I have always considered SCD's show dances as poor in comparison to those on DWTS but they were at least respectable efforts tonight.

I suspect that the relative lack of creative freedom from week to week somewhat hinders them when they are tasked with creating something special.

Regardless, like most I did enjoy Carolines the best. A very clever offering from Pasha - something original for SCD but also something suited to Carolines high performance quality.

Frankies was the big disappointment because she is such a capable dancer. A competent but unremarkable ballroom number, with a contrived prop segment thrown in. Kevin can moan all he likes about where he was in fact ripping it off from but it simply didn't work in any way.

Both Simon and Mark had far too much content, all performed in a frantic and rough way.

I think for future finales, couples should consider more stylized, story lead numbers, something in the shape of what you might see in a musical perhaps. And song choices should be considered a little bit more carefully too. I mean Queen? It's so obvious and you're never going to do it justice.

Frankie's Showdance was the best dance of the season. WOW.
Caroline's was beautiful and Simon's was fun.
Mark's was good, but not quite good enough.

Caroline's was fabulous and very moving ...I love it .
Frankie's was very disappointing in content with no wow factor .
Simons was blah and Mark's was frantic and all over the place .

Wait till someone does the write over for Mark and Karen's before saying that. You may change your mind



Yeah we all heard that, but it was still Kevin who choreographed it into their routine and (IMO!) he could have done better!

Something as simple as having them in a linear formation as opposed to a triangular formation would have helped (would have allowed for more speed and momentum) and the whole section should have been shortened by a good bit. The audience are too aware of faffing to avoid dancing to allow that one to pass in a final.

BUT. I did love it. My second favourite SD of the night.

Caroline and Pasha. Wow. Caroline looked as if she was crying before the dance began and I half expected a Laila/Anton Rumba moment. But she held it together (booyaa Daily Mail) and by the gods that girl can emote (which arguably won her the trophy) - check out Bruno dancing along behind the Judges' desk for an example of Darcey's critique "Caroline makes you want to join in". We also got the bonus of a nice sheen off Pasha's chest up in Claud 9. Win, win

Mark - *points up* waiting for the written choreography with glee. I am still chuckling, not only at the routine but how quickly Karen was to disown it - "Mark Choreographed"

Simon's started off strong. I LOVED the quirky zombie gangsta thing he was doing right at the start, but I agree with others that it got 'messy'. The costume changes didn't help and his transitions may have been smooth (so the judges say) but the change from Thriller to Latin to Ballroom to body popping was too much. Kristina threw everything in with the result that it lacked any cohesion whatsoever. In short, I liked the first half on the stairs, better than the second half on the floor. Less would have been more, but that's Kristina all over.

Mark's - I never quite recovered from him mouthing the words "Don't stop me now" to the camera. How I cringed.

Frankie's - was going splendidly until the bit where Kevin started plonking her from bench to bench. Spoiled it.

Caroline's - I'm not a fan of barefoot 'contemprary' numbers and I found the performance overwrought. But it was danced well for what it was.

Simon's - Too hectic, too many dance genres in one performance. Stick to one style and add a twist.

To be honest, we'd already seen props, themes, big lifts, barefoot dancing throughout the series so the Showdances just felt like business as usual!

Agree completely with BIB. Also for those who complain that Caroline's didn't showcase ballroom or latin, although I'm no dance expert I thought it seemed to be based around rumba. We've seen showdances in the past which contained plenty of lifts and carries, but nothing anywhere near their emotional performance which was stunning. Absolutely loved Frankie's paso doble it was worth four tens for me but the benches ruined the showdance. Simon has been amazing, particularly the Argentine Tango, but Kristina should sometimes abide by a 'less is more' strategy. And as for Mark, Karen should definitely have played on his ballroom strengths rather than all that frantic running and jumping around. Even something more contemporary like Caroline and Pasha's would have better suited him. Aside from Pixie I think the best three were in the final, although on the basis of their dances overall last night I'm not sure which one would not have deserved to be there if I were to swap Pixie into the mix.

I was thinking when watching Mark's that it was like a camp fitness workout. Low and behold Grinch judge said something similar.

I really liked Simon's, they both put a lot of effort into it.

