Claudia's dance was clearly the best of the night, in my opinion. Thought they did a terrific job with a bizarre music choice. She has real potential.

Louise is clearly technically good, but there's just nothing memorable for me - every dance misses 'oomph' for lack of a better word. Think 8s for her would've been fine, but can see why she got the score she did (even if I disagreed!).

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did any of the judges bother to point out her technique? I thought she really stepped up to the plate this week....

I think on a night when Len and Bruno both gave Ed Balls the same score for his cha cha as they gave Danny Mac for his, people might just sit back and let the mystery be...

As far as I remember there was little reference to technique after Claudia's dance. Considering the height difference between her and AJ, it must be a particular challenge for her to maintain her frame (i.e. not raise her shoulders) but as far as I could see she kept her frame throughout. The whole dance had an excellent flow to it - as Len pointed out, the lifts really complimented the dance, which isn't often the case in my opinion.

Her routine was quite fabulous . Such a little trouper considering the many negative comments thrown at her by the judges since week one .
The lifts were perfect, they just flowed in naturally , no effort and no hesitation .

Spot on. I wouldn't have been surprised to see her pick up a 10 or two last night. She was a delight to watch.
I thought Louise had improved, and whilst not as good as Claudia she deserved her score.

I said it last night on the show thread but sometimes you have to ignore the individual scores from the judges as they can drive us all mad by being - in our opinions - too high or too low. It is the overall shape of the leader board at the end of the night that is important and if everyone is where they should be in relation to the other couples.

Personally I would have had the leader board in this order after last night

Claudia
Laura
Louise
Ore/Rob
Daisy
Danny/Greg
Ed
Anastacia

So in reality the only person in the totally wrong place to me was Daisy - but I think the judges were trying to up her confidence as well as push her out of the danger spots. Everyone else was more or less where they should have been.

As well as over-marking, the judges often try to influence the public vote with their comments. They all said Ore made mistakes, but Len and Bruno gave him 8s and tried to "sell him" to the viewers.

Still... "They are all BBC aren't they?"

Claudia's was the best dance of the night, for me, and not overmarked.

Louise, Laura and Ore were definitely overmarked though.

Neither were overmarked - Louise's Charleston had dreadful choreography but her dancing was clean and precise. Claudia danced the Foxtrot elements of her American Smooth very well and the lifts were clean.

The one I thought was overmarked (though not by much) was Laura.

I agree but I far preferred watching Laura's dance. There was actual chemistry something that is lacking with Claudia and AJ (not that I blame her) and with Louise and Kevin.

Everyone was overscored apart from Laura imo.

Louise was very heavy footed though (see also the Facebook comments).

Laura and Louise were over marked, but Claudia wasn't.

I thought Claudia danced beautifully ☺

I thought all three were over marked. I don't suppose it matters on a week to week basis, but I didn't think any of them deserved 9's compared with a few of the previous dances we've seen so far in the series.

Claudia wasn't overmarked but Louise definitely was. Craig was right that she was too contained. I like her but i think shes reserved IRL and her dancing, while competant. appears inhibited to me. So i don't think Saturday was a breakthrough routine and if she can't do it with a charleston i doubt she is capable of it tbh

I didn't think she looked particularly heavy-footed, I just thought it was all a bit safe.

Kellie Bright (my favourite from last year) was in 2 dance offs and she danced with Kevin.

Louise maybe was over marked but Claudia wasn't IMO.

Claudia was not overmarked.

Louise was overmarked. Is it just me but Louise just bores the ar** off of me.

She had all the goods Saturday night, Harley Quinn outfit, crowd fave with the Charleston...but it was all just 'meh'.

Still plateauing as far as I am concerned.

Sorry if have to disagree with the OP, when you consider the marks the likes of Robert and Greg are getting, these two are not being overmarked.

Anyone that got a 9 at the weekend was overmarked, imo. Louise and Claudia danced well in the sense of following the brief well enough and executing it well enough, so 8's at most for Claudia and 7's at most for Louise made sense, imo, but anything beyond that would have been generous, even if just by one mark.

Plenty of others were overmarked as is trend this series. Some should not have been getting more than 5s (as combo of the execution of the skill and personality/characterisation). There were more average or below average dances, but then there is something in the Strictly water this series. Even Craig is still scoring too high, though reigned back slightly from the first week. With the scoring alone, it's as if the lesser able dancers are closer to the more able dancers this year, but it's just not the case. There marks are too close, but hey, just the way it is.

Indeed. No way Danny deserved that high a mark for that dis-a-a-a-a-ster!

Danny's cha cha wasn't a disaster.