You can sort of forgive her for that because she seemed to include plenty of content in Audley's other dances. The Jive was always going to be a nightmare, so I don't blame Nat for taking up as much time with the piano as possible! Similarly, I stuck up for Aliona's Jive because I thought Harry was in desperate need of showing some personality and her choreography allowed him to do that.

So I don't mind it as a one-off. But when a pro continuously neglects to include sufficient content, then it bugs me.

In some respects I feel like Aliona has been quite clever. She is putting together some spectacular numbers which will be remembered by the voters at the end of the show. In addition, they are getting some great scores because the technical parts of the dances have been practised so often they are near-perfect. High scores and vote-grabbing routines, what's wrong with that?

On the other hand we have Chelsee & Pasha. She has been criticised because her routines have sometimes lacked polish, or the technique is a little bit off. But her routines have had combined probably the least faffing about. She has a fraction of the training time available to Harry, so considering that she has so much more choreography to learn, it is no surprise that her technique may sometimes be lacking. But I would much rather have her dances, even with flaws, as they have much more dancing.

Amazed at the number of posts which purport to know the workings of Aliona's inner mind. She's a good pro dancer with original choreography ideas trying to do the best for her partner. Choreography is subjective so there's no point getting personal about it. I like her. To me she comes over as having a lovely, mischievous personality. Why on earth would she try to undermine her own chances? I think, too, it does come over that Len doesn't like her - though I don't know why. The whole show's dance content has dumbed down from earlier days. I'd like to see her win

To be fair to Natalie, who is one of the best for choreographing to show off her celeb, she had Audley.
And the Jive.
Not a good mix for a 90 seconds of dance joy.
In the circs, I thought the faffing was extremely restrained

I think Artem wasn't singled out on Saturday because most weeks in this series he has put in more choreography and this was an AS so more leeway.

Aliona however had choreographed the same way for 2 series now and the issue of her lack of dance steps has been raised over and over again- not just by Len.

If the other pros can adhere to the 'rules' why can't she?? People moaning about Anita being 'overmarked' should look again at the amount of actual tango performed by Harry and then by Anita- that is why Anita got reasonable marks.

I am not sure why Aliona feels she can blatently ignore the judges comments- the viewers don't have all the votes and its even more irritating that she has had two contestents with sound enough fan bases to keep them in above couples who are doing more dance content.

See what Karen says this week- did anyone listen to the red button??

I am sure La Hardy will have a bit to say on the subject tomorrow - didn't she make a point of saying no messing around with stairs - less of the halloween cliches and more dancing last tuesday

Most of the older pro's try and please Len but I think the "new" breed of pro are looking to get the votes.

I sometimes like Aliona but occasionally I have to agree she does appear quite smug which is off putting. I mean she had a decent celeb (again) so she has a reason to be smug but she needs to get more out of Harry as hes not really on my radar.

But I doubt she will win. I think Kristina is going to win- she is putting the effort into the choroegraphy and keeping it as basic dancing. And that is more likely to grab the voters because she is showing Jason off really well

Harry would have more chance of winning if he had Krissy or Erin as they make sure they put the content in

Yes! I posted exactly the same point on the previous page of this thread

I am disappointed because it is rare to see a male celebrity who can dance as well as Harry yet we don't get to see it

Let's not forget that Aliona also faffed about last week with all that stuff on the stairs so with so little dancing this week she really got up his nose

What's wrong with it is they are getting those high marks for very little relevant content - but not from Len who is quite rightly giving lower scores. The problem is with Alesha trying to compensate for Len's score, the overall score is high.


Me too.


I agree. As much as I love it, this isn't So You Think You Can Dance. On SCD relevant content counts.

Agree with all this and the quotes as well.

I think Harry could be great! However, it's unfair that some people have to learn all the technical steps and spend 1 1/2 minute dancing, whilst others can spend time faffing about (e.g. Harry). Alesha is not doing Harry any favours (with giving 10s), and neither is Aliona. I wish someone like Lilia was dancing with Harry.

If she does, good girl.

To a point, yes. But Aliona put together this Tango within the same week that it was announced on ITT that ballroom dances should only break hold for a maximum of 10 seconds.

Now I don't think that the pros are going to stick rigidly to that for a moment, and I doubt the judges are sitting there with stop watches either. But for Aliona to go and deliver a routine where it was closer to 10 seconds IN hold, it did look like she was sticking two fingers up to be honest.

I thought the judges (apart from Craig) were overly harsh last week about their waltz, but this week Aliona was just asking for criticism IMO.

It's fair because week after week she doesn't listen and bother to put in more content. The criticism is true week after week because she does the same thing week after week.

Interesteringly they are at the top of the training hours too.....so really they have no excuse to not produce a perfect technically difficult routine.

Chelsee and Pasha are producing the goods on a lot less hours.

In the final, isn't is public vote only with the judges' scores only as a guideline? Or am I getting confused with Dancing on Ice?

I'm not talking about whether it's a true criticism of Aliona, I'm talking about how it's not fair to mention it for one couple when they're giving theire comments, but when it comes to the other couple (I still can't remember who he said it about ) only mention it on the results section of the show, after the public have voted. If it's something that one pro can be criticised for, then he should bring it up for every pro that doesn't put enough content in. But he doesn't, seemingly.

The public votes and judges scores are equal until there is a tie ... at which point the placing in the public vote takes it.

A person who comes 4th with the judges and 7th with the public vote would lose out to a person who finishes 7th with the judges but 4th with the public, so there is a slight advantage to being more popular with the public than the judges, just in case!

Thanks, mindyann, but I know it's a combination of judges' scores and public vote up until the final, so I was asking only about the final. I seem to remember that is public vote only but, as I said, I could be confusing it with DOI.

That's not how I remember it. As I recall, Len criticised Artem's choreography only once - for his AS in Blackpool. And the reason was not specifically the lack of dance (there was plenty of spectacular dancing), but the lack of foxtrot in hold, of which there certainly was very little. I've seen that dance about, oh I dunno, a thousand times, and Kara dances her little heart out - just not in hold. So far, Aliona has had Harry posing, strutting and, this Saturday, murdering her (well, you can understand the temptation...), but the lad can dance and is not necessarily being given that opportunity. That, I think, is the difference.

But, as I've said before, Aliona is not the only one faffing abaht and it seems a shame to pick on her.

She does, however, faff about to extremes never reached by the others - even when they've got a hopeless celebrity! She has a great dancer to work with - she should put some effort into showing off his great dancing and not just use him as a vehicle to showcase herself and her choreography.

I'm sure her ideas are great, but this is SCD and it demands a different approach. If she didn't want to play by the rules she shouldn't have taken the job.

BIB: i think this is what is most irritating! Natalie this year is making the best of Audley but this does require faffing- Aliona has, again, got someone who can dance but faffs anyway- because she wants to!

Some of the other not so strong dancers are being less faffy and are picking up less points for trying to do the dance rather than faffing!

If you see what I mean...

I see and totally agree! I'd definitely vote for Harry if Aliona's routines contained more actual dancing. As it is I'm voting for jason because I love Kristina's routines and Audley because he seems so lovely and natalie is doing a great job under very difficult circumstances!

PS Aliona should have a look at the Favourite Couples poll. She and Harry are lying fourth which considering how good and what a good bloke he is - is a travesty. They should be wiping the floor with the competition.

I will have to have a look at that then- wonder if someone will point it out to her!!

Is this the no- Len week- she will have her fingers crossed!!