I really hope you are right, and I agree with you about the choreography from about half way through - the problem here in my opinon too.

I think Anita does a fantastic job of what Gleb gives her - and that's the problem. As far as performance goes, Anita nails it every time. Unfortunately for Gleb it appears that performance seems to take precedence over content and technical skills. I don't think Gleb is another Artem though. The judges are doing their job by marking what they see. I just wish they'd do that with all the couples, so it's not that Anita is undermarked, it's other couples being overmarked/undermarked. But that's nothing new.

That said, I do love watching Anita and Gleb dance and voted for them last night. If the judges are going to have favourites, I will too. It was Halloween week, so you might as well forget about what dance a couple were supposed to be dancing.

I wouldn't expect him to say nothing good about it.

Regardless of what he said that was positive, the comment about the storyline seemed ridiculous to me and it stood out because it was so odd (thats why we were discussing it) How anyone (let alone a dancer and judge) could not follow that it was a witch casting a spell on a prince is beyond me. My four year old daughter knew!

I'm sure there are some who just think he hadn't noticed Gleb sitting on a throne with a crown on his head. And must have missed Anitas costume.. Had momentary blindness when Anita blew fairy dust over Gleb, with him falling to the floor. The scene where shes controlling him, to the point she lifts him off the floor must have been too quick for him to notice and make a connection to what this difficult story line was about. But personally, I think he just wanted to have (another) dig at Gleb.

But you also said

or he has made up his mind he doens't like Glebs choreography and will deliberately find fault with it and have a dig. Unfortunately, I'm more inclined to believe its the latter

Which is why I posted the query. He didn't seem to fault the choreography, he just couldn't follow the story behind that choreography (perhaps because he was looking at the technical aspects - "can't see the wood for the trees")


Never mind though, it was just a thought on my part.

I suspect Len has a problem with Halloween. Every performance is full of faffing on a major scale which we know gets on his nerves, yet he can't help but enjoy some of the performances. The result is he struggles to score objectively.

Its fine...only giving my opinion, you don't have to agree with it

I don't expect him to slate everything about the dance. I just find the comment not only unecessary but unbelievable. And the storyline is part of the choreography (imo) ....and Gleb is responsible for the storytelling in his choreography. Its not a significant thing of course, I'm only mentioning it because it was such an odd comment and I'm thinking of previous comments from Len this series too. And I'm afraid I believe it was more likely he wanted to have a dig, as opposed to being confused over such an obvious theme. Of course I understand not everyone feels the same

Yes, they were. I suspect the remaining choreo covers up his inadequacies as a ballroom dancer, rather than Anita;s. You can only ever be as good as the knowledge that your Pro gives you.

None of their ballroom dances thus far have escaped the wrath of extremely heavy theming. I am interested to see how Anita and Gleb will perform when they are dancing a no frills ballroom dance, when it's not movie week/Halloween/pretending to be futuristic space raiders.

She has shown she is capable, but in my opinion, her ballroom to date has been masked by costumes and heavy story telling. I'm looking forward to seeing her dance a plain, simple ballroom dance. She's been able to showcase her Latin in this way, and I am excited to see her showcase her ballroom in the same way.

Being cynical, Anita can easily solve this problem - sign up for the Tour ASAP,
and the scores will take care of themselves !!

I think the judges are keeping Gleb in his place as his choreography is a breathe of fresh air and he's so easy on the eye. Probably frightened he asks for more money. I agree Anita deserves to win she's brill

The judges are giving high marks to the celebs who have had dance training, Jay and Helen in particular who are trained in dance, then Georgia and Kelly who've had dance training at drama school. (Even Katie has had dance training, not that it seems to be doing her much good). The judges always do this and always will.

They should remember that Anita, unlike the above mentioned hasn't had any dance training at all so compared to Carol and Jeremy, she is exceptionally good.

