Good clip.

Denise and James look like they've both forgotten their choreography.

Victoria looks way better than I thought she would (the blessing of low expectations)...

Nicky looks good but I don't think it'll look that good on the night.

Michael and Natalie might be heading towards their best ballroom dance yet, but it depends how the lifts go I guess.

Dani struggling to keep up I think, but she always looks much better on the night so I'm not worried.

Hard to tell much about Kimberley and Pasha, but I'm looking forward to see if she can bounce back from last week.

Don't really think the samba will be Lisa's dance.

Louis looks a bit messy, which weirdly is usually a good sign that he will kick ass on Saturday.

I'm not looking forward to Richard and Erin's salsa. To put it mildly.

Victoria often looks good in rehearsal but goes to absolute pieces in the live show. Let's hope the Paso will be her out-of-hold dance.

Oops, I thought Nicky looked bad and so the only way for the live shop was UP.

Michael and Natalie's clip was so short and a move that he apparently didn't do right (or perfectly at any rate) that I am surprised that people can make much of an assessment. Except that it is Ballroom and he has Natalie for a partner, of course

Lol I often thought Victoria looks better on the night than in training. But that might be because of her training outfit (the hideous skirt and Dr Pammie orthopaedic shoes), I hate it.

Nicky looks bloomin' amazing compared to earlier in the series. I think he'll balls it up on the night though by going out of time.

Yeah you might be right about Michael, it looked good on ITT as well, but when he said he was gonna be out of hold a lot... I worry.

You could be right about the clothes affecting the appearance of Victoria's rehearsal. Her very heavy glasses are a bit of an off-putter for me. She didn't half look long and graceful when she was pirouetting flamenco style though.

As for Nick, his kicks seemed very non-committal, scruffy even. But I'm not a dancer

I think Michael will be fine *crosses fingers*

so do I.

Problem is I thought their salsa was mostly on time, I can only spot 2 instances where it went out of sync, so I was a bit Craig and Bruno kept going on about it.

Natalie needs to work on Michael's hands next, he hasnt got the right shape yet, obviously there hasnt been time to focus on the fine details

Ah give over - he'll stroll it!

Confidence, Mrs F - confidence!!

If Michael stuffs it I'll be surprised and disappointed given his ferocious work ethic. He'll be great!

I hope!

Victoria is looking better by herself than she was in previous Latins but we know the training room doesn't always carry to the main show.

No excitement emanating from the Kimpash side. Erin has an unhappy history with the salsa and this will be no different. Otherwise...everyone looking ok. Will be missing show but hope they've got sound better than last year.

I'm such a worrier over my favourite celebs

does everybody else worry and fret over whether their fav celeb:

does a good dance with no mistakes
the choreography and costumes work
the judges like it
gets a good score, especially from Craig
is near the top of the leaderboard
avoids the dance off
gets through to dance another week
gets all the way to the finals

by the time the series ends, I'm usually a gibbering wreck

then I watch if all over again over Christmas

Me too, I get the major wibbles at this time of the week because they either show Louis looking shocking or mucking about.

So I go in with low expectations, it helps, if he's rubbish, I thought it would be all along and if he's good then I get a really nice surprise.

Of your list, I only really care if I like it, if one of judges is a muppet to anyone (over or under marking) and avoiding dance off. I can cope with the rest.

You can remind me of this on Saturday when I'm ranting about something.

ha ha, Alli I'm glad it's not just me

I like Louis and Flavia as well. I love Louis as a gymnast, and was massively impressed with him in Beijing, so have been following the team since, of course the fact that Matt Baker comments on gymnastics has nothing to do with it

They're my second favourite couple

According to today's Guardian, the exact nature of the bike stunt in Victoria's dance

Oh christ...

Just what we need..

Although I think that watching the spectacle live in the area will probably help.

I think one of the funniest things last year was seeing Russell lifted and put in his cannon while Flavia played with the sparklers (while the VT played).

Thank you.


Thank you.


Yes

Great post. Yes, all of the above. And despite the fact that my favourite has only won once in all the year's I've been watching! I can now add to that list worry that Wembley stunt will go wrong or that they'll disappear in the huge space.

I didnt realise there were only 3 ballroom dances until studying the final list. I thought at the beginning of the week when really only the ASs and quickstep were announced I thought FINALLY, someone had seen sense and there might be more dances that would use the space up at Wembley... but no, we are back to

3 Ballroom (American Smooth x2, Quickstep)
4 Latin (Samba x2, Jive and Paso)
2 Social/party dances (Charleston/Salsa

Last year at Wembley I remember thinking there were far too many latin and not enough space filling ballroom dances. If Im honest last year one of the only dances I enjoyed live being there were James and Alex as they USED the space available - and I wasn't much of a fan.

Why oh why are there not more Ballroom dances? Grrrrrrrrrrrr


Ballroom
Dani & Vincent - Quickstep
Louis & Flavia - American Smooth
Michael & Natalie - American Smooth

Social/Party
Denise & James - Charleston
Richard & Erin - Salsa

Latin
Kimberley & Pasha - Samba
Lisa & Robin - Samba
Nicky & Karen - Jive
Victoria & Brendan - Paso Doble

Nicky's Jive looks fairly decent (compared to his other Latin dances anyway).

Victoria will have no/forced aggression and technically she'll be awful (as usual). However, she'll look pretty and create some nice lines. To stop her from crying, the judges will probably give her a 7/8.

Lisa's Samba will be terrible. The judges will give her 6/7/8 cause she gurns a lot and has so much fun fun fun fun fun fun fun.......

Brendan and Victoria's Paso is actually looking really good. Well the choreography, anyway. Victoria looks far too limp and unassertive to do a great Paso. It's amazing that someone so physically strong can sometimes look as if she's barely capable of supporting the weight of her own head. But who knows, the spirit of the bull might come out at Wembley. Or is she the cape?

Last year's Wembly suffered from a terrible list of Songs, terrible VT's and (on TV anyway) lacklustre performances.

So far the songs are better.