Thank you, very much. I learned something there.

I love their connection and totally disagree, he is there for her, they were only couple who had a connectionon Saturday, the public judging by the ds, hello and other online poll had them most popular

Being there for someone is not the same as connection.

Popularity is not based on dance, everyone agrees Sophie is lovely.

Exactly.

I just wonder why they seem to not get why they might be criticised. Between Brendan standing up for Sophie and her bewildered face at the criticisms I do wonder what is missing. A chunk of self awareness might not go amiss for both of them.

Susanna fully accepted the judges critical comments on their Cha Cha. Mark understood what was missing and tried to correct it in the Dance off. It is very hard to improve if you cannot understand or accept what you did wrong.

I completely agree with this - I think Brendan is blustering - he MUST know that Sophie is not cutting it.

And Sophie is baffled and defensive.


She's doing something wrong, she's got to realise the buck rests with HER, and try to understand what the problems are.

Brendan may even have tried to teach her, but she just doesn't get it.

I liked Susannah on Saturday, she couldn't cha cha well, but she knew she couldn't and she gave it her best go and was completely aware of the problems.

Oh I so wish she would - just once!

Who is Julian?

Thank you for your clear and informative posts. You have explained exactly why Sophie is failing in learning. Like everyone else I have been very puzzled by Sophie's lack of progress. It's clear the girl can do the steps, she is simply failing to get the dance across. And this seems to be based in Brendan's failure to teach her properly. Brendan does seem to fail his partners when he is given someone who needs another teaching method. He is an excellent dancer and a very good choreographer, he just seems to have a blind spot with his teaching.

To be fair to Brendan, none of us are in the training room

Everyone learns at their own pace and there are many teaching styles, not all of them suit everybody. Maybe some pros feels that teaching choreography is the best way to give decent telly in 4 days, at least with some students.?
Maybe Sophie is really a bit of a Rachel Riley and Brendan is masking it brilliantly!

A bit of self reflection from both of them would probably help their progression. In a way, it's a terrible shame because I just want to see lovely Sophie moving in an equally lovely way to the rest of her AND IT'S NOT HAPPENING YET!

And that is all too true. I'm not a great dance expert and like you I have no idea what Brendan chooses to emphasise in the training room. All I know is that every week I sit there willing Sophie to do well, and every week I am left wanting. Take the Argentine Tango for instance. That dance was wonderfully choreographed and Brandon danced it beautifully, with Sophie and a chair. I would be hard pushed to say what showed the most emotion...Sophie or the chair. And that is sad, very sad.

While I agree completely with what DiamondBetty's said, I don't believe it's all Brendan's fault. Sophie seems to struggle with the "intimacy" (fake or not) which is needed in a lot of ballroom/latin dancing. She seems to get flustered with a lot of eye contact which is why, imo, the rumba fluctuated between some lovely moments of connection and moments when she looked away and seemed to be totally dislocated from the dance.
I love to watch Sophie because she's innately elegant and produces some beautiful lines and extensions but I do wish I could see a bit more "love of the dance" coming from her.

Abandonment to the joy of dance is missing. Where Natalie polishes the shine off it, Sophie disassociates from it.

Yes totally, now if only they could combine their positions and create a glorious meeting in the middle

I think this is why Susanna and Kevin have ended up my favourites, or as close to a favourite as I have. Susanna is perhaps a little over enthusiastic, but I do think she loves the dancing. Abbey, Patrick and Ashley all seem to be seem to be loving the dance. Even Mark seems to take joy in it. Sophie and Natalie seem to be standing at the two ends of the spectrum. I think you have to love the dance to really connect with the audience, and I'm not getting that vibe from Sophie..

Sophie had the 'abandonment to the joy of dance' in the quickstep. It was a joy to see.

The rumba just seems to have a big divide between the people who got it and the people who didn't get it. It doesn't matter how many posts go up saying how bad it was, nobody is going to believe there wasn't any emotion if they personally felt that emotion when they watched it on the night. It's not a technical decision that you can review with Hawkeye.

