Len saying to Brendan, you may have to do a Rumba, and Brendan intimating that he won't .
So do the pros know from the start all the dances they'll be expected to do each week, that is of course if they remain in the competition .

I thought he just want Len to stop talking.

Brendan has always thought he is bigger than the show. Way up ones...

As they get to skip a dance, maybe Brendan was hinting that the rhumba is the dance he'll choose to skip if they get all the way?

I guess last year's 'filthy dirty rhumba' scandal still rankles.

Oh. You can skip a dance???

They have done for a while now: last year Abbey and Alijaz and Natalie and Artem skipped AT, I think Susannah and Kevin skipped the rhumba.

In previous years Kimberley and Pasha skipped rhumba and AT, Louis and Flavia also skipped AT (maybe rhumba as well, can't remember, or did they include that in their fusion?).

That list's not exhaustive as that's just from memory - all couples in the final in recent years have skipped at least one dance (sometimes two, where fusion took up time that would have been used for an extra dance).

Yeah I think last year Sophie skipped salsa, Abbey AT, Natalie foxtrot and Susannah rumba. And the year before they all skipped one or 2 dances too. But before that, in Harrys year and in Karas year they had to do all the dances

Thank Christ we didn't have to see Susannah do a Rhumba

Paso / Rhumba fusion from them would have been a thing to see!

Right, but that happens in the latter stages if a couple gets that far . Brendan couldn't skip a rumba if he got it now or next week etc .

I suspect that the pros may get a say in which dance they get to skip, based on their celeb's strengths and weaknesses, hence Brendan skipping the salsa with Sophie and Kevin skipping the rhumba with Susannah - unless it's a coincidence that these were both potentially the contestant's weakest dances.

I doubt it and hope it isn't the case as it would be wrong and unfair .

All the celebs and pros should not have any say in the dances they're given .

Why would it be unfair? If all pros get an equal chance to strike one dance from their list of dances, that seems suite fair enough to me. Is it not more unfair if the producers choose which ones get skipped? For example, male celebs tend to score lower in rhumba than females, so if the producers decided that a male contestant didn't have to do that particular dance, would they not be giving him a 'helpful' boost, and disadvantaging other males who they decided did have to do it?

Increased producer input seems less fair to me than allowing the pro to work with their celeb's strengths and weaknesses.

But who knows? Maybe that chihuahua from ITT picks the dances? It certainly could have picked some of the themes.

There is no way a show as massive to produce as Strictly isn't planned well in advance. As soon as a celeb signs up the producers and creatives will be planning their journey. All the pro routines are choreographed before the series even starts and the pros do a quick refresher rehearsal every Monday morning. Given the amounts of sets, lighting, props and costumes each 90 second routine entails they will definitely know all the routines a celeb is planned to do before the series even starts.

Now, instead if blowing a lot of hot air about 'telling it like it is', this is the sort of useful information JJ could impart, if only he'd deign to be so useful

I assumed Brendan made the (jokey imo) comment as he had gone out a number of times on a rhumba has he not?

Well personally I don't think it was a coincidence that he spent several series being known as the samba dodger.

I think it was the samba that was/is Brendan's bête noire - didn't he go out on about four sambas, or something?

Good point - I don't remember many JJ sambas.

If it is the pros who choose, Anton should definitely opt to nix all future jives. I do not have pleasant memories of Anton's jives (the scarlet baby-grow )


Edit: so it seems that James has only done two sambas, with Gabby Logan and Zoe Lucker (getting eliminated on each occasion). He got to the finals with Pamela and Denise without doing a samba - coincidence, or strategic choice?