I keep seeing comments about Anita's poor footwork and people blaming Gleb for not 'sorting it out' much earlier in the series. Now I don't like Gleb and find his choreography strange and not to my taste at all, but I don't understand why so many people are accepting it as fact that he is to blame for this? Could it not be that Anita is physically unable to do the things she is supposed to do with her feet, that she is naturally flat footed and finds it difficult/impossible to correct this? Or maybe she is not listening to the advice she is being given?

I find it odd that most people were happy to believe that Peter Andre didn't pay a blind bit of notice when his flaws were pointed out to him and kept on doing the same stuff week after week, yet in Anita's case Gleb is the one who is in the firing line. Surely he can only do so much without physically moving her feet into the correct positions, which would be cruel and probably get him sacked!

Well we have a praise-blame / pride-shame culture...but that's more of a philosophical point.

More straightforwardly - If you're first and foremost a fan of Anita, you look to pass the blame for the partnership's shortcomings on to Gleb...and vice versa. In the absence of solid evidence, it's just another facet of cognitive bias.

Ultimately, however, Strictly is a team game. They win or lose together.

because Gleb is the teacher and its his job to correct whatever isnt quite right with his pupil

Anita doesnt look flat footed to me - Allison Hammond did, and was *shrug*

I think it's fine to blame Gleb to a certain extent, it's always the leap to "HE'S NOT EVEN TRYING TO CORRECT IT THE LAZY GIT" etc etc, with people apparently showing a psychic connection to the training room despite us never seeing what happens there any more, that bothers me. People got like that last year with Trent about Pixie's bandy legs as well. These people aren't perfect - just because it's not happening doesn't mean they aren't trying.

Peter Andre left and a whipping boy vacancy opened up, apparently.

I do not vote for them personally as I vote for Georgia but I do think some people probably vote for them because they fancy Gleb, I do not by the way as they keep defending her.

There have been others over the years with sickled feet. Usually it's pointed out much earlier, and many of those who have lasted into the competition have corrected them to some degree. So I think when you have seen people be able to correct them, usually with lots of work from the pro, when you see someone that hasn't, then it seems to fall to the pro whose job it is to notice things like that.

Sadly accurate.

He had it coming...

Was it Harry that Aliona had doing foot stretching exercises before every training session?

The ones I felt sorry for were Ricky Whittle and Steve last year. Yes, they had foot issues but they had also had had broken legs/ankles, so unless they were going for a re-brake and bone re-setting just to appease Craig there really wasn't any way round it.

Sorry if my previous comment was taken the wrong way I was only joking but I am finding it difficult to understand how Anita's AT was possibly a better dance than Georgia's Foxtrot.

I think that was Harry...

I'd forgotten Steve had that issue, but I remembered Ricky, and the constant "... but your foot was sickled" every week. He did correct it to a degree, but it was physically impossible to get rid of it. Still, he and Natalie did work on it and improved it so even in his case it was possible.

yes, he was pigeon toed - Craig pointed it out very early on - so Aliona made him do exercises and corrected the problem

Gleb is the professional and even if he couldn't correct Anita's pigeon-toes it was pointed out really early on in the series (as with Harry & Aliona). So I think my problem is there's no evidence that he's even tried to work on the issue - that could be bad editing but it doesn't feel like it.

Slightly glib remarks about keeping Anita in the air for a whole salsa indicates more that he didn't care about fixing the technical faults. For me the issue is that Anita's routines are lacking substance and technique and instead focus on the flashiness and showmanship. And fair enough, it works because people think they're wow and undermarked even when lacking content.

That's not Anita's problem - she's doing what she's taught. So if people think there's a fault with Anita's performance/technique/etc who is more responsible (answer: it's Gleb, he's the guy teaching her and choreographing the routines...)

It's Gleb's fault because - from what the viewer gets to see on the show - he doesn't appear to have made any attempts to fix it. No Anita can't go overnight from having pigeon toes or sickled feet, but it can be made far less obvious.
Or he can produce choreography which lessons the visual impact of the fact her feet aren't always properly placed instead of (like the AT) highlighting it.

Her routine on Saturday was the first time I found what was happening with her feet more distracting that the showmanship of the routine itself.

She said during her interview with Claudia this week that they'd been trying to fix her feet.

Missed that. Thanks.

Pity it's not working! Perhaps Gleb can be excused the chuck her in the air approach then

I find it strange that Gleb receives so much criticism given that his partnership with Anita has got her to the semi-finals. I doubt if she's complaining.

I thought she said "we know about the feet" which isn't quite the same thing.

I thought they both commented on it and said something like we're trying but it takes years to correct things like that.

She added: "I'm trying every week...but it takes a while"

Ahh yes, thanks - it's coming back to me now.

So many Anita and Gleb threads, yes get that publicity!

So by that logic, would an English teacher be to blame if they had a dyslexic pupil who couldn't spell?

I agree with Kitty_Martinez really - though I'm not a fan of either Gleb or Anita, they're in the semi-finals, so for a lot of people watching the partnership obviously 'works'. To be honest they don't seem to need to sort out her imperfections as they keep sailing through anyway.

As for that comment about lifts, Anton said something very similar about Judy Murray last year. Obviously she was a LOT worse though!

If he is going to keep her airborne she still needs to point her toes & try to make her feet look elegant. Plus she should never stand sideways on the judges or a camera.