I think the drab elves brigade at the BBC have been working around the clock to take the Denise out of DVO...... Where has her Essexness gone? Most of the Denise haters on this forum hate her because she is what she is (I think she's great, by the way) but she seems to have left her life-long persona behind in the dressing room of late! They are presenting her in a very dowdy way (no real bling) the routines are lack-lustre (Blame James) but if she is this so experienced dancer, as all her 'Knockers' proclaim, she should be capable of trancending this! Shouldn't she? My wife and I watched 'Take the lead' movie, with Katya in a dance role where she danced the Salsa, it was fantastic, danced to great music, and hardly resembled anything currently passing off as a Salsa on SCD at the moment......But really Denise is capable of looking as brilliant (like in her Jive) a few weeks ago....... but the spark has gone!!!! I think they are getting at her and making her conform, why else would she be confounding all the Denise haters? Voluntarilly! seems very unlikely..,

I think that wardrobe haven't been dressing her well, for one thing. They've been dressing her very dowdily of late. Her dress this week was awful. It looked cheap and I thought the red material over the top of her chest looked awful.
Dance wise I think James isn't helping with his choreography. There is no wow factor for me. As you say her jive in the early weeks was the best. Their charleston may have been good technically but no wow.

But that guy on ITT said her dress this week was great.

I don't think you dumb someone down by removing their Essexness. Perhaps she has been gentrified up by adding some Gloucestershireness?

'Reet Petite' was surely foisted on them as well. The costumes were ghastly. Probably an echo of the number of votes or lack of. Producers...would they think of such a strategy ? I wouldn't be surprised. Knockout music and costume counts for a lot doesn't it. I knew as soon as I heard their music, that they'd be in trouble. It's not the only reason but it didn't help at all.

I loved Denise from her Big Breakfast because her laddish, ballsy approach was a very refreshing change.

I think though she has just matured over the years and, being a wife and a mother now, feels she has more of a responsibility about how she comes across on TV - nothing wrong with that.

As far as SCD goes, I think she wants to be seen as taking it seriously, going for the win and hoping for some Tom Chambers style spin-offs in the future. I believe she will carry on dancing after SCD.

SCD itself seems to have been dumbed down in terms of costume, music etc. Look at the difference between James & Pamela & James & Denise. Pamela had some great outfits, great music choices and great routines choreographed for her. The whole feel of the show now is cheap which is a real shame.

I would imagine, like her previous dance experience, Denise herself has attempted to 'dumb it down'. She knows that her persona is not to everyone's taste and therefore has tried to neutralise it. James may well have given her tips because he attempts to do this every year too (though always fails in the long run).
Consequently she's probably pleasing neither camp now.

'Reet Petite' is one of the greatest songs ever so that cannot be blamed for a poor vote on Saturday, if sources are to be believed she has been bottom of the public vote for a long time. Perhaps she will get a 'she's worked so hard' sympathy vote this week but Denise is a bit like Lisa in that she hasn't really improved, in her case she was more or less good from the word go and hasn't really capitalised on it yet.

I think they`re running out of material - very little was used last saturday

I get the impression that all the couples have had music and costumes foisted on them, and Denise & James have got off much lighter than many other couples. Does anyone honestly believe that Nicky & Karen would have chosen of their own volition to do an AS and Samba fusion to Olly Murs, or and AT to Skyfall, or that Sid & Ola chose their Rock of Ages or Ghostbusters routines?

Of course! That explains it!

What you describe is less "dumbing down" and more "personality removal". If it;s deliberate then maybe it was a choice to try and appeal to the sterotype of people who watch and vote on Strictly. (When I was at Wembley 85% of the audience did seem to be middle age ladies). Or she's hoping to launch another career with a different persona after this or she's simply grown up and got "Gloucesterised" as another poster suggests.

She has been top of the training hours board, and seems to practice more than anyone else, but I'm wondering if that is part of the problem? Over-rehearsing is not always a good thing.

Interesting. I love Reet Petite and felt they had a real vote winner with that song. I was quite happily tapping my foot to the music and thought they were doing really well with it until skirtgate.

Same here- reel feel good song.
I suspect the dress looked great on set but looked drab on tv

Or that Brendan and Victoria would choose to do an ET inspired paso to Bicycle Race with that terrible costume?

Michael also topped the training boards and it didn't really help him either. One of the best jives on SCD (Louisa and Vincent) only took a couple of hours to perfect. Louis did that fantastic Rumba on Saturday with less hours. I think far too much is made of training hours. I agree with you I think D&J have over-rehearsed to the point where they don't look as fresh as some of the other couples.

This could explain why she looks exhausted and their routines have lost their spark.

What is Essexness?

When I used to cycle, all those many years ago , it used to be called junk training, or doing junk miles. They serve no purpose at other than getting more hours down in the training diary - the actual benefit to performance is nil, and can actually hinder it.

I think it's possibly one of the reasons the hours trained stopped being announced. More does not actually equal better in a lot of cases.

The OP said that Denise has lost her spark. Could this be because she is trying too hard and it is looking false? It does not appear that she is enjoying this experience as much perhaps she thought she would. IMO I think she thought she would have been more popular than she is. So much negative attention is brought on by herself & James. If they did not try to hog the limelight as much, I think they would gain a bit more popularity.

All the couples are 'packaged'. Often how the couples appear says more about the values of the producers than what the couple might be about themselves. Denise needs to be more herself - sure it will put some people off but it will enable her to relax more and deliver what we all know she is capable of despite not having had the training Dani has had.

Never saw Denise before Strictly although I have heard the name for years and years and years.

The impression of "falseness" has been mentioned more than once, I wonder if this is due to an inconsistency of image presentation. If she is a Wild Child who still retains teenage rebellion when pushing 40 then fair enough. If she is proud to be an Essex ladette able to drink James under the table and break his nose without trying, then fair enough. To be consistent, Denise ought to go light on makeup or wear no makeup at all. A true rebel will not be scared to say boo to BBC.

Ladies in the forum will have to help me out, my impression is that true tomboys and intellectual bluestockings do not wear makeup.

If Denise is Calamity Jane one moment then glamour queen the next, understandably the public will say:

"Will the real Denise please stand up."

Katya did an AT in Take the Lead. That will be why it didn't look like a Salsa, SCD version or otherwise.

The costumes have been poor this year, so I dont think Denise is suffering more than most.

They seem to have bough a job lot of braces for the men from Age Concern and have a fixation with belts on bare waists and big holes through dresses for the ladies.

I do think the producers want it to look like there is less of a gap between Denise's dancing and everyone elses.
James and costume seem to be helping that a bit but not deliberately. The no heel leads at all in Denise's first dance was probably her contribution to that.
If Denise was at her best every dance it would make the other contestants look bad, but it would make the gap clear and the gap has been closing.

If Denise came across as confident as Lisa, then many viewers would like her even less.

It's sad fact that many Brits don't like attractive or talented people, and if they come across as confident too...well, that's the lid on the coffin

I do wonder why many other past and present contestants haven't had the same flak for having been at stage school and receiving dance training too?