Is it just luck that Natalie happens to have the best two male celebrity dancers two years running or is she really that good?

Actually I was annoyed she got the "soap hunk" again. However, considering her track record on the other Strictly's and the way she seems to train her celebrities, I think she is quite good. Again though, she would have been less good if she had been landed with Paul.

well if she doesnt get jimmy crankie next yr , i will be fuming

I think she has had a lot to do with Scott's success.

She has been very lucky - really she should have been paired with Peter Shilton and Erin with Scott

Apparently Natalie was paired with a lot of duds on the Australian version, but she still did well overall. No offense to Erin, but I don't think Scott would have scored 39 in his jive if he'd been with her.

C&P'd from the showbiz thread:

Natalie is an amazing pro and her choreography is top class and it's not just talented guys she's been put with that makes her look good. From what I've seen she is an awesome supportive, partner and a clever choreographer. She's not lazy and doesn't give up.

Even when she was on Aus DWTS she went far with some real turkeys so it's not like it's all about the male celeb, it's a real partnership.

In all fairness, when the line up was announced quite a few people (including myself) expected Matt Baker to be best in terms of the males competing and then perhaps Jimi with Scott coming after these two. I certainly didn't expect Scott to be anywhere near as good as he has been. Therefore, it's hardly fair to say that Natalie or the producers knew she was going to get the best male dancer this year. Even the bookies showed that Matt and Jimi had better odds in terms of the male dancers. Also, when you look back at the scores from the beginning of the series, it is clear that Scott didn't get the highest marks out of the males and has improved his standing. Due to this, I believe it is down to Natalie as a choreographer and teacher doing an excellent job with him that has brought him up to the level he is and ensured he progressed and rose above Matt on the leaderboard.

I would like to see what Natalie can do with a no-hoper tbh

In all fairness she has had 2 amazing male celebrities to work with, first Ricky and now Scott

I would be interested to see how she would work with a Paul Daniels or a Craig Kelly or a Gary Rhodes

But no one knew Scott would be this good. He certainly wasn't bookies favourite when the series started.

A lot of credit to Natalie. She strikes me as a very talented teacher and choreographer.

And Scott is a hard worker.

Great team.

Natalie's a great teacher, works hard and gets good results. I know its been mentioned she's had a few dud's on the Aus version but I'd like to see what she can get out of a dud over here, I think she'd do a great job. I thought Scott would be a great dancer when the line up was announced and belived he and Natalie would have a great chance from the get go.

I think it is assured that Natalie is very talented and is obviously a very good teacher. To be fair I did not expect Scott to be this good.

She was never going to be paired with Paul Daniels because of the height issues.

She may have been lucky to have got boys with potential but, for me, she's the best of the pros now, a really good teacher and choreographer.

I know that! I was just using names of celebs that didnt know their left from their right as examples!

I agree. She also seems to be very passionate about dancing, which is appealing. Some of the other pros just don't seem to care very much.

Paul wasn't good, but he was better than I expected him to be. He is in his seventies after all. I found him quite endearing, which I know probably isn't a very popular opinion on here!

This.

I suppose she has been lucky and it would have been interesting to see if she could have got further with say Goldie but she also is a great teacher and dancer. She is not afraid of hard work and put so much into that Jive on sat she was bent over double at the end from the effort.

Absolutly agree with you there. You can see how emotional her love of dancing makes her.
Loved her with Ricky but I did not expect Scott to be that good I think that is down to Natalie's teaching and his hard work.

Great teamwork.

I'm sure she would have worked very well with Paul Daniels.

Who in advance could foretell the talent of Ricky and Scott?
Any number of soap actors have promised much but delivered little.

Natalie is a brilliant dancer and choreographer with a talent for drawing the very best from her partners; could a lesser pro do this equally as well?

Completely agree. You can never tell who will be good or not so good look at Joe last year he was bookies favourite before he actually danced.


agree I loved Natalie & Ricky dancing together and didn't expect Scott to be as good as he has been, he has been improving every week, has the right attitude and has the right partner for him that brings the best out of him and they have amazing teamwork.

As for Natalie getting the best partners she did replace Camilla who only had one dud in 6 series and that was in series 1 after that she had Roger Black, James Martin, Ray Fearon, Gethin Jones & Tom Chambers.

Natalie's done as well as anyone could have done with the partners she's had. It's pretty fair to say that it's unlikely anyone else would have done any better - whether they could have done as well is difficult to say.

It would have been interesting to see what Natalie could have done with someone like Matt or Jimi. Matt's performances have been very solid but bearing in mind where he started, he hasn't progressed quite as I expected him to (obviously there's still time). I wonder if Natalie might have been able to coax more out of him than Aliona has thus far. Likewise, Flavia seemed to have a good connection with Jimi but despite decent natural rhythm, he never quite seemed to correct basic flaws. Again, I wonder what Natalie might have done. I'm not saying that she would necessarily done any better than Aliona or Flavia but I like to speculate.

I don't particularly want to see Natalie with a no-hoper. Nobody can do anything like a decent job with someone like Paul Daniels or Craig Kelly - it wouldn't tell us much about Natalie as a teacher. Far more interesting to see her with someone with some potential but who's not an absolute natural like Phil Tufnell for example. That would really indicate how good her teaching/choreography is. However, I agree that it's not always possible to tell how good a celeb is going to be. Prior to the series, Scott wasn't being touted as a potential winner; he seemed to take people by surprise.

I agree, I don't want to see Natalie with a complete no-hoper, I think she has really brought the best out of the partners she's had who had potential, but also could've been terrible. I think her choreography is amazing and amongst the very strongest. I do think Aliona's is not strong enough to showcase Matt and this will hinder him getting as far as he could or becoming Champion.

Natalie takes a real bashing on here, but as others have said her passion and commitment to teaching her partners really show through.