When I went to see the Strictly Pros and was lucky enough to meet all the Dancers..James and Ola were one of the nicest people you could meet..Also in the Tour last year James was very well recieved .
Id be very sorry if they were to leave the show...I often think that James preforms the baddy like Craig Revel Horwood is the baddy judge....But im sure if the powers that be can get rid of Darren Lilia , Ian and Matt without out a backwards glance then Im sure no one is safe. It must be hard all the same..

The producers decided not to renew their contracts. All four were offered places in the shortlived 'dance troupe', but only Darren and Ian accepted. The troupe was cancelled after one series.

Am I the only one who thinks that to be told by email is incredibly cold? A phone call would have been cold, but better than an email surely...

That's terrible that they were told by email at all, but especially when you consider that they are the only pair amongst the older sets of pros that have kept themselves available for it! There's nothing wrong with the others doing their own thing but you'd think James and Ola's 'loyalty' would be appreciated.

Depends what their relationship is with the tour organisers. If they don't know the organisers personally, an email might seem like the acceptable way to go- after all, that's the standard way of telling someone they haven't got a job they applied for these days.

I do think it seems a bit off, but we don't know all the circumstances.

Yes an email is really not good....considering this is their employment

And Ola is a former pro champion on the show = she has managed to turn Kenny Logan from nothing into a good ballroom dancer as well. Love Ola - yet againg the PTB has messed up

Thought you meant no pj's for Ola

I'm sure it's all about getting bums on seats and they are not the biggest draw amongst the pros.

I feel bad for Ola, I really like her but she is married to the biggest dick on the show so if he goes and pisses off the producers she unfortunately gets taken down a peg or two along with him.

A professional dancer's life is short. Many of them move on to do other things like Karen Hardy.

I agree with you. It's show business I suppose!

Doesn't surprise me to be honest, James has opened his mouth a bit much this series and I can't see the powers that be being at all happy about it. Criticise the hand that feeds you and it will be withdrawn etc.
It's also possible that neither Robbie or Alex is going on tour though and finding new people for them to dance with may be the problem.

Well, I have a ticket for one of the shows in Birmingham and am disappointed that they won't be there. James actually made Hamela bearable last year. No, scratch that, nothing could make her bearable, but I did enjoy his antics on tour. He and Ola are good dancers, too.

But the implications are that neither Robbie nor Alex will be on the tour. I can understand that Alex would have other work commitments, but are we to believe Robbie when he protests about how much he is loving dancing and wants to carry on doing it after the show has finished (as he said on ITT tonight)? Obviously not enjoying it enough to go on tour with the show...

Even if Robbie weren't doing it, Ola would be a good replacement for Flavia if Russell is planning on doing the tour. Oh well - looks like no Robbie, Alex or Russell.

Ok, so the tour this year will probably consist of:

Artem and Aliona
Robin and Kristina
Pasha and Katya
Natalie
...

Not really much of a tour is it? Considering Anton, Erin, Brendan, Flavia and Vincent, and now the Jordans aren't involved... it's only 3 professional pairings, unless Flav and Vince are tempted away from the West End (unlikely) Or likewise Anton, Erin and Brendan from their own shows...

Craig is creative director of the show this year....perhaps he has put his foot down....doubt there is much love lost between him and James.

Doubt if you'll see any of them seeing as they do their own tours

But again, back to my previous message, who to replace them? With the same number of pros as last year, and the amounting casualties, it's a pretty poor showing, Craig may be tough but he's not an idiot... unless like I said before he's tempted some of the other pros back from the abyss...

I have a ticket for Dublin and am delighted James wont be there , cant stand his always trying to be funny .

They may have asked Ian to partner Natalie, and who knows what changes they have planned for this year - dancers from the UK's SYTYCD maybe?

I still haven't seen the tour but will definitely go if Chelsee does it with Pasha. I say this every year though - in the end it's more fun reading other people's tour reports

It might be Ian who takes part

I won't be sorry to see the Jordans go especially given James' bitter tweets. That said, it wasn't nice for them to find out via email.

I always amaze me when people get very surprise about the email thing, when the poor Nicole were treated very unfair. And they waited toward the end to let her know services wasn't longer required.

I feel for the Jordans even though I'm no fan of his style. To be honest I'm amazed that experienced pros like them carry on doing the tour, though. While it may be fun if you are in a relationship with your celeb - like Brian, Flavia or Artem because it lets you dance together for longer, and it is probably good exposure for 'new' pros, it must be pretty thankless for the others slogging around the country for minimal pay, with no real competition and the same staged scenes and jokes each night. Why not do your own tour, dance more creatively what you want and have more control over quality and a cut of the profits? Seems to me the much derided (on this board) Anton and Erin have the right idea and others have gone their way too.

I would have thought they needed 4 men and 4 women professionals as they have in the past, so someone else for Natalie?

Hardly surprising since Craig is choreographing the tour and James has p*ssed on Craig's chips a few times too many.

Hope they've made plans for next year as I don't see them back on 2012 show either. Ola I'll miss but James......