But she did dance with Artem on the tour, didn't she?

I really don't think Artem had a problem laughing at himself, to be fair. His Ra-Ra-Rasputin routine, outfit and teeth ting hinted at tongue in cheekness.

I don't think you can completely disregard the roles production define for the pros. I never found Artem aloof or above it all, but I do think he mostly took the dancing more seriously than some - and liked him for that.

The only time Gleb had a pro partner on DWTS I found him quite funny and dry. I think it was intentional....

I noticed Linda always looked a lot better in the clothes she turned up in for training than what she danced in.

Hmmm! Johnny Ball joining the mudslinging or is he joking.....?

Johnny Ball ‏@JohnnyBallco
Fern Britten asked how I was fairing on Strictly, as she found it tough with Artem. My experience was much worse. Like a never broken leg?

I thought he looked like he wanted to shoot himself! When they reprised it for the final, I don't think I've ever seen anyone look less pleased about what they were wearing. It was perversely hilarious

What does 'a never broken leg' mean?

Does it mean that Aliona wasn't really injured? (IIRC she was replaced by Iveta because of injury - does a 'never broken leg' mean that's not what happened? Surely he wouldn't start revealing 'behind the scenes' stuff while Zoe's still very connected to the show.)


Oh hell, if people are going to start braving it to say what a cack time they had, they're going to have to scrape right through the bottom of the barrel and start sifting through slurry for the next batch of contestants, aren't they?

Is the implication that Aliona faked her injury to get out of dancing with him?

She did dance with Artem on tour. That's what makes her comments so silly. Noone forced her to do the tour.

Johnny is referring to the numerous newspaper headlines saying that he broke Aliona's leg.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...-training.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...tners-leg.html

Aliona was happy to hear from a doctor at A&E that she would soon be OK gain, but when the BBC's consultant checked her she had a hairline fracture in her ankle and two torn ligaments. Aliona returned to dancing on the show weeks earlier than the consultant had said it would take and she was in a bit of pain from doing it.

The injury was a very innocuous event - the sort of wobble that must happen many times in training. Just unlucky that the ducks all lined up and it resulted in a high load on Aliona's ankle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMeau0eJOew

Unfortunate for Johnny as he had potential (as Aliona said) and they had just completed learning the routine with 9 days to go to the first show.

I watched Gleb's season on DWTS with Lisa Vanderpump and she seemed to adore him and I don't think she suffers fools gladly. He seemed very sweet to me, but on the needy side. Who can blame him in this business - and America's DWTS is probably the most cutthroat version of all, so Artem has his work cut out for him (but maybe he's just the right sort for the job.)

Oh, and at times, Gleb can be a bit of a Mr. Malaprop, but I loved his sexy dancing and looks, so who cares... I'm so excited about seeing him on Strictly! Some Glebbisms:

"I'm very close to my family, but it's not like I miss them or really attached to them."

"I've been married for six years, but it's just something I'm not really talking about that much... it's not something I'll just go and talk on every single corner about"

"I don't really drink alcohol that much. I'm telling the truth." (ahem, if you say so )

http://www.people.com/people/article...685937,00.html

I had a look and couldn't find where the 'hairline fracture' information the paper quoted came from. Maybe Johnny doesn't just mean no broken leg, but there wasn't a hairline fracture either.
So it looks like I was wrong in suggesting in the post above that the consultant diagnosed the fractured bone. I was working from memory as some of the information isn't available any more to be checked.

In that video, Aliona only mentions pulled ligaments after her visit to A&E.

Some tweets quoted on DigitalSpy from back then.

Tweet from Aliona

"...doctor said my ankle is healing fast and if I do lots of physio I might be up and running again possibly in a about a week or so."

A tweet from Johnny to put things straight.

"Will all press please stop saying "I broke Aliona's leg?" My feet were planted when she "turned her ankle." Even "doing Tango" was wrong! "

tweet from Aliona today

Saw one of the best doctors in London assigned by BBC... he scheduled for me to do an MRI due to bad soft tissue damage on my both ankles

Artem's response:
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/artem-deni...000146674.html

Something like this happened with Derek and Brooke - I think she wrote a book about her life and said Derek bullied her about being "brain dead" or slow or something? (apologies to any Derek fans if I've got that wrong) He's been known to get a bit gruff though I don't know about physical. But they showed Maks Chmerkovskiy shoving his partner to the floor in a paso rehearsal and sort of hitting her in the shoulder. In her book (Hope Solo) she claims the show offered her another partner and she decided to stick with Maks but it was a serious offense. And both of those boys are the very tip top of the totem pole at DWTS while the sweeties, like Mark Ballas, Dmitry Chaplin, and Tristan MacManus, are treated like chopped liver (esp the latter two).

And they let Gleb go after one season too. Another of Gleb's partners who appears to have become good friends with him is the ice-skater he just competed with in Moscow. After the season, she went with him, his wife and 5 year old daughter to Disneyland in California and made lots of photos for social media. So I think that's more proof that he's one of the good guys.

I also think Brendan made it clear he didn't like being "stuck" with Sunetra - and yet, who returns yet again, despite his age and paunch - Brendan. Maybe these blasted shows 'like' the rude and the rough

Agreed. Natalie, in particular, completely changed my opinion of her. I found her ultra-competitive and very hard to warm to with Scott Maslen, but she was wonderful with Tim last year.




