It is no Len week - Goodness knows what she is planning for whatever dance she is supposed to be doing with Harry

Or she might be completely controversial and toe the line - actually put technical content in the routhine

No, you are right memmh - in the final it's only the public vote that counts. I wonder if Aliona and Harry will get to the final? It would be awful if they didn't make the final - hope they are not the shock exit this year.

I'd love to know how the viewers are voting for Aliona and Harry, so we'd know a bit more about what importance the viewers give to technical content.

so you havent been able to tell what dances they have been performing for the last 4 weeks?

Hate to break it to you but Digital Spy does not represent the majority of the British public.

Plus I find it stange how people don't even know Aliona but seem to know how her mind works.

Funnily enough Monty D, I did know that!

However, it does represent a cross section of pretty commited SCD watchers and if you followed the favourites poll last year it was extremely accurate as to the final positions of all the couples.

With everything Aliona and Harry have got going for them they should be romping away in this poll - and they're not. Its Chelsee and Pasha who also have attractive personalities, but actually produce a tango when required rather than a "look at me - Aliona showdance" that are streaks ahead.

I think Aliona is a fool if she doesn't at least think about it if she wants to win the competition. This, of course, may not be her objective.

Tinselgirl is right. The forumites always call the result correctly. We ARE representative of the viewers as a whole. And Harry and that woman won't win unless a lot changes. Frankly I don't want them to. And why not?

I never get to see him properly DANCE! Thanks to that woman.

I agree.I think that people might think that our "polls" do not matter but they had been pretty indicative in the past of how couples can perform at latter stages.And I also dont want them to win so she should continue to do whatever she does with the choreography .

I know you hate her but is there any reason to call her "that woman"

.
Len forgives mistakes and choreography when it suits him. He's vindictive and petulant enough to keep docking Aliona and Harry's points until they are out of the competition.

I think where the polls are out of sync with the viewing public is with celebs like John, Ann and Nancy.

These are the celebs that buck the trend, but once you take them out of the picture, the DS polls are pretty accurate.

Taking into account they are training for more hours than the others and Harry's potential as a dancer, I think they should be ahead of the others.

I will hold my hand up and admit that for the first time ever, this week I voted for them as my least favourite couple. Usually I would vote for the worst dancer, but Aliona's choreography is annoying me now.

I do agree that more content was needed and this is coming from a fan of Harry and Aliona.

But if her objective is not to win that what is it? If she just wanted to show off then she could of danced all by herself and leave Harry just sitting in the chair.

Which is almost what she is doing! If she does want to win - and I think Harry would be a deserving champion even at this early stage - then why doesn't she just choreograph a recognisable ballroom/latin dance? I just think its such a shame for Harry and a waste of his dance ability.

Again its a matter of perception.

Some describe Harry as a great dancer, but he has no experience of being taught to dance except one week with Ola and 6 weeks with Aliona and in that time he has had to learn 5 dances so far.

Every Sunday he turns up with hardly a clue of how to do the next dance and by Saturday he is dancing very well and what he has done of the dance in the last two weeks has been technically very good - enough to have Karen and Len saying it is 10 standard.

They are training longer than any other couple and in the Waltz for example, Harry said he only just managed to get it all right in time for Saturday.

I liked the old days when you used to get 70% or more of dance content and even with the props etc. my preference would be that they still operated on the old system. The producer however has changed the system.

The 10 seconds break of hold rule as far as I am aware, means you can break hold for 10 seconds and then go back into hold. ie. it has nothing to do with the time taken before going into hold or the time from coming out of hold to the end of the dance.

A small correction but Harry had to learn 6 dances in those 7 weeks.

Im a Harry and Aliona supporter. Im a McFly fan and love Harry to bits.
Like a lot of people of my generation I kind of feel like I have grown up along with the McFly boys and hold a huge amount of affection for them. Just lovely lovely down to earth guys one and all.

I wanted him to do well but I never ever thought for one second that he would be as brilliant as he is proving to be. To have Len Goodman describe him as one of the best ballroom dancers he has ever seen so early on in the competition is amazing. And an awful lot of the credit has to go to Aliona who has taught him incredibly well and for that I am over the moon
No I don't think she is trying to piss Len of deliberately. But there may be a bit of stubbornness on the side of both parties, with poor Harry, the one who this should be about, caught in the middle unable to really do anything about it.
Other than do what he has been doing and working his arse of and delivering every single Saturday night. I have yet to see Harry give anything less than 100% he may well share Len's frustrations but if so I think he is too much of a gentleman and professional to ever let that show. He just gets on with it.
That being said it may well be that he understands the way Aliona choreographs and is perfectly happy with it. Maybe its the fan in me, but I want Harry to enjoy every second he is in Strictly, not get stressed out and tired and feel like he is running into the wind and being overwhelmed by being given too much to do (something I fear for Chelsee as much as I love her and Pasha)
Im not a fan of the throw everything but the kitchen sink into a routine regardless of how much experience or time your partner has to learn it.
My take on it is Aliona is teaching Harry how to dance, Pasha is teaching Chelsee routines. The first will always be my preferred approach. But we all look for different things when we watch Strictly there is not necessarily a right or wrong.


