He did open his gob when he danced his showdance. Just the mic was swtiched off.

They are rarely good and it is so difficult to find a fine line between trying to wow the audience and to combine it with charm and finesse.

I didn't like James and Denise's showdance at all, I don't care how many lifts are shoved in it, there was no charm in it all. I am not a Louis fan but that showdance was beautiful.

James and Denise never understood that 'less is more' in this competition.

I think the problem is the Denise style show dance was very typical of what a proper show dance should be.. Lifts, lifts and bizarre body contortioning... But in the context of strictly they don't 'fit' as a celebration of all that has gone before.

Tom Chambers, Louis and even Jill Halfpennys were much more dance based and stood out by being completely atypical of what we come to expect from show dances. I think the pros that recognise this and choreograph accordingly tend to be more successful.

That's not to diminish what Denise and James did! The lifts were stunning, they just don't feel particularly pleasant to watch and feel like a complete let down. I even hated Ramps show dance... And he is still my favourite winner to date.

Love them but they are very high risk - both Denise and Louis wowed with theirs, Kimberley's was ok but Dani's did for her.

Not keen - it seems all about the lifts and tricks. Didn't like any of them this year really and L&F's seemed like an acrobatic display to me.

D&V's was more of a dance but was a bit underwhelming compared to the others.

I never liked the Hanna Karttunen world championship showdances. That's what Denise produced and, in the genre, it was a very fine example.

Louis and Flavia did a similar thing but, combined with the rhumba-feel, it had more emotional content and seemed to be more meaningful whilst still including all the customary lifts.

Kimberley's wasn't a typical competition showdance and SHOULD have been very entertaining but for the awkward pause for the costume change and the fact that it wasn't especially accurate or precise.

I shan't speak of Dani's.

So I don't always hate them. My three favourites are:

Tom Chambers (far from a typical showdance as understood by Karttunen and co)
Louis
Bacofoil (for all the wrong reasons but still TV gold!)

They add a fun element to the final, I enjoy them.

I think Dani's wasn't that bad - the nerves got to her (the same is true of Chelsee last year and her showdance was meh at best without the mistakes) and she wasn't that great at lift transistions - but congrats for Vincent trying to do something a bit different .

The problem is with showdances is there's too much emphasis on the ruddy lifts nine times out of ten and they're over-hyped. I was intrigued to see what they would come up with and then disapointed - I liked Louis the best last night.

Tom's was the best, Zoe's the next best then Jason's which had piazz and Chris's was fun, Bacofoil - funny for all the wrong reasons - the rest I can take or leave except the series five ones which were ok.

I actually enjoyed them far more this year than I ever have before (excepting Tom and Camilla's, which was fab). I was expecting them to be naff, but they weren't. Denise's and Louis's were particularly good.

They rarely live up to the hype and I'm usually disappointed. I did love Denise's this year though. At first I thought there were too many lifts but then they did some great tango and the lifts were so impressive. The only ones I've liked previously were Jason and Kristina's, and Zoe and Ian's. Matt and Flavia's was pretty good too.

I like the showdances, and think they're fun. In "real" competition, they have to do Ballroom or Latin, with or without lifts, which I think is preferable to a general "mix-&-match", and the "more lifts the better" tendency in Strictly.

But that's just my personal taste; the rules say they can do whatever they like, so fair enough.