I don't think she looked like a robot in her samba.
It;s just that some people aren't as effusive as others.
I'm not. We're not robots or cold fish.... it's just how we're made.

I mean i've heard people at work say that they think Abbey is carrying a 'bitch face' but don't see that i just see nerves, doubt and self blame. That's why i was so glad she seemed more cheerful this week.

Similarly with Sophie.

Some of the contestants are actors, it's their profession to portray emotions, some of the contestants aren't, they are concentrating on getting something difficult as right as they can, very conscious of the possibility of making themselves look ridiculous, and without an acting background to fall back on.
I know i wouldn't have the nerve to do that.

Apart from this week, when i agree something seemed wrong, i don't see coldness.

Where did I mention cold or robot?

Sophie, especially in Latin, makes me feel uncomfortable (not charleston). She looks uncomfortable so she makes me, the viewer, feel uncomfortable. It's not about hamming it up or being something she's not, but it's about capturing the essence of the dance and in Latin she doesn't do that for me.

Is she beautiful? Yes. Is she a lovely person? Yes. Does she convince me that she's partying in Rio? No.

Susanna is not my favourite, but she totally threw herself into her samba. Sophie is not the same character, obviously, but there is a happy medium between Susanna at one end of the spectrum and Sophie at the other.

Sophie's been really lucky with the judges, Louis who was very similar to Sophie got an absolute pounding from Craig for not emoting in the dance.

G-d no, not you.



I just think some of the comments are unfair. I think there has been far more character in her dances and in her performance than people have given her credit for.

I do find Mark and Susanna hammy and, well, Dave in his own 'special' way too.

I don't think she was over marked....she has the most content as does Natalie.

This, I think, shows what many people are trying to say with regard to Sophie. She moves reasonably well and she remembers her steps but the persona she puts across is one that is generally similar to what she is naturally.

That's fine when she's doing cool sophistication (the Charleson) or old time glamour (the foxtrot) but doesn't work at all in the samba or the cha cha. At the moment, she seems reluctant to move from where she's comfortable into a character more suited to the dance in question. She'll need to address that in future weeks or she'll struggle with other dances too.

You've mentioned Mark when defending Sophie, but Mark has shown this week that he actually relished coming out of his comfort zone to do something slow and serious. And he pulled it off very well. Sophie needs (as the post above mentions) that "unexpected" moment. The one where we see a different side to her and not just the laid-back sophisticate.

But this is where we see different things. I still found Mark uncomfortable to watch, as i do Susanna.

And i don't see anything wrong with Sophie's samba. Or rather i should say not to the extent that people claim.

I DO agree that this week something was not right though.
I also still think that some of the terms used to describe her are unfair.

You might have found Mark uncomfortable to watch but the character he portrayed (even though you might not have liked it) was completely different from the character he put across in his cha cha (whatever you might have thought of that).

Sophie doesn't do that. Every dance she does, she projects the same "cool, laid-back" image. I look, I see Sophie, serene and elegant. Whatever the dance. She just seems unable, at present, to move away from that.

One of them has made their career as an actor, the other has not.

And that was no cha cha

That's an explanation but it's not an excuse. She needs to move away from her natural persona. If she can.

I'll look forward to seeing it.

At the risk of going around in circles.

I think the 'cold fish' 'robot' statements are completely overstated.

I think if previous dance training is taken into account it is not unreasonable that previous acting training be considered irrelevant.

Some of us are not as effusive, some people are very effusive.

It is just as possible to go too far as it is not far enough.

To me, i think some go too far, and i am inclined to give Sophie more credit. She is not as obvious as some but some of her dances have been full of character. And i would much rather see her cha cha again, as off as it was compared to her usual level, than Mark's... effort.

You like Sophie, I get it, honestly I do. But the samba was awful. Again, just my opinion, but those samba rolls just reminded me of a daddy long legs crawling across the floor because she was all legs.

It's not even the character of the dance totally for me, the samba and cha cha just weren't danced well. She was wobbly and uncertain in both. Her waltz also wasn't danced well for me, she was so floppy. She corrected that for the foxtrot, but she hasn't corrected her Latin for me.

I don't see Sophie as having danced her cha cha and samba any better than Victoria Pendleton did with Brendan last year, except she remembered the routine. and Victoria was crucified by the judges.

Kimberly last year was very quiet off the floor but she sold a routine way better than Sophie does. Sophie can't carry on giving the same one note performances in the Latin or she's going to get passed in popularity by the ones who are improving.

A lot of people were overmarked. For all the gapping in Abbey's dance, I wouldn't have given her more than Sophie. Position on the leaderboard was about right. It wasn't enjoyable but it was technically okay.

Are you saying its because of her long legs now?
Would it help if she were spherical and gurning?


Again i concede the cha cha was weak although much better than some praised ones, but if you're seriously telling me the samba was not better than Victoria Pendletons' then i'm calling shenanigans.

Call it whatever you want. It's a board of opinions.

I completely retract my spherical a and gurning comment. It wasn't nice. It was meant humorously (iedit: didn't really believe you were complaining she had legs that are too long, i was just making a couple of silly comments to lighten the mood, that on reflection don't look the way i intended) ,but on re reading it doesn't come across that way and i shouldn't have said it. And had you not quoted it i should have removed it.


It is indeed a board of opinions and i disagree regarding those two sambas.

I'm inclined to agee. I loved her first dance, it was exciting to watch as she put some personality into it, but I have been really disappointed in all of her following dances. She knows the steps and executes then correctly, but there is no personality there. I'm not enjoying watching her anymore. At first I thought it was going to be a 2 horse race, but unless the voters warm to her, she could lose those vital votes.

