I couldn't believe the high marks and praise Claudia got for this. I thought she struggled with this and her kicks and flicks looked manic and not sharp at all.I think Craig said it was almost a 10 but for a small error. I thought it was a 7 at best.
The fast speed of the music didn't help but it wasn't anywhere near as good as Jill, Jay's or Ore's. All that running about with the backing dancers didn't help either, but that wasn't her fault. She's a ballroom girl in my view.

You just have to ignore the actual scores and focus on the positioning of the leaderboard these days. Trying to make sense of their scoring is pointless.

Fourth out of seven on the leaderboard is about right for her this week, so doesn't really matter what her score was, I suppose.

I really like Claudia and so far I've always thought she has bern undermarked but tonight I didn't think her jive was good and was surprise by the comments and marks. For me this has been her worse dance, but I still hope she gets through next week.

I really felt that she would smash it and this would be her dance. So disappointed really. The backing dancers really spoilt it as well, made it look like a team dance.

As I mentioned elsewhere, the problem for Claudia is AJ.

She has difficulty keeping up with him, only because of her short legs and similar length of step. Her fitness isn't in question.
His Charleston and Jive were far too fast, unnecessarily so.
I timed both theirs and Toni Basil's. At a rough estimate theirs was 10bpms faster. Might not sound a lot but it is.

He has been a disappointment, not her.

Sadly he'll be back next year with another teenager, he's been brought in to chase the younger viewers currently watching X-Factor.

I hope he hasn't ruined her chances.

I thought it was her weakest dance so far.

It was a weak dance for her, and she knew it - her face at the end said it all. I hope she stays in, though, she's growing on me. She has a great and slightly unexpected cackle.

I love Claudia but agree it was her weakest dance so far. I can't understand why it was so bad.

I was disappointed but it was hardly a disaster, just not the amazing show-stopper we usually get from Claudia. She's still very much one of my favourites and hopefully this week was just a minor blip - I do feel she may have managed better without all the extra dancers who overwhelmed her a bit at times.

I must defend AJ though, I think his choreography has been mostly excellent and he plays to her strengths and pushes her to the max very well, combining good technical content with routines that look impressive to the viewers at home. I think he's a really good pro and one of the stars of the series.

PS. I wish Tess would stop talking to Claudia like she was 6 years old!!!

I think she would have danced it better in lower heels

I watched it back on Youtube and unlike Louise & Kevin's paso, which actually looked great on YT... it really made Claudia look even worse

She almost fell over twice & just seemed to stop dancing doing one step where AJ was giving his all... it looks very odd. I'm quite worried for them tbh...

I thought it was a very poor jive and no way deserved 36 points. Her footwork seemed laboured to me and heavy. I can see her being in the dance off as she was overmarked and should have been below Judge Rinder on the leader board in my opinion.

Her shoes spoilt her outfit she should have had trainer type shoes she was supposed to be a cheerleader!!!

We can blame the shoes and her outfit all we want - and certainly the dreadful outfit didn't do her any favours, the real problem was she simply couldn't seem to manage the jive.

Her footwork was heavy and flat, although the heel does touch the floor, jive generally needs to be far more on the balls of the feet, and unfortunately her poise didn't help. While jive requires a strong core, the rest of the body needs to be far more relaxed.
As jive is meant to be 'the' dance for those who are shorter, I thought she would smash it.

Her shoes were the problem.

Far too fast for the content and shoes too high. Went wrong near the start and didn't really recover. It's a shame. I like Claudia and think she's a good dancer but she's had some awful music (some too quick) and the choreography seems to have too many steps some of the time.

I reckon a few of the judges' comments were based on what they saw in rehearsal rather than the show, but even without her mess-up of the steps at the beginning, it was a lacklustre routine. I can't decide if it was because it was to non-trad music or because AJ didn't know how best to use the backing dancers.

Ed's jive showed just how far traditional themeing can go towards creating great atmosphere for a jive, as well as charisma- which sadly Claudia & AJ didn't manage tonight.

Claudia's heels were also much higher than the women usually wear and I wonder if that prevented her from being lighter on her feet. I certainly expected her to be springier than she was.


ETA- just spotted that others noticed her shoes too. Apols for the repetition

I found the backing dancers really distracting, hard to concerntrate on her dancing. The camera work didn't help either....

Wasn't impressed at all. I thought there were too many problems. To mention just three:
(1) choreography - why so much running? because her legs are so much shorter than AJ's it was clearly very hard for her to sync with the music
(2) her unflattering costume - she is cute; why turn her into a little shiny stump?
(3) AJ portraying a jock - with sleek hair! is he serious? hasn't he seen any athletes in his life?

BIB - This is exactly what I thought. In fact, it's often quite clear to me that that's what they do.

Claudia looked ungainly in the jive and her timing was way out, but none of the judges mentioned this.

I'm glad others have mentioned her costume and shoes...considering she is only one of the girls left, why not make her costume better.

And she is too short for AJ, couldn't they have found her a partner to suit her size better. She keeps looking as if she is having to run to keep up

I thought this too when watching last night, then I noticed on Twitter some complaints that on the HD channel the sound/picture was slightly out of synch. I rewatched the routine on the BBC website this morning and I have to say that she seemed far more in time than I remembered her being last night.

I think she did go wrong, but did incredibly well to get back into it with such a fast routine.

I agree, shoes were way too high which affected her bounce hugely, also think this may have been made worse by the bouncier floor at Blackpool.

Hope they're through as I really like this pairing.

She would have been better with Pasha IMO. He has the caring personality. AJ too young and makes it all about himeself.

I thought from the training vids her action in the Jive was too flat and that did not alter on the night she just did not master it, was surprised so many on here thought it was looking good - it was just not her dance - and the judges just simply over marked it

Poor Claudia - just a dance that didn't really happen for her from start to finish. I think Ian Waite called it when he highlighted her confused and anxious face in training. She's really growing in me, though, so hope she stays in.