I'm not an expert at dancing so have this question for those of you who are:
Putting the obvious differences in their dancing abilities aside, was there any difference in the actual choreography of the 2 jives? Michelles jive was ripped apart for being more about the time warp but nobody (except Karen briefly on ITT) mentionned that Matts was full of Austin Powers "moves".

Interesting question Mushypeas.. i had forgotten about Michelle's jives. I would also be interested to hear what the dance experts say.

Neither of them were proper jives, and they were both overmarked by a considerable margin IMO. The actual jive content in Matt's jive wasn't even performed well.

Yes, Matt's didn't have any more content than Michelle's did and like her, he didn't really perform the small jive sections well either. He was overscored for it and so was she if I remember right. I have no idea why it wasn't mentioned to Matt because Len made a big point of mentioning it to Michelle but really, does Len ever do anything consistently? What pisses him off one week next week entertains him, so I've given up looking for reason in his comments and scoring.

He spent at least half the dance pretending to be Austin Powers and did very little jiving, Aliona had however learnt from Brendan's mistake and spread out the jiving a little more evenly through the dance.

Agree with Tangerine about Len though, it's basically a lottery as to what he'll be grumpy about on a week to week basis.

The problem I have with Matt's routine is that it will be remembered more for the opening backflip than for any Jive.

Once again, his acrobatics become the focal point of the dance, when they shouldn't be.

No - I remember that routine for the neon red colour of his costume and the strange Austin Powers moves (heck it was a movie-themed night, or had you forgotten?) and basically I had forgotten the disembarkment from the judge's desk.

Actually, Karen Hardy, who was critical about the lack of jive content (source of blame: Aliona), praised Matt for doing the more difficult aspects of the jive when he actually did attempt it. He was a little out of time towards the end, but that's all.

Once again, your bias against Matt is very telling.

And before you crucify me, I am a Kara supporter.

That was the point. If he'd been given a theme such as Ghost, it was very easy to interpret, just do a romantic viennese waltz. His was much more tricky.

And it wasnt even as thrilling as I had read it would be. I thought he was supposed to be somersaulting over the staircase


I think Pam's over hamming shows that emulating lovers seperated by death isnt actually that easy to interpret. I wouldnt go so far to say the Anton and Ann did a better job with the same theme, but it was more enjoyable to watch

Matt may be able to make tables from old bits of wood, but he obviously can't multi-task. One week he does the dancing with no performance, the next the performance and no dancing. Let's hope he can manage both come final night

Personally, I thought that Michelle's had more jive content but with either dance, the content was down to the choreographer.

I think there was quite a lot of comment on the forum on Saturday about Matt's jive having very little jive content in it.....the difference is though none of the judges said so. Len is a hypocrite.

I don't like Matt's dancing in general because it lacks the wow factor for me.

He certainly sold his jive well, but he lost timing in the actual jive sections and his footwork wasn't very sharp.

I don't love Scott either, but a few of his dances have been great. Matt probably has the potential to do a great dance, but I think Aliona's choreography is really letting him down. I wish she wouldn't make everything so complicated.

I think the judges got slack for the marks they gave to scott and matt the week before so had to be nice to matt.

I think persoanlly he did the best of staying in character for the movie week, however I didnt like it.

Themes don't work. They're stupid. They lead to ridiculous routines being shoehorned into ridiculous music choices. Themes suck gigantic arse. Stop it stop it stop it stop it.

By the way, I don't like themes.

Add to that the fact that Scott had done his paso already and was already highly (not saying over mark) mark, so Matt's score had to go in line. I personally got the impression that they were fairly generous last week with scores and comments. A perfect 40 with a stumble in it?

Judges need shot........their marking is making the show a laughing stock...more than Ann ever could...

Looking forward to hearing Matts take on the jive - I suspect something went horribly wrong.

I like Matt but did not rate that jive.However he kept going , like Scott - hence the over marking. The injustice of the previous week probably protected him.

Same with Kara's Salsa. When has anyone commented on anything other than the stunts?

I've found them beyond irritating this year, Halloween definitely ruined the ATs and I actually think Matt would have had a good chance of doing a decent jive if he hadn't been given it in theme week.

yeh me too. I like matt as well but I watched that "jive" with increasing horror fully expecting it to receive pasting for not containing any jive content. Was gobsmacked at the scores

All right it is mostly remembered for the cartwheel trick at the end - because it was AMAZING! However, as I remember it anyway, Kara's salsa did contain a lot of salsa content in between the wow moments which made the whole performance hang together as a dance for me.

Matt's jive went: somersault, Austin Powers stuff, Austin Powers stuff, Austin Powers stuff, jive kicks n flicks, Austin Powers stuff, Austin Powers stuff, jive kicks etc but went off time, Austin Powers stuff, Austin Powers stuff.

The jivey bits looked deliberately shoe-horned in as an afterthought. And there's lots more to jive than kicks n flicks.

Don't get me wrong, Matt was brilliant at the Austin Powers stuff, but if they want to get higher judges marks Aliona's going to have to up the dance content.

I think the reason the judges glossed over this was because, as Len said 'This week is all about getting the right people through to the semi-final' (or to that effect), i.e. getting shot of Ann. They didn't want to risk highlighting weaknesses in any of the other performances. The scores showed it though.

I don't regard them in the same way Cami.

The tricks in Kara's Salsa seemed to tie in with the routine better - and there was plenty of Salsa content.

I feel like Aliona is forcing Matt's gymnastics moves into routines where they don't belong.

If Matt's a hopeless dancer, then I can see why Aliona would add so much gymnastics stuff in the routine. But Matt is so obviously a natural dancer so there is absolutely no excuse, except she's trying in her own twisted way to 'please the audience' for their votes.

I am VERY disappointed with Aliona. In the beginning of the series, I hated her choreography largely because of her previous pairing with Rav, but this year, with the exception of the Charleston and Samba (don't mind the flip in the end), I find she's just trying to show how unusual she can be with the choreography at the expense of allowing Matt to just really dance the ballroom/latin routines properly or more classically.

You've summed up Matt's 'jive' perfectly!