I just got back to watch Caroline and then the leader-board.

Is it safe to watch the Simon / Kristina 38 point "AT" with a glass of Aperol Spitz?

Yes, go ahead.

At least Kristina got Myriam Mina Ojeda Patino to choreograph it for her so - at last an SCD AT has some real AT steps in it. This is what Myriam has posted about it:-

Very happy to have collaborated with this fantastic couple in creating the choreography for the competition. Argentine Tango -Stage Style-. Diomar Giraldo Escobar and I are thrilled with the 3 10 scores and the 8 from lovely Craig.
Thank you to all our students and friends for the support and for voting!! many thanks indeed. They did really well and managed this precision with only 6 hours of work with us. Congratulations.

I noticed that Kristina weas very happy to take all the credit for it. Typical SCD!

Thanks Sofakat.
Very interesting

So was it good? I missed the show because I was out dancing Argentine Tango. I am saving it for a treat with a glass or two of Rioja tonight now that Downton has finished.

Oh and Henry - remember the unidentified classic guitar tango tracks I was on about. Well I don't think they were the same tracks but 3 I heard last night did very nicely indeed for a tanda last night. Arrangements by Baltazar Benitez. Unfortunately the only one I can find on you tube is La Milonga Del Angel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du-P5A5piIc

I might be getting closer to finding the mysterious tracks,

LOL. You and me both. I am trying to find out whether to settle down with eager anticipation or if I need to prepare myself for bitter disappointment. Or to put it another way - one glass or two.

Hmmm... if you are bracing yourself for another James Bond Meets Hooker Trash Dance you will be relieved.

If you hoped that there might some recognisalbe steps you'll be surprised. if you wanted them to have got the Walk and the Hold right, sadly not.

Is it totally offensive? No. Better than the average in fact - but then real AT dancers did give 6 hours of expertise, advice and 'steps!

LMSO. That description hadn't actually occurred to me. Thanks for the heads up. It sounds like a glass and a half with the bottle on standby just in case.

Thanks.

Interesting calling it "Stage Style". That's what it is I suppose.

I'l watch it on iPlayer after the results.

Cover the keyboard just in case the wine spurts out of your mouth at a WTF moment.

That's a new take on being able to hold one's drink - or not!

Sounds like a nice tango for a darkened room - with nobody else around. But I suppose a follower gets to shut her eyes and absorb everything. A leader can't do that.

I'm pleased to say that I'm not aware of any Ballroom and/or Latin dancers / professionals taking the mickey out of people learning to dance. Quite the opposite. Its quite admirable what these celebs try to do in a matter or days/weeks. Unlike, it seems, AT dancers.
I'm happy to critique and pass an opinion or two on what can be done for improvement, but as a very experienced dancer I realise how difficult it is for beginners.

Not me Henry. Or at least not often. I dance open embrace most of the time and I keep my eyes well and truly open.

Somebody here said that the 10 dances on SCD more or less represent the basics of what 10 dances are like in real life. I wouldn't know if they are. I thought Jake and Janette's AS dance was gripping and stunning and the best AS I have seen by anybody. I wouldn't know if it wasn't. And I probably wouldn't understand any criticism of it.

AT and Salsa on SCD are seldom close to the real thing. So even improvers and intermediates in these dances cringe when they see AT and Salsa in SCD.

In essence for me I am still struggling with the concept of displaying incompetence to mediocrity in a field on television. We have never seen Judy coach tennis on television; and we have never seen England's batting coach guide batsmen on TV (Ramps) [Yes Ramps was for me the best SCD celeb].

And there's that horrendous programme PopStar to OperaStar. Why not just show opera singers who have trained for decades in their profession? This is a world where mediocrity such as Katherine Jenkins and Lesley Garrett are lauded as Britain's top opera singers.

I am missing something.

As it happens Britain's banks have been run by incompetent amateurs until very recently and look what happens when people are encouraged to fake it. But that's another forum for a rant.

the entire premise of the shows perhaps?

