ITV3 is having a 'Lewis' weekend and they've just started the episode with Kara.

Jay and Aliona
https://amp.twimg.com/v/d0da3948-a39...a-8530a3b93c94

Georgia and Giovanni
https://amp.twimg.com/v/a2e642fb-d48...6-a77d10386e84

This is quite an interesting blog about Kara's latest film 'Let's be Evil'. There isn't loads about Kara, but it gives some more detail about the story and its very interesting from a film-making point of view (especially the little videos showing them trying to get their arms into a P.O.V. shot with a giant camera over their shoulder )

https://chasebowman.wordpress.com/20...n-photography/

Jeremy and Karen
https://amp.twimg.com/v/6a48b426-eeb...a-b61462268a3e

Let's hope he's got plenty of time to rehearse. Eek!

Carole and Pasha

https://amp.twimg.com/v/3d501a38-79a...5-b81ed013aaaf

IPlayer first steps compilation: part 2
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...t-steps-part-2

Iwan and Ola
https://amp.twimg.com/v/b15832f5-bdc...0-15bf95656cea

Helen and Aljaž
https://amp.twimg.com/v/581bebf9-3a6...d-049867941bb7

Thank you Fridgy for all of the dancing snippets, am inclined to favour Helen, but that is because I liked her in the midwife. Looking forward to the weekend to try and get to know the others.
Breton life continues well. My neighbours get nicer ( difficult to improve on as they were lovely to start with) as I get to know them. One gave me some foraged fruit jam, which turned out to be cornelian cherry (sorbus mas) very exciting for me as I love new wild goodies ( wrenny birds love them, so am in competition with them) So I am now experimenting with marmalade, and a crumble. They are a sort of sour cherry popular in turkey, Iran , Romania.
We have started back at French classes, along with the Brits and Vietnamese, we have a Russian, a young girl from the Congo, and a man from Angola who fought on the wrong side, so can't go back or he will be killed ( his words) brings you up sharp when you hear that at 9am on a Monday morning. I return to Danse Breton next week, and my Danse phobic OH is coming along too, after a nose to nose confrontation with an extremely persistent man who extracted a promise to attend. OH's elderly Breton male friends sniggered in the background and made parody little finger movements . We will see but I am not sure whether to be pleased or not.

https://twitter.com/Paulrud/status/6...275072/photo/1

Really enjoyed last night's show (overall ).

The Good
Anita and Gleb were the highlight. Full of energy and fun. Anita really gave it some and, for a proper non-dancer, she was fab. Her not-pointy feet were distracting and she made a few mis-steps, but a great start. So looking forward to her ballroom.

Helen and Aljaž were lovely. Maybe a tad saccharine, but it drew me in. She seemed a little off balance in parts, but another good start.

Anthony and Oti. I was really looking forward to seeing Oti but not so sure about him. Thought he might be a daft young lad, but I changed my mind - he's great. Lots of fun, big smiles, funny feet - the can-can comment was spot on - but that was a lot of dance for a first time and he's another one without any experience. On rewatching I could see how clever Oti had been in protecting his shoulder.

Some lovely dresses (especially Anita, Helen, Katie)

The singers getting a name check.

The Okay
Kellie and Kevin's tango seemed to have lots of content and I think she probably did it well but there was so much faff at the start and too much of the theme getting in the way. She has lots of potential, but she's with Kevin.... I hated the 'get into character, wear a stupid ugly wig and hat' thing at the beginning. Just UGH!

The Bad
Daniel and Kristina. Well, it might be unfair to say his waltz was actually bad and if Len says his footwork was good, I believe him, but zzzzzzzzzzz..... (I had a lovely lunch out with Wrenny, peeve and barbaram last weekend and we decided that, on an entertainment show, the biggest sin was being boring and I'm afraid he's the very definition). I did chuckle at Kristina's face when he sat down and sang to her in training. Now that's a comedy VT!

Carol and Pasha. The VT dancing on the weather map to put her at her ease. Words fail me. Pasha being lowered in on a lightening bolt. Carol looking embarrassed. Carol forgetting the routine. It all crossed my cringe threshold and I had to look away. *shudder*

The camera work.

Tess' scriptwriter.

Pretty much agree with all that Fridgesoup

Anita was a nice surprise (but like most of the others I could've done without the naff intro related to her job) and liked Gleb a lot more than the launch show. As expected, it looks like they aren't going to leave the handsome Gleb thing alone - he's very nice looking but its not like all the other pros are trolls

Helen was good but I'm getting serious Ali Bastian vibes at the moment - all a bit wet for me

Anthony was surprisingly good and seems sweet. Oti is lovely.

I agree the dresses already seemed a massive improvement on some of last year's. Hopefully they've realised that is not the place to cut the budget.

Didn't like anything about Kevin and Kellie, although she can clearly dance it didn't feel like a tango and the faces the two of them were pulling were just way too much all at once . (And that weird bit where she kind of hopped along thrusting her hips at him was just bizarre )

Agree about Carol and Pasha - I'm not sure if she was pushed into doing the show as a BBC employee or really wanted to do it and didn't realise how bad she'd be but it was all a bit embarrassing Although Pasha's commitment to the 'comedy' VTs is always amusing.... 'I thought this giant weather map would help you learn to take larger steps' *said in the most wooden voice ever*

I find Daniel oddly fascinating - he did look to be doing good footwork but I couldn't decide if he's tranquilized, botoxed or something else.... he reminds me of one of those episodes of Doctor Who where they finally unzip the back of their head to reveal an alien/robot trying to approximate human behaviour.

