The poster did not have to apologise for giving her view but she was gracious enough to do so. This is a forum where people air their viewpoints.

I did not agree with the poster as I like Katie and find her to be very charming and elegant on the show but that doesn't mean I will scold those who disagree.

Your response was rude and not necessary.

I saw a behind the scenes news report with her years ago and she didn't come over well, but I am really liking her on strictly so maybe it was the stress of getting a news report in on time that made her come over badly.

You're completely entitled to your view and the apology was gracious but no need We can't all like the same people.

Its Peter I can't be doing with! Grr. See I got so angry at the mere thought of him I wrote Grr

i felt a bit sorry for katie tonight, could have been a stand out dance.

something has gone wrong with this partnership, maybe anton relying too much on the ballroom and just assuming it would all fall into place so not bothering to really teach her any latin, or work on decent routines for them both. feels like he's just coasting and she can only go where he leads.

I think she's simply just not as good as everyone has assumed. That's all. I don't mean that she doesn't have the potential to be a good dancer. Just that she needs longer to develop.

Anton should have been paired with Carol and Katie with Pasha.[/quote]

Yes, Those were the natural partnerships, but Pasha HAD to have a duffer this year.
Katie may not be as good as early dances suggested but I think a lot of people feel that Pasha, Gleb, Giovanni etc. would have taught her better and got more out of her and also created better routines.

If Katie goes out soon hopefully she will do the tour and would be partnered by someone else, because Anton will be entertaining old ladies with Erin in their waltzy show early next year.

Anton's time is up, maybe he should be the new Tess next year.

To be fair that was a very difficult routine for a beginner tonight. And frankly, she made fewer mistakes than Jay did in his QS a few weeks back but was marked more harshly. I feel for Anton too - he is savaged if he doesn't provide enough 'content' but if he provides a high content dance and Katie makes mistakes, they seem to get less credit for more content than others - I cannot see how placing her below Jamelia could possibly be justified tonight.

I'm surprised how tense Katie is and too much tension can affect your dancing . That is why she also found it difficult to recover from the mistake .

Missfrankiecat. It was difficult, I agree, and she should have scored higher than Jamelia. I just think people expect too much.

Richwood: I don't think Gleb or Pasha would have taught her to dance a better quickstep (or choreographed a better one). Possibly Giovanni. Anton knows his stuff and is a qualified teacher of ballroom (ISTD, I think). Furthermore Katie is a grown woman who can take responsibility for her own learning.

Anton is of the 'old school' way of thinking, i.e. in ballroom, the man leads, the lady follows. The fact is, the lady will only look good if she knows what she is doing, and her partner leads her properly. Anton himself looked like he was struggling with that quickstep, as you said, he looked like he was just coasting, so hardly surprising Katie didn't look very confident.

And you may be right about something has gone wrong with the partnership. Katie is an intelligent lady. Maybe she has recognised his shortcomings?

Sad though it is, not all qualified teachers are good teachers. And I'm not sure how Katie can take responsibility for her own learning, unless she insisted on getting herself another teacher, and I can well imagine how that would go down!

K & A need to find more time to rehearse or choreograph to her ability. Tonight's dance was very ambitious but she is making the kind of mistakes that suggest lack of practice. Having said that it must be galling to have every error emphasised and then watch others who are praised for their ambition and performance whilst their mistakes are given much less attention.

Hi kaycee, I thought he was struggling because he was compensating for katie? Regarding the reference to old school: Won't most of the female celebs will find it difficult to take a proactive role in the dance anyway, if that's what you mean? That's really quite advanced. I just wouldn't expect to see it on Strictly.

I agree regarding qualifications and teaching quality, although I would be surprised if Anton were a really poor teacher of ballroom. Also I don't fully agree about responsibility. I'm not convinced Katie actually sees her faults. Some of the things she says in the tesspit and ITT indicate she's not fully self aware regarding her shortcomings. Maybe Anton needs to be a bit tougher.

Hi Ann, If, by taking a proactive role you mean in the same way as experienced dancers do, when in some instances the lady will lead the man, or create 50% of certain turns, etc., then yes that would be hard for female celebs to learn.

But they still need to be taught their own steps in the same way as the male celebs have to learn theirs. It is not enough for the pro dancer to think a beginner will have the ability to blindly follow and to look good doing it. I'm not convinced Anton takes teaching his celeb partners seriously enough.

Katie was my dark horse before it all started, but she is making a lot of mistakes, and then struggles to recover without it looking messy.

Hopefully she can get through a dance cleanly next week.

Kaycee, I can't believe he doesn't teach her the steps and underlying technique? Surely not?

I tend to think he prefers teaching the likes of the lovely Judy Murray, where he can just have a bit of fun and not have to try too hard - teaching technique can be blimmin' hard work!

Actually, while I am not sure about who made the most mistakes, as I think both made a few of them, Jay was scored a 25 for his QS and Katie a 26. Not sure getting one extra point is getting marked more harshly.
However, There were a couple of obvious mistakes in other dances tonight, yet those weren't penalised that harshly compared to Katie. I do wonder it it was because its Anton and a QS so the bar is higher.


There is no way that Anton is a bad teacher of ballroom. He has produced great routines over the years with middling celebs, including a great tango and a Vw weeks ago. But I think it's pretty obvious that Katie isn't as good as we thought in the first two weeks.
I am in no way shape of form an Anton fan, but it is obvious that while he is not the best, his ballroom routines are good.

a) No it wasn't - she got a higher score

b) It's later in the competition so it should be marked more harshly

lots of love,

A. Pedant

I wonder if Katie had done that Quickstep straight after her Viennese Waltz we'd have seen a different performance. Following the comments and scores for her Salsa and Paso, her confidence seems dented and her dancing looks more uncertain.

I can see why Anton wanted to choreograph an ambitious routine - Katie's been good at the Ballroom and after a dodgy couple of dances he wanted to "show 'em". But with her confidence taking a blow, I think it was beyond her. Maybe a simpler routine wouldn't have had the potential to wow but it might have steadied her a bit and restored some self-belief.

Now it's 3 bad weeks in a row to try and recover from.

Poor Katie; she started strong and has faded ever since.

Bii not to mention that the judges would have criticised Anton for doing an easy routine. To be honest, from where I am standing, fairly impartial though I like them, I think Anton can't win.

[/spoiler]
I think there's a middle ground. You can do an easier Quickstep that still has the relevant content. Dancing cleanly I think is more important for Katie right now, considering the shaky few weeks they've had. But yes, like I said, I can understand why Anton put together the routine he did.

I don't think the degree of difficulty matters though if mistakes are made like Katie's tonight. After she went wrong they were out of sync and she just couldn't get back on the beat. Even when they paused she still set off on the wrong beat and of course, they were moving too fast for her to get it right. Painful to watch. Hard for her when she'd been getting it right before the show. Mind you, at least she was aware she'd gone wrong tonight and didn't disagree with the judges.