Not sure why it will be closed!

Based on his dancing tonight he deserved the 40 I thought he was excellent.

When it comes to the final though that is where those who have an issue with his 'professionalism' can make their views known.

If Dancing with the Stars can have Jennifer Grey as their winner I don't think I can complain too much about an actor getting deservedly great scores.

doubler

Could say the same about all the over praising he receives. Nice to have some balance.

They should have left one of those open.

I don't have a problem with him, as he has not done Ballroom or Latin. He's had experience though of Stage School and that has helped him over the pure novices.

*Applauds* well said

Nowhere near as much as Ore & Louise.

So popstars don't dance? Ok then.

On the basis of your 'arguement' this would excude a HUGE amount of actors/actresses and pop singers and to some extent gymnasts.

There may be some choreography for a singers performance but in no way can you class them as 'dancers'!

Danny and Oti are my favourites, I love his dancing and the story telling I couldn't care less about Wicked, Les Mis or anything he has supposedly done on the west end stages or anywhere as to me what he is doing here is Latin and Ballroom dances which is totally different to those shows. Oti's choreography is second to non and her dancing is just wonderful a perfect partnership. We all have a choice of who we want as our favourites and follow......I choose Danny and Oti.

Imo, Strictly would be a complete bore fest if it was made up of total novices. Can you imagine a full line up of Quentin Wilsons?? *shudders* I enjoy the mix they have - I've loved the progress Ed has made and Greg hasn't done too bad - but as a big dance fan (meaning I love to see great technique and performance) I enjoy a well performed dance to great music. Danny floats my boat, as Jay did last year and I think it's a tad silly when people drone on about their past this, that and the other. All actors and ex-girl/boyband members have had stage school experience or some form of performance training. Strictly always has a number of these in the line-up. We are always going to get a number of ringers so I don't know why people get hot under the collar. They'll be someone else to target next year.

I saw Wicked today . It's very dance heavy. Pretty much the entire 1st half is dancing from the ensemble. They dance all the big numbers - of which there are many, including a ball scene - and they dance in the background in some of the slower bits. It's complex partner work with lifts, rather than just "show" dancing. I'm an ex musical theatre dancer myself, and there's no way on earth that someone with "a bit of dancing at stage school" could cope with the level of dancing required of the ensemble in this show. These are proper dancers (who can sing as well. I'd be willing to bet Danny has a very good voice on him too, talented chap!), so he's way more than an actor who has had a few dance classes. he's a proper, trained professional dancer.

All this said, I love watching his dancing, and very much hope he makes the final, which he absolutely deserves to. I lvoed his Charleton tonight, and I really look forward to seeing him repeat his Hallowe'en foxtrot in the final and nail it, becasue I think it'll be mesmerising.

Darcey will have no trouble sleeping tonight as she's completely oblivious to the endless "ringer" discussions that swirl around online.

She and Bruno regularly throw out that foolish comment of "I couldn't tell which was the professional." Len and CRH, not so much, although perhaps even they have been guilty of that outrageous hyperbole at some point.

Although it's not meant as such, it's such an insult to the professional dancers. Even the best celeb is a pale imitation of the pros.

Totally agree with you.

Isn't an understudy in a musical theatre production generally a member of the ensemble cast? In which case, they probably do more dancing than some of the leads.

Personally, I've always thought that musical theatre experience was of more value in Strictly than anything (other than competitive ballroom/latin. that is)

t helps a little. Are you joking? It helps a lot more then singing experience, let me tell you. If you know how to move and how to learn and remember steps, it is not the same at all.

Also, tonight was a night they actually were not in sync.

Darcey made the same comment about DVO and Natalie Gumede iirc

I suspect it's deliberate

Louise has judged on a dancing show though.

Danny is an actor and singer, which is why he has appeared on stage.

Both Louise and Danny have experience. However, in my opinion this would only be unfair if they had the same level of choreography as Ed or some of the other less natural dancers.

The choreography Danny is getting is very challenging for him, as is the critique he has had thus far and he works extremely hard to perform to such a high level. Brendan Cole commented on this in his DS blog last week.

She did work as a judge though on 'So You Think You Can Dance'. So presumably needed some kind of dance knowledge for that?

Personally I don't care I just enjoy watching good dances/dancers. I also enjoy watching people like Judge Rinder because his love for dancing is infectious. I enjoy watching Ed whose not so good but is entertaining etc etc. As long as they are doing 'their' personal best, take on board the advice given by the judges and improve, even a little.

Natalie was a great dancer - I loved watching her and Artem but they didn't win. I think they have to put a a couple of people with obvious potential to produce some good/entertaining dances from the start, it balances out the really poor ones and gives the 'possibles' a chance to improve and catch the viewers attention. After that it is up to the viewers in the end.

Yes. Having seen Wicked today and checked the programme, I can confirm that the understudies to the male leads are all part of the ensemble. And the ensemble dance a lot!

If you are a pop star you are not employed for dancing skills and I can give you a list of ones who can barely put one foot in front of the other. Did you not see Rochelle on the Christmas show?

It is not the same as auditioning for a musical where you are cut if you cannot dance. If you have a career on the west end stage you are trained in dance, if you are a pop star you do not have to be at all.

I'm not, just prefer a contest and not all actors or singers have stage school experience. Alesha Dixon did not for example.

I've never thought much of the dancing in the ball scene in Wicked to be honest, it always seems to me to be a lift-fest more than anything else. It's certainly not proper ballroom dancing anyway. Haven't seen it in a few months though, so my memory is probably a bit hazy.

What I meant was that it's not a traditional dance musical, and I stand by that - it's not 42nd Street, or A Chorus Line, or Chicago, or anything that requires really, really solid dancing - the leads in Wicked are hardly ever good dancers and they join in a fair bit of it.

I still don't see the problem though - Danny learnt dancing at stage school, so did the vast majority of the good dancers we've ever seen on Strictly. Yes, he's actually utilised the dance skills he learnt in his career (and he wouldn't be the first one to do that either), but nothing he's done has been Ballroom or Latin, and as with every style of dance, they are their own unique styles that take time and dedication to learn. In that respect, he's learning just like the others are.

Yet Louise was deemed good enough as a dancer to judge a dance show (including judging one of the current Strictly choreographers...). But, no, she has no dance experience....

Yes, although some of these talent shows get 'performers' in to judge, so they aren't that well informed on dance. But she doesn't deny dancing as a youngster, she even showed us all her tap shoes from when she was a little one.

I agree, I like to see good dancers, no matter what. I think if you have a show with all non dancers you run the risk of not having one who can really amount to something. You would also run out of famous people quickly as a lot have had some degree of dance lessons, even if it is just a term of dance at a performing arts school.
However, I do not know why people have to deny it of their chosen one if it's pretty obvious and they have worked professionally.

I also like to see someone with no experience really become a performer, like Ramps or Ore and even Ed Balls, I like to think of the people we may see at the local ballroom lessons in Ed, because he is performing a dance, even with comedy.

I should probably add that I don't care about previous experience; I would rather see a series of 15 trained dancers than 15 Eds. What does bother me is that some people are quick to jump on one person's previous training while downplaying the training of another participant. And lying about training is even worse IMHO.