Ballroom dancing is my favourite on Strictly. I love a good old Fred and Ginger foxtrot, a zany quickstep or a romantic waltz. It used to be the case in the final that the couples would perform highest scoring latin, highest scoring ballroom and a showdance (and in some years whichever latin/ballroom the celeb had yet to learn too). I feel this final has missed out on classic ballroom routines. It sometimes feels like the producers think they are still competing with The X Factor and are scared of ballroom seeming old-fashioned to the youth audience. The battle with The X Factor has long been won and young people aren't so predictable in their tastes.

Has anyone else missed ballroom from the final?

A bit unbalanced........... so far

Did you miss Frankie's showdance?

No. Frankie's was enough, and it was certainly dull.

You beat me to it.

ME. I missed the ballroom. Thank heavens for Frankie's showdance. I can't believe the producers went with TWO cha chas in judges choice (like those four actually choose) and not one of the five ballroom dances was to be seen in the entire first show.

I much prefer ballroom to latin but tonight has been fine so far for me.

Overall there will be 11 dances in the final. Out of all that only Frankie's showdance, a fraction of Simon's showdance and, as of this moment, potentially Simon's Argentine Tango are ballroom. It used to be the case that ballroom made up half or almost half of the final. So we will have a final with 1 and a bit or, at most, 2 and a bit ballroom dances. That isn't classic Strictly to me.

I have. I like the old fashioned proper dances to proper music.

Not a classic final so far.

Really missing ballroom this year. I would have liked to have seen a Fred and Ginger inspired ballroom from Simon and Kristina. I think that could have been a real showstopper, unlike Kevin's.

Shame.

I have to say I was disappointed in the judges choices, so many amazing dances to chose from which could have made a better show. Luckily the show dances took it up a level. Looking forward to their choices - should be a great final.

Frankie's showdance was basically a generic ballroom dance does that count

In the final there should be one ballroom and one latin dance each, then the show dance. Don' t bother eliminating someone, they have all worked hard let them do all their dances.

i thought frankie's showdance was the best dance of the evening so far, and it was the closest we got to any decent ballroom tonight.

i do have to agree that the benches bit was all wrong, and i'm suprised both that frankie suggested it and the kevin let it happen. it was stilted and nervy, and totally at odds with the rest of the dance which was fabulous.

And Argentine Tango is non-standard. Of 11 dances, NONE will be a standard ballroom dance.

I thought they were going to channel Fred and and Ginger jumping on and off the benches and dancing on them. Not Kevin lifting Frankie from one to another whilst she struck a pose.

I think the show has deviated so far from what it was originally regarding the dances !...... If I don't catch what dance the announcer says it is as the couples start dancing 9/10 I have no idea what it is they are supposed to be dancing!.......... They nearly all seem to be something you would see in a disco or on a podium!.............. They all merge into one another!.............

And as for the show dance!..... not many years back they used to have a real WOW about them!, but now I don't get excited about any of them because we are seeing the same sort of thing choreographed each week and so there is nothing different or special about any of them i'm sorry to say!................

Agree about the lack of ballroom would have preferred to see some ballroom from Frankie and Simon

I thought it was very unbalanced.

I don't like the concept of the 'judges choice' especially when they seemed to choose the worst dance for all of them (except Simon). It doesn't make for a great final which should be about showcasing the finalists at their best.

Just let each of the finalists choose a ballroom and a latin dance of their choice. That way if they choose the wrong dance for them, it is a choice of their own making.

Completely agree. Ballroom is being swamped, it's a damned shame as it's my favourite thing.

Not just so far - none of the couples' pick for favourite dance are traditional ballroom.


I think it's disgraceful how unbalanced the final is - we could have a final 3 (if Frankie goes out) where between them they haven't danced a single ballroom dance all night. That's not ok.

The judges' choices were a complete joke - it makes no sense whatsoever to not pick the dance Caroline basically fell over in! Yes, she's not as good at ballroom, but everyone else got their weaker discipline! Thankfully her cha cha wasn't much good so it didn't make a huge amount of difference, but the genre choices were advantage Caroline.

It also just didn't make sense at all to have two consecutive cha cha chas - it's not the most exciting dance in the world and it made the whole show feel very samey and tired. The judges' pick ruined a bit of Simon & Kristina's showdance as well as we ended up with Charleston overload. It's made for a very flat show overall - the only highlights have been a ballroom number and a contemporary one!

And we get another pile of Latin dances in the second show no matter who goes through...doesn't exactly make for a good variety show or any real sparkle!

I much prefer ballroom to Latin and found it such a shame that the final has been so Latin dominant and not even my favourite Latin at that. It made me enjoy Frankie's show dance more than I might have done if there had been some other great ballroom dances.

I agree 100%, even Simon's 'judge picked' dance was the Charleston where I feel his ballroom is his best. I much prefer ballroom, but I guess they want some 'show dances' to make people vote.

Len said Simon was best ballroom dancer...pity he didn' t get to show that in the final. Would not swap AT though.