I don't remember her being bitchy on Llloyd Webber's shows either I am not a fan of her particularly but she seems alright.

Do you mean the pictures were 'leaked' to the papers? And didn't she do all the mags after the event and cashed in that way? Clever.

BIB - She is. She went to stage school! Just like others on SCD. I think she has handled the accusations in a very silly way. She is a professionally trained dancer, singer and actress and she did more than sit on a chair in Chicago. She should just dance and ignore comments. Or just say that her experience is no different to others on SCD and that like them, she isn't trained in Ballroom and Latin. It's the sheer audacity of her bullshitting, which is so awful.

I quite like Denise. Shame she is paired with James

Have to agree with you.

I liked DVO on The Big Breakfast, had great chemistry with Johnny Vaughan, and she is a good all rounder and quite funny with it.

However the pairing of her and James seems all quite contrived by the BBC. They were already friends, live near each other, and her performance last last will not extinguish the 'she is already a dancer' comments. The fact that the BBC thought she had enough experience to critique their song and dance musical theatre programmes is another point to consider.

Much more of the cross eyed looks and silliness and I could have a completely different view of her ..... together with her dancing with the nauseating James Jordan I may be getting a bit tired of the 'act' already!

I quite like DVO, I don't get the negative comments about her tbh

She danced beautifully last night, hope she goes far in the competition.

To give Denise credit, she danced extremely welll last night, regardless of anything else.

She's in the competition, she will compete against everyone else and that's all there is to it.

If DVO has an unfair advantage, so does Kimberley Walsh.

Michelle Williams from Destiny's Child, Rachel Stevens, Emma Bunton have all been contestants too, they did their fair share of dancing in their respective bands - none of them won though.

Denise has worked in musical theatre for YEARS. She has learnt complicated dance routines and performed them LIVE each night. She cannot say she is not a trained professional dancer. Not only has she stage school experience,she went to a dance school before she started stage school and I just think this is ridiculous and in a way she is "cheating" It is supposed to be a group of celebs who are trying something NEW!!! The most difficult thing for non-dancers to learn is how to remember the steps and Denise is way ahead of everyone else in that department.

Jill Halfpenny and Kara Tointon were more highly trained in dance than Denise, yet I don't recall them getting as much stick as Denise for their dance background.

It's absolutely crystal clear to anyone watching that Denise has core strength, extension, she can hold a pose with elegance and of course she has the performance angle too.

She has more of those things than any of the others at this stage - that's why they stand out. But that doesn't mean that the others will not catch up and perhaps overtake her later on.

It's never going to be a level playing field because over the years Strictly has always invited those celebs with stage school backgrounds to take part. But I do think the playing field levels out as the show progresses and previous training matters less. It's about stamina, fitness and mental strength once you get to a certain point, as much as it is about dance.

Exactly

To be fair, the show itself seems to be insisting that Denise isn't a dancer with all this "Chicago was mostly sitting on a chair" and "it was years ago" stuff - which isn't something I recall them doing for any other contestant. I think that's completely unnecessary and I can see why people would find it grating.

Why is Kimberly getting away with no backlash? She has more dancing experience than Denise.

If Kimberly is just seemingly a more agreeable person for people to route for then fine, but if everyone is going to constantly bring up Denise's background as a reason to dislike her then they should also do it with Kimberly.

IIRC Jill Halfpenny claimed she had no previous dance training even though she'd attended dance school.

I agree (Tom Chambers and Ali Bastian, too) - the problem is all of them had had less public exposure in very well publicised West End Shows and being used by the Beeb to judge other young professionals singing and dancing. I think the real disgrace is that a professional actress like DVO can't put on a more credible performance of denying the obvious!

I think it's pointless to go over who has the most training, most experience etc. That would maybe matter if the public got to decide which celebs were picked for the series, but we don't. She's already in Strictly. All you can do is judge the celebs based on what they do on Saturday nights IMO. And while she was far and away the best last night, she was nowhere near perfect. So I don't quite understand the whole 'unfair advantage' thing.

wait till she does the quicker routine she'd probably break all over the place she's that fake... they'd have too peice her back together bit by bit with sellotape.

I'm not really bothered about the unfair advantage things as theres been loads of people on SCD with previous experience/training blah blah.

I honestly think it will be won on a combination of partnership, choreography, personality, humility, journey etc etc.

James and Denise are not a good pairing in terms of personality.. they'll do each other no favours at all. I've always like James, and Denise individually, but the incessant 'in joke' tweeting and slathering in self appreciation and 'I love thyself, im so yummy I could eat myself' is just a complete turn off.

Chelsee and Chris Hollins went so far partly because they didnt have a clue how watchable they were and their partnerships were so endearing.

I think she should be glad the dance off is back, otherwise she could have definately been a shock early exit...

Brilliant post.

Craig R-H today quoted as saying that Denise had professional training at Stage School and that at Sylvia Young they teach stage dancing, not ballroom and latin.

So I think we can conclude that he knows what he is talking about and take that as fact.

And I'm absolutely fine with that - she perhaps has some advantages but this is totally different, and it would be impossible to get 14 completely level celebrities - but why don't they just outright say that in the programme? Why do they feel the need to have her keep saying stuff like "oh, it was years ago" or claiming her stage roles didn't involve much dancing? Surely that's only going to wind the audience up? In fact I think at the launch show they did do just that with Kimberley, bringing up her tap dancing in Shrek but going on to say that it was totally unlike ballroom and latin.

Actually, the only person I've noticed dragging up DVO's background is Denise herself. (not including this thread) I haven't seen any press articles criticising her just the ones with her oft repeated denials.
Kimberly et al apparently have a little more common sense and dignity and kept their gobs shut.

Chris Evans did on his radio show and that made nearly the tabloid papers. Denise has only mentioned it after that coverage.

HOW MANY YEARS?

PRECISELY?


Yes, she can.

Because she isn't.

SEE HOW THAT WORKS?

Oh come on, aren't we being a bit unrealistic here? Most of the younger actor/actresses have been to stage school and will have done dance training here. The people out of bands will have done dancing as part of their acts and the athletes have supreme fitness. Unless somebody is an actual dancer, I think it is silly to start singling people out like this. I think Denise is great.