I am humbly asking for everyone's opinion here as I am baffled by the mixed views of the judges on a lot of the couples. Basically I did not see what the judges see exactly, sometimes I agreed with them sometimes I did not... In particular:

Emma and Darren: I agreed with Len. I would give them a 6 after seeing all the couples' dances. I probably suffered from having too much expectation of them. Considering how great they were on week 2 this was disappointing.

Lilia and Matt: I like what they did tonight. The choreography was very good and Matt surprised me once again with what he was capable of. I am slowly getting warm to them. My score: 7

Jan and Anton: Jan it could have been so much better! She made obvious mistakes there. My score: 5

Karen and Mark: I enjoyed the choreography and the cape work and it was marginally better than Lilia and Matt. And the jumping-landing-on-the-knee (what is the technical term?) was very good! There were still things I did not like when he was dancing, though I could not and still can't pinpoint what they were. Anyway my score: 8

Carol and Matt: Loved what they did tonight thought she was amazing. My score: 9

Georgina and James: They were good! She was good! Ok I kind of agreed with some of what Craig said - she tended to mince her steps but I could not see any serious mistakes there. She did herself proud tonight. My score: 7

Erin and Peter: I probably like them most as a couple in the entire competition think they are cute together! (Sorry not strictly dance talk! Rather surprising coz I am scared of her normally!) It was not great but I thought he did look the part. His lines were good and I don't think anyone mentioned that. The steps and the performance... My score: 5

Louisa and Vincent: Did she look a bit jumpy throughout or was it just me? It might be what Len was going on about all steps were done on toe. My score: 6

Camilla and Ray: It was true he did not do a lot of steps (think what Darren G did last year and the difference was obvious). And sometimes his head dipped - maybe that was what Arlene meant about the shoulders? My score: 5

Claire and Brendan: I wish Brendan would just tell her where to hold his left arm it just did not look very pretty that's all. And her head was not in the right place a lot of the time... This was not picked up at all by the judges. My score: 5

So maybe Brendan should not have been that harsh coz I am not sure whether I saw what I thought I saw at the time. It must have been them. It could not have been me...

What is your take on the show tonight?
Last edited by Frodora : 29-10-2006 at 01:14

I am no Brendan fan, but to be honest I thought his comments were fair tonight some couples danced frankly awful and got 30!!! Darren and Emma and others danced well (carol and Matt and got 29!!).

Louisa's foxtrot was awful yet it still got 24, and Mark and Karen though OK were 5 marks ahead of the field - I think not

I am finding it very hard to keep watching at the moment - I feel the beeb are manipulating a Darren and Lilia show and whilst I like them they are being overmarked. Matts Paso tonight deserved much lower for me

funny how we see things differently because the Marks for Karen and Marks paso was about the only thing I agreed with the judges on!

Carol and Matthew should have had the highest foxtrot mark without a doubt. And what was it with Len giving georgina a 8 and yet Ray a 7?

I agree with all your comments.

I didn't agree with the marking last night, I thought Ray and Camilla did the best Paso , and even if I'm wrong and the real dancers on here tell me different imho they were never five points behind Mark and Karen. Didn't agree with the Anton and Brendan scores either, marked the same 24 when Brendan's foxtrot was so much better than Antons ... again imo. But I suppose Brendan was penalised for telling it how it is. I don't know which is worse the Judges who are supposed to be un-biased or the adoring fan club who will vote for their Idol regardless of how they dance on the night. (rant over)

My biggest bugbear with last night was Carol not being top woman - her foxtrot was miles better then Emma's, but Craig's marks didn't reflect it - he's going to cause serious problems for Emma if this continues - at the moment Carol is my bet for top woman, and she fully deserves it. Other than that

Darren & Emma - not that good, and they just aren't 'sparking' for me at all.

Louisa & Vincent - not good, she clung to him and the whole routine looked a bit messy.

Jan & Anton - she's starting to seriously annoy me now, there's something very 'wet' about her.

Georgian & James - much better, didn't deserve to go on last nights performance, but it was way passed time that she should have been gone.

Peter & Erin - glad he stayed, as he deserved it on past performances, but outside of ballroom I think he's always going to struggle

Matt & Lilia - unsure, it looked fairly good, but I think a lot of that was down to Lilia's routine, rather then Matt's dancing (If that makes sense)

Ray & Camillia - generally liked it, although what was going on with the face Ray started pulling half way through

Mark & Karen - fantastic, loved it all, Mark looks like he can be one of the few male celebs who can do both ballroom and Latin, rather then being good in one and poor in the other - Colin Jackson being the only other one I can think of.

