Are the beeb telling us there is no pro-ballroom judge available and they have to give us another piece of eye candy?

Must be a despersate lack of pro-judges in the ballroom world

yup

sucks big style, just wanted a name

Couldn't agree more. I want an experts input and scoring. Honestly it's like x factor where the contestants become judges.I know she has the dirty dancing interest factor but sheesh why not get one of us forum contributors on instead?

It's a show and she's someone who will be recognised,
Alesha from Mis-Teeq, Jennifer from Dirty Dancing and DWTS, seems perfectly logical. Any ballroom judges would be unknown to the majority of the viewers.

Not from Dirty Dancing she won't be! She's said herself that that nose-job really hurt her career because she was unrecognisable.

'cept Karen Hardy - she's a recognised ballroom judge, known to SCD viewers and already employed by the Beeb so a cost-saving exercise too. Woner why they didn't have her?

Yes but other than arlene philips I knew none of the current judges (Alesha included) when is started watching.plus they need to think about succession planning for old Len

or Ian Waite?

They obviously went for her because she's Jennifer Grey - and who knows it might pull off ratings-wise.

I'm a bit miffed though and agree it should have been someone with professional experience (I've come to accept Alesha as a judge even though I very rarely agree with her) like Ian or Karen.

I love 'em both, but they are colleagues and friends of the pros and would, I think, find it difficult to be impartial and/or critical. Karen could gush for England and was very, very careful in choosing her words when she criticised Aliona's choreography this week.

It makes perfect sense to bring in an American celebrity who knows what is required in the dances and has no prior knowledge of the celebs on Strictly. She's just about as impartial as you can get, so at least she won't be over-marking Anita...

Let's hear what she has to say before judging her, huh?*



*silly me - this is Digital Spy...

Because she annoys as many people as those who love her? She's quite polarising unfortunately.
Personally for me it makes sense to have Jennifer Gray, she's a recognised personality, she's known for being in Dirty Dancing, she's recently won Dancing with the Stars etc.

You dare... I would make...
Bruno look retiring
Len look compos mentis
Alesha look competent
Craig look kind
and Arlene look chaste

why not invite some world champion dancer on? do a VT of their credentials or have them do a dance

would be better than this

There are top experienced people out there

Internationally recognized as the world's premiere dance couple, Marcus and Karen Hilton have won virtually every major professional dance championship. They have been champions in the European, British, and U.S. Open, the U.K. Championships, the World and European professional 10 Dance, as well as World Professional Ballroom Segue Champions.

But its just ONE week and its a light entertainment show that involves dancing...its not a professional dance competition and they want a name.....you may not like the name they have chosen but there it is.

They've chosen her so they can have Jen's Lens on the results show

Because there's nothing BBC can offer to make an ex or current world champion want to step into a system whose job is to produce pop entertainment. I'm still quite surprised Karina Smirnoff is doing DWTS.

And Jennifer Gray is (in my opinion) a fantastic choice. Dirty Dancing has inspired so many people (including yours truly) to not only take up dancing but go into it competitively and turn into professional dancers. And it can even be thought of as the source of inspiration for SCD.

How she will be as a till remains to be seen. But if she satisfies standards I wouldn't mind her replacing Len permanently!

gah, dont believe it

give someone the chance to show off their skills live on TV and get loads of people Googling their name and looking up their DVDs?

With Brucie fawning all over them and the other pro dancers too

no that's not the problem they just wanted to keep it dumbed down for the massses "oh, Dirty Dancing I liked that, oh DWTS she must be good blah blah"

There is a lot of political turmoil going on in the dance world right now and any of the current and ex world champions, as well as many of the finalists who have been given the choice, have opted for the less financially beneficial choice, because the other was more artistically beneficial. These people are artists. If fame or money was their priority they wouldn't be in this business.

And if you're a world champion you;re not going to be short of money, or fans. They have so many requests for lessons that they reject students. You have to be very special to be able to get a lesson with them.

Besides the world of dancing is pretty consuming. Most dancers don't have friends outside dancing, don't watch that much TV and don't know any of the celebrities except the very famous ones.

Anyway, this obviously isn't the only (or the main) reason BBC isn't hiring world champions. Like you said, they needed someone to appeal to the majority, and the majority are more likely to recognise and like the lead actress from Dirty Dancing, which is the pinnacle of dance movies/shows, than some world champion they've never heard of.

from Dirty Dancing, which is the pinnacle of dance movies/shows, than some world champion they've never heard of.


IYO or do we have an opinion, and why do we have to accept your choice of the pinnacle?

No you don't have to. Do you know of any other movies which are ballroom dancing and better known than Dirty Dancing?

I'm not that worried about them replacing Len with a non-pro.
It's not like the "pro" judges are showing much consistency or providing useful critique (apart from Craig's shopping list of faults)

Frankly if they wanted to permanmently (?sp) replace Len with a jar of pickled walnuts, that would be fine by me.

Hardly what I would class as eye-candy.

And as I said in another thread, they should have replaced like for like by bringing in another ballroom judge (and it's not as if the panel is exactly weighed down with ballroom judges/expertise).

If I had not been reading some of the forums posts on DS, I would not have had the faintest idea as to who she was (having never watched Dirty Dancing). Not a recognisable face or name.

Strictly Ballroom gave us the Strictly of Strictly