She seemed to take Alan Carr telling her he'd seen corpses on Silent Witness with more colour than her with surprisingly good humour for such a diva.



My fear is that Brendan just won't bother to try to address the performance issue. He seems to be treating Sophie with the same level of excessive fawning that he treated Victoria with for the brief and shining moment when he believed an Olympian was his key to the glitterball. It's a shame because Sophie doesn't have Victoria's confidence issues or emotional baggage so I think could take the criticism on board and work on it like an adult.

I suppose we all knew that she wasn't going to be great at the Latin dances and now people are congratulating themselves now that their suspicions have been confirmed. However, when I think of Louis Smith's Salsa, Cha Cha Cha and Samba, I think he truly was expressionless (as if his face hadn't been informed of what his body was doing) but Sophie appears to be trying to smile and look sexy/flirty in the right places, it's just not quite enough yet.

Fairy nuff.

shalom

You make it sound as though people are gloating about Sophie's weak Latin and I really don't think that's the case. If anything I think people were hoping Sophie would prove us wrong. It would make the series more interesting for one thing .I see a lot of goodwill towards Sophie, but there's only so many weeks people are going to accept excuses for insipid performances. A big (and important) difference between Louis' Latin and Sophie's is how superior his was techinically; something he seemed to get very little credit for with the judges who just wanted to highlight his flaws. Sophie is getting an easier ride from the judges for far worse dances. I also think it's fair that people will have slightly higher performace expectations from a popstar than an athlete. I would also say Louis brought more of a "cool sexuality" to his Latin, it was in the way he moved, even if his face didn't convey the right mood, his body did. Sophie doesn't/can't move like that and I'm somebody who doesn't find Louis at all sexy off the dance floor.

Acting lessons have been suggested for Sophie, it might help, but has Brendan ever gone down this route with a partner before? I can't remember. Although I suspect she may have had acting lessons already; at one point she was looking to move into acting and auditioned for the Nicole Kidman role in Moulin Rouge. Still, it couldn't hurt to have some more. Halloween week provides her with a great opportunity to get more in character, if Victoria could do it then there's no reason why Sophie shouldn't be able to. If she does pull off a more interesting performance, I'm sure she'll receive due credit..

I don't think the implication about Victoria fair, she may have issues but taking criticism has never been one of them; in fact Brendan said the the thing she most hated on Strictly was the fawning and people telling her she'd done well when she knew she hadn't. He said she found it patronising and embarrassing, she liked honesty and to hear things straight good or bad. She took the judges criticism well. Obviously if Sophie is given constructive critique she should be able to work on it better, simply because she has more to work with.

Not necessarily gloating but people obviously had preconceived notions of Sophie based on her pop persona (the dancing mannequin that some posts had made reference to is even a concept from one of her videos) and now that she has confirmed them by struggling with two Latin dances, I find the swiftness with which people are dismissing her as a contender and diminishing her past achievements a bit excessive. Realistically she hasn't really faired much worse in the Latin dances than her closest competition, Abbey. Also, it's only week 6, everyone struggles with some dances and there are still many more dances to come that I believe could suit her so I wouldn't dismiss her entirely yet

I read back my post and realise that my point about Victoria wasn't clear. I didn't mean that she couldn't take criticism but rather that Brendan praised her slightly excessively in the early weeks, probably to boost her confidence. He's doing the same sort of thing with Sophie but I don't think she's lacking in confidence or even particularly shy and I think she would benefit from criticism because, as you pointed out, she has more natural ability than Victoria.

I mentioned Louis purely in reference to his performance ability. I am aware that he was a far superior Latin dancer than Sophie (and probably a better dancer overall). Louis truly was blank and expressionless while I believe Sophie is trying to express the emotion/character of each dance but is hindered by her natural reserve. I can't really comment on Louis' sexiness but I find Sophie the kind of woman who is beautiful rather than sexy which, I suppose, is a quality that doesn't lend itself we'll to the Latin dances.

BIB. I assumed you were. I just meant his "blankness" facially mattered far less because everything else was so good. I don't think it matters whether Sophie's sexy or not, I just felt Louis did bring a certain cool sexuality to his dancing which helped. He sold his Latin dances better (to me) than Sophie has so far even if he was facially inexpressive. If Sophie brought confidence, vivacity, energy or joy to her Latin whether or not she's sexy wouldn't matter. Was Louis really that blank anyway? I seem to recall a certain haughty arrogant expression although whether or not it was appropraite to the dance I forget.


I do agree with you about Sophie's "shyness" I don't see her as particularly shy either, more reserved and self-contained. These qualities are fine by me, but don't make her very exciting to watch. Hopefully she'll show a different side in some of the more dramatic dances, but if she doesn't I think it'll have to be accepted that she's a bit boring as a dancer and as a contestant on a TV entertainment show.

I love how this rears it's ugly head anywhere you click on the boards these days...

I think it's unfair that the judges never pick up on Sophie's lack of performance when it is usually something they criticise. But I didn't think her chacha was THAT bad, I thought she was smooth and elegant. I didn't like the choice of song or Brendan's choreography though - why can't he give her something more energetic?

But then you could argue that Sophie has no excuse to get any of her timing/rhythm wrong because she is a musician (which she did in this dance I think).The "profession" argument is a bit annoying, but that's just my opinion. Abbey's not an actor but makes more effort with facial expression I think

Think this may just be down to Brendan. Has he not noticed her kneels like to stay together but her feet don't.

Some proper emphasis on basic technique, dealing with the whys & wherefores of various steps would help Sophie enormously. She is a bright girl and he is failing her by not teaching her the basics AND a routine, for which she is more than capable.