Is it too early to start this thread? Probably, but there's two things I can put down...

Week 1 dances for the last three years - I would expect this year's to be about the same:
2013 - Cha-Cha-Cha x6, Jive x2, Tango x3, Waltz x4
2014 - Cha-Cha-Cha x6, Jive x3, Tango x3, Waltz x3
2015 - Cha-Cha-Cha x5, Jive x3, Tango x3, Waltz x4

Also: The Strictly pages on Wikipedia are very prone to being vandalised to include completely false information - already today somebody's put two uncited dances on the series 14 page. Please don't report any information added there unless it's backed up by a valid source. Thanks.

(just rescuing this from page 2)

We should be getting a few of the "First Steps" videos soon, which may provide clues.

Yes, should start tomorrow. Or perhaps a few days later, if we also get vids in the weekend.

my fave thread

Ok, now I know Strictly's back
Nothing says it quite like this thread does.

Worth keeping an eye out on Twitter as well: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2178145

We started getting the official list of songs & dances as early as Tuesday last year - if that holds true this time we should get them on the 20th.

Oh, and the last two years it hasn't been said ahead of time who would be dancing on which night in week 1, although I think we were able to piece it together from the celebs' tweets anyway.

This probably means nothing, but last year the first two in thw walking-down-the-stairs order (Kellie and Anthony) happened to be the first two on Week 1...

A quick poke around Twitter indicates some of them won't start training until tomorrow...

Why can't we have a once weekly ITT in the run up to the start of the series? They could feed us tit bits and sneaky peeks and perhaps introduce the new pros properly & suchlike.

Please BBC.

That means we might get a First Steps video for clues on Wednesday. If they then post a new one on weekdays and Saturdays, that would take it up to show day.

I can't remember whether it happened like that last year, as I didn't properly start paying attention until the live shows. Did they post one a day, or more?

Last year, the first video was posted on the first Thursday after the launch show, and they were then uploaded at a one-a-day rate (including Sundays) until the Thursday before the first live show IIRC.

Thanks.

I hope laura has cha cha or jive

Well we have 15 videos to get through and 18 days before the first Friday show (it is a Friday show this year again isn't it? Which means we should get them coming in on Wednesday unless they want to upload celeb 15's training footage on the morning of the first show!

Also it would be a bit harsh to film somebody today/rush the footage out this evening! "Good morning, have you had a coffee and given your partner a hug, GOOD I hope you enjoyed those 15 seconds of not being filmed, here's a camera, you go live tonight!"

As the group danced a jive for their opening group number, this may be removed from the Week 1 roster this year to avoid any unfair advantages...

They danced a group Jive in 2014 and it was still a week one option. Ditto the Cha-Cha-Cha in the years either side of it.

Not really an advantage if everybody did it. You'd expect them to get at least the basics into any routine be it week 1 or a semi final dance, anything more extravagant would be down to each individual couple, which is what the judges look for!

Well, if you look at the last two group dances they would have done the same (for Jive and CCC).

And who would have the advantage there?

Think that it is best to start with a ballroom on week one (except for Ed and Lesley). However, ballroom week one and Charleston in week two would spell disaster (except for the male ringers, Ore and Claudia).

Think that we will be able to paint a clearer picture if we have the training footage and most of the dances.

The big characters (Judge, Tameka, Ore) and the popular celebs (Will, Greg, Claudia?) will be safe, but they can block the other celebs on the leaderboard (on the road to safety).

They started back training today

Id predict that Judge Rinder& Ed as well as Annastaisa& Claduia have Cha-Cha-Cha
I think Gregg Melvin Lesley will have Jive
not sure about the others

The week 1 dance is normally something that you think would suit the celeb (and week 2 a tougher prospect). So with that in mind (and also predictable song choices), if Lesley doesn't get a Waltz to the Birds of a Feather theme (iirc Ricky Groves and Tony Jacklin did this before) I will eat my proverbial hat.

I also kind of disagree with Sherlock in a way - most celebs struggle with the Latin so even the contenders might want to get a potentially tricky dance (which both CCC and Jive can be) out of the way early (plus it would most likely get picked as Judges' Choice if they got to the final so they'd get a fun routine to do).

This is how I personally see it going, with my dance picks in brackets:

Ballroom:


Latin:

Could possibly swap Louise and Daisy/Melvin, but I think that sort of split would produce good performances from everyone and you've got varying mixes of ages [now watch me get them all completely wrong!] - I know I've done 2 extra CCCs but looking at the OP from cwickham, that seems to be the norm on Strictly.

Latin shoes for Claudia and AJ so I'm guessing Cha Cha or Jive for them.

https://twitter.com/aj11ace/status/773521158692044800

Plus on Claudia's twitter she's been teaching AJ to do the butterfly leap she does in her floor routine - definitely the sort of thing that could be included in a jive or cha cha!

Hopefully we'll get some news over the weekend/ next week to confirm some of the dances