I think Alijaz seems to be a great teacher and Kevin. Janette seems really bad as she is just seems really tough on her celebs and they never seem to progress much in quality. Even jake from eastenders didn't progress the way I anticipated.

I'd agree Kevin seems a very good teacher (although he has had good raw materials - we've never seen him with a Rachel Riley/Ann Widdecombe). Aljaz is lovely but Abbey still had issues with gapping and poor Latin at the end of her series that he hadn't resolved. He's good at choreographing to make his celeb look good I think. Janette doesn't seem great, but her partners all really like her. It's hard to say someone is a bad teacher because we don't know what training hours each celeb has available. Peter and Jake apparently were quite limited in their training hours and unless you put them with another pro to train for the exact same time and they become brilliant dancers, you can't say it's all down to her.

Kevin is untested seeing as he has had fingers every year - barring the year he had a BBC favourite who also had some form of potential.

I would agree re Janette all her celebs just seem to stay at the same level throughout with no breakthroughs - barring Jake during his week 2 that year, but that seemed a bit of a 1 week wonder thing.

Based on the last 2 weeks Katya seems to be doing really well with Ed

I think all the pros are good teachers. It's not just a dance they have to teach but there are innumerable corrections to posture, teaching the style and accents that make ballroom dances ballroom, fitness issues and injuries, as well as time available and differing personalities.

If a celeb is not going to master the technique and/or has less talent then I think the onus is on the pro to ensure they enjoy their time and acquit themselves well.

My sense is that Kevin is a good teacher although we have not seen what he would do with someone less able. Aljaz has a nice manner, cheeky and gentle, but he does not deal with gapping in ballroom well. It's not just Abbey where this was an issue. I believe Natalie is a good teacher too.

I think they all do a great job.

Really impressed with the two new female pros Katya and Oksana.

Do the rest remove theirs - it really must make it much more difficult

(Sorry - I know what you meant but it amused me - typos eh )

Agree with all this. I would say that in the past I think Erin and Lilia were exceptional teachers in that they never had the 'ringers' who most of the pros (poor Anton excepted) get at some stage of their career these days and achieved remarkable results with complete beginners.

It doesn't matter whether a pro has so called "ringers" or not - they have to teach a completely different dance style. Both Kevin and Aljaz seem to do this well and get their celebrity up to scratch with technique specific to latin and ballroom. I think Aljaz is probably the best - when I see footage of him training his celebs I sometimes see him doing things that my own teachers might do, drilling technique rather than pure choreography.

I like that Pasha often includes a decent amount of syllabus steps in his routines too. In the real world, if you can't dance syllabus steps well you don't have the foundation to progress on to the more advanced variations. It's kinder to the celebrities too.

I don't massively rate Janette as a teacher, and I don't really rate Giovanni as a ballroom teacher. I thought Laura's posture looked wrong and she looked back weighted last night.

Every professional dancer I have ever spoken too says that a previous track record in any form of dance training (not a few classes as a kid) does 'matter' particularly in terms of making someone look good dancing another style in a very short period of time. Training to performance level in any style of dance imparts the ability to simply memorise a routine much faster than a beginner - there may be issues with technique but a ringer will always have an advantage over a beginner in simply learning a sequence of steps/movement. In a time pressured context like Strictly this is always an advantage, before one even starts on the transferability of performance skills etc and it's painfully obvious that the non-ringers frequently struggle just remembering the steps without concentrating so hard it detracts from performance. Previous dance training to any sustained level also goes hand in hand with musicality and good body awareness. Professional athletes usually have the latter which, along with their discipline and fitness, means they can do well in a short period if they happen to be musical too but to say previous dancing experience to a high level 'doesn't matter' because it's a different style is a really weak argument.

My point is if you know a bit about latin and ballroom, you can tell whether they are bothering to teach the technique or not. Everyone thought Peter Andre was a ringer but he never progressed in technique with Janette. Nobody thought Susanna Reid was a ringer and she did with Kevin. With a poor pro a ringer will stagnate and continue to dance in whatever style they learned before, with a good pro they'll start to pick up the principles of ballroom.

