

"Singers" might have wiggled around a bit on stage...is that any training for dancing in hold with a partner????

[quote=Smokeychan1;45601643]no. I thought Len pointing out that Matt "must have dancing experience"

When did he say that ? on last ITT?
Ferney

Yet Tom won a couple of years ago with his jazz dance plastered all over you tube and Alesha the year before.

Perhaps what is happening is the viewers are becoming more polarised. Between those who like entertaining beginners and those who like some dancing ability.

I don't think it gave her any real advantage at all .There are others , Pamela included, with far more experience .

I've said it before and i'll say it again....it only makes people angry/annoyed when the celeb turns out to be a good dancer like Kara. I doubt Michelles previous dancing experience is mentioned much anymore

[quote=ferney;45609743]
Yes, when he and Craig were reviewing the training.

I think the idea of having absolute beginners would be awful. A show full of Shilts, Widdecombes and Daniels would not be fun at all. Having said that, Ive often hankered for a spin-off after the main show is over, showing the development of the celebs in their first week or two of training.

Sportspeople have the advantage of being used to putting in long, hard hours of training, but they actually have a disadvantage in that the muscle memory they will have built up playing rugby, cricket or football will be totally alien to that required for dancing. If anything it's a problem, having to unlearn what they've spent years learning. It must feel rather unnatural to some.

[quote=Smokeychan1;45614597]
I think that would be extremely interesting, especially as they seem to being a lot stricter these days about them all starting, at least with their actual pro, at the same time. It would really highlight the differing teaching styles of the pros.

You can be a natural - and if you are then that's helpful. But if you want to win then yes, having previous dance experience is going to help. You can always spot those who have had some sort of training.

I think it would be good if sometime during the series preferably at the beginning, it was made absolutely clear what experience people have. It might be of no advantage at all, that they have some experience! It should be up to the viewers, to weigh that up though, I think. I agree about natural talent. Some people are just naturally good dancers.

[quote=ferney;45609743]
[quote=Smokeychan1;45614597][quote=ferney;45609743]

Yes, when he and Craig were reviewing the training.

I think you will find it was when they were reviewing pams training Len said she must have had dance experience not Matt, even though he has Len didn't say it.