Originally Posted by rionia:
“I would like to say that I'm not a ballroom dancer, so can't judge the technicalities of the dances, but why are people surprised that Vince Cable was good? He's been doing ballroom dancing for years. I came across an article in the Independent back in 2005 where it said " Vince Cable is looking forward to the Liberal Democrat conference this year in Blackpool ...Mr Cable, 63, is a keen ballroom dancer and the Tower Ballroom, where Reginald Dixon used to play, has one of the best sprung floors in the country...."
It wouldn't have surprised me if Cable had done the Foxtrot before (does anyone know?)
Both Barrowman & Cable had advantages over the other contestants, but to say that Cable should have won because he was more of a novice than Barrowman is erroneous.
Yes, Barrowman has danced on stage, but is not, as far as I know, a trained ballroom dancer, and had never done the quick step before.
I can't say I noticed Barrowman being 'clumpy', but then I don't have a trained eye for such things. If he was, maybe it was because he had 2 pulled groin muscles and a sore right knee!.(he tweeted about it later, but said he was 'still smiling'). I don't know if the other contestants acquired injuries or not (it wouldn't surprise me if Fern had acquired a bruise or two!)
I'm glad John and Kristina won. They really seemed to be enjoying themselves on the show.”
“I would like to say that I'm not a ballroom dancer, so can't judge the technicalities of the dances, but why are people surprised that Vince Cable was good? He's been doing ballroom dancing for years. I came across an article in the Independent back in 2005 where it said " Vince Cable is looking forward to the Liberal Democrat conference this year in Blackpool ...Mr Cable, 63, is a keen ballroom dancer and the Tower Ballroom, where Reginald Dixon used to play, has one of the best sprung floors in the country...."
It wouldn't have surprised me if Cable had done the Foxtrot before (does anyone know?)
Both Barrowman & Cable had advantages over the other contestants, but to say that Cable should have won because he was more of a novice than Barrowman is erroneous.
Yes, Barrowman has danced on stage, but is not, as far as I know, a trained ballroom dancer, and had never done the quick step before.
I can't say I noticed Barrowman being 'clumpy', but then I don't have a trained eye for such things. If he was, maybe it was because he had 2 pulled groin muscles and a sore right knee!.(he tweeted about it later, but said he was 'still smiling'). I don't know if the other contestants acquired injuries or not (it wouldn't surprise me if Fern had acquired a bruise or two!)
I'm glad John and Kristina won. They really seemed to be enjoying themselves on the show.”
I also knew that Vince had done ballroom because they actually told us on the show.
However, I took it that he did it as a hobby and not as a profession which is why I was pleasantly surprised at how good he was. 
As I said in my earlier post I'm glad that Kristina won but, I was surprised at how clumpy John was, his injuries are probably the reason why but, I can only call it how I saw it and his text would seem to confirm it.
