The running promenades need quite a lot of energy just to keep timing and get into a reasonable position (although they're also complicated by confusing footwork, which I guess matters less on Strictly). So I think it is a bit unfair to say she was dragged around. No she didn't excel,but it's her first latin. Getting samba as a first latin is a pretty tough deal.

Actually I was more disappointed by her ballroom last week which was very soft and pretty, but which needed work on posture/hold, although to be fair, other aspects of the technique were quite good (hence its smoothness, which you don't get if the technique is poor).

To be fair to her, she did have a dress malfunction and fell over in the dress rehearsal yesterday, so perhaps that knocked her confidence a bit.

But I really don't think the Charleston is the only dance she'll be good at. I can imagine some really great Ballroom and a nice Paso Doble and Jive. Let's just wait and see.

Totally agree

Surely nothing is yet evident when she has only danced three dances .? How on earth could you come to the conclusion that its evident ? For all we know she could do a stunning Rhumba or Jive yet .

Actually I was surprised she was good last night , not brilliant but very enjoyable to watch . My joy in Strictly is watching people get better, learn and move forward . .

Sambas are hard to dance. Sophie did very well (especially as she was dressed like Emu) and brought her own, cool personality to the dance. I liked that too.

I've spent much time in Samba schools/events as my sister-in-law is a semi-professional samba dancer (I had the less glamourous role of resewing tears in costumes and carrying feathers ) and have seen samba danced in many styles. Sophie did well.

Interesting, thanks Spin




Fair points Anth!

Sophie is indeed a beautiful elegant swan and this dance was full of Samba content, as Len pointed out. Better authentic steps with a more restrained attitude, IMVHO, than "fun fun funnity fun" trying to mask lack of content.

The thread start keeps using the term "swan song". I do not think it means what he thinks it means.

Actually I agree with fabulist and find your comment that his/her views are "uneducated" as unnecessarily insulting. You could simply say you disagree.

I was enthralled by her Charleston last week and will remember it for a long time, but found her Samba very disappointing.

As was stated by fabulist, our issue was that the judges chose to over inflate their comments and scores - it was never a 31. It was like they were too scared to bring someone down from such an amazing high the week before. IMH (but educated) O.

I am a dancer and Sophie is a lot like I was. The potential is there, she's got good hip rotations, natural rhythm and impeccable timing, but I think her problem is just letting ago. With a Samba, you really need to enjoy it, focus on having fun and not the steps. You could see how concentrated Sophie was last night and she was clearly nervous, but if Sophie just let go she would walk away with this (her being popular with the audience is a real plus for her). I used to be exactly like Sophie, stiff because I was afraid to let go and enjoy it... but it does go away and with time she'll loosen up.

I think it could be be because she is beautiful and clever at the same time. She does not rest on her looks and act sexy/flirty. I like Sophie.

I like Sophie. She looks like a swan, but is clumsy IMO. Can't understand how someone so delicate looking can be so clumsy.

Like a swan walking around the edge of the pond ... sometimes she gets to look like a swan on water. I hope as the series progresses and she gains confidence, we'll see more of the water swan and less the land swan.

I thought she coped really well with a difficult dance, especially as she is also tall and long-limbed. Her samba seemed to have a lot of content, with quite a few different steps, and Brendan wasn't trying to hide her or twirl her around for most of the dance. For somebody who has genuinely started from scratch at the beginning of the programme, I think that is promising, and she has room to improve. I am looking forward to seeing how far she can go.

Once Sophie truly gets the SCD bug she will really shine. Suspect she hasn't quite been swept away by the experience just yet. A couple more weeks and she will be hooked.

I don't think last week's score came into it, almost all the scoring last night was off IMO.

It's a bit unfair to expect a sensational dance every week from someone with limited dance experience at the start, even after that charleston. Some dances will be easier to get into, others will be harder. The samba is a hard dance but I thought Sophie coped really well with it. I don't think it was as good as the charleston but that doesn't mean it was a bad samba!

It's only week 3 and I have every confidence that Sophie will have more stronger dances to come particularly in ballroom and the jive. It's far too early (and foolish) to write her off at this stage but if that's what some people want to do then suit themselves.

I agree!!

I don't think any realistic person could have expected her Samba to equal her Charleston. As others have already stated, it's a difficult dance (particularly for her first Latin) and not ideally suited to her body type and personality. I don't know enough to pick apart the finer points of technique but I thought she coped well and out of all the female celebrities (excluding Natalie for obvious reasons) I thought she looked the most confident and least awkward dancing a Latin dance.

All of the celebrities who are learning to dance from scratch are going to have up and down weeks and encounter dances that just don't suit them. I don't think we should write Sophie off just because she's faltered a little the week after a triumph. I think there are still loads of dances that she could do well at and I think her Latin will improve, as will her ability to perform.




You're right Pet, Louis did do a "cool" Samba too but I think it worked a little better in his case than in Sophie's. I thought it was a shame that Brendan decided to go for the "cool" and "sophisticated" vibe (assuming it was intentional and not just Sophie's natural demeanour) because on the rare moments that she did smile it was lovely and really lifted the performance.

I also think the whole performance was a bit too insular. I think Sophie only connects with Brendan when she's dancing and doesn't reach out to the audience enough so it felt a bit like they might as well have been dancing alone in an empty room.

She's still better than plenty of the others who, on even more lack of technique, even more lack of depth and even more lack of energy deserve the prediciton of having had their swansong dance already (on day one for some still).

I agree, I thought she did well with the choreography she was given and is just lacking a bit in central core strength which will come with practise and time.

Yes, but fabulist didn't describe her performance in your perfectly reasonable fashion.

"Brendan dragged her limp, lifeless body around like a corpse, in between her clumsy flat footed and out of time steps. For me, you could even argue that Dave was better tonight. At least he entertained."

Of course, everyone's entitled to their opinion, but do you honestly think those comments were "reasonable" ?
If you're going to post blatant nonsense, you have to expect to receive some flack.

Yes it does - a final or farewell performance.

When I read the thread title, I thought it was going to be suggesting that for some reason Sophie deserved to be leaving this week.

I didn't think she was that bad!

I thought her dance was cool and classy - she's always interesting to watch.

She wasn't better than Ben or Abby, yet she scored more, which baffles me.

Watch it again. I think you'll be surprised how well she coped with the technique of the traditional samba steps. However, if you're just moaning because you don't like Sophie and don't really know much about dancing, then there's no point in watching it again because you won't know what to look for.

Abby really disappointed me last night. I did not expect her to be bad, and I'm afraid that's what she was. I'm hoping it was nerves, I really am, because she was one of my picks in week one, and even last week where I could tell she'd just hit a wall and it wasn't that she couldn't actually do it. But last night, she was actually really quite bad