For the umpteenth week in a row, Harry and Aliona have been on the receiving end of Len's wrath regarding the level of 'faffing about' in Aliona's choreography. This week being a massive step up from last week with hardly any tango in their tango (at least their waltz had quite a lot of waltzing).

Unless Aliona is completely thick, she must have known that Len would disapprove of their routine this week which makes me wonder whether it has got to the stage where she is now trying to wind him up on purpose.

She is not interested in his opinion because she thinks he is too old-fashioned; hence she does not care what he thinks - therefore, she is ignoring him. This is not a deliberate attemot to wind him up, but it has that effect.

Whether or not she is ignoring Len, she always looks so smug.

She wants to be runner-up again.
In the meantime she'll just go for spectacular routines to whore for public votes.

I'm now beginning to feel like Aliona's being picked on!

It looked like there was more content in her Tango than there was Foxtrot in Artem's American Smooth (and no less than was in his Broadway themed Tango)

And last week, there was probably more Waltz in her dance than there was Viennese Waltz in Artem's.

But whilst one is always criticised, the other is praised for their creativity.

Personally, I'd like to see both up the content level in their routines, because at the moment it's very much style over substance.

I think she thinks that the viewers don't like to see actual dance steps, and prefer to see the fancy stuff, so knows that Len won't like it but doesn't mind as she thinks the viewers will...and generally, I think she's wrong..

well according to the (constantly ignored) strictly rules, the tango should only have 10 seconds out of hold, whereas the american smooth should have 40% in hold and 60% out of hold.

taking all that into account, i think both dances were severley lacking in content

Agree Sid - there was definitely more tango in her routine than Artem's American Smooth. And who ever knows what Len is going to come out with when he seems strict about the 'rules' for some couples and then ignores them and says never mind you did your best for others? I don't think Aliona could try to wind him up - how would she know what to do!

Part of me is wondering if she's being quite clever - at least now, Harry is being noticed. He came across as talented but pretty boring in the first few shows. Now he's quite the little rebel.

She doesnt care what Len thinks because she is more interested in the 'story' of the dance than the actual dance. I think she has been slightly less bonkers than she was with Matt (so far) I think but that might be because I like Harry more than Matt but we seem to have had less tricks and props....Time will tell if she does another completely barmy AS or have sexual gyrations in the Salsa.....obviously she asked Harry if he could do cartwheels and he said NO !!!.

But on a more serious note I do think that something went on last series with Aliona that we dont know about......There seemed to be a very sudden cooling towards her and Matt from the judges and then in the final there was a noticable coolness in the Tessanine towards them ....have no idea what went on but whatever it was Len is holding a bit of a grudge.....Aliona needs to realise that she has a good dancer who has got the time to train....he will have a natural fanbase so she just needs to take a leaf out of Kristina's book....do routines that please the judges AND the audience...it cant be that hard can it .

It's getting ridiculous all these comments about "she's so smug" and "she doesn't care" etc.

As for the "she wants to come second again"

does anybody believe any dances in the final would stopped the Kara and artem Lovebird train?, no-one else was winning that series.
(Her samba was the dance of that series IMHO)

Watching the Red button thing from last week, Karen Hardy said she's be disappointed if Harry's Waltz didn't get at least one 10

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00lbln2,

I take it she doesn't have a clue either?

but wait she's one the professionals from when it was about the dancing, before it became all americanised, she should be with Len!

confusing isn't it?

I think she just does what she likes, not bothering about the actual. dance. With Aliona & Harry it is hard to tell what the dance is. To me it is all about her & I do find her very smug.
As for Alesha giving 10's she is pathetic - what does she know about dancing apart from competing?

Any half decent showdance in last year's final would have derailed the Kara and Artem lovetrain. Kara made so many mistakes in her showdance she was there for the taking.

However, I don't think it is confusing. There was virtually no tango in this week's routine. It was over half way through the time before they even started and when they did they didn't dance for very long. She must have realised that Len would have a go at them for that, especially after last week when he had a go over the much shorter detour to the stairs (which I suspect she would have got away with if it had been at the beginning or the end). She either didn't realise (in which case she is stupid), or did realise and did it on purpose or just doesn't really care (in which case she is playing a risky game).

