I'm not sure where all this "lack of connection" is coming from. I saw plenty of connection during the dance. Just because they're not constantly pawing at each other off the dance floor doesn't mean that they don't get on just fine.

The only "lack of connection" I saw this week was between Nicky and Karen. Actually I'll go further, I saw antipathy. I don't think that they've hit it off on the right foot at all.

As Alli-F said.
Team gymnastics is done separately so he has no body contact with his team mates until after they have all performed.
They support each other but when the routine is being done they gymnast is on their own.
So no I don't think it's the same kind of thing at all in what he has done before and what he is doing on Strictly.

And let's remember gymnastics hasn't quite reach it with the teams being both male and female (yet!).
So while he may have trained along side some fellow girl gymnasts he has ever being that close to them in performances wise although that's not to say he hasn't perform well for any female

Yes- I'm not sure why Louis and Flavia are being singled out when Karen and Nicky showed absolutely NO chemistry whatsoever, IMO. Having watched the cha cha again, there is a lot of eye contact and a few smiles... Louis explained his concentrating face was serious- hopefully the more he dances, the more comfortable he will get with his steps without having to concentrate too hard.

Course not hun, all of our opinions are coloured by our experiences.

I would never have guessed he had ADHD if he hadn't talked about it because he's so not my experience of the difficulty. I'm trying to imagine my son as a gymnast and it brings tears of laughter to my eyes, he'd be falling off the pommel, headbutting the vault, swinging by his foot in the rings and falling of the edge of the performance area.

The first of many this series I hope!

Not sure which I value more. Your quotes or your snogs

x

You are such a tart!

Maybe because Louis and Flavia have bucket loads of potential while Karen and Nicky are and always will be blah. I am sure many of the comments about Louis are from frustration. Flavia and him look great. He is at his peak of finess. It could be so wonderful and on Saturday it wasn't. At all. It was disappointing.

With Karen and Nicky I expected something mundane and wasn't disappointed at all. Hands in pockets et al

We're on week 1 though.... Hopefully of many weeks. I just think he/they are being judged too harshly because of what people expected them to be like. As you say- bucket loads of potential- so fingers crossed that will be fulfilled in the coming weeks. Why should it be fulfilled straight away?

No reason at all. But we are saying what we saw and felt straight away. As the weeks go on it may change and so may our opinions.

Whyever did you expect something mundane,? I genuinely don't understand how you can say that. Haveyou seen the two of them dance before

Sorry- I don't mean to sound confrontational. :embarrassed: He/they may not ever reach that potential... I just hope people give them a chance to try.

I thought there was a lack of chemistry too.

I think they're just getting to know each other. Flavia's naturally shy, but usually with shy people the one thing that they love can bring them out their shell - with her, it's dancing, and it's why she's able to do what she does.

Regarding Louis, I think what we forget when watching SCD is that a lot of the celebs are showbiz type personalities - they're aware of the need to project some kind of image and they tend to be 'performers' anyway. They like the attention, and that's why they went into the entertainment industry. Louis is just a normal bloke who happens to be a quality gymnast - he's just being himself.

I imagine they will become more comfortable with each other over time, as the rest of us would in a new working relationship.

Well yes, faux-mances are def very tedious.

I personally like there to be an element of friendship-chemistry at minimum if possible, otherwise sometimes the dance can feel cold because, unlike pros that are used to just dancing and can fake the like they have for each other, I'm sure for amateurs it's perhaps harder when they have other elements to think of as well during the dance.

Clearly Flavia and Louis are not all over each other but I don't think they're so distance in chemistry that the dancing (from their first outing) was hindered. And Louis needs to grow into the whole dance thing so it's not like we should expect him to be replicating other male pros

Their seems to be lack of any togetherness, when you dance their should be a sense of togetherness which they didnt have, and it doesnt help that Louis looks like he is blank, and gormless

Just because he hasn't got a 200w showbiz smile plastered on his face at all times, doesn't mean he's gormless.

I find Nicky very very dull. No spark at all. Therefore I did not expect any spark when he danced. I was right. It was dull.

I think he is like the majority of the sportsmen- not trained in showbiz ways.... he doesn't usually have to smile the whole time and in the training footage they were clearly getting on okay.

With regard to the ADHD- yes he is on record as talking about it and uses the regimented training of gymnastics to help with it.

Also- he is shy and is 23 years old- like many shy young lads he probably doesn't feel happy getting all touchy feely with Flavia when they are standing by the judges. Michael, I think, had his hand on Natalie's shoulder but wasn't actaully touching her at one point- he had his hand rigid and so it wasn't natural for him either.

Give them a break- all of them- first week its very hard to tell chemistry or lack of it as they are all so nervous they can hardly think!

I loved their routine and was surprised at how well they got on in the training footage! I thought there was lots of chemistry in their routine and thought that she was trying to encourage him and he was nervously concentrating on the routine.

I did wonder about whether they would get on as he did look disappointed to have Flavia as a partner. However, nothing I saw last night would suggest anything but, a pro who is very excited to have a "good partner" (for a change) and a contestant who looks eager to learn.

Ok you find Nicky dull, for whatever reason I can't imagine, but each to their own. Anyway, you didn't see Karen and him dance..so therefore I'm perplexed as to why you "expected" them to be dull.

Becase he is dull I am perplexed as to how you find this difficult to understand.

I would have been pleasantly suprised if he had been exciting to watch. He wasn't.

Very patronizing. No need

I liked the hands in pockets. It's not a ballroom competition. Gene Kelly got away with it. I think we have to lighten up a bit!

How was that worse than being 'shot out of a canon'? Hmm?

And I think Nicky has potential. He just needs to be whipped into shape.

I think Karen is getting a very unfair load of sniping and mean-spirited comments on the main forum for reasons which I find a tad suspect.

She's only just got here. I know she's different from the usual skinny blonde, but I think she is a class act.

Give her a chance?

It's amazing how much people read into so little in Strictly. That's all part of the fun of the forums of course. Perhaps Flavia kept her distance from him because she was worried about him taking her out, in a not showmancy way, that is.

They looked okay to me. I think Louis isn't that touchy-feely, during the Olympics he was pretty self-contained. Perhaps as the glitter and glam Strictly-bubble engulfs him he'll relax a bit.