I think it's quite old, 4 years after her retirement!

She is learning Tap dancing, the classics, top hat with a cane, singing in the rain and a couple of others.

It's really good because they Re showing lots of old Astair clips with tap professionals commenting on how things were done back then, how they recorded the sound of tap at the start with static miss and how things changed.

It's good

I've seen it a few times OP and its very enjoyable . You'll hear her say on there she knows nothing abut Ballroom and Latin and what she learned from doing that show doesn't qualify her as a judge and taking a judge's wages .

That's interesting comments that she made.
I love tap dancing.
Mind you after being stood next to Tap Attack at Move It for hours a few years ago my son had got surprise tickets for Top Hat, my heart sank but I loved it.

It's been on several times in the last two or three years. It's now a "schedule" filler," ideal time of the year to put it on again.

Loved her on BB4 when it was originally broadcast. Here relationship with Gos was particularly interesting, but she got evicted way too soon, but being up against John Tickle was always going to be a hard one.

Well if thats the case you can apply it to Bruno and Craig too. Neither were ballroom dancers and have had to learn about ballroom and Latin. In fact you could apply that to anyone. Even Len had to learn the styles at some point. But if you want someone who knows about dance, who knows what it takes to make movement, shapes, line, musicality etc etc then give me a ballet dancer anyday. I would bet my last pound that Darcy did her homework and made a point of learning as much as possible about the international 10 styles plus AT, Charleston and Tango. And her ballet training will have included elements of 'character dances' in any case.

In fact thats one of the things I love about Darcy's critique; it often really constructive. The men just pour scorn or praise depending on their opinion. They may say something like you need to improve ypur footwork or top line, but offer no insight into how to go about it. Darcy is the only judge to offer practical tips about how to make such improvements. And I have taken on board some of her tips and they work.

Whoops

Of course they're not as qualified as Len but they're dealing with dancers and dancing of all kinds every day as part of their day job, choreographing and judging who is best for a show .

As Darcey said herself to one of her choreographer ballet chums in the film, what Fred and Ginger were doing was completely different to ballet , I'll have to learn a whole new way of dancing . Ballet being about straight legs and dancing on the toes .

I find Brunos's critique the most constructive . He usually finishes his critique by telling the celeb how to improve their performance . Len can be ok also when he bothers .

I can't put my finger on it, but she doesn't come across as natural when dancing ballroom. She's too poised, too mannered, too balletic. I think it must be hard to let loose when she's used to such heightened precision when moving her body.

I missed it is it repeated at all?

Yes I know what you mean. Its a bit like opera trained singers performing pop songs, they always sound a bit to controlled.

Yes they are different of course but they are still dancing and having the technical skill and the life long experience as a Prima ballerina more than qualifies her to analyse any dance style. To say she isn't, is be like suggesting that Michelangelo wasn't qualified to judge a painting competion for watercolours.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...nces-hollywood

On i-player and worth watching. Try this link.

AT we are, once again, in complete agreement

Sure Darcey knows all about top line, the frame, shaping and getting beautiful lines, that's what she trained all her life to perfect . She's not so hot on spotting mistakes with footwork and usually resorts to, 'the boys are right' and as Karen Hardy says, footwork is the foundation of dance .

I so disagree. I have no quibble with Karen Hardy or the principle that body movement comes from the feet. But I do have an issue with suggesting that Darcy doesn't know this. She will understand perfectly the bio mechanics involved and will comprehend exactly what the footwork needs to be like.

She will know that to make the hips swing or rock you need to put the ball of your foot into the floor and then and only then bring the heel down to the point of just connecting with the ground before pushing ones body weight back up by pushing the ball of the foot 'through the floor'.

She will know that if she wants to spin or pivot, her weight needs to be centred over the first bone of the big toe (the one that is still inside the foot) and the rest of her must be totally balanced over that point. Etc etc....

I would even wager that the moment she was told that XXX comes from a heel lead she will instantly be able to work out why stepping off on the heel achieves a desired outcome.

And most of all she will know, what many people fail to understand which is that dance is not about steps. Choreography is about steps, but dance isn't really.

Why do you want to put down this very pleasant, exceptionaly gifted and world class dancer and pass her off as some sort of ignormaous incapable of applying her deep knowledge or transferable skills? I don't understand why you are so disparaging.

Don't get me wrong, I love Darcey as a ballet dancer but not as a judge of Ballroom and Latin .
I'm afraid we'll have to agree to disagree on this .

We can do that.