Interesting. I seldom dance open embrace - though will make an exception to dance with you of course.

Followers' eyes can be useful to watch out for traffic especially boleoing stillies about to slice through a calf.

A friend recently showed me on Facebook a dance she had done at a family event.

I thought that she had picked up lots of technique since we last met but WTF! It was open embrace. And it seemed like she was dancing with a sibling and ticking off all the stuff she had learned. "What's the point?" I thought.

I must be more open minded.

I know. And many other similar shows.

I never watch kids perform either unless there is a family connection.

"Let me know when they are ready" I think.

Is that the same Lesley Garrett who was principal soprano with English National Opera - 30 years ago?

Yes. The very same Lesley Garrett.

Hey I love her as a person and listen to her on the radio. Quite charming - and very hot. She is one of the handful of SCD celebs that I'd like to have dinner with. She'd make a great host on Strictly having danced on it. And I recognise that she (still) sings much better than me.

But

(1) That was 30 years ago

(2) ENO is not now nor 30 years ago recognised as amongst the world's top opera houses.

I used to regularly buy season tickets at ENO as well at ROH and enjoyed performances at ENO for what they were. I can enjoy opera in a pub. She has never been world class.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/9...-ceremony.html

Bit confused by your post and what you are trying to say. Do you object to other ex-professional dancers (and teachers) having an opinion, or even voicing their thoughts on a dance? Particularly when they know a great deal about said dance

Your experience is, I think, confimed to British ballroom, is it not? Some of us have trained and performed in other forms of dance (ballroom included) - and been trained to teach as well - so perhaps we have a different perspective?

We know what beginners are up against - and we know what is possible, or not. So why not have a view? I am often asked for mine and will happily share what I know.

Read back through the posts on this thread and you will clearly see comments that continue to take the mickey out of people that only have received tuition for a matter of days.
No, in actual fact, my experience is not just contained to British Ballroom. So you are wrong there. I have represented my Country in 2 World Championships overseas and have danced many times overseas as part of the British Team and as independant couples.
I don't have a problem in people having a opinion, no, not at all.
I don't like the continued nastiness on this forum, and I don't like people taking the mickey ( putting it politely) out of people learning to dance and not doing it right.

In a way, but the usual term used is Fantasy Tango. Difference is in the follower's legs as you will see from this video. Far more elaborate and high flying than usual!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpVQiSNvPwM

It certainly is

So it's still just ballroom, right? I think you may have misunderstood what these discussion are all about. We are not talking about 'beginners' but ballroom pros on SCD who have never bothered to really learn Argentine Tango and consequently cannot teach it to their celebrity students. Their interpretation is often quite hilarious. Poor dear Len doesn't have a clue either. Why he has never googled argentine tango I'll never know.

And yes, AT is very difficult for anyone who has not done it before. However, I would expect an so-called pro ballroom dancer to have grasped it over the last - erm how many years has SCD been going on? Years, isn't it?

But the only two who have ever 'got' it have been Artem and Vincent. Although what Flavia and Vincent do is their own version of Show Tango and they have never competed at Mundial in Buenos Aires, so would not be regarded as real AT dancers or authentic champions.

However, they have a legion of fans and are a delight, so who cares if they do ther own version of AT. At least they can dance it to a superior level.

And you know perfectly well that if you do not like a thread you do not have to read it so I am puzzled as to why you'd bother to come in here and torture yourself so?

I can browse whatever thread I like, thanks. And no, I'm not tortured, far from it. If you support the nastiness , well that says more about you than me. Taking the pi** out of learners on SCD is no different than going to a comp and laughing at couples at a lower grade than you. Not called for. I see all the mistakes that most of the pro's make, in Ballroom, but accept that they are, in the main Latin dancers, so not trained to a high standard in Ballroom.
Incidentally as you are a professional, is it "professional" to make fun of fellow professionals?