You have possibly heard the saying,"be careful what you wish for....."

I got the impression that the others thought the wrong couple had got through, hence all the hugs and cuddles from Jay and Giovanni in particular.

I don't think either the look, or the comment, was actually directed at Anita, but Gleb. It was a horrible dance, although she danced it well. She deserved better from Gleb.

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Or they were just really sorry to see her go as they had formed a close friendship, as she had with them,

He's getting snarky, is Len, he may be head judge but he's cantankerous and downright rude to celebs when it should be the pro. Like when he criticised Jay. He was right his natural turns weren't right, Aliona should have seen that in training! More concerned with his top line. Really pleased for Kellie and Kevin. Sad Anita and Gleb have gone. She danced a lot better in a far more difficult dance routine. Katie and Anton still had errors. Craig saw that, why the others didn't I don't know? Fingers crossed for early exit next week for K&A. I have never really taken to Anton, hopefully now he's made the final he'll quit strickly!

I watched very closely in the dance off and actually there was quite a few salsa steps in it. It didn't look like salsa because of the music, gleb choreographed accordingly

Len's rudeness was unnecessary and spiteful, and just plain bad form.

Having watched Anita's farewell video I would agree, and Anton looks as sheepish as hell in it. He knows the wrong couple went.

Are you sure you mean that?? How many times have we heard how good he is at teaching ballroom, I admit he does not suit Latin. But honestly I find that comment hard to take. Have you thought that perhaps when it comes to the shows Katie just does not remember the routine as well as she does in training. It does happen you know. It's called nerves. Out of peoples comfort zones they get nervous at times. Katie reminds me of a swan, gracious and lovely above water but a times panicky under the waves. Why again blame Anton, even the ones that could not dance said he had the patience of a saint with them.

There were mistakes in both dance off dances...However I think Anita's was more glaring than Katies because of the speed and the type of performance needed.

I thought there were salsa steps in it (even a few basics) but the music didn't help and her shoes...

This. Anita seems like a fun person to be around and they've probably formed a good friendship with her by now. I very much doubt it had anything to do with thinking the wrong person went.

Overall I've liked Anita & Gleb better than Katie & Anton through the series but this week K&A were better in the dance off and deserved to stay (and it was pretty even in the show as well, both had a good & a bad dance). A&G's samba was a car crash, the music was dreadful, seeing it the second time took away any 'wow' factor Gleb's choreography had the first time around and tbh Anita didn't dance it that well second time around either and Katie picked up her game.

Lbr it doesn't even get close to the realm of most shocking elimination ever on Strictly. It's not even the most shocking this series. Anita had some fab dances early on but she's not been that great the past 2-3 weeks. Now if Katie wins the whole thing then THAT will be considered a shock, although I wouldn't count out the Anton factor next week tbh.

Week after week Gleb has been choreographing for the public, not to the dance and not for the judges and this was always likely to work unless Anita got into a dance off.

Even so, if Katie had danced as she did in the first dance, she would have won but unfortunately for her Katie improved massively and did a beautiful waltz.

I would have quite liked Anita to win with her efforts from a non- dance experience but Gleb's strategy was risky at this stage, perhaps he should have changed just for this week and reverted for the final.

The result was clear though, as Len indicated



Maggie

Spot on.

Agreed.

Except that I'm 99% sure you don't mean Simon Callow.

really? Watch the last dance again and he picks up Claudia.

BIB Why?

It wasn't innovative. It's the easy way out. Why bother teaching your celebrity to do difficult dance technique when you can just throw in any old disco moves?

'safe and boring' is actually extremely difficult and when it works it creates a remarkable dance that everyone can appreciate.

Trust me, you do not want a show consisting of solely so called 'crowd pleasers'.

The real shame is that Anita was capable of learning technique as she demonstrated over the weeks. Overall she was the better dancer.. but Gleb blew it on the night.

I think it was Anita's fault for choosing that dance, if she had done the other one, she'd of had more of a chance to win Len over, TBH I've agreed with every result this year other than Helen

edit: but that was the public, and I agreed with the judges to save Georgia(my fav)

Totally disagree with this comment. Gleb continually pushes the boundaries and perhaps in this case he did go a little too far (I thought it doomed when I saw the wedged foortwear but then Jay had what looked liked trainers on his feet!)

Gleb overshot the remit and should have reined it in a bit on this occasion fully knowing what Len likes and dislikes. I don't think it had anything to do with Anita's abilities to perform the said dance.

What annoys me the most is that Len was rude to Anita and she is just doing as she was told. If he dislikes Gleb's choreography he should direct his comments to Gleb. Poor Anita worked her socks off on that routine. He should appreciate how much work she has done regardless of whether he disapproves of the choreography. He can be downright rude at times.

Do you really think it was Anita's choice? I doubt it.

For entertainment. For votes. I am not certain that they didn't realise this would be their last week and so decided to do a show dance tbf.

It's amazing how subjective we can all be, Artem pushed boundaries but I disliked him, ,Gleb does and I like him.

Unfortunately I think the Salsa was far too ambitious a routine so it was never going to be mistake free. Anton played it safe and got through. Gleb didn't and it cost them the final. I do however think that Craig was right to recognise the innovation and ambition of the routine. Maybe dances should be marked up for levels of difficulty which would put Gleb and Anita's dance quite a way above Anton and Katie's waltz.

Call me cynical but I do also think that there was an element of wanting to get Anton through to his first final as he is considerably older than the other pros and may not have many more chances.

I am not getting caught up in the fix thing. I was disappointed to see Anita go but am willing to accept the judges simply made their choices based on their honest feelings.

I don't really agree with the rest of your post, however. I just quickly watched Len's bit again. He didn't give any reason why he picked Katie. He said he was deciding based on the DO alone then that it was not close. He gave no specific reason at all. I am not saying he should be giving a detailed critique but watch it again and you will see he gives no actual reason. So it isn't really a case of "he can't win". Give a reason in a fair and sensitive way and it would have been fine.

I think the reason people are saying he was rude is because there was no need to say it wasn't even close. He could have just said he was picking Katie, with ideally at least a line or two why. He didn't need to add a line that came over like a snidey put down. He may not have meant it in a bad way but it came over that way. I think he possibly has a problem with Gleb (traditionalist blah blah) but maybe he could have been a bit more sensitive to Anita.