and I might have voted for him instead.

Harry won with Aliona. Deal with it.

Aliona's lovely - and a great choreographer - she must be to get to the final two years running. And she has a great sense of humour!

I'm dealing with it quite well thanks very much

Looks like we've got a few refugees from the X Factor forum in here tonight, this forum used to be so much nicer than the others on here.

Harry and Matt were naturally gifted dancers. If she'd had Audley or Dan Lobb I will bet my life's worth she wouldn't have got them to the final (I think Natalie with Audley in particular was fantastic and her choreography was pivotal in keeping him in so long that only someone like Anita could knock him out of the bottom 2)
We'll see when she (hopefully) gets a dud next year if she can do what Artem, James and Pasha did and get people who were not natural dancers to the semi finals!

I said the same thing Flavia should have got Harry, everyone knew he had some dance talent. I can't stand Aliona, It's her turn for the rubbish dancer next year and Flavia can have someone with dance talent.

All ye people who think I'm bitter- I will gladly and humbley eat every single word of negativity I have ever said about Aliona if next year she
1) includes more content in ALL the ballroom dances
2) isn't arrogant about being defending champion!

If these 2 criteria are met, I will be massively shocked, but will sing her praises without reserve!

Even when she wins the series Aliona seeimngly can't do anything right in the eyes of this forum, what exactly does she have to do not to get contstant negativity?!



I disagree - along with Kristina, they're the two most clever female choreographers. Ola knows exactly what to do with a celebrity who isn't naturally talented - she's never had one who is! Kristina showed tonight that's she's got an innate gift for clever choreography, pitched exactly. And Aliona...well two series of fresh, exciting and interesting routines hasn't harmed the amount of votes she's got! She knows exactly what to do with a talented celeb but can also cover limitations - her dance choices may well have won them the final.


Why drag up what's already been discussed hundreds of times on here? It's in the past, it's been dealt with, and frankly I don't see anything wrong in any of that. She's not under contract to listen to the judges, at the end of the day the public vote counts and she's clearly not doing that any harm. And if you take those last two comments, or any Strictly VT for that matter, at face value then I think you're being a bit naive - everything's edited to make good and controversial TV!

When I heard Harry would be doing Strictly I assumed he'd get Flavia or Ola, and was surprised when he got Aliona. It seemed an odd match really. Harry is such a good dancer that whoever got him would go far, but IMO Flavia is the best female pro on the show and I think she and Harry paired would have been dynamite.

I thought the same, then I saw this thread, how very sad.

Of course she wouldn't - neither did Natalie and Katya respectively, and neither would any pro! We have no idea how far she would have got any of them, as she hasn't had a dud since her first year, and Rav just didn't seem bothered, whereas Audley did.

Holly, Pamela and Chelsee were all to some extent natural dancers. The only people who've got non-natural dancers to a final are Lilia with Darren and Ola with Chris.




I hope you'll be applying the same standard to Artem, Ola, Flavia, Anton and all the other pros who produced content-lite routines this year, not just Aliona. Some of them were far more guilty of it than her.

This is so true. I didn't like her last year mainly for her choreography, but she has taken constructive comments on board and turned it around. What more can you ask for from any professional?

She is incredibly talented and very funny . Jealousy or closed-mindedness is the cause of this thread I think!


Surely there's always a bit of this after every final? A shame but the harsh reality I imagine

The bitterness is rife in other threads aswell. Dont know why people feel the need to knock her so much

Careful with such a thread title - you might go upsetting some people on here (who have already replied to this thread incidently). I got told off earlier for simillar sentiments about said pro!

PS: I do think Harry deserved to win since all of his dances tonight were exceptional.

You're right of course, the winner should always expect sour grapes.

To part 1- I was particularly referring to Alex as far as James was concerned- especially with the amount she improved
Chelsee, although good as the competition went on, Pasha had to tap into that as she was far too reckless at the start, even though she was talented
And Holly was hyped at the start but with the exception of the Black Swan, up until the Foxtrot she never really hit the heights whatsoever :S

For the second bit- Artem (apart from the AS last year) choreographs exceptionally well to create stuff on the edge but also keeps to the rules a lot more than Aliona

As to the others you mentioned- what annoys me about Aliona is that, with Robbie Russell and Nancy, they were relying on the entertainment vote (and even then the former 2 did include a lot of content- particularly Flavia with Russell!)
With Matt and Harry however, Aliona's had the holy grail of male contestants these last 2 years, and mid way through the tournament I fear she'd squander it for Harry! I think she isn't as good as Artem in adding to her celeb's performances with her risk taking (see Matt's AS last year)

However- If any of the above do have a gilt edged partner next year and do what Aliona has done in the past, I will be equally as annoyed

(I might forgive Flavia as I think she's a sweetheart darling, but I think it would be the dreadful "i'm not angry, just disappointed treatment; and also her Tango dancing with Vincent sets them up as the best pro couple on SCD ever in my book!)

