Not a Harry fan but thought his Samba was good till my wife and me remembered this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdMMuH6wmPQ

Sorry that had nothing on Karen Hardy and Mark Ramprakash

I like Harry but found it contrived and cold - no joy in comparison to Ramps or even Matt Baker.

Has a male dancer ever done Latin as well as Ramps?

I didnt like this and I didnt like how Aliona(she is still not a good choreographer) kept dancing around him .I think it was a bit cringeworthy at times.
What I dont understand is how she didnt really teach him the bouncy action that you need in the samba when they are one of the couples who rehearsed the most in this competition?

Not his best but I felt better seeing Aliona put in more content and less props, that alone made me feel much better

That's not a samba! Mark Ramprakash's samba is here.

He was good.

Matt Baker's Samba was better. Haven't watched Harry's Samba. Must wait for iplayer.

kinda agree. and altho i am NOT a fan of Aliona to be fair i loved this Samba...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUVHfJXvB8I

this is a salsa not a samba. Quite different!

But this just reminded me how good that dance was. Not technically. Technically a lot of the new boys would kick his ass. But Mark's spirit and energy, singing along to the song and his smile made it this into such a great dance. I kind of think if it weren't for the microphone getting caught this wouldn't have turned out so well.

Much more samba content this week and Harry looked seriously gorgeous. But I think Aliona realised pretty early on in the week that he wasn't going to find this easy and so there are a lot of moments when you watch it back where he is pretty stationary while she swirls around him. I thinked he ended up in the right place on the leader board tonight.

that was an excellent samba.

Really disappointed with Harry tonight... was expecting much better. His Samba was awkward, with virtually no bounce at all.

Not a big Matt fan, but that is definitely the best Samba by a male celeb on Strictly -- ever!

Harry's Samba was meh! compared to Matt Bakers. Matt's Samba was filled with Samba moves that really showcased his dancing ability, Aliona did a great job with him.

Harry's Samba was static in comparison to Matt's, Aliona seemed to be the 'star' of the dance - she showcased herself. Harry's lower half looked like he was either constipated or had the runs and was trying to keep it all in

Matt Di Angelo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWh2wrlnBRU

I didn't think he had any bounce at all although he did move his hips well and he had good arm extensions. I found it utterly uninspiring to be honest but, on a positive note, he has excellent rhythm and is good to watch as he's usually on time with whatever he's dancing.

It was indeed.
Harry's lacked bounce and was stiff legged.


This is my favourite salsa.

So why did it score 33 then??

There have been some great sambas in SCD history- this was not one of them!

I really like Harry and think his ballroom has the potential to be amazing, but his samba was hardly a samba! He spent most of the dance in a series of lunges while Aliona danced around him - as bad as the patented Ola starfish move!

His dance was a bit hit and miss tonight. There were moments where it looked really good, bouncy and with a glimmer of natural hip action, but then nothing. Rest of the time it was dry, flat, didn't flow and the hip action and bounce felt forced and laboured. Despite that, overall the dance was fairly tidy and had a degree of gloss – so added up, it kind of leaves it in no-mans land for me.

Actually all of the dancers this year seem to be suffering from it. You get glimpses of 'wow' then it stops, and I'm there willing it to just 'flow'. There are no dancers this year where everything has just flowed. Every dancer this year I've never felt fully comfortable watching – in the sense of you know they can pull it off and/or something is likely to mess up. Even the better dancers this year (Chelsea and Holly) seem to have a large degree of the 'hit and miss' in their dances.

Actually, thinking about it, the only dancer you know is going to give you a good show is Russell.

Indeed.
And very true.

i disagree. waaaaaaay too high!

There was a lot of standing still while Aliona gyrated. No change there.

agreed. once again tactical. i know this from the entrie male population at my workplace!!! :yawn:

that vid just makes me realise how spoilt we were last year... that two of the best dancers on strictly ever were Kara and Matt. both crazily talented!

i 100% agree with this comment, spot on!!

Anyone else shouting at the screen "Let him dance you silly cow"