agree 100%

I think Chelsee was much better than Harry, who could only do Ballroom. Abbey is waaaaaay behind Natalie in terms of technique. All a matter of opinion at the end of the day of course yadda yadda.

She has grown on me in the last few weeks. To begin with I thought she was over confident, but I think her personality has come through a lot more recently and I think she is fab and clearly loving the experience.

My definition of a ringer has always been someone who is from a performance background who "punches below their weight" in order to be better than the level that they play at. This goes for all performances. Sport, quizzes, dances, you name it.
Land unfortunately Natalie falls in that category. Don't get me wrong - she is the best dancer by far. By a looooooong way.

Best dancer won tonight. Natalie has often been overmarked by the judges who seem to value exact placement over everything else. But many of her exact placement dances are just plain boring. Example was last week when she got all tens yet no standing ovation. Abbey would have got a standing ovation for exactly the same dance. It's all about the performance. Abbey has it, Natalie not so much.

Mac town is not alone. Do not attack him please because he says the truth and people attack him for it . Stop please

Abbey correctly won, better dance and connection on the night.

Nothing to do with popularity. People, including this viewer, don't want to see already trained and accomplished dancers on the show. Artem is my favourite pro and Natalie the best celeb dancer,likeable as well, but I wouldn't have dreamt of voting for her, she should not be on a show which is for beginners.

I was never a Natalie fan right from the start as there just didn't seem to be any connection between her and Artem. They did the dance then just stood there smug. This was very off putting as you have to like them as a couple - I don't think she understood that concept. But tonight she finally showed some emotion and there WAS a connection between them - shame she left it until the final. She deserved to be in the final 3 but obviously Abbey and Aliaj were more likeable and that's what counts in voting terms. But Natalie and Artem's tango was brilliant and I wish they'd chosen that for their favourite.

Also possibly having the whole of the premiership voting for you doesn't go amiss either.

Would be very interesting to see what rough percentages of the 6 million votes were for which couple.

Natalie got to dance her favourite dance again & this was as much as I hoped for. They must have captured a huge number of votes tonight to put Sophie into fourth place, so obviously did something right to connect to the voters.

As for the ringer tag This Radio Times piece shows how unfair the tag is. Still I don't know why I bother trying to convince the close minded. Just my sense of fair play and justice compels me to try.
Last edited by Monaogg : 21-12-2013 at 23:56

It was the John Barrowman effect

He said it and everyone believed it


there are a lot of sheep who watch SCD

The judges I believe gave one dancer a standing ovation all season and I will give you one guess who it was. Nat over marked is a joke imo Craig said that they mark Nat based on a different level if anything she was under marked.

IMO Natalie and Artem hardly ever danced in hold for more than a few seconds, it just didn't feel like they had any connection physically or emotionally. For me that's why I preferred Sophie and Abbey!

Yes, I agree, they weren't a true partnership, it was just about winning I think.

I thought Natalie was fabulous tonight, but I've always preferred Abbey, she doesn't even seem to realise how good she is.

The shots of Natalie in training with Artem always made her look bossy. Unfair of the Beeb sometimes to show the worst side of the contestants.

John Barrowman said that Natalie would go in week seven and Ben would win.

Ben.

BEN.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but that article can't be accurate.

I was astonished to see someone in one of the pre-performance VTs whom I met recently and told me - and has routinely been telling the people they work with - that they trained as a dancer with Natalie. And not at Italia Conti. Afterwards. They're very specific about it. And very close to Natalie, still. So there are still questions for me about her dance background.

Don't want to take anything away from anyone supporting Natalie - if she was your favourite, that's great - but her experience has been plain for all to see. Is she technically polished? Without a doubt. But so polished that there's been a gulf all series that only Abbey has consistently managed to close.

I don't think the premiership comment about Abbey is accurate. This is someone who was in the dance-off midway through the series. She obviously increased her public vote as the series went on - and I don't think that's entirely down to Peter Crouch.

Natalie cannot be unpopular if she is in the Final. I don't think she is unpopular so much as Abbey has captured people's imaginations with her pretty face, lovely hair and engaging ways. Her partnership with an equally good looking young man gives them an edge, really, as they are simply a pleasure to look at. I just wonder if, in our world obsessed with beauty, that that factor has distracted a bit from the quality of her dancing. I don't begrudge Abbey her win, but
IMO, Natalie was by far the better dancer and Artem's choreography is so classy, sophisticated and second to none.

We know that, at one point or another, she managed to beat every single other dancer in the top 6 other than Susanna. Not too bad for a ringer.

I'm gonna confess, now that the show is over, that I just never could take to Natalie. Her showdance tonight was the best, but its the first of her dances I've rather enjoyed. Some of her dances I've really disliked, and others which I should have liked, failed to hit the spot.
As others have said, she seemed to take it too seriously, there was no connection between her and Artem, and she lacked the flair to take her dancing beyond the technically very competent.

It also perhaps didn't help that she missed a week. It distanced her in the literal sense of the word. Also, maybe because of the absence of family members and that sort of thing, it was as though I never got to know what she was like or who she was.

....phew, its good to get it out

Probably because some idiots can't tell fact from fiction, she gets a lot of grief on twitter from ***** who do not like what her character done to another character in Corrie.

The week she was in the Dance Off Liverpool were playing.


You cannot take away the fact Natalie was more popular than the supposed second favourite Sophie on the night. So Natalie's popularity went back up this evening.

Why bother shows over, move on to your next target.

I thought Abbey won the first week I must have been wrong.

Why is anyone who questions her experience an 'idiot'?

And the Strictly producers have gone out of their way NOT to reference her character in Coronation Street ... Not justifying her getting grief on Twitter - but that's from a tiny minority who hardly have much influence over the voting public.

What's with the 'target' stuff?

Am I not allowed to say I think there are questions still to be answered?