Aliona is marmite. Some love her some hate her. Personally I now love her!
I find Ola much more aggressive personally, or Kristina for that matter. But still like them too.

Choreography wise, I think Aliona has been excellent, gradually building content and building the core techniques so by the time Harry was ready she could do proper old style choreo and Harry accomplish it perfectly.
Most of my favorite choreos and dances from this year have been from Aliona and Harry (plus Chelsee's Quickstep and Holly's Paso) while last years it was definitely Artem and Kara.

I understand that people wont like her style, but I for one I am happy that she is doing what she is doing, as much as I appreciate the more traditional choreos too. Variety makes the show a more interesting one, probably reaching and engaging more viewers, so making the how more popular.

Oh I agree! I just blew up with her American Smooth as it was, again, almost completely out of hold, and yet Len, my hero for so long, forgot himself and awarded a 10 (Kara anyone?) and the freestyle was really just posturing with a few lifts.

However, his Quickstep and Argentine Tango were sublime and worthy of any champion!

Look- Harry deserved to win- I just wish Aliona could be more likeable! Yes people have already tried to call me naive for saying her arrogant comments on ITT were just added to keep ratings, but if it's all an act, why can't she act nicer like Erin or Flavia? They do good dances without controversy! I also wish she wouldn't try advertise herself in her dances (I obviously refer to earlier in the series- from the semi final she was in top form!) I feel it's of detriment to her celeb and as a result to the ethos of the show

I'm sorry if I come across as curmudgeon but she does have a nack of frustrating me I hope she improves next year and proves me wrong- I've already promised to eat each and every one of my words piece by piece if she does! I just can't see it happening... we live in hope x

If you're referring to me, I won't get upset, I just get annoyed that this forum focuses negativity on Aliona and blames and nitpicks her for things that other pros get away with. But she's never been liked on here, so really I should just steer clear of these threads, but I can't help defending her as I would any of the pros I like


Oops, sorry, I'd completely forgotten about Alex already You're right about that, my apologies.


The thing is though, it's not clear at all what the rules even are. I thought it was the pro's choice to use props or not, but was told it's the producers, which would explain why Pasha never seemed to create a dance that didn't have props. The rules on hold don't seem to exist any more - at least I certainly don't count 30 seconds of faffing around before taking up hold and then staying in it until 10 seconds of faffing at the end (Jason's Quickstep springs to mind, but it applies to about 75% of the dances in the entire series) as being within what used to be the rules about hold. If the judges aren't going to universally apply the rules, then I don't think the pros can be blamed for ignoring them, or if they are blamed, they should all be blamed equally.

I can understand that- but the faffing around that other people do seem to at least be slightly related to the dance they're doing- whereas Aliona focuses a lot on the story and atmosphere- which obviously is a contributing factor- but it shouldn't be the overriding one- fair game with Halloween themed week you have some story- but not having 8 seconds in Tango hold... at least after the faffing around Kristina kept Jason in hold- I think that's the right balance- if Aliona can get that balance sorted next year, I think I'll like her a lot more... even if I may have to break my habit of fuming for the early few weeks XD

So glad she won. She seems very pleasant and a joy to work with. Some people just can't stand her but that's cool. I can't stand James but I'm not gonna waste my time making threads slating him. As long as Aliona is back next series with more of her fun choreography I'll be watching!

The difference being that she has no reason for content-lite with the celebs she had this year and last. Granted the last two - three weeks she has produced some dances with content and no messing with props but the beginning of this series and last were grim given the talent she had been handed on a plate. Of course she should get credit for her part in Harry's win and she has choreographed some good routines - the VW was exquisite. But she put together some disasters for Matt last year given his ability, a number of Harry's routines were poor given his ability (that jive without much jive for eg) and her pro numbers owe more to pole dancing than anything else. It's on that basis that I think she is very lucky to have won. Any pro can and should win if they get the best dancer with a great fan base; it's those who can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear that deserve the credit.

Harry had only had one weeks Paso dance training with Ola last year. You can see on Youtube that he wasn't particularly good at the end of that week, but Ola would have known he had potential. He was penalised a weeks training for that, so Aliona only had 2 weeks before the first dance.

Everything Harry has done is basically down to Aliona and you can see in the training that she has picked up every weakness he had and has worked on them since week one. Harry has been the ideal student, but he knew nothing about dancing and had to rely totally on Aliona.

I'm glad you're annoyed. Posters who resort smear tactics just because they dislike certain people deserve to be annoyed.

I hope she is, I have this fear that DWTS may come calling for this most brilliant pro.