Stage Schools and Dancing Schools are a bit different. In Stage School dancing is part of the day where in Dancing Schools it is constant work on just dance. It seems unfair to have contestants from Dancing School, like Caroline last year who had actually worked as a dancer professionally before Strictly and had auditioned for Arlene a few years ago to work in a dance group. That seems so unfair to other real beginners. But that is show business, all the reality show lie and exaggerate regarding their contestants. The important thing is to put on a good programme and if you have one or two struggling people, that is ok but a whole show full of people who cannot dance could get boring.

I just want to put in a word for musical theatre or commercial type of dance and say that it isn't that easy.


Ok maybe it isn't ballet and you don't have to do it from the age of 4 and risk life and limb injury to be able to do it.


But I would challenge those of you who are not dancers in this group to do a general level musical theatre class with me and try to do one of the routines. You have to pick up the choreography in 30 mins and they only show you a couple of times.



Also, I don't know anything about Rambert but I know about Laban. They do a range of classes from evening and Saturday classes for beginners to full time degree level courses. So anyone here could say 'I go to Laban' but you could just be doing a mat pilates class there

A lot of the choreography was geared towards protecting her back when it started to disintegrate on her, though.

All the fake "shocked and stunned" facial expressions as though he was blow away at being so good, after only three weeks. Oh well, it is called ShowBusiness!!!!! I remember a time when SCD actually had REAL beginners on the show and they did improve each week. Now they are all brilliant the first week or so of the programme. Daft.They must think the public are really stupid. Now basically SCD is a way of promoting yourself and improve your career, rather than learn to dance.

Bar maybe the first series, Strictly has always had mixed abilities in it, including the dreaded ringahs.

Oh come on! He appeared to be out of breath, and genuinely stunned at the marks and reception from the audience he had received. Why do people have to be so cynical about someone they don't know? Isn't there a good chance that he was absolutely genuine?

I am the public, and I'm not stupid. If you don't like it any more - then don't watch.

What, real beginners like Claire Sweeney?

Exactly!

And Saint Jill of Halfpenny, winner of season 2?

Thank you for this comment. I get so fed up with all the moaning about some people having previous experience. Lots of people have previous dancing experience and others just have a natural aptitude. I just enjoy watching the celebrities dance and love to see how much some of them improve.

Theres no business like show business ...bring it on. love the show and unless they have trained in ballroom dance I dont really care..

He graduated from the Midlands Academy when he was 13 and I think he's 25 now so quite a while ago.

Also ballroom, ballet, contemporary, etc. are all different styles of dancing - it's like saying Frankie Dettori could do show jumping and dressage because he knows how to ride a horse

There's degrees of expereince though. Some people may have done gymnastics as a child, they will benefit on SCD. Others will have done ballet or dance. Actors will now usually have been involved in studying acting from an early age. They will be taught dance in ny musicla theatre or acting course. . People who go to the drama schools that specialise in dance will be far more trained in dance. Some people wil develop an interest in particular styles of dance and come , like Tom, to SCD with years of dance training , and in his case, years of interest in performing dances like his eventual show dance.

Jay moves a long way up the experience scale .He's been dancing since a young age according to the BBC. And unless he attended an associated school , he may have had training at a tertiary educational level too.
http://maddcollege.co.uk/1-year-foun...eatre-diploma/ You can even see it as Arlene's revenge - if you note the list of patrons.

Their problem is that they now have no criteria left who should come on the show. , if you can come on ,and compete with beginners, with a decade plus of dance training, who do you rule out? If they are going to let people trained to a profssional level on, what does winning mean? And if anyone can compete, why not let the really good dance trained people in and do it even better ? You can't logically exclude the Mel C's, Tina Barretts, and Suzanne Shaws, once you have let people with similar qualifications on.

But to be fair, he would probably pick it up a bit quicker than someone who had never seen a horse

But he'd be a lot better at it than someone who had never ridden a horse before!

Sorry but any previous dance training is going to help in a dance competition!

Good luck with finding a group of celebrities with absolutely zero previous dance training. Bet it will be one helluva exciting series too. Not.

I really like this comment...perfectly put.

The Midlands academy seems to offer dimploma level courses . There's a junior school which is evening and weekend classes. Which did he do? Did he leave at 13? or start at 18? If he left at 13 where did he go next as nothing seems to be listed?
http://maddcollege.co.uk/about/

Does anyone actually know what he has done?

Somebody used the word duped. Of course all his fans are going to be up in arms at the slightest bit of criticism - let's face it up to now he hasn't received any - but is it really that difficult to put on an act with of course a helping hand from Tess and co. Should he really be that nervous and surprised having had previous training and been used to performing in front of audiences? I wouldn't have thought so. If it really was so much of an ordeal for him why enter in the first place?

Obviously, the BBC want to have as many viewers as possible and if they can nick a few from X Factor then so much the better. What better way to do it than promote the story of Jay.

It doesn't bother me if they have had dance training before. It is the posters trying to make out that his training was too long ago or not the right style to make it count that bother me.
He has obviously had extensive training (it shows) and that's fine just stop trying to justify it.

If you like him, vote for him that's just all there is to it, right!

Not necessarily, if it's a different style of dancing they have to forget everything they've been taught in the first place and learn how to do it a different way so basically starting from scratch.

Most of the actors who've appeared on Strictly have done stage training which also includes dance, most of the pop stars have danced in their videos, even boxers to some extent know some steps so to single Jay out because he did so well seems really unfair - he's not and never has been a professional ballroom dancer and I haven't noticed much waltzing, fox-trotting or jiving in The Wanted videos.

Goodness there is a lot of imagining and suspecting in that !

You can't quote as truth what you think is true and so your whole argument is faulty.

Do you KNOW without a doubt how long, exactly what he studied , were you there during his classes, did you teach him, were you any good? Was he any good?

I know because it's,on his BBC bio that he has previous dance experience but I don't know what.

So far on this board I have been told this today he has more experience than Natalie Gumende, he has been dancing for 10 years+ and that that he and the BBC have colluded in trying to make him some sort of dancing savant.

I don't know how much dancing experience he has , however what I do know is he has talent, one can attend dance classes for 25 years and still not be any good, same as footballers, artists, hurdles, opera singers. No one can do those really well without a basic natural talent.

I don't and never have cared about previous dance experience and I suspect those who really are making a fuss about it this today are doing so because he has threatened the chances of their favourite winning.

Also you know no one is making you watch this programme or comment on this board, you don't like the programme or the board then stop doing so

Agree...look at all the Wanted videos and there is virtually no dancing...they all stand in a position and just move about.

So you know him so well that you are sure its a fake shocked and stunned? .Maybe Jay was stunned to have been so highly praised .Maybe he is just an unassuming nice lad
When was this SCD who had no one previous dance experience ? Maybe the first one ? Not after that one anyway

James "Jay" McGuiness, born on July 24, 1990, grew up in Nottinghamshire, England. Always interested in music and dance, he graduated from England's Midlands Academy of Dance and Drama at age 13.

Maybe he just went to school to do his GCSE's in between that and joining The Wanted which he auditioned for when he was 16 and joined when he was 19 or maybe he'd been secretly entering ballroom dancing competitions but had sworn everyone to secrecy about it in case he was asked to do Strictly 12 years later - who knows