Caroline's was a mass of sprawling cringe worthy moments, with Angels being used making it a sure fire winner.

Frankie was fine, but it did nothing for me.

I have never been a fan of the show dance, mainly because they seem more like a workout than a dance - think of the professional routines they've had on in previous years.

I wondered if we were in for something special when we didn't have a professional demo last week.

Frankie & kevin had the chance to be brilliant and rivel tom chambers but ended up. With benchgate, more akin to colin & erin's arleneandtessgate. It was lazy of Kevin to use the benches the way he did. They could had had something really spectatcular if benches had been positioned differently and they had been used for high jumps and lifts aka fred & ginger.

Loved caroline & pasha's which was rumba based.

Mark - no comment & simon, loved the steps but one costume change too many for me.

Caroline and Pasha.......sublime

Frankie and Kevin........gorgeous

Simon and Kristina.......good but a bit messy in places

Mark and Karen......

Nothing before Craig decided to make a big deal about it.

Caroline's by a country mile was the best. Simon's was very good. I loved the style of Frankies but it was just like an American smooth. Didn't like the benchs. Marks was god awful. It's was shambolic. Who thought it a good idea to sing to camera.. Cringe

I am still mesmerised this morning by Caroline and pashas show dance..some one called it sublime..great word! After moaning about having to watch hours of SCD last night, my hubbie even started crying and was speechless after their dance..is was..so inventive, so beautiful.
If Frankie really wanted to win, she should have left the artistry of their showdance to Kevin, her sound of music idea with the benches was a bad one. And a ballroom show dance rarely captures the public vote.
Simons was entertaining and I enjoyed it, but it wasnt as good as carolines.

What put me off that was the music. It's overused and overdone - all those people singing it on the X factor, I have heard that song far too many times. When it was over I just thought "is that it?"

I much preferred Simon's over all of them.

I don't think kevin was strong enough to lift Frankie properly and I think I Trent had the same problem with pixie. He used a bench to greater effect.

When Flavia said that she let Craig Kelly do some of the choreography, I banged my forehead on the table. When Karen said she let Mark do some of the choreography of the Showdance, it didn't matter - he could have done most of it.

Kevin's choreography - I agreed with Craig. Some of the Quickstep bits were nice.

Kristina's Showdance was disappointing after her doing such a good one for Jason Donovan. It was made of bits and would have been better as a one-themed dance.

Pasha's seemed to match the song well in terms of mood and feel, but not the dancing. Too much carrying and not enough expression by dancing. I'd say it was the best, mainly because it was a consistent theme and had that good feel to it.

Unlike some of the negatives on here I thought they all did really well and it was a great final.
Wasn't a fan of Caroline before Strictly but I loved her show dance and thought she deserved to win.

Caroline's showdance:

I think the needle was heading towards the red zone of the bacofoilometer at times.

Pretty underwhelming as a group...we've seen the lifts and tricks etc used to be reserved for show dances for weeks

Caroline's was the best though.

Frankie & Kevin - Some deft touches - Loved that it was Ballroom

Mark & Karen - Too much running about trying to fill the space

Caroline & Pasha - Did Karen try and sabotage the effect by doing a contemporary
Rhumba in the semi-final with Mark?? But still a lovely rendition

Simon & Kristina - Unpolished but a good effort to showcase Simon's strengths

Simon: Full of everything. Fun and Kristina's choreography, as usual, was great.
Caroline: Loved it, very dramatic and that was a contemporary dance performed as it should be.
Frankie: Very graceful and although it was a little bland, she danced it beautifully.
Mark: I can't even rate it. I liked the enthusiasm of it but there wasn't any real dancing in it.

The best from last night but I would have to say Natalie's and Artem's from last year was perfection

Oddly enough I watched that for the first time only yesterday. How did the two poles fit into the concept?

I guess they've had benches, blocks, weird dolls etc. so it's just a prop

It was a Gene Kelly thing. I think. I'll dig out a youtube reference.

Artem's showdance for Natalie beat all of last night's into a cocked hat. It had a bit of every single dance Natalie had done in the show and still didn't look piecemeal.

Why she was dressed as a superhero though, I just cannot fathom!

Wrong!
I liked the earlier parts of their routine,but I didn't get the reference and so they kind of lost me at that point.