Totally agree - they do put in great performances but the technique side at times is lacking, that coupled with inconsistent judges who pick up on this for some couples and not others means Anita imo is undermarked.

For example Helen's samba had so many flaws in it's technique yet it was top of the board was frankly amazed such a stiff performance with virtually no bounce achieved that. Peter was very overmarked last night too again his and Janette's technique imo were poor and found it a strange foxtrot routine.

To get to the top of the board Gleb will have to start nailing Anita's technique making sure those feet and frame are right in order to give the judges no excuse to mark her down as they are obviously favouring some couples over others

Anita and Gleb are always in my faves every week - I think their dances, more than anyone else's (even Jay) are consistent, exciting and of a high standard. Most of that is down to Gleb's choreography and Anita's ability at performing it.

They have been under marked quite a few times, but I don't think that the judges marks will affect them too much. Unless they get in a dance off, ofc.

i wonder how much marking is being done for Gleb? The same with Pasha?

This. Also think that her fans are bit thrown (in awe) by the theming, as she is really not that much better at dancing then someone like Katie (one is better in ballroom, the other in latin).

Think the BBC promo campaign also has something to do with it (with her WDYTYA episode being shown in between the first two live shows).

But it will be interesting to see a ballroom dance from her without any heavy theming (if that happens).

Gleb is creating routines that are crowd pleasers. They are popular in the studio and they look great on TV too.

The judges are looking for an attractive routine that is recognisable as the dance it's meant to be, plus full of good technique.

Gleb and Anita do not achieve much of what the judges want, even if they do produce an attractive and exciting routine. Therefore it's hardly surprising they get marked down.

As a long-term viewer of Strictly with no dance background, I've got to the stage where I can look at a dance and go "oh, that's a tango/samba/VW", IF it contains a reasonable amount of content. It was completely obvious what Jay, Georgia and Helen were dancing last night but not at all obvious what Anita (or at the other end of the talent scale, Carol) was supposed to be dancing.

Therefore I get why Anita was marked down yesterday even though I thoroughly enjoyed watching her, more than I enjoyed Helen for example.

BIB - That's a good point. The viewers and the judges are not coming from the same place. Most viewers don't vote based on the finer, perhaps pernickety, points of technique.

Yeah agreed.

It was very similar for Aliona in her first year with a contender in Matt.

I wonder if Gleb will alter his choreography like Aliona did to get a good blend between what the dance should look like and what pleases the crowd.

If the judges don't like Gleb's choreography, why aren't they telling him? Artem and Aliona were told in the past and Giovanni got a massive rocket from Len and has since shovelled in Kevin-levels of traditional content.

is that 100% correct, that anita hasn't had any dance training AT ALL?? If so, remarkable what she is doing...

Yes, I do think she was undermarked last night...the 6 from craig was just ridiculous.

there are still four or five who could come through and win...not just jay or anita.

Exactly.

Yes it is but on the bright side the public will get behind her even more. I hate to be cynical but I'm starting to think that's the plan. Also she always gets the best music and themes especially in comparison of others.
She's my favorite after Jay but I'm just calling it as I see it.

Absolutely agree! I'm not writing off Katie and Anton or Kellie and Kevin. Or even GG with their breakthrough dance.

But whilst I'm happy to take on what people who know much more than me are saying on here, last nights mark seemed ridiculous and therefore designed to get the public to get behind her.

I would also like to see them do a dance without so much heavy theming.

She may be undermarked in comparison to say Peter, but she's usually in the right place on the leaderboard. That feeling of being undermarked is driving an underdog story for her, even though her leaderboard positions means she's not in any real danger of going home. In addition, she's getting music and/or theming that are at least memorable. Last night's waltz, while not being all waltz was an awful lot better than poor Kellie's World's Oldest Kid Throwing A Tantrum paso theme.

She's a likely finalist based on what she's done and the competition, and this air of being undermarked and Gleb's choreography being underappreciated will certainly help.