radio times article http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-...h-dancers-ever

shame Katya not considered as british really she represents Britain (well England) with Neil

Yes indeed, bendy. Lovely lady that she is. Its Chloe's 21st today, by the way. What a lovely Birthday present she has had already !

Interesting. Thanks.

Who said that? How do you know? If there is a troupe that means they I'll have to get 4/5 more dancers. They've announced all the pros for this year so I don't think it will happen and AJ and Chloe will get celebs

Neil and Katya will be great on strictly but i hope they aren't leaving the competitive world altogether.

If they get any more dancers then they'll need to start the show three weeks ago.

backstageone has been correct with every other snippet of gossip so far, she told us Gleb was leaving, the initials of Katya, Gorka and Oksanna before their announcement, then came back and said that depending on the celebs who sign up then three more pros would be announced in due course, and that all would be British. She also insinuated there would be a troupe, and as she has been right all along ive no reason to doubt her now.

Who is that person? Do they work on the show? Never heard of them

And the pro rehearsals start on Monday so I doubt there will be a troupe if they haven't announced anymore dancers. Just saying. Hope that all the pros will get celebs. Well at least 16 of them. Anton or Brendan are most likely to be sitting out and doing something on ITT. Just my opinion

The word troupe in this case is used as a means to describe Pros who will not have a celebrity, but in no way it would be anything like they have in the DWTS series.

The search for celebrities begings a year prior but negotiations or the ability to get the ones producers want takes a very long time and sometimes right before the launch of the series, which means the number of pro/pros without a celibrity may right now be in the air.

Those pros/pro with no celebrities will be part of the "troupe" and be part of the group numbers together with the regulars, as it was Joanne's case last year. There was talk of maybe doing something different in this regard but is not clear as to what that may be.

So is it likely that one/some of the existing pros may not get a celebrity? Bit harsh to bring so many new pros in in that case - though I guess it could be that one/some of the new ones may not necessarily get celebs. Do you think they are working towards 17 celebs though - it's just that there is no guarantee that they will end up with that many by the time they get to launch?

I hope the end product of this is well worth it. As it sounds like a hot mess. I need a good series of the show to stabalise the awful yet amazing year I have had so far.

It just sounds all confusing, I'm very interested to see how this will pan out.

Interesting, please let Anton be one of the pros without a partner

Don't suppose you can shed any light on who the celebs are?

LOL

BiB - when they've had extra dancers before they tend to be there just as guest dancers, for the odd week here or there. Maybe AJ & Chl could be more permanent pro routine dancers. Time will obviously tell.

Do agree about 17 couples being a bit much. I would prefer to see less couples - perhaps 12 - who could start their training at least a couple of months before the show started, so the early weeks would be a tad more interesting.

True, but officially amateurs are only supposed to teach under the supervision of a professional, which is somewhat different to being able to dream up suitable show routines and teach them to a complete novice.

Yes fully agree of course. I was just replying to Bendy's question as to whether they have taught before...
I also think it is quite different teaching dancers than can dance already rather than complete beginners, with the pressures of completing a routine and different dance each week, with a beginner. Quite a challenge !
A couple of weeks ago, I asked a Pro at Cheam what actually was the difference between Am and Pro. He said very little these days, as all can teach/earn, most Ams train full time anyway so they are almost Pro, in all but name.

I just don't see why they would be in the pro line up if they weren't getting a celeb, hopefully its a 17 celeb series with 15 weeks, that would be the least confusing thing to do right now

I agree with this. To me, a SCD pro dancer is one who is partnered with a celebrity, otherwise there is no point in announcing their involvement beforehand. I was really disappointed last year when Joanne got shafted so I would hope they wouldn't do that again, but as I said earlier, I think 17 couples would be far too many to keep track of!

I was really happy when they announced 14 pros as that seemed a good number to me, and I'd rather they had an even number so as not to have a gender bias.

It was announced at the end of August last year that Joanne wouldn't be partnering a celeb so I wonder if we can expect clarification before the launch show?

I really can't imagine Brendan signing up to a series of Strictly that involves him "sitting out"!

I guess having a bigger pro rosta than needed gives a bit of wiggle room when allocating the celebs, and allows for pro injuries that don't mean the entire cast has to be re-jigged.


Why not? It's what he's done for the last couple of years ... <wanders off whistling ...>

think everyone is taking dance troupe to mean what we have seen on DWTS - last year the show used several extra pro dancers most weeks on the group routines (who never got any credits on show except for Joanne) this time round what is to say they are not going to have 2 or 3 regular 'extra' dancers' on the show who are going to have credits on the show with a view to easing them in to the full show next year ??

I notice from my timeline on fB that Gorka has done his last BTF show and is on his way to London