Wow amazing

Out of interest what Did you all make of the dance routines? Also did the judges eliminate the right Person? I thought Simon deserved to stay on that Performance.

In my opinion Simon deserved to stay, without question.
He was good first time around but really upped his game in the dance off when he relaxed, presumably thinking he was on his way home.
Pixie's leg and foot action was virtually non exsistent,. She has had the same problem with all her latin dances but no-one mentioned it before yesterday. Not earthy enough, no foot pressure, so couldn't create the right natural hip or leg action.
An easy decision in my book, basing it on the DO only.

So, out of the remaining contestants, who do you guys think is the technically strongest?

Thanks Jennifer. My family went mad when I agreed with Len ans Darcey. I think you Are spot on that Simon thought he was a goner so Did One of his best performances. What Did you think of the other contestants?

That is a good and tough question, as we all know, the best dancer often does not win. I can offer my thoughts on their Ballroom...
But I would discount Jake, I don;t rate him as a dancer at all. He is a good actor acting his part, Janette choreographs to his strengths but technically not good. He is popular of course !
Mark has improved a lot. Ballroom wise, not good technically, his Fox was not good. However, Karen has produced quite a good topline from him and of course, he is "Mr Cheese" so always smiling, a great asset.
Caroline I feel has lots of potential but for me, she is not as good at Ballroom as Frankie. She has a reasonable top, but I feel she sometimes makes her own lines and shapes, not dancing from Pasha. Her feet do need a little work. I did notice in the waltz a thon,she did not close her feet when supposed to. Basic but important mistake to make.
Frankie has a nice top and arm/hand placement. Her feet need work but she does look nicely grounded when she dances. Caroline is a little too high out of the floor.
Simon for me is the best all rounder. Sadly he doesn't seem to have the support from the public. His Ballroom has improved a great deal. There were several very readable Fox variations in his AS which he danced really very well. He has great movement and great posture. He has quite good feet for a beginner, however he needs to watch his actions when travelling backwards....the heels should not lower. However this is a problem that all the celebs share, I'm being picky.
Should be a great semi next week

Glad to read this as thought I was going mad!

What did you think of her samba (Jennifer and any other knowledgeable FMs)?

I'm not anti Pixie at all (I thought she was a lovely girl and did some lovely dancing) but felt she was constantly overpraised with nobody picking up on the more important things that could be improved.

Name me any of the female celebs present or past that has had the right natural hip or leg action ? Don't think she's any worse then Caroline or Frankie .

agreed but the way the show is run they judge on the dances on the night before them and of the two Simon was techically more correct - always thought of all the dances Pixie had left Cha would be most difficult for her as it often is for ballet trained dancers I have found

I thought Jill halfpenny was pretty good...

To be honest I didn't think it was very good at all. Certainly nowhere as good as they made out I'm obviously in the minority as I did not read one bad post about it. In my opinion, take away the posing, wiggling around, showy performance and you don;t have much left. Nothing good there technically at all.

I don't and haven;t watched the show enough to say if there has been anyone with a good action,but I doubt there has been. I wasn't picking on Pixie, just outlining my reasons as to why Simon was better than her in the DO.

This is where Janette's salsa came from - so did she choreograph it or not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My1zQjqXjkw

Jill Halfpenny.

[quote=kassieq;75944780]This is where Janette's salsa came from - so did she choreograph it or not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My1zQjqXjkw[/QUOTE

it was her audition so her and her partner probably did the choreopgraphy but like with many types of dance you pick ideas up as you go along take the video below from 2009 from 1.45 ish the tricks are the same as the ones in Janette's salsa

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

What Did everyone think of the routines tonight? who was the best in your opinión and who should be going home?

Right, I'll briefly kick this off...
In my opinion...

Popularity contest of course and I'm expecting EE fans to keep Jake out of danger, but for me he clearly is the worst dancer left.
I think everyone agrees that his CCC was not very good, but I was pleased that his VW had seemed to improve. His shoulder and neckline need sorting out and he dances to much into his right side. Needed more drive and better footwork. The VW is a swing dance and there was no evidence of that.

I thought Frankie and Kevin had a very good week. I enjoyed their AT but I let the AT experts have their say, but I liked the dance and the drama.
I also liked their rumba. I thought it was a lovely routine, with some basic rumba figures danced nicely.

Mark & Karen- I liked their contemporary rumba, but it was not a proper rumba. Mark did very little dancing. I enjoyed it for what it was, but should not have received such good marks as it was not a rumba. But this is Strictly of course.
Good effort in their VW, clunky footwork, could have had more drive and been smoother, but I liked it better than Jake's.

Simon & Kristina - loved their samba even with the mistake. Great choreo from Kristina, which Simon did justice. Not sure why they keep making such an issue over the mistake. He got back on track very quickly....certainly worth more than 6 from Craig.
Their fox was just sublime. Of course there are so many areas that can be improved, but for a beginner, I think he is just fab. Advanced figures that he danced very well and with correct footwork, perfect timing too. Great strong topline, just the right amount of toning. Some of the choreo was the same as for their AS last week and I noticed that his footwork in weaves was much improved. Hope the public get behind him tonight.

Caroline did a fab Salsa which was such a relief after the nightmare of the foxtrot. It was awful, possibly her worst dance. Dreadful topline, her head was leaning into Pasha at times. Her leg and foot work was awful, her posture was non exsistent, She wasn't rolling through her feet or releasing her toes which is essential. She made mistakes that were mentioned by the judges but not reflected in the marks. Vastly over marked in my opinion.

