She came down the stairs at the end like she had lost her horse

I thought it was really full on from start to finish, but her star jumps near the end were a bit lack lustre so you could be right. I liked the controlled and precise style of their dance, although I love the fun styles too. She could be in trouble though if it's lost her votes.

Dangggg, don't know what happened there; it was going very well, then there was something about the lift; then the mistimed steps....

Yes agree, it was not the best, but the fact that the juidges view her as a wonderful dancer may have influenced their scoring.


My hubby, who rarely makes a comment not being a fan of strictlhy, also commented that he thought she appeared very tired.

Aww babe , she really wasn't . You must at least have noticed the stairs incidents ? All the other little timing and sync issues would have possibly kept off radar , but the steps issue and show-girl routine was a glaring ongoing huge whoopsie .
Maybe she did hurt herself , might have pulled a muscle in that lift and that bloody hurts and slows you down .

There were obvious timing issues and the problems with the line up on the stage with the others was not something you could ignore surely? it stood out like a sore thumb! They all went left and Helen went right (or vice versa cannot remember) even the hubby made comments on the whole dance (which I think I have mentioned before, but it was a miracle he was actually watching)

It was a pity. Maybe it was a bit too "proper" at the beginning but up to the lift, I thought she was doing great. It was very sharp and precise and all that.

But after the lift something happened. She seemed to lose steam towards the end or maybe the botched lift made her lost her focus. She tripped going up the steps, then started off time on the platform and it seemed like she couldn't do the kicks anymore.

It was a shame really. I was really liking it up to the lift.

It looked uncomfortable, I wouldn't be surprised if she'd hurt herself. Her face was dancing the Charleston but her legs weren't.

Also I didn't understand the build up to having '5 Helens!' on stage. Felt like the point of that had got lost somewhere.

There was a lot of leg on show.
The routine had a lot of content and mostly well-done within the parameters of her long, straight legs. Would like to know if she just tired or received some little tweak.

If she is hurt, I really hope she's not in the dance off.

ohh dont be silly

I was going to ask about that because she walked across to Tess very awkwardly.

What I found amazing about Helen is she is dancing in what looks like stilletos. She has enormously long legs to control and she seemed to get tired towards the end. Yes she slipped on the stairs on her way up and this threw off her timing at the start of the end stairs landing sequence ... but she is now matching Aljaz. Previously I kept looking at Aljaz because he is an amazing dancer (probably the best professional male dancer on the show) but in recent weeks Helen is beginning to hold her own with him.

Yes she looked bow legged. I thought she tired herself out during the second half of her dance - but then was shocked to see her bow leggedness afterwards. She must have hurt her inside leg muscles ... and they may cramp up later.

Maybe she got tired legged and going up the stairs and tripping then having to catch up with the dance - she may have pulled her inside leg muscle(s). I am trying to find a reason for her bow ledggedness after she had completed the dance and was coming down the stairs. Could be a problem with the hip or lower back. Definitely something was up. Maybe extreme tiredness and muscles going into spasm.

She ran a marathon earlier in the year so I doubt it was lack of stamina that caused the issues towards the end.

She has an amazing pair of legs, a wicked laugh and dances well so I hope she stays in the competition until the final.

Has Helen showed any resilience after mistakes yet? I don't remember the earlier dances. In the Samba she almost tripped over herself and then looked wonky in the turn soon after, and after the little stumble on the stairs tonight was out of time. Both 'episodes' were in the second half of the dances. Is her physical conditioning up to the dances she is given?

Completely agree with most on here.

The lift seemed to go wrong, I don't think she got injured, but I think it threw her a bit and she never picked it back up, kind of like when Jay went wrong and tripped, but then it bleeds into the remaining parts.

The bit on the stair when she kicked on the wrong foot, well that is something the judges should never, ever miss. There were issues throughout it though.

She seemed to flag so much towards the end and was very out of breath, it seemed she had no energy for the back end of the dance.

The flappy bird step, no bend at all in the knees. It looked so odd, she should have had a look at Jamelia's Charleston to be honest.

