Nay for me - I think the free for all approach tends to produce routines better suited to other dance shows.

For me, the best ones are those like Tom and Camilla's which was still based mostly on a ballroom approach. Maybe if that was part of the brief, rather than laying down too many rules, although if the public is deciding the whole outcome it might not matter to many voters, perhaps most voters don't mind the freeform routines.

I thought there was some merit in James' approach of doing a medley of sequences from dances he and Pamela had done during the series, but to have that as a set approach might be too restricting.

Yes. But they shouldn't be scored and they should come last. And they should be BETTER. Blinkin' Karen started all this tricks-and-nothing-else malarkey with Mark Ramprakash.

Tom's showdance was super. As was Zoe's. As even was Darren Gough's, which included lifts, disco stuff AND recognisable sequences from his dances over the series.

Nay and thrice I say Nay

I do not want to see anybody breaking his/her back. That can be left to gladiators in the colosseum.

Even Alesha said her showdance was high risk.

Yay! - but wth a bit of a rethink - they don't have to look as if they're auditioning as stunt men! Maybe they could go down the contemporary dance route, as they're allowed to break the rules? (Len wouldn't like it!)

Yes. But they shouldn't be scored and they should come last. [/quote]
Definitely agree.

Yay. The showdances have always been a highlight (except this year). They fell flat this year but that's no good reason to scrap them.

I agree they should be the last dance but only if they are good I have a feeling that the producers saw the showdances this year and thought it would be better to get them on and out of the way. Imagine if we had waited in anticipation all through the show for what we thought would be the best the couples had to give

I am an old fuddy duddy and like traditional dances so don't want anything that can be described as 'contemporary'. Not that is style is bad, far from it, but on SCD it would be a ticket for leotards, horrible gymnastic lifts and ugly postions.

Yay.... BUT

Maybe they should have something like a rule of 50% Ballroom or Latin dancing and 50% contemporary-freestyle so that we're not just watching 90% acrobatics. Or, maybe not a strict rule but a reccomendation to put in more 'dance' content rather than gymastic/circus tricks.

Also, the dances that haven't been danced yet, like Kara's Waltz, Matts Paso and Pam's A-Tango should be danced first, and then the repeated dances next, with the showdances last (as some others have alluded to).

not to mention the asymmetric bars, the beam, the pommel, the wooden horse, the parallel bars, the unicycle, the dry ice......

My preference would be to keep the AS for the showdance place, maybe be with a slight loosening of the Strictly AS rules (which are not classic AS rules anyway).

(I don't think Karen is exclusively to blame for the physically challenging showdances, if at all - she was correctly anticipating what she'd face from rugby boy Matt Dawson and tiny Lillia.)

Yes, but they should be the absolute final dance and they should NOT be marked.

Another 'yay' here. Although this year's efforts were eminently forgettable I don't think the showdances should be dropped just because one of this year's pro's played it ultra safe and the other two went more for gymnastics than dancing.

Yay, but I believe very few have been memorable because most go down the tricksy path. When you think of some of the great dancers who've been in the final, very few stand out. I would say Darren Gough, Mark Ramps and Tom Chambers are the only ones.

Maybe they could have a choice of Charleston, AS or Argentine Tango for the showdance, all of which allow for lifts and "showing off" but actually have some structure to them?