Thanks for posting that link Ochre. Reading the interview, Laura is a much more interesting person than my impression of her before Strictly. Must have been tough coming over from Ireland without much of a network. I like her determination very much.

But who has more shoes - Gio or Laura? Or indeed, Mick!

Been so busy so just catching up with the thread Good music for a jive.

Thanks Ochre for posting link to interview.

Nice to see you make an appearance Lou

Thanks Ochre and Huph

I thought the quickstep was utterly brilliant and my favourite dance of Giovanni's that I've seen. I think Laura proved that tall girls are definitely not disadvantaged I'm excited about the jive and love the music.

Totally agree Lou - that quickstep is up there with last year's Samba as a favourite Gio dance on Strictly. I am really looking forward to the jive. Last year I thought the (in my opinion) cheesy DWTS theme overtook the jive choreo in G&G's Week 1 dance so I just didn't really like it although I could see that Georgia and Gio both danced it well.

This year Gio seems very pleased with his jive choreo, its the dance Laura most wants to do and they both seem fired up. So really looking forward to seeing the results

BIB I thought exactly the same LL

Loved this quote on Mick . . .

Who or what is your greatest love?

'My dog. I've only had my Mick in the last year but my friends all love him so much, it feels like he's their dog too - he's part of the circle.'

I reckon it'll be Mick getting all the freebies now with his new found fame

On shoes, love Laura's leopard print dance shoes for the Jive.

I'm now on Laura & Gio shoe watch when I'm looking at the DM 'arriving at training' photos


Their Waltz is still my favourite but the Quickstep comes a close second. Love this image of Laura & Gio dancing it Lou

Huph whaddya mean you've been too busy to come in the thread I can't believe it's mid week already, I mark my days by whether it's Choreography Corner, Waite's Wednesday & Thursday Warm Up, Friday 1 hour ITT or Strictly weekend (I do keep track of what the kids have got on at school as well honestly )

Brief clip of Laura & Gio's Jive training on ITT, early days but looking good, content packed.

Ochre I really don't know what I am doing with my time but the days are flying in.

Thought Laura and Gio looked good in the little clip I saw. Will organise myself better so I am able to watch tomorrow's ITT

I just drop everything at half past 6

It'll be Saturday and Jive day before we know it, looking forward to more training clips before then.

Popping in to say I liked the clip but they were marking it so difficult to tell much. Aliona always used to keep the 'good stuff' firmly away from the cameras so am happy with that approach. Good news that Mr Waite said the dance was content-packed

Must admit, I think that Judge Rinder will probably deliver a good jive.

Can't wait to see training footage of Gorka and Anastacia

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...s-arm-her.html

Its the Daily Fail again.. but good to see that Laura and Gio were out with the Strictly crowd at the Burn the Floor premiere in London. Some nice pics there.

Its the sort of thing that Laura was avoiding in her first weeks at Strictly - good to see business as usual. It might inspire her a bit for Saturday!

Both Janette and Daisy looking lovely as well.

Thanks LL Here's another of Laura & Gio and link to pics of other Strictly class of 2016 members who were there.

Oh god, who writes this shit? 'Laura, 31, wore a big smile on her face as Giovanni, 26, wrapped his arm around his good pal and pulled her close in a tactile display of affection'.


/|\

Bloody bloody bloody hell. So grim. Rebecca Davison of the DM. Well done 🙄

Thnks for the link all the same. Bwerr!!

Dammit I want leopard print dance shoes now!
Those daily fail articles always make me laugh, I think they must hire out of work mills and boon authors to 'sex up' mundane descriptions of people doing boring things like walking down the street.

Lovely to see Laura has posted one of the photos of her with Gio at Burn the Floor to her Instagram.

Morning Ochre Gorgeous photo of Laura and Giovanni. I love her comment as well:

"Taking a break from dancing... By watching other people dancing! (who are a lot better than me!"

Morning Lou Hope she enjoyed the show and picked up some tips/inspiration for Saturday.

It's good to see Laura and Gio posting non official BBC photos of them together and showing a determination to ignore some of the sillier stories and comments. They seem to get on like a house on fire and really enjoy dancing together as on Saturday.

Totally agree re the 'sexing up' comments. The Fail, for instance, managed to post a picture that looks as if Daisy and Alijaz were hand in hand together - you could just see 'bits' of tiny Janette who was clearly on the other side of Alijaz

It would be great to see Laura and Gio getting onto the TV sofas and national radio a bit more. Its wall-to-wall Judge Rinder, Ore and Ed Balls. Maybe they have decided that they should prioritise time for training to get the high position on the leaderboard? Does the BBC have to be 'balanced' with the contestants re their TV and radio spots

Laura is also balancing her work with her training - interviewing Little Mix for MTV yesterday.

I hope all is well with Laura and Gio (and their friends and family).

Laura has just tweeted 'Today is not a good day. Positive thoughts.' and added the prayer emoji.

Sending best wishes

Hi LL

BIB Only on ITT and then for the finalists I would say. Laura has been busy, Tuesday they had that long training session Gio had to carry her out of lol and then she attended an event at Abbey Road. Yesterday as you say she was working for MTV in the morning, straight to training and then on to Burn The Floor.

Her work outside Strictly being pieces here and there is definitely an advantage for her as she can set aside the long training days. I still think the key to Laura & Gio gradually building more support is to do it from the dance floor. A content packed Jive to their music has the potential to be one of the stand outs on Saturday. Fingers crossed for another well deserved high score.

Been rewatching Laura & Gio's Waltz and Quickstep this lunch time

Edit: Just seen your last post and the tweet LL, do you think Laura means training isn't going well or something else? Hope not an injury for either of them.

Laura interviewed.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CvIFikLWAAAod7D.jpg

Her personality could improve her chances on Strictly - and she is dancing well enough and learning fast enough to (hopefully) be around for a while.

Ochre - I agree - there aren't enough hours in the day to trot round the tv studios AND train to a high standard - best thing is to train hard and get a WOW dance.

Have no idea - could be training, could be anything. It strikes me as not a typical Laura tweet... I just hope all is well in general.

Fatskia - its an interesting interview - there is a bit of depth to Laura I think.

I think it was probably a tough day at the dance office for Laura.

She has just Instagrammed a card with a quote saying 'If you stumble, make it part of your dance'.

There must be a lot of pressure on the celebs on Thursday, knowing that Friday is Elstree studio day.

Laura has posted a pic including the slogan 'If you ever stumble make it part of your dance' to her Insta.

Love the wish string bracelet.

Maybe a tough day in training, they are working so hard. Tomorrow is a new day

Edit: Snap LL Lots of pressure but on the flip side she'll be able to draw on the support of her celeb friends.

Seems like they have been pushing through the dance pain.

Lots of encouragement from Carolyn Smith, the Len Goodman (crossed with Arlene ) of Bailando con le Stelle and Gio's former competition coach.

BIB Laura is such a lovely, vivacious, fun, feisty lady. I hope enough people look past the rubbish being written about her to who she really is.

Have just seen that on Gio's Twitter, important for him to have that support