... go in the competition if he was coupled with a caroline, frankie or pixie? i.e. do we not see the best of the man (both in terms of his dancing ability and choreography) due to the partners he's often paired with?

or would anton actually be a barrier to the aforementioned type of partners progressing to the semis / final? is his natural level to be paired with the likes of judy?

Ballroom, still a star. His choreography for Latin would let the partnership down.

I wonder if Anton makes more effort when he has a contender. He's not incapable of getting a good Latin routine out of a partner:

Laila Rouass - Paso Doble
Laila Rouass - Samba

The choreography is basic but basic choreography danced well still looks good. However, I think if I was the person who partnered up the celebs and pros I would be very reluctant to give an a contender in case this happened:

Laila Rouass - Jive

I feel that he badly let Judy down with that Cha Cha Cha last night, the choreography was terrible. She is very stiff and they both need to work on that, but nobody could have made that routine look good.

Laila was never a contender though. She couldn't remember the steps and had trouble staying on the beat. She was fine in hold, but it always went wrong when she wasn't.

Laila's Charleston, although Strictly not Latin, was very good! Anton CAN choreograph Latin.

If he had one of the leading ladies, I don't think they'd perhaps be quite as exciting routines as with Pasha and Kevin (Young, attractive, spritely types next to the elder statesman) but he could certainly get one of them to the finals!

I don't think Laila would have made it further with anybody else - she benefited from a few strokes of luck (Jade and to a lesser extent Phil being injured, getting Charleston in the dance draw, getting the sympathy vote in rumba week) so it wasn't *all* on her and Anton's merits, but 4th was about the ceiling of where she deserved to get in that cast. Patsy might have eked out a 4th with someone somehow but nobody was cracking that top 3 in Series 3.