I was very dissapointed with the amount of content in their Tango. I'm hoping it was a rush of blood to the head and a case of Aliona getting carried away with Halloween night and her love of vampires. Now I want to see Aliona step it up a gear and start testing how good Harry really is and that does mean more and more content.

Hey maybe she is doing it in reverse and her plan is to build Harry up so that his showdance is a perfect ballroom dance done all in hold, the best Strictly has ever seen .....well you never know


edit
In regards to polls the UKGOV poll for The Sun about who people wanted to win today had Jason () first and Harry Second, Chelsee was a way down the list with half as many as Harry. Not saying its accurate but the DS boards aren't the only poll and not everyone who votes are hard core fans who analyse every little thing. A lot will be casual viewers who will vote if a routine or couple wows them.

sorry my post is so long, didn't realise how much I had prattled on till I posted it

Thanks, Buddy

It seems like Aliona is courting the public vote more than the judges' scores and that could be why, I suppose. Although, if that's her strategy, she's taking a bit of a risk; she'd be better off catering to both the public and the judges at this stage just to make sure she gets to the final and then going for the wow factor in the final.

When it comes to showcasing their celebs as well as possible Natalie's always been one of the best, Kristina was great with John Sergeant and is being equally as good with Jason, Pasha is great with Chelsee, Artem mostly gets it right and Robin is doing the best he can for Anita, who isn't the best dancer of the series. None of the other pros this year stand out for me, in terms of their choreography.

I don't know why as a dancer you wouldn't want to...dance.

Aliona has history in this respect. Matt could have danced but he got to do a load of gymnastics instead. Harry can dance but is getting Lulu-type stuff. I'd love to see him dance. It's really disappointing.

What gets on Len's wick (and lots of us) is that she's told but still persists in taking no notice. How hard would it be to just dance?! That's what is frustrating. When we don't get to see the potential realised.

No, I really dislike Aliona. I admit it. And for the reasons many other people are citing.

Their AS is one of my favourite SCD dances of all time.

So agree with you

I'm actually very surprised that people suggest that Aliona's dances for Matt last year lacked content. It seems to be almost totally based on one dance - the Jive.

Viennese Waltz, Quickstep, Rumba, Paso Doble, Charleston, American Smooth, Salsa, Samba, Foxtrot, Cha Cha Cha - all with plenty of content.

Like wise harry's Cha Cha and Foxtrot full of content and a Waltz that, even though it was out of hold for the 2nd half for the first half it had not just brilliant rise and fall, near perfect footwork but also swing and sway (something Karen Hardy says the professionals usually don't have time to teach their celebs and is therefore missing from most Strictly Waltz)

I can't remember ever thinking there was not enough technical content in Matt's routines.

For me the problem was Aliona's (over) use of props and the faffing about at the start or the end. I didn't like their AS, but that was just down to personal preference.

Now I'd rather have that kind of choreography, than her choreography for Harry.

I take with a pinch of salt Harry's comment that he only just gets the dance right at the end of the week, because that applies to all the couples - some don't even manage that.

And, let's not forget, Kara & Artem's AS won Monkseal's Strictly World Cup of Dahnce 2011 championship, knocking Jill & Darren's jive off their pedestal. So I think we can safely say that, whether in hold or not, it was a pretty popular dance.

I wonder whether Len knows about that, and whether it gets on his wick that a dance he gave a measly SIX is so popular? Worse, has its success led to the inexorable dumbing-down of Strictly, as all the pro dancers try to emulate Artem's success in the World Cup of Dahnce?

Aliona is 27. Does that make her one of the youngest female professionals, and hence one of the least experienced ?

Two things about Monkseal's World of Dance though -

1. Only 700 people voted (including me) and I'd bet a lot of them also post here, so it's not exactly independent
2. Kara & Artem are the most recent champions and would still be in their honeymoon period.

I'm not saying it wasn't a WOW dance because it was, but I do agree with Len that it wasn't an AS. AS doesn't mean do what you fancy, it has to have elements of the waltz, tango, foxtrot or Viennese waltz. It was another example of something closer to a show dance.