Although I am not a fan of Aliona's choreography (or her dancing, come to that), I do think it's unfair to single her out for comment and criticism, when she is hardly the only pro dancer to ignore the rule-book and play it for the public.

If you compare virtually any of this week's dances with just about any show in the first seven series, the difference is very marked. It's pretty clear to me that this is a production decision to emphasise the 'entertainment' aspect of the show, not the 'dancing' element. And the judges' disapproval of that, in particular Len's, is just part of the pantomime to engender a bit of controversy, a few column inches in the papers and, they hope, more viewers. Call me a cynic, but the inconsistent attitude of the judges can only be ascribed to that.

Whether we, as individuals, like a routine or not is just a matter of taste. I actually liked Harry & Aliona's tango more than I thought I would, but then I liked the bonkers AS that she choreographed for Matt in the last series more than I liked that bloody samba that everybody else raves about, so what do I know?

If you look back through the series Camilla, Lilia and Ian were masters at combining tradition with crowd pleasing choroegraphy. And they didn't annoy the judges as a result. If Aliona wants to annoy the judges let her get on with it because at the end of the day she will end up ruining the chances of her celeb partner as she fails to listen

Len is too old fashioned for the show.

that is a bit unfair - he knows his stuff on ballroom and latin and is trying to make sure standards are maintained - the majority of the pros actually do listen to what he says - it is just one or two who thumb their noses at him

I know Len can be a bit old fashionned but some people have to realize here that its not only Len who gave the same remarks to Aliona:
Karen, Ian, Craig had more or less being saying the same thing to Aliona but she still doesnt want to listen.
I still remember Aliona first dance in this show which was a tango with Rav;3 years in the making and she is still not listening.

Why? For wanting to see more recognised dance steps in a dancing show?

If so, ex pros such as Karen, Camilla and Nicole Cutler are old fashioned too. Because they say similar things in their blogs.

And anyway, why do we always view the term "old fashioned" negatively? I loved watching the pros American Smooth tonight. It was pure Ballroom dancing at its best. Give me that over the current gimmicky stuff anyday.

completely agree sid

I agree with everything Sid has posted on this thread. Firstly, that Aliona is not the only culprit. Artem (although I enjoyed his routine) and some others have also lowered the content this year, whereas other pros (e.g. Robin and Pasha) have steadfastly kept to a high level of content.Secondly, Len's comments are backed up by other respected dancers, including world class dancers Karen and Nicole in her blog.

For those who say Len is old fashioned, well I don't know what is old fashioned about expecting a tango to have more than a bar of tango steps in it (or was it 2 bars)? For those who want a more freestyle form of dancing, I would argue that is not what Strictly was originally designed to be. It was about learning to perform a particular dance, not to wing it with some acting, props etc. The entertainment factor comes from seeing whether celebs can acquire those skills in an intensive learning environment. If it is just about delivering fun and flashy routines we can look on youtube or any cabaret show for those.

It makes the playing field uneven, because people are criticising some of the other celebs for the quality of their dancing, but it is much more difficult to do a whole routine with recognised steps. If the steps are not recognised, or not even steps, just a bit of acting, then who will know when the celeb goes wrong.

Maybe not deliberately, but Pee'ing Len off is a bonus!

Think Len particularly can see when a professional is choreographing to hide celebrity ability issues and accepts this where warranted.

Perhaps this is why Holly & Artem got away lightly with their AS (which I thought was VW based) where last year he complained about lack of in-hold with Kara & Artem.

Aliona is apparently leaving the show to write a best seller book called 101 Ways to Piss Len Goodman Off!

She doesn’t care about his opinion. She thinks the faffing about looks good and the public love it. It appears more cheesy than appealing to me but she has her mind made up that she knows best. I don’t think she lacks ambition however as if she did she wouldn’t be abandoning the idea of teaching her celeb to dance the various dances and be concentrating on just putting on show performances if she wasn't determined to win the public over.