I'm not even sure its Tess' scriptwriter, but her ability to kill any moment of humour stone dead is alive and well. She delivers all her lines like she's in a panto and unfortunately this is just highlighted by Claudia being brilliant all the time.

Well, I'm really not sure how much I'm going to enjoy this year tbh. I thought Anita and Katie were both surprisingly good and showed great promise. I enjoyed watching Jay, Ainsley, Jeremy and Carol because they are what SCD is all about for me; people who can improve by working hard.

My big problem this year is Peter Andre. I absolutely detest him, so the combination of his "super-sincerity", the ridiculous themed dances and the not remotely funny "comedy" vt's might just push me over the edge. I watched on catch-up tonight so I could FF through the (not)training vt's, I'll do the same next week and see how it goes, but my Andre hate is deep and he may have just killed SCD for me.

Scout, I feel your pain re: PA. I don't hate him and think he's mostly harmless (provided I don't have to watch him or read about him), but I've already started twitching in irritation after one show. It didn't help that he was so highly praised/marked for what seemed to me to be a very mediocre disco-cha . His posture was awful and his leg/foot technique didn't look right to me. I thought they would say he was mincy, but no, it was the best over both nights.

Quick thoughts after a late watch of saturday nights show
Never want to see JV dance again. I was under the sofa with embarrassment.
Weird marking
Jay surprisingly good, despite shaking like a leaf.
Ainsley funniest tango I have ever seen loved, loved, loved it. Surprising as he normally annoys me.
Had the same reaction to Peter, not nearly as annoying as I expected. Shouldn't be at the top of leader board though
Katie, oh bum she can dance. Anton might last till the final, by which time, Katie will definitely be the better dancer.
*

Ha ha! Yes, exactly .


Glad you've got the telly fired up.

I thought Bruno's comment about Ainsley looking like a rooster chasing a hen, was spot on !

Jay was great despite being crippled by fear and he seems like a sweetheart, but it won't help his anxiety for Tess and Claude to go on about it...and on and on and on and....

Katie's fab. I'll just have to put up with Anton.

Kirsty fell apart (after showing promise in training) and she looked so lovely, too. Better luck next week. Brenda as irksome as ever ('this girl' ... Grrr)

PA not my fave. I hope Janette choreographs a proper ballroom for him this week - if he's 'really good' then we need to see it, not have him approximate the dances in a generic dancey way. Will let them both off for week one

Jamelia was a bit shakey, but I'm liking the partnership and have high hopes for her Latin.

I though Giovanni over-danced and made Georgia look more pedestrian than she was. A good effort from her. Hope he calms down. He looked shattered at the end.

Jeremy. Well, he's enthusiastic.

Iwan. Poor. If he hasn't got the time to train, I can't be bothered to care. Meh!


My favourites after a week are Anita, Anthony, Jamelia, Jay and Katie.

Dropping in from lurkdom, thanks for keeping the thread going and for all the news and links.

I'm really enjoying Strictly so far and liking quite a few of the couples.

A bit of Kara news, I understand she will be on Pride of Britain Awards, presenting an award with Jeremy P and Katherine K from Mr Selfridge.

Also she's part of the Breast Cancer Campaign.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar...-makeover.html

I liked Ainsley, his neck did seem to completely disappear, but he wasn't wooden at all and seemed to be feeling the music, which could bode well for his salsa.

Love Katie and Anton, not the best jive ever but I really like their partnership (and I must admit the huge smile on Anton's face on the balcony watching Pasha try and manoeuvre Carol around the dance floor instead of him made me laugh )

Felt sorry for Kirsty - I was so distracted by her head, sort of flopping from side to side and looking like Brendan had incredibly bad breath and she was straining to get as far away as possible. Completely agree about all the 'This girl' comments, Fridgesoup. You'd think he might have learnt his lesson after Sophie.

Don't really remember much about Jamelia's dance as I was so distracted by the awful incredibly tight outfit they had put Tristan in. He looked great in training and then they somehow made him look short and tubby on the dance floor

I'm afraid I'm not keen on Georgia and her little girl act at 24 and Tess' 'Ooh the Chemistry!' comments. That's not really their fault, although the 'look up her skirt' choreography doesn't help. Agree he totally over-danced.

Just bored by Iwan and Ola and thought the race track and running start was one of the most cringe worthy themes they've ever had.

I find Peter very watchable and I quite like Janette but I don't think I could bring myself to support him because at some point he speaks.

Jay is just adorable and I've grown to like Aliona so I really hope someone tells Tess to shut up and stop making things worse.

Hi Thanks for the link - love Kara's Julien McDonald dress

Was she at the Pride of Britain awards? I thought she might go, but there were no pictures of her anywhere and I saw a pic of Jeremy and Katherine with the people they presented the award to but Kara wasn't in it, so I wasn't sure if she went.

Yes she looks lovely Ellie, in JM dress.

Well haven't spotted a pic of her yet but on Mirror article it says Joanne and Dan Thompson picked up their award from Jeremy, Katherine and Kara, so don't know why Kara not in the pic with them. Hope one materialises. Awards are on Thursday, so we might spot a glimpse then.

Hmm stumped, looking at photos on stage, just shows Jeremy and Katherine but no sighting of Kara, perhaps wrongly reported it's been know to happen or her plans changed.

Lovely to see you!

Thanks for the link. She looks great in the dress.

Quiz - week 1

13/15

12/15 pour moi.

Last night OH came to Danse Breton with me and my lovely neighbour. Went surprisingly well ( not refusing to go ever again) and I got to do a walzy thing with him. First dance together in about 20 years
He was in a sandwich between the two bossiest women in the group. One of whom has been known to slap legs.

14/15

Week 2: in training - video