Not to sound naive, but it could be that's he's simply grown up a bit? Fern must have seemed like coming back down to earth with an almighty thump after having Kara and Holly. Maybe teaching Fern taught him that's it's still possible to get quite a lot out of the experience even if you're not likely to win.

She waited quite a while to share this. Maybe he dragged her a few times into position, Brendan or Anton do it quite routinely if they have less able partner. Maybe he even stepped on her foot unintentionally if she did not follow the choreography. And despite my dislike of him I thought he was strict but always a gentleman. I believe him not her.

We are talking about the same Fern whom refused to speak to Philip Scofeild when she found out how much more he was being paid for This Morning than she was, so the issue was with TPTB at This Morning not him.

She does not seem to be doing anything on the TV at the moment (be free to correct me on the contrary) so she is simply just finding anything and dramatising it for us to remember who she is and to say she is still here.

Just a bit of gossip and we are unfortunatley a load of rubber neckers.

BTW Gleb is adorable a brilliant choreographer. His work with Adelina Sotnikova on DWTS Russia was nothing less than brilliance week after week. The Jive, Waltz, Foxtrot, Paso Doble, Argentine Tango, Hip Hop, Rumba, Contempoary, Russian Folk and Cha Cha Cha were astounding. In the case of the Argentine Tango even though it was far from traditional, it did have ganchos and an otcho and plenty of lunges the drama of the dance was spectacular and the water work section added a twist that just added the cherry on the top. If he gets a ringer along with Natalie I will be torn in two who to support.

It agree, but it's tittle tattle of the nastiest kind. She knows you only have to feed the dirt-rags a few bones and they'll weave a web of innuendo and exaggeration around it. I've read on one site today (in the Chinese whispers that pass for journalism in those parts) that Artem.... 'even threatened to "kill" her' ... 'in shocking abuse claims'. I imagine this is from his saying, 'go home before I kill you' (which I also remember Fern recounting and joking about on ITT).

My take is that she's trying to be entertaining and 'interesting' while speaking to an audience. Never mind the poor bugger whose reputation gets trashed by the gutter press next day.


I do love Gleb and he did a great job teaching Adelina, but I found the choreo hit and miss. (The hip hop was cringe, imo ). What I wasn't clear about, though, was whether it was his choreo or not. The show had a choreographer sitting at the side during all the dances (and receiving bouquets of flowers ) and I obviously couldn't make head nor tail of what was being said. Do you know if it was actually his work?

I think he could be really popular on Strictly. So long as he doesn't try to be too smooth .

Always pretty though.

My mistake there then, but I wouldn't call her comments silly for that reason. There could be all sorts of reasons why she did the tour, including the possibility that by the time they were voted off the show, they'd found a way to work together.


I can imagine being her very self conscious. We've seen how difficult Wardrobe find it to dress a less than slim celeb well. Hideous comes to mind. Lynda learned what suited her and we didn't see much of that on the show.


Good response.

Fern was speaking at an event organised by The Times, so I can imagine some of what she said was intended to be light hearted and entertaining for the audience, but probably with an element of truth too. The DM we all know of course has a field day taking stuff said out of context.

As a side note, these days we hardly see anything of each couple in the training room and that means we don't get an impression (right or misleading) of how they're getting on together. I miss that.

I had a Russian translating everything on twitter and she was like a Jason Gilkison type person but the Pro had most of the input.

Yes, I miss it too. I enjoyed seeing the partnerships evolve and watching them warts and all.


Oh, okay. Thanks.

When you are learning to dance you do tend to get manhandled a bit. Learning something very disciplined, like ballet, you get manipulated into position quite a lot and teachers can be pretty strict. I expect if someone gets exposed to the dance world for the first time as a grown woman it can be a shock to the system.

Yeah I agree - I've had my feet nudged into place, and my head held out with a hand etc. And when I did ballet I was manhandled waaayy more and I started as a child - so none of it really bothers me or offends me - plus I think my teachers are quite good at judging what people are comfortable with. I could see how someone who's never been exposed to it before might think it's extreme but if it was me with a week to learn a dance, I'd try and find a way to get over myself quickly before I make a tit out myself on national tv!

I think with something like strictly the celeb needs to accept that it's not business as usual and you kind of have to get involved with it all - dancing properly, and the spray tans and the outfits. I don't have a lot of time for celebs who are apparently ssssoooo excited to do strictly but then don't want to work hard or look the part.

Likewise the pros need to realise they're not running their own dance school and are being paid to teach celebrities who may have no interest in dancing but just want the exposure and the paycheck. It can't be that rewarding from a teaching perspective unless you get an exception who finds that they actually do love dancing.

Actually, there were reports at the time that they did not get on and particularly that he made insensitive remarks about her weight.

I'm afraid I hold to the view that the 'hiring and firing' of pro dancers on Strictly is a pretty good indicator, not of who is the best dancer, but of who is easy to work with and who is a prima donna, or doesn't pull their weight with 'side' publicity or, perhaps most important, is difficult with production team members. Based on what I have heard, the only exception is Ian Waite.

If you think for one moment that Artem wouldn't have been most welcome to stay on Strictly, then you're deluded. America's gain is our loss.