I always remember that accomplished contemporary dancer who won a spot as a pro on dancing with the stars in australia and his ballroom was absolutely godawful, noticeable to those even without any dance training. While he was doing the steps, there was a complete lack of awareness of technique specific to ballroom which was noticeable a mile off. He'd had loads of dance training but clearly very poor teaching in latin and ballroom and it showed.

I agree that previous dance training helps, but it doesn't give you an understanding of latin and ballroom - the teacher is vital for that.

For me it has to be Natalie, she actually turns all of her partners into at least some sort of dancer much more than you would think they would be able to do. After a shaky start in her first series where she seemed über competitive she was just sublime with Scott Maslen and seems so gracious even when she gets a dud.

IMO, Totally agree about Janette. I think some other pro might have taken Peter Andre to the final.

I am impressed with Katya so far.

I can't help thinking that Brendan is a poor teacher. I'm never impressed with his choreography - and his partners never seem to have much faith in themselves on the floor.

Sophie EB should have been unstoppable in her year, IMO - but she just fizzled out. Her best dance was the Charleston, and I'm guessing Brendan did not choreograph it.

I'd be interested in reading what the dance experts in this board have to say about it.

Katya has done a stonking job with Ed so far, though it's hard to know what raw material she's working with. Maybe it will come out he was a child star in his local pantomime!

Hard to say who's a 'bad' teacher really, we just don't know how much effort the various celebs put in. I'd have to agree that the way Sophie EB seemed to go backwards after the Charleston was very disappointing, and seemed to say something about Brendan's choreography and teaching. But then there was that 'My husband might not like this' vibe, which wasn't Brendan's fault. I think celebs with that kind of fear probably shouldn't be cast.

Anton is sort of in a category of his own for producing entertaining dances with complete duffers.

I do vaguely remember, bear in mind this was MANY years ago, in the early series they were interviewing Erin&Anton and they were saying how they didn't just concentrate on the routine in those first three weeks but also taught basic steps, etc, regardless of which dance they were doing. Said something on the lines of the celebs needed a solid foundation.

I must admit although I love Aljiaz I do find the gapping of all his celebs annoying now. And I agree that Katya is a doing a stonking job She is certainly my favourite of the new pros, think she is great.

A round of applause for Katya from me also. Plenty of pros <coughOla> would have either deployed diguise or tried to make Ed the Komedy Kontestant, but she's working really hard to squeeze some proper dancing out of him. His waltz was sweet and serious and the charleston may not have been technically great, but it was a super performance from a portly, non-dancing man, who (once ) had a very serious job. She also seems supportive and encouraging.

I regret to say (because I like her very much as a person) that Janette doesn't seem to cut it on the teaching front

I like Janette, but the questions are starting to get asked, and rightly so.

Really like Katya so far and love her approach with Ed, hope she stays for many more series. Karen did an excellent job with Mark & Jeremy and always seems gracious about who she's partened with, looking forward to seeing how she develops with Will this year.

In terms of males, Aljaz has beautiful choreo and always pulls the best out of his partners but there seems to be a gapping issue every year, impressed with AJ so far.

Yes, agree re Karen - they could also have been Komedy Kontestants and she did much more with them than that.

WORST: Janette by far


Best : Aljaz, Kevin, Pasha

To be fair to the female pros they also have to teach their male celebs to lead. That seemed like the most obvious problem with Melvin and Janette.

Perhaps next year Janette could be the spare/reserve pro who doesn't get a partner?

Well, to a certain extent - they can always back-lead.

Janette doesn't have a ballroom/Latin background, that's the problem. I suspect if half of the genres that are now danced in DWTS were included on Strictly she'd be more highly regarded because that's where her experience lies.

I've done a couple of workshops with Natalie and she's a fabulous teacher. Kevin and Karen always seem to get the best out of their celebs, and Aljaz seems very supportive. I've been really impressed by how much technique Katya has clearly been trying to teach Ed!

Best I would say Oti,worst had ms to be Jannette she is awful.

Joining in the Katya love, she is brilliant!!