Did they feel the emotion though? Or was it fan worship of Brendan, sympathy for Sophie or simply wishful thinking? I am not going to accuse the judges of personal bias against Brendan or Sophie for their remarks. It's not that I don't believe that they won't have personal feelings for Brendan because of course they will. I just think that they are all professionals and I do trust their decisions. I may not agree with their marks but it's funny how more often than not I agree with the board placements.

I don't think anyone stood out on Saturday, it all felt a little flat. Blackpool fatigue maybe? But I think these people who all have worked in dance for years know what they are talking about. And they are there, in the room and they get vibes that we at home don't. All of them said that the dance was lacking. Now unless you are in love with a conspiracy theory it has to be admitted that they agreed. And many people on this board also agree. Nobody on the board has said that they dislike Sophie, in fact the opposite is the norm. It's not a bias, it's concern because something is lacking and it was very obvious on Saturday night.

Spot on.

I suspect those of us who are not in awe of Brendan and still remembering the Charleston do want more from Sophie and are increasingly frustrated that she just does not get it. That "it" moment where you really are outside your comfort zone and are enjoying the thrill of it.

Whatever she does seems to be safely inside her comfort zone, even the quickstep.

Nothing to get spot on.

The Public liked it and it was a rumba.

I thinnk the remark where she said that she couldn't do a dance that would make her family members uncomfortable was very telling. If you are lost in the dance than that is the last thing you should be thinking. As Craig said the rumba does not have to be lascivious in any way, but it has to be emotional. And I don't mean that the you should have to project your own emotion on it, the dance should touch all members of the audience, or at least as much as possible.

The rumba can be a beautiful dance, touching, emotional and capable of making the audience feel something exists between the dancers. This doesn't mean sexual heat, it can be something as simple as respect and friendship. But that should be channeled through the dance, not frozen out.

Monaogg, I agree with both these comments. . Particularly like the second one!

I actually like Brendan (very much) and Sophie, but I think they need to be more objective about their performance.

No, all the Public didn't like it. Some members of the public liked it, others most certainly did not. And it may have been a dance that incorporated some rumba steps but it was missing quite a lot of others. And before you accuse me of unfairness, I am being fair. What I am not being is partisan.

The emotion was there, but it wasn't consistent. In and out. And it may be the reason for that is that she's trying to project the emotion rather than letting herself pretend to FEEL that emotion. The emotion is only there whilst she concentrates but it needs to be unconscious; she needs to make her body feel the emotion so it can continue to show it without needing her to focus.

Joy and laughter she lets herself feel. QS and Charleston were good. But she won't let herself do love or sensuality, and I think that may be the nub. And what stops her winning.

I'm not sure that I support the idea that someone needs to 'feel the emotion' in a rumba. In that way self consciousness sets in, as you're thinking about your relationship with your partner, and there may be none. It's not your partner you've got to love. It's the rumba. Obviously it is a partner dance and there needs to be a connection in dance terms, but basically you just have to dance the dance and it is easier to feel comfortable doing that if you are dancing more basic steps and applying basic technique than if you are trying to wrap yourself round your partner. A lot of juveniles can dance a beautiful rumba with their teacher who may be male or female.

Yes, of course Kara and Artem's relationship had an extra edge because of their relationship, but that was a special case. It is not something you can force.

On ITT,

CRH said it was a rumba.
Karen said it was lovely rumba.

I never queried your partisanship, but it be 'protested too much' I think.

My exact words were it was a dance that had some rumba steps and didn't have others. I will leave the exact definition to the experts. If they say it was a rumba, it was a rumba.

Craig did say it was a rumba, he did not say not was a good one. He said at times there was a steely coldness between Sophie and Brendon. This was what I picked up on. Karen said it was a rumba but that it was lacking. She mentioned a partial split drop that Sophie did, that if it had gone all the way to the floor it would have lifted the dance. So we have two respected dance people there, picking up on faults in the routine.

I have never said that Sophie is a bad dancer, she is not. But there is something lacking IMo. A spark that like the lift if it had been more pronounced, would lift her dancing into another level. My main problem with her is disappointment. I want her to deliver, she is not and you can call me unpartisan if you like. The judges agree with me and others have pointed this out. I don't think that all four judges have the knives out for Sophie, rather they want her to do better.