I used to make a lot of outfits and you have reminded me of the dylon dye and dying feathers and shoes, when catsuits were popular for the men and before coloured material was widely available even dyed the material in the bath for my brother to take to his tailor - in recent times the dye has been easier painting it on and setting it in the oven

On the contrary, being short is an advantage when it comes to jive. It's tall people with long legs who find it the hardest. Claudia's posture, and taking too big steps - and basic lack of correct technique - were the reasons it looked as if she was struggling to keep up with the music.

But to go back to Claudias height, as much as height is a problem it's her proportions.

In theory she should struggle to look elegant in ballroom hold but has done so generally.

Everything about the costume emphasised her disproportately short legs to her body , from the very odd dress with its wide shoulders and skimpy skirt, that cut her in half, to the black shoes.


It's almost as if wardrobe broke every rule in the book in dressing her.

Given her strength she should have been able to do this dance well, but she didn't have the basic step at all.

I don't think that's her height as such, maybe it was her shorter legs to body ratio that just made the steps look so bad. Then wardrobe dressing her to emphasise that didn't help.

Generally she compensates very well for how much shorter than AJ she is but this time her body type let her down.

The height is a problem. In their ballroom dances, it looks like there's a sixteen year old lad being polite and dancing with a twelve year old cousin at a wedding. That's one reason why there's none of that elusive chemistry.

Fair enough , my point was is was too fast for her and AJ made no allowance

I thought she was a good food few inches taller than that, closer to 5ft, I thought Aj was taller also. No wonder she found it difficult to get around in the one dance around the glitter ball. Think she's done brilliantly in the ballroom dances to take those big strides and look elegant.

Just to advise that you don't take big strides in ballroom - or you shouldn't - all done from the standing leg and letting weight travel forward through your knees, this creates the body shift across the floor. To be fair, none of them actually move very much in reality. they are only beginners and I would not expect it.

I'm not a dancer but I'm talking from looking at the dances visually - like a foxtrot step is bigger than a salsa step which looks more compact.

Yes i see what you mean, but as you had mentioned taking big strides in ballroom, I was just advising that there shouldn't be. A good dancer can give the illusion of this (perhaps), but this doesn't really happen. If a beginner does this, thinking they have to "move" and make distance, it just makes it look steppy.

The fact is jive is a fast dance, there's no getting away from it. But it should be compact; big steps use up more time, which is why Claudia was struggling even on the simple basic steps. To be honest, it wasn't a particularly difficult routine.

I think at times it makes things tricky for them but it doesn't take away from how good her performances are with AJ

So somebody agrees with me. I really think she could have done the jive in flatter pumps (and a less ridiculous costume that the black outfit that did not flatter her legs - I didn't notice her top half movement at all).

While Claudia is too short and chunky to make a graceful ballroom dancer, she does have good armography, and if you click on this link, you will see that fast music poses no problems for her as long as her heels can touch the floor!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu3GDHUfZdw

To be honest you were talking about how you propel yourself across the floor. You can't really give the illusion of moving from point a to b either you do or you don't , either you move across the floor or you don't.

Blimey if she could put a few of those moves into her next dance she won't be in the dance-off

I've linked a few of her videos before.
I think a lot of people are surprised how powerful her legs must be to get those sort of heights, even off the sprung floors they have these days.

If you compare that video with this one from the Commonwealth Games a year earlier, you'll notice that she has put on more muscle on her thighs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT_NULL2_a8&t=18s

I've always been a great admirer of her, but you have to remember, she has more than a week to learn it. Gymnasts have pretty much the same routine for a season

You move across the floor in the way I describe and NOT by taking large steps.

What I meant by using the word illusion, is that for non dancers, they think that movement is created by taking large steps..ie the illusion, however this is not the case.Non of these "dancers" will be doing this anyway.

So most agreed it's technique (not aided by poor wardrobe choice that ruthlessly exposed this).

I think both are compounded by lack of experience. An older more confident and assertive woman would have told wardrobe she can't work in those heels and that she needs a waist to look good with her figure. And an older pro and one who has been in the program longer would probably have also been less wary of making those last minute changes when necessary.

Yes I further explained I was talking about visually the size of the step compared to a smaller one not the action. But i sense this is going to be a back and forth of us repeating the same things so I'll leave it there

I really don't mind debating, but its all irrelevant anyway as none of the celeb dancers move properly anyway. Its something that we have worked hard at for years to create powerful movement through body shift.

I was saddened for Claudia when I saw what they had dressed her in. They could not have made a more unflattering outfit for her if they tried. It was little more than a gymnasts leotard so perhaps she actually felt comfortable in it, but I would have liked to have thought that AJ may have said something to the wardrobe people....and the shoes did not help, pumps would have been better for her in my opinion. She could not dance in them and they looked wrong with the dress anyway.

I am not sure about this - there are have been some shocking mumsy oufits that older women have been put in - we were all asking last year what Kellie had done to wardrobe to merit the outfits she got. If you in any way don't fit into the slim and young demographic, wardrobe is a bit of a gamble.

And isn't Claudia 25 and has travelled around the world? She's not a child without an opinion. Just dressed like one.

What bothers me is AJ in hold. Usually with height diff, the pro still manages to keep proper posture and look professional, but AJ always stoops and looks awkward. Oftentimes it is Claudia who looks like the pro.

I thought she was 19 I agree she looks around 25.

She is just 19 last month, these days 25 will be considered getting on a bit for a female gymnast.