How much ballet did she do? It isn't touched on much, but I did a lot and other dancing and I can bend my knees into a dance, so can my pro ballet friend. Helen isn't a pro ballet dancer, so it cannot really be blamed on that and as I said, those who have done a lot can still bend!

Helen is normally so consistent, but I agree with what others have said, she seemed to take a knock and struggled from then on.

My thoughts as well. I also thought she looked terrified throughout the whole dance.

I thought she was injured too. Bruno kind of picked up on it about the stairs but Aliasz covered for her.

I wondered if she was injured in the group dance and the judges had realised that and maybe made allowances? I'm not sure the non-pros should take part in the group dance before they have to perform. If there was a complete disaaaaster it would be very unfair on the celebrity involved.

She definitely went into that first lift wrong, I think she pulled something and from then on she seemed to flag and lose energy fast.

Definitely didn't deserve 9's!

I thought it suffered from training room build-up, so that my expectations were so high nothing could live up to them. (I had the same with Kellie's jive.)

I also thought that it looked like she hurt herself in that weird lift and couldn't quite get it back afterwards. Or it might have been the pressure on her - must be really hard to do a Charleston after the last couple, in Blackpool, with everyone saying you're going to outdance your pro dancers and watching so many great dances before you. I don't think she physically lacks stamina but nerves can get to anyone and tighten up your performance. Whatever happened, I hope it isn't a serious injury.

I didn't really like the choreography either, and I think it's a tough dance to get at Blackpool (charleston, jive and salsa all likely to be better in the smaller space of the studio). I think she'd have been better with a cooler, posh Bright Young Things Sophie sort of charleston, rather than a big Hollywood number. But what do I know.

I said this in the NAT but the whole dance was weird. When I saw it in training, I thought they had slowed it down for her to perfect the routine and then they would speed it up to normal charleston speed on the night. But it stayed that slow. She looked like a flamingo trying to take off

Quite disappointing, I was expecting it to be brilliant from the ITT clips. It started promisingly but the timing went out, a few obvious mistakes. The whole vibe of the dance just didn't take off. I thought four 8's would have been fairer.

Hope this is a blip as I prefer Helen/Aljaz to Anita/Gleb but I wonder after Anita's great paso whether the momento will go on them now for a place in the final and Helen and Aljaz will go before the final.

I just rewatched the dance on Youtube and I am not sure she was injured as a lot of people here are saying to excuse the dance. It did start off ok for the first 10-20 seconds but then her legs started to look tired, she wasn't matching Aljaz kicks or legs movements at all. The most obvious mess up as has been stated over and over (and how some people here are saying they didn't see ANYTHING wrong in this dance is beyond belief!) was the stairs and what happened on top of them. She didn't even attempt the leg kicks after starting to go the wrong way and it all finished like a damp squib.

The Judges seem to have stopped using the 'previous ballet training' excuse now which is good as lets be honest after all these weeks she should have smashed through that issue a long time back. However she just doesn't seem comfortable doing Latin, whether its nerves or its just a dance style she doesn't enjoy I don't know. But it is a shame as she has the figure and the energy as shown on previous dances to pull any form of dance off on the show. I enjoy watching her usually, but last night it was truly a cringe worthy performance which only made the Judges remarks all the more strange. They were on an elevated platform with a clear view of all the floor so they MUST have seen exactly what we all saw, especially the disaster on the stairs and yet Bruno was the only one to touch on it very briefly. Its bad enough that people here say they didn't see a problem, but when supposed professional dancers don't see them too ... well, more fuel for the Judges scoring conspiracy theories I think.

Someone touched on the mass pre-show dance which I totally agree with. No way should the contestants be in that and then expected to dance for a position in the show later, that's just crazy! However if they were injured in that dance, based on previous series, it wouldn't be a bad thing at all. They would get a free pass to next week. But I didn't enjoy the start of show dance anyway, FAR to many people out on the floor, it was just a huge mess.