Precisely.

Appreciate your reply but we'll have to disagree on this one.

Agreed to disagree

Respect your opinion as an experienced dancer though.

I used to like her comments when she was a judge and she often spoke a lot of sense whilst Craig would be complaining someone's little finger was at the wrong angle, Len reading his scripted one-liner and Bruno 'going off on one '.

I have always liked Alesha, she seems a lovely person.

Not so much amazing .... more astonishing.

This ^

After her first series bedding in, where she maybe overdid the criticism on a couple of occasions (although I still found her cutting Craig and Laila down hilarious) she did well, and helped guide the judging panel away from some of the flintiness of the early series towards something with more warmth, that the public were less likely to kick against. She is also one of the few people who got to leave the show on her own terms and went on to reasonably high-profile success, which I suspect winds a lot of people up, especially those who whined non-stop about one minor kink in her grammar.

Alesha learnt to perform a single routine in each of the dances she danced with matthew over approximately a week's tuition, dancing for approximately 14 weeks in total. She claimed never to have taken any classes before and she certainly hasn't since. It is fairly insulting to Darcey Bussell to suggest on that basis Alesha is more knowledgeable in any aspect of dance. Darcey is, of course, best known as a prima ballerina. She is also President of the Royal Academy of Dance, which over sees not only ballet but contemporary and jazz dance education in the UK, in part in recognition of her wide-ranging dance experience and interests. She has to my knowledge danced exhibitions in tango since her retirement from ballet, on Strictly itself she has performed Jive and AS with Ian Waite; studying at White Lodge she will certainly have learnt waltz and VW (the little girls always perform those in their Xmas show). Just examples from a lifetime of dance immersion. While she is no ballroom specialist, it is ludicrous to suggest she isn't far more experienced and knowledgeable than Alesha Dixon.

I missed

Absolutely. I am gob smacked that anyone would even think Alesha has an iota of the knowledge, experience or qualifications of Darcy.

Alesha learned ballroom and Latin dancing for about 15 weeks -- part time! Correction she learned to perform a dozen or so routines based on a series of Latin and ballroom dances. I doubt she could get up and dance any ballroom or Latin dance other than the routine she performed for each style. Nobody becomes sufficiently expert in anything much in just 15 weeks. Would you want a lawyer who was just a term and a half into their law degree or happily put your kids in a school where the teacher had had just 15 weeks training?

Paragraphs would help here!

Alesha may have claimed not to have taken any classes, but then so did Jill Halfpenny. Alesha's wiki and IMDB both state she attended dance classes and was scouted there. After becoming part of Mis-Teeq, she worked as their choreographer, as mentioned.

Also, the comment about Darcey seems to be fairly contradictory. Most here claim that people with dance experience but no ballroom/latin training don't count as ringers, so by the same logic, Darcey isn't qualified to comment on it. 15 weeks part-time is extremely vague too...Alesha trained for around the same number of weeks, but no doubt with considerably more hours.

Yes, I saw the jive, which looked very bizarre and unlike a jive...and the AS seemed to be 90% lifts and showing off her flexibility.

Alesha consistently showed an understanding of and an aptitude for ballroom and latin technique. As stated, this, combined with her previous dance experience - makes her a more credible source for Strictly info, in my opinion, of course.

Did this thread trip and fall through a wormhole back to 2009?

God, I miss Alesha.

I think most of her Latin dances had very mediocre technique - Paso, Cha Cha, Jive. She was able to "sell" a dance well though, so the judges forgave a lot.

I'm glad we don't have to put up with her annoying personality and laugh any more.

Despite my quibbles about her being a better qualified judge for a dance competition to Darcy I seem to remember her cha cha was rather good. Could be wrong its been some time.

I miss her too.

Wish SCD could have a time bomb and go back to 2009 to be honest lol. 😂

She might not have the qualifications but she made good comments on the performances, I always thought of her as representing the viewer. As I wrote earlier, Len might have lots of knowledge of ballroom and Latin dancing but he rarely shows it and most times just makes a scripted 'joke'. Bruno occasionally comes out with something but most time you wonder what planet he is on. Craig can make good comments but all too often he will get obsessed with some very minor technicality. In the time available you are not going to get a detailed analysis of the performance but very often Alesha talked a lot more sense than the other three even if she if not a card carrying member of the Ballroom dancing judging trade union.

Many teachers with years of training seem to be particularly incompetent whereas other people are natural teachers which is probably why the teaching unions gets so upset about unqualified teachers (i.e. non union members).

I would not compare the ability to dance around for a couple of minutes with the amount of knowledge needed by a good lawyer.

She has been very very very busy plugging her record.
The One Show.
ITT.
Saturday Kitchen.

Clearly the record needs a lot of promoting.

I thought she looked too thin. Just in the interest of balance.

I agree, she's lost too much weight

I thought the same. She looked much better when she competed in the show, back in 2007.

Agree. She's drop dead gorgeous, but for me personally I prefer her with her natural dark hair and not so skinny.

She looked lovely on Saturday Kitchen, considering she said she was still up at 3 this morning!!!

She was very funny as well!

And ... Isn't promotion part of what singers/actors/writers do???? Otherwise we wouldn't have many guests on talk shows .....

Isn't that the year Chris Hollins won?

She is not taking any chances, she is making it ineligible for the chart:

http://beta.digitalspy.co.uk/music/i...her-new-music/