I think last night's marking was all over the show generally but I suppose my opinion is subjective.
I thought Rory danced more salsa moves than most/all of the others but Craig slammed it.
I actually thought Harry's foxtrot was better than Jason's (too much faffing for me) but Len only gave it a 6 (Alesha's 9 for Jason - ludicrous!).
Anita was overmarked generally but she was easily 2 marks better than Nancy who did hardly any dancing at all.
I thought the best dance by a country mile was Robbie's but he didn't score nearly as well as Jason.
The scoring (with the exception of Craig) leaves very little room to reflect the improvement we hope will be seen over the next few weeks.

Lots of them were wayyyyyy overmarked though

Both Mrs G and myself both commented "shouldn't her hips move as it's Latin?" and were quite surprised at the marks. Perhaps we had inadvertenly switched channels for 90 seconds.

I'm not sure she moved between her knees and shoulders. There was a whole section I think was supposed to be shimmies - didn't work. There was another section where she seemed to move from judge to judge, but bugger all happened. This was one of the worst for me of the night, and got an easy 10-12 points more than it was worth.

perdiedumpling, you are definitely wrong! And you think that it deserved 16-18 points, then you are off your bloomin' 'nana! She had movement between her knees and shoulders though not as much hip-action as was possible, the shimmies section in the beginning was a good entrance to the performance, there was ample use of Salsa 'armography' if you like and most was fluid and good of movement, bar the slip-up which was mere seconds. In a dance, you try to capture the audience and the judges, and the section you refer to with the judges was very good and endearing, this is not a professional dancer competition, it's a novice learning competition. This is week 2, and that sort of thing is allowed, the dancers are not under contract to create 1.30 seconds of the hardest Salsa steps that I attempt and the like. Trust me I know, and 16-18 was not the score you'd ever see for that Salsa. I'd definitely agree with the judges as it was an adequate atmospheric Salsa with ample Salsa moves. Chelsee's was good also, but not worthy of an 8, because as Len says she is similar to Patsy Kensit of 2010 in that she wants to get it over, speeds up and loses timing and makes it all a bit too hectic. Salsa is a full-on dance, but you need to find a medium of both, and she failed in my opinion. Both these ladies Salsa's were deserving of their scores...this I know, and again perdiedumpling, you are 100 percent wrong. 16-18, no way. Refer, to John Sargeant's Samba (of a similar grouping) in season 6, which scored 16 of 40 and then tell me if you believe this is worth near the same!

Overmarked for me. On top of which she looked a terrible fright. And I'm already mightily sick of that pinch on the chin she gives Robin in the intro.

She wasn't as good as the judges marks would imply. She danced as if she'd just got off a horse, and looked just as ridiculous in that awful get up she had on.

Well, for me there was only dancing in about half of the routine - that section in front of the judges she barely moved and really not endearing (unless the cameras didn't show it), and then Robin carried her to the steps. Also, the dancing that there was was so stiff. Full-on in the face, but nowhere else.

OK, I may have been a bit harsh, but it was low 20s and no better than that. Also, judging the scores by previous series, while tempting, doesn't really work. But you can compare within a series. Anita got 28 last week, which was a little harsh for a lovely waltz. She got the same this week. Still think the two dances were comparable?

That dress and the thing in her hair made her look like one of the Ugly Sisters ! Her dancing last night was a bit wooden. I think the BBC want people to see her as the new Pamela and want an old person to do well, as do I. Maybe she can end up as a good dancer, time will tell...

I think Craig gave a 7 because Robin's Anita's partner.

I remember Craig made some nice comments about Robin's hunkiness last year...

Anita was very brave to wear that costume, lets hope they look after her properly next week.

Regarding Anitas marks; I thought the judges made clear that she was marked mainly for the energy, intensity and performance. She made a mistake or two which threw her timing off I think, the judges accepted that it was off and not as good as it could have been.

There were mistakes, and she seemed to just about start her hip action, but then lost it. But I doubt few would deny that she didn't perform it with gusto.

I do agree about the costume though. At the VERY least they should NOT have put polka dots in and used a complimentary colour scheme. I get they were trying to go for the 'fun' look, but it was distracting.

As for Pamela, she got a rough deal on this forum last year IMO, with people reading whatever they wanted into every little gesture she made, and used it to slate her to pieces. I actually enjoyed her dancing, and obviously, so did the public. I can understand why some people may not have warmed to her personality, but the vitriol reached crazy levels – it was a DS lynching for no other reason than not liking her. If I don't like someone, I generally don't waste my energy even thinking about them, let alone discussing them. But the popular opinion in these forums do often seem to be out of sync with what actually happens.

Anyway, Anita is nothing like Pamela. The only (superficial) similarity in terms of Strictly is that they are both 'women of a certain age' and seem to be pretty good at dancing.

I thought her dance this week was slow and awkward and was shocked to see her get 7s for it.


I thought she was lacking all three: energy, intensity and performance.

I think she is the new pamela but even Pamela was a better dancer(I think).

What made me laugh was Craig's description of Bonnie Langford being chased by a dalmation!

I find Anita hard to look at, particularly in training. Think she looks more like a scarecrow, at least Pamela made an effort with style and make up, her over confidence I couldn't take. I actually think Anita looks an awful lot better after make up etc, but I still don't enjoy her performances

I'd agree with an awful ot of this.

I have to say that I don't notice the brand of venom Pamela and now Anita have been subject to directed at male contestants of a similar age.

I also think Anita is far more natural than any of the surgically and/or artificially enhanced horrors who also feature in this year's line-up ... so she appears in training without make-up? Wow.

However, I do think wardrobe should be seriously taken to task for they put her and Robin in ...

Agree with your original post. She went wrong early in the dance and at the end and the dancing/gesturing in front of the judges was laughable. You may have exaggerated the over scoring, but the point made was correct.