Thats very nice of you Rose, I do appreciate you taking an interest, but I have really never had any desire to blow my own trumpet, I tend to prefer to let others that I know do it for me.

As far as my dance opinions are concerned though I consider myself generally to be a voice of reason.

didnt Kristina and Brian do one once.............

EDIT: I typed "Kristina and Brian mambo" into youtube and this came up

https://youtu.be/IFp0idjCtKE

Thank you katt, isn't Kristina amazing.

Oh bless them! That's not mambo. It's a hotch potch of bad Latin a la ballroom.

THIS is mambo! Eddie Torres - the King. Keep watching as the dancers spit into couples and show you how it's done. One of my fave dances, although it will wear you out!

Wummery.

I was skeptical lol its a Strictly mambo

I hate most Ballroom pasos, but there have been a couple I have liked. The only pro that I liked dancing them was Artem.



Pasodoble in Spain is synonimus with the music from the bullfights. Its also played in the verbenas (the parties in the villages squares where people dance, old people now a days).
I am not fond of castañetas at all for flamenco or sevillanas. I dont mind them in other folk dancing from other parts of Spain, but flamenco for me, hands shaped beautifully.

I am just exhausted after watching 1 minute!

So do you think it is respectful to call people a "cliquey select" just because they happen to know about dancing?

Egg Heads? Wouldn't watch it if you paid me, but respect that plenty of others like it.

Yes, I think I mentioned its link to the bullfight in my post. I did not enjoy Sevillanas at all. They bored me senseless! Flamenco was my passion and took me a good 6 years to master. I loved learning the palos and the footwork, but never really mastered palmas!

So fast!

Sensible! They sometimes do terrible things to wonderful dances - but with such energy!

For the 'danced too much' category, I nominate American Smooth (or the Strictly version of it which is nothing like the real dance), danced every week it seems whatever ballroom is offically meant to be.

Danced the best: probably Waltz because I think it is least easy to mutilate with gimmicks etc. Strictly version is a bit twee at times though

Danced the worst: Foxtrot (my favourite ballroom). What a sad dismal earnest dance it appears to be on Strictly! And Rumba - couldn't we have some nice basic rumbas with recognisable steps and less self conscious posturing?

Beautifully put! Totally agree I loathe Rumba on SCD. It's awkward and rather tacky - and the pros always look like they are dying of embarrassment

tbh they butcher nearly every dance on Strictly

its not like it used to be! *sigh*

So true. I try to stay positive and watch out for the tiny moments of great dance.

However, most of the time I sit here muttering, 'what do you call THAT move. Make it go away' and wonder why I still watch it. If it wasn't for FF and Sky+ I'd be in deep trouble.

Truth is, if it has dance in it I will watch it - even very bad movies with the thinnest of plot lines.

ditto, I have been watching some of the 1st few series on youtube (what little there is on there nowadays) and the difference is phenomenal! gone are the days of pure dance and now was have faffing, props galore, awful music and me sitting staring at the tv screen muttering "that is a *insert dance name here*

You gave Chris Parker a miss then

To be honest, I think the comedy (for want of a better word) contestants and routines are pretty much the same as they have always been - it's the better dancers who have been short changed (to me) by not being allowed to learn the straight up dances but given a mishmash of styles with inappropriate music and at times awful costuming and staging. It seems that over the last few series when you get a good dance it's in spite of everything that's been thrown at it!

well, no actually, because he was series one and tbh I didnt know much about ballroom and latin dance (I dont know much now but I have lessons and think I know a decent waltz from a bad one) but I knew he was a terrible dance but he tried and I think that is what I found endearing - does that make sense at least back in the early series, even if the celebs were terrible, you could at least tell what dance they were doing - nowaways its tricky to tell a salsa from a samba, an American Smooth to any of the ballroom dances bar the tango..............

See tango is easy they try to get a crick out of neck and look intense.

You know when watching those early trading clips I didn't know what a few of them where doing but I did recognise the tango. 😀