I agree, it would be lovely and so much better than trying to do both ballroom and latin dances to the most unsuitable music ever. I cringe at some of the music choices. There's tons of suitable ballet music for a start.

Sounds like the opposite of fission ...

No,it doesn't,but I found it fairly interesting in an incidental manner.

And collectively add up to fiction.

Yes, I should have remembered that, considering that I have danced to it a few times! I also remember dancing to a 3/4 arrangement of the Flower Song which I thought worked very well. Here is the original 4/4 version:

Andrea Bocelli - The Flower Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbr9JbX0IcA

I think this was his first appearance on British TV and many people were wondering why he didn't look at her!

Yes, I can just see Mark dancing to the Sugar Plum Fairy.

... culminating in the frisson fizzin' out ...

There's an obvious reply about the Nutcracker but I'm too polite to make it !!

It's funny those who knock DWTS always say they've only seen a "few" clips. These are the facts:-

More dance content on DWTS.
infinitely more variation of, and traditional music.

Yes some are quite flashy and showy but that's what ours as become with all the props etc. Indeed these ideas were taken from DWTS.

Ratings are down from it's heyday but they aren't tumbling, plus there is the twice a year overkill.

To claim ours is more real ballroom dancing and DWTS isn't is just wrong, indeed scratch the surface and the opposite is true.

SCD's ballroom dances need flashing up a bit anyway a lot are very repetitive and boring.

It's a travesty to force him to sing pop songs when he has that voice.

Something got lost in translation. I wasn't knocking DWTS, just commenting on reports that ratings were down, while ratings for Strictly are up. Are those reports wrong?

Nor did I ever say that Strictly has 'more real ballroom dancing'. Actually, I agree with you, hence my saying that Strictly is meeting viewers' needs rather than those of dance aficionados (who are always moaning on this forum about Strictly dumbing down and not doing enough of the dance in hold, etc, ad nauseam).

My point is that if Strictly is doing so well in terms of viewing figures, it has no need to copy what its offspring is doing across the pond, eg introduce a classical week. Maybe there isn't a direct correlation between the gimmicks on DWTS and its falling ratings, but if I were producing Strictly, I wouldn't take that chance.

Well Bocelli is a pop singer. He has sung very few (to be generous) live operas. He never sings without a microphone. His voice is passionate but thin, rasping and weak. So a sort of Italian male Katherine Jenkins.

Just compare
this http://youtu.be/1iCHNCtoqqQ
with http://youtu.be/kwI4nth1bvk

and smile

OK he's a much better singer than me but I wouldn't dream of buying one of his records when there are much better alternatives available.

I thought Andrei was trained an opera singer though?

At least he doesn't shout like most male opera singers. They seem to operate on the principle "Anything you can sing I can sing louder - I can sing anything louder than you!" (I forget which show that is from). And if you don't know why he doesn't sing in operas, perhaps the fact that he is blind has something to do with it.

Thanks to Henry, I've since read the criticisms (from wikipedia) of his weak and 'thin' high registers that many opera purists didn't like. They like that he has a nice timbre and warm tone in his singing voice though. That, I believe, is part of his soul singing.

Some critics said his opera studio recordings were 'carefully managed' (they didn't they auto-tuned, don't think that's what they meant anyway) so that he appeared more competent than the other opera singers in those records.

I supposed not being able to listen to opera live meant I was duped into thinking Andrei had a good operatic voice because Classic FM tells me so!

When I saw this ghastly parody of a foxtrot, much as I like Nicole, I stopped watching DWTS altogether. If SCD ever gets this bad, they will lose at least one viewer.

Nicole Scherzinger & Derek Hough - Dancing With The Stars - Foxtrot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkJHsRWxZrw

And just listen to the guff Len and Bruno are talking - they certainly knew which side their bread was buttered on in America!

Not really much of a handicap. Pavarotti couldn't move or act much. It is just that Bocelli hasn't got a voice that can project without a microphone and electronic enhancement.

Any young contestant at the Cardiff Singer of The Year (since 1983) would be better than Bocelli.

But I grant you that Bocelli is a better singer than me. And hats off to his PR and agent.

Compare this:


with Roberto Alagna : "La fleur que tu m'avais jetée"

http://youtu.be/P0tUnqvRanM

[Male Totty Warning: Watch your ovaries]

Hmm. That is not Len and Bruno.

At least Len mentioned the gapping.

The key factor in using classical music, or indeed any type of music, whether it is a theme week or just randomly is that it is appropriate for the dance. Some of the examples from DWTS are not the best, there are many other pieces that could be used. As I posted in the Paso Music thread, Susanna and KFG'S Paso proves that the public love good music if it is right for the dance.

Unfortunately it does not appear to be on youtube, but James Martin and Camilla did a Paso to Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights which was very effective. A version here, which is a bit slower than I normally hear it but it's nice and very dramatic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGnuVerNLSA

I don't see why not.