I thought he was underscored the most out of all of them

I thought he was a touch overmarked personally.

his frame was terrible, the movements across the floor was jerky and stilted...sure he remembered the whole routine but that's about it really, don't think he's underscored

Wasn't his fault though- the lift knocked off several marks methinks. Just about right, give or take the odd point.

I thought he was dire, to be honest.

He had awful posture and was a bit clumpy.

Also the illegal lift didnt help matters.

he wasn't really very good to be honest, I wouldn't mind if left at this point as as he didn't engage my interest as others did

The only reason I wouldnt like Nicky to go is actually because he is partnering Karen, and id like to see what she is like, how she dances/teaches etc. But with taht being said, if he doesnt improve drastically in a couple of weeks, get rid.

Agreed, I really enjoyed his dance and it's obvious that he has loads of potential. It wasn't fair for Craig to underscore because of the lift, when the dance overall was great.

I don't think that dance was underscored. His frame was poor, not helped by having him dance with his hands in his pockets, FFS. Pretty impossible to have good posture looking like a sulky teenager kicking a soda can down the street...

But don't worry - Westlife fans will keep him in while he improves, which I'm sure he will. He has musicality and a good sense of rhythm. He'll be fine and I look forward to seeing what Karen can do with him.

I think the score was more for Karen's routine than Nicky's dancing to be honest.

It had a lot of faffing, a lot of breaking hold once the dance was up and running and the dreaded lift. Also, dancing with your hands in your pockets? The dahnce purists are still clutching their pearls in horror (as am I), it just looked so ugly.

He will have much better dances than that but Karen needs to learn and learn quickly, this is not DWTS. I'm sure artem could give her some advice, they're pro partners after all.

While I am, indeed, still clutching my pearls about the hands in pockets (a tough contortionist act), I actually quite liked the faffing. But then I'm the only person on the planet who liked Holly flitting round lamp-posts in the last series. Faffing, wafting, breaking hold - for me it adds artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing waltz.

Oh no, I loved it too. . But it was beautifully danced, which means its easier to forgive. . And it was done because Holly was shocking in hold.

Faffing is fine if there's a good reason for it or if the pro's willing to take the criticism because they'll get an atrocious score if they try dancing but Karen had everything that annoys the judges - faffing, breaking hold, lifts and Nicky's poor posture. Then we had the hands in pockets.

They'll overlook one if the dance is good or give you a little warning, but they'll slaughter you if you pile them up and there we have Friday night.

Did anyone else get the feeling that part of the reason for the judges' low scoring of it was because of all the dances this week, it was the closest to the last two years of props and faffing about which they're supposedly cutting down on this year? Everybody else, with the possible exception of Jerry and Anton, just got on and danced.

But the one called out by Len for faffing wasn't Nicky, it was Michael.

I genuinely think it stood out as being really a quite poor waltz (especially compared to what even people like Sid and Michael and Richard produced) and what was poor about it was genuinely mentioned by the judges and even by Karen - the rise & fall was like he was doing squats, there was a lot of posing, his posture was stiff and hunched, the back-bends were hideous, and he clearly wasn't comfortable touching Karen at all. I don't really get the confusion over why it was scored low, and to be honest, I'm beginning to think Karen was quite smart to spark Liftgate, because so much of what was bad about it has been washed away in "CRAIG WAS A BIG OLD MEAN ABOUT THE LIFT".

Oh Jeez - she's not THAT smart! She's tweeted this evening, 'Art is not about doing nothing wrong or doing what's necessary. Its about doing something beautiful.'

:yawn:
/|\

Accidentally smart then, like stubbing your toe on the sofa but dislodging a fiver you never knew was there in the process.

Also that quote is amazing.

Oh, I thought it was pretty bad even with my untrained eye. But IIRC Len didn't directly comment on it? And Michael at least had uninterrupted (for want of a better word) content once he got at it - Nicky had lots of faffing about with the breaking hold. I think Len would have mentioned that had he had the chance.

Interesting theory about the lift taking away from what was bad about the dance. Would tie in with Karen's comments on Twitter.

So what happened last night then? Cause there was no art or beauty in that routine b God, she's so pretentious, we need to slap that right out of her.

Nicky wasn't "that bad", he was absolutely dreadful. So was the choreography. End of.

Completly disagree, he certainly was in no way dreadful! Nicky was good for his first outing, he can't be blamed for his partners stupid lift.

I thought it was crackers to start him off in a slouch with hands in pockets.He was never going to remember to put his shoulders back after that.

It was the choreography that was dreadfull, I felt really sorry for Nicky. Starting with his hands in his pocket put you off from the start and then finishing with the same thing really bad and didn't look good at all. I'm not liking this new girl's choreography at the moment I hope for Nicky's sake it gets better.