For the final, I would have to exclude Jake on dance ability.

Interested to hear what others think ?

I cant add anything to that Jennifer totally agree with all disappointed at the knockers of Kevin saying his choreography was bad when I thought it was clever especially in the rumba with such a dire piece of music

Have been trying to defend you on the other thread sometmes this place gets me down

just a bit of gossip Joanne doing some dems outside of strictly with Tristan

I also wonder if she will be doing some singing after the show (she did in Italy) having vocal lessons with West End Coach at the mo

I am finding it hard to be objective about the dances because I feel judgment has to take into account the choreography choices foisted on the pros by the weird music and theming in some cases. So, I didn't really care for Frankie and Kevin's rumba but felt given the bizarre toy box theme, which I assume was not his free choice, Kevin did well to incorporate as much basic rumba into the routine as he did and Frankie's slightly sterile interpretation worked well in that context. It still felt oddly stiff for what should, to me be a sinuous and lyrical dance. Equally, who in their right minds would dance an AT to Beethoven's 5th? But they did well with the cards dealt to them and I thought overall performed the best.
I am loving Kristina's work with Simon this series. Fantastic content with rich detail in both dances despite the mistakes and the only couple whose dances were obviously what they were supposed to be in tone and content. I thought Caroline over marked but really enjoyed her salsa. I don't really know what salsa should contain technically but she really seemed to be giving it some wellie despite getting out of synch. I thought her FT sloppy and dreary. I actually enjoyed Mark's dances although the so-called rumba was just movement to music and vastly inferior to Frankie's content. I like Jake but enough is enough. There really hash;t been a decent Cha all series, has there?

Jake & Janette Jake's chachacha was dreadful. He was flat-footed and his leg action was completely wrong (strange how judges made such a fuss of Pixie's leg action last week, but didn't mention Jake's. His VW no better - poor posture, poor footwork. Generally - if only he would take the trouble to learn some technique he might improve.

Mark & Karen Mark's VW wasn't great, but it was better than Jake's. His footwork was skippy, it lacked any kind of drive and there wasn't enough in hold. His rumba just wasn't a rumba! But giving him the benefit of only being able to do what he was told to do, I thought he made a good effort, and the dance was sort of enjoyable.

Caroline Foxtrot is meant to glide across the floor with great elegance. Unfortunately Caroline seems incapable of doing 'elegance'. Poor posture and footwork made it worse, and made it heavy and almost clumsy looking - vastly overmarked. Her salsa was good, although a better dancer than Jake, like him Caroline is better in the Party/Club dances than she is with the more technical dances.

Simon & Kristina - such a shame about the mistake because they were really going for it, and it may have proved to be one of the best sambas in the show. Decent samba steps and good technique. Can never understand why the pros don't teach samba rolls where the lady is facing forward with the man behind her facing the same way instead of facing each other. Technically just as correct, but easier and often looks better. Foxtrot - this was the dance of the night for me. A lot of attention to detail, and correct footwork. Not easy to learn, but really well done.

Frankie & Kevin I loved their rumba, it was a breath of fresh air compared to the raunchy rumbas so many on Strictly have insisted on doing before. As Len remarked, the opening-outs and spiral were excellent, and it told a great story. I don't dance AT so no expert, but I really liked their AT. When music is so powerful, it is easy for the dancers to be overwhelmed by it, but I thought F&K coped with this really well, though it wouldn't be my choice for tango!

Know what you mean, and Thanks
Stay here and keep sane. I really liked K & F routine, and her feet had improved yet again.
Will watch out for Jo and Tristan....may get to see them, maybe ?

I agree with you on the themes really not helping the dancers, I'm guessing production tell them how to start and finish too, so they are limited.
Re the BIB, I agree that it's not great music, but her topline and upper body seemed really to waver, I think because the footwork was more intricate and she was struggling to keep up with it as it is a bit above her, IMO.
I think that Frankie could really have been blown away amazing had Kevin really worked on her feet, she had so much potential, but for me her bottom half has let her down for a while now and tonight it spilled into her top half.

I really admire the work Kristina has put in to Simon's footwork, his foxtrot was of a very high quality and I liked her pure foxtrot choreography too, I also love how Simon loves the ballroom, personally there's no better feeling then when you are mastering the steps with the rise and fall, it's not describable, but it hits me somewhere around my middle.

For me Jake was hands down the weakest dancer and his CCC was so bad, especially his footwork, it was so bad at times you could see Karen was trying to put in the least she could, at the end he ran away and left her to do the rest of the sequence.

Caroline for me was over-marked in both dances, her frame was very bad in the foxtrot and she needs to pull up from her core and then push herself back.

Caroline did a fab Salsa which was such a relief after the nightmare of the foxtrot. It was awful, possibly her worst dance. Dreadful topline, her head was leaning into Pasha at times. Her leg and foot work was awful, her posture was non exsistent, She wasn't rolling through her feet or releasing her toes which is essential. She made mistakes that were mentioned by the judges but not reflected in the marks. Vastly over marked in my opinion.


I have been saying for some time that she had a top problem that could have been cured by straightrning the left arm and wrist and relaxing the shoulder line leaning back as she did so
The problem showed mostley at left shoulder too high and break in wrist as above that prevented the correct lean away line with relaxed shoulders
Ia that complicared ? Never mind I know what I mean

So do I

TGFT pleased I am not out there on my own