Personally I think if Artem had done the majority 'in hold' with a segmant roughly in the middle for Natalie to be able to highlight her beautiful solo dancing skills it would have been more of a 'spotlight' moment for her than doing virtually all of it being partnered by her skirt!

I think Natalie has been, not just regarding the rules of what actually equates the spec of a dance, but just the stylisation at times. Artem has a great canvas with Natalie and he's not putting her to full use (despite breaking rules to restrict boundaries so that he can do what he wants).. The routines just leave me wanting more, and Natalie is better than just wafting around.

Thank you for posting this. I mainly enjoyed it because the static camera position actually permitted one to see the dancers dancing. The lighting and plain floor helped a lot too.

Natalie is very graceful. Am surprised Artem decided to ignore last weeks comments (and score). He should have listened and out more in hold, just for that little extra that might not have put her at risk. She needed the points in the swingathon.

It depends on what Natalie would have wanted from the series.

I'm wondering what happened to the Artem of series 8?
I was hoping to see Natalie doing all the different dances and doing them properly because she is capable of it.
She can't really say she has done a Viennese Waltz for example.

I just thought this was an opportunity for Artem and Natalie to do the best series ever of all the dances and it hasn't turned out that way. How much is down to interference from the producers and choreography dept. I don't know but I don't think it is all down to Artem.

So far they said if somebody else was involved in the choreography, AT, or Charleston. Brendan takes responsibility for his choreographies. I doubt that Artem would let somebody have control over his work to make artistic decisions for him. It could be a passive aggressive way to protest something, but then I don't think he's that kind of guy either.

The impression I get is that Natalie and Artem get on very well and she appreciates how much she is learning from him. I remember Jill Halfpenny asking Darren if he was dancing full out when he danced with her and Darren estimated that he was dancing at 30%. So I think even at Natalie's level she is very impressed with how much more there is to being a professional.

She is getting the exposure of getting to the final and has been seen to be a very good dancer. I think she has enjoyed it and she has learned a lot about partnering in some of the dances and a lot about shadowing in others.

Has the level of work done "in hold" in a paso doble ever been commented on before on Strictly? I've looked at a few of the youtubes of some of the higher scoring ones and it usually seems to be about 10 to 15 seconds, if that. I didn't like it at all really, it just seemed a...new angle to be critiquing them from. Austin got 38 and he barely touched Erin at all.

I don't see any chemistry between them in their routines like I see with Abbey & Aljaz and Susanna & Kevin.I'm sure that Nartem gets along fine and have a great rapport but for me it just does not translate on the dancefloor

Technically Natalie is the best dancer imo but I don't enjoy watching her and Artem dance together, sorry . I did in the early weeks but I totally agree with Len's comments last night although the delivery could have been better .

Like some people said, I'm STILL waiting for a wow dance from them and I thought that I was finally going to get it with their Paso. They had the perfect music, very appropriate costumes and then what happened ? I was really disappointed with that paso

Len said the same thing about Erin's Paso for Austin as he did about Artem's. Gave it an 8 too.

I wonder, If Artem is deliberately trying to annoy the judges in order to have the public on his side

If this is what he's trying to do, then he is miscalculating this imo and it's backfiring. Jmo.

I thought he just said it had no content and it wasn't a proper paso? I don't remember anything specifically about it being out of hold. Again, I defer to people who know more than me (ie everyone) about the authenticity or otherwise of the steps. It's just that the "% in hold" thing is new to me for this dance. Ballroom yes. All sorts of ballroom dances. Not paso though.

He said there was very little to do with a Paso Doble other than a couple of twist turns and he was very disappointed. It's on this video from 2.50 but you're right, he didn't say anything specifically about a lack of hold.

According to that font of all knowledge Wiki - Modern pasodoble dance consists of two dancing parts and one break in between for dancers of class D and of three parts and two breaks in between for dancers of class C, B, A, according to the IDSF classification. I'm assuming the "dancing parts" refers to when the pair should be in hold.

Sorry - I was generalising in that Len was complaining about the lack of content. I don't know what a Paso should look like either but Kevin's had a lot of in hold and looked more familiar to me.

Maybe we are more aware of it because many of their other dances had very little in hold. A bit like Ola and her knee slides. When it happens you kind of roll your eyes at the inevitability of it.

Here is a video from this years ok paso final as you will see from the dancing they are in hold a fair bit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv7TZ4PitNw

Which ones won? I liked the couple with the girl in the white top/red dress best.

Michael and Joanna won (she had short bleached blonde hair and yellow skirts ) was their 7th UK title in a row think the couple you mention were 2nd

bul But not most of the time, which I suspect Len is hankering for. Noticed one at the end had the same move Artem & Natalie used last night.

As Ali-F has pointed out elsewhere - the issue may well be it is the "in hold" part of dancing which Natalie is finding troublesome with her back. So rather than drawing attention to it by mentioning it, Artem is taking the flack on choreography.

that could well be the reason i did notice in the tango that natalie was not performing head moves well and did think it was her back

As an experienced Latin judge Len would not want the paso danced completely in hold but he would want more than Artem did if she has a probblem with her back they should tell Len rather than take flack

I'm not sure. Natalie's already taken plenty of flak for having an injury (where is *roll-eyes* when you need him?) and I daresay she's pretty sick of the drama herself and would rather just get on with things. Perhaps they just prefer to keep quiet about it (if it is the reason).

Ahh, really short blonde hair? I think I know the couple you mean. I thought they were a bit "flashy" but I'm not a ballroom/latin judge so what do I know really


I don't think Len would expect them to be in hold all the time, I do think he expects some element of the "official" requirements for Paso Doble to be followed though.
Personally I'd have preferred more of it in hold to see some of the exquisite shapes which are made during the runs and turns (don't know the official names) which I thought were sadly lacking in their routine.

Artem's choreography has been a bit off the boil this week and last week - although I still thought their AS was brilliant - I would have liked a more upbeat, shiny song.

This week I agreed with Len there wasn't quite enough trad Paso elements, (and drama) but I can understand Artem is bored of the usual stuff and wants to try different things with such a good dancer as Natalie.

Richardo Cochi and Yulia from USA - lady in white/red..

Yes.

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