What I am saying is it that it doesn't come as easy to her as it does to the slightly older contestants with more life experience, or the stage school types. She has to work harder at it and it's taking a little longer for her.

I very much hope Claudia and AJ will win the glitter ball as they are the ones I enjoy watching the most.

not trying to be dismissive but we can see there is no connection between the 2 it is a form and function relationship which does not sell the dance
Perhaps I was expecting a lot more from her but she emotionally can not give in to the dance or perhaps AJ is to shy to bring the subject up, as it would take a lot to tell a young girl she is not putting enough emotion into the dance

Personally I'm not seeing much emotional connection between any of the partners this years so to penalise one couple for it seems a bit unfair to me 🤔

There is more emotion between the judge and his partner ( and that has it's difficulties ) then there is between AJ and Claudia

Agree entirely about the lack of connection between AJ and Claudia which was exposed in the AT. Maybe there was a reason she kep getting the cute dances?

But I also think they suffered from last week's overmarking scandal. The blatant overmarking - called out everywhere - probably made the judges a bit cautious over awarding them 10s this week.

The lack of a 10 may have been in part due to keeping Louise and Ore safe, but I think it more to do with being cautious. I suspect Claudia is secretly relieved to still be here as she should have gone last week. I agree with the above ^^ post as Claudia's jive got 4 9s, and this overscoring resulted in Greg being booted out in the DO as the judges could not go back on what they had said earlier. The judges were being more cautious with Claudia this week and hence the lack of 10s.

I do hope the "when will Claudia get a 10" is not done to death next Saturday, signposting that she is getting a 10. Really tedious.

F
But DO were judged base on their 2nd run of the dance not the first one no?

That doesn't mean that they haven't known it is an area to work on. Obviously the job of their professional partners is to coach them and work on / or hide their week points too. A judge doesn't have to point something out in the few seconds they get to comment before we and they know a problem exists.

Performing is part of dance, all of them should know expressing themselves through dance is something they should be improving before even coming on the show - I'd hope.

AJ is just a newbie pro tho.. danny got more experience than Aj really.

Danny is NOT a professional ballroom/latin dancer AJ is and has won trophy's doing it, it is becoming to him to teach Claudia , as it is to Oti and the other professional to teach their partner ballroom/ Latin dances

Danny had years of jazz and acting training... and stage acting experience.. maybe Aj has perect technique but still Danny is miles ahead in dramatic dancing which the judges which the judges are looking.

Dramatic dancing / stage dancing is a sure way of getting up Len's nose

AJ is about the same age that Aljaz was in his first series. I don't remember all these excuses being made for him.

Isn't there a couple of years between them? At their age that's the difference between being an under-grad and a post-grad

Well I could have invoked the dread ghost of Jared Murillo but I don't think anyone wants to go through that again...

What connection was there between Louise and Kevin in their AT? I didn't see any and yet the judges rave about her

Having rewatched their AT I could see nothing that should have kept any of the judges from giving it a ten -- it was danced superbly by both of them, with a positively sultry tango faced Claudia, compared with her usual sunny smile, putting in some exquisite AT ganchos and other tricks.

I've joined in "standing ovulations" () for Vincent and Flavia at Dance 'til Dawn and The Last Tango and I can't help feeling they would have stood to applaud Claudia's performance on Saturday night -- it really does make me despair when such quality dancing from a definite "non ringah" is not given its proper due by any of the judges.

What else could have been done to obtain 10s? Apart from training Len, Bruno, Darcey and Craig in what true AT is all about, as others have suggested partnering her with Kevin might have helped -- not because he's a better dancer than AJ because he isn't particularly, or because of the obvious bias the judges have for Kevin, but for the simple reason that Kevin is ONLY 10 inches taller than Claudia as opposed to AJ's 14 inch overshadowing of her.

No wonder he made some of her brilliance in the lifts look as if he was a ventriloquist carrying a dummy!

...fair point

They were'nt. And the Claudias not an actor line is equally silly. She's a sportswoman and gymnast and so is super fit and used to competition which are advantages over the others...

I'm not sure where the "we must pity Claudia" meme is coming from. It's not from them but it's annoying anyway.

For me personally, I don't understand this lack of connection thing. I think their charleston proved that they could do it but I think their dances have been hampered by the production team trying to squeeze them into that 'teen dancer' role. As a 24 year old (so not entirely far off from the age bracket it supposedly attracts), I don't think "well I wasn't going to watch this but now they're dancing to a modern song I actually know, I'll tune in" is a likely conversation.

I was surprised Len didn't talk about all the movement in the air. I can understand it as a valid critique of the dance. Would've got a ten from me, I enjoyed the dance especially the lifts. In a way, she was still dancing in mid-air even if there wasn't any footwork.

Quote I like to use from Gleb Savchenko when the celeb is in the air I'm in control they cant do anything wrong it might not be exact but jist is correct , hence why people like to see the celeb on the floor to get a true picture of footwork

This!!! The only partnership that has any connection on the floor (IMO) I would say is Danny and Oti and I dont beleive it was there from the start, plus he is an actor so yes there is a slight advantage there. Its all subjective anyway and we will all see different things, I would say for the first time I DID actually see some chemistry/connection between AJ and Claudia in the AT, before this they have had about the same connection as any of the other couples.

My reaction too.

I came to this thread because I too was disappointed that Claudia didn't get at least one 10 especially given all the judges' enthusiastic comments. Whereas some posters have made intelligent and informative comments, time and again I run into this boring, dull conspiracy / racism / Clifton favouritism stuff. I wish they'd go play in a Conspiracy Corner in the playground and leave the rest of us to enjoy informed discussions...

Ah but we do love our conspiracies don't we?

Last year we had the same complaints. If anybody thinks that changing the judges there won't be the same moans he/she need to have a cold shower.

All this is about opinions be they mine, yours or the Judges. There are no facts and certainly there is no evidence of collusion between Judges other than an opinion that some dancers are overmarked and others undermarked. Judges can and frequently do disagree with each other. They mark what they see. All of us can disagree with them which is why the public have a big say in who stays and who goes.

If the GBP want Claudia to win they will vote accordingly.