Pretty much agree with all of that apart from Camilla and Ray, i could not get into the dance it left me a bit cold

I thought Ray's dance was good but I think Arlene was correct, he really needs to work on his shoulders. Most of the dance he had no visible neck his shoulders were so high.

Can any of the dancers help me understand what I saw - it looked like his arms were disconnected from his body so, after he finished with the cape, once his arms went above his head his shoulders went up and that's where they stayed.

In other series, I watched celebrity dancers transformed if they can solve this problem. Drew Lacey from last year's US Dancing with the Stars explained that his costume was designed to constantly remind him to keep his shoulders down.

They can't penalise Brendan for his rant as this happened after the judges communicate their scores to the "runner" who picks up the paper from Craig (so that the scores are known before we get them).....

I can't see how any of the judges can be completely unbiased, they'll all have their favourites. I'm sure some element of judging their "overall" performance comes in to the marking if in any particular week they aren't as good as the week before. I'm sure that was the case with Louisa this week.
Emma Bunton of course, the BBC want to stay in as they've got this naffin' charity CD/Video on the go. How bad for them would it be if she'd put in a less than her usual "average" performance and got voted out this early?

Make of that what you will.

I am not surprised that the judges don't agree with each other because we, the forumites don't either !

Dissapoited with Emma and Darren, theyr'e not living up to their first week potential, and they're consistently over marked. Loved Mark and Karen, they just have this WOW factor when they dance, and beautiful choreography as ever. Adored Carol's and Matt's Foxtrot, it should have been the dance of the night, I really have no idea why the judges don't like her. Matt and Lilia = the blahness for me, can't even remember it. Oh, that was the one I didnt like the choreography on, once again it's all Lilia and not enough of her partner (as Len said in week one).

Peter and Erin were a little embrassing and with atrorious choice of music, he's a ballroom dancer without question but didn't think it deserved a '2' when he committed to the dance and remembered all the steps which is mroe than can be said of Jan ! Jan and Anton did better, but she seems incapable of remembering the dance all through so they have nowhere left to go. Georgie and James (Le Tosser), well done to that girl for not punching him and for improving so much.

Camilla and Ray, really liked the choreography and Ray nailed it, although slightly over acted the part. Worth more makrs than it got without question. Claire and Brendan did it really rather well considering she's much more a gritty latin girl, she really pulled it off although I thought the choreography was a little dull.

Louisa and Vincnent, urgh. I just do not liek this couple. She bounced her way throught he Foxtrot like it was the jive and cannot stop looking around her and grinning, she never seems like she's committed to the dance. Hated it. Objectivley I thought it was overmarked again, Carol's was so much better and evoacted the whole concept of the dance.

For me, the leader board should have been:

Carol & Matt
Karen & Mark
Camilla & Ray
Emma & Darren
Matt & Lilia
Claire & Brendan
Louisa & Vincent
Peter & Erin
Georgie & James
Jan & Anton

Craig's foxtrot scores really annoyed me last night because they were utter nonsense. According to him, it went:

Emma - 8
Louisa - 7
Claire - 7
Carol - 6
Georgina - 5
Jan - 5


That is complete rubbish. He wasn't marking what he saw, he was marking on what he thought the order should be based on his own preferences/previous weeks.

I haven't seen their whole routine yet so can only comment on the clip from the bbc's site, but I'd be interested to know if you guys who saw it think my impression is valid - the Paso is supposed to be the Man's dance, right, and he is the centre of attention, takes charge etc, from the bit I saw it was much more like the other Latin dances are - she was the centre of attention... anyone?

Disappointing because I usually like Lilia's choreography. Maybe she's overcompensating for Matt?

The best Paso was from Matt and Lilia - nifty footwork and moved around the floor beautifully. Those twist turn things he did, I don't think I've seen them done that well on Strictly (by a male celeb)

Foxtrot - Georgina's foxtrot was underrated, she looked the most steady of all the women. I thought James' choreography was most suited to his partners ability. Sometimes Claire, Emma or Louisa they looked like they were struggling I could feel the discomfort with those three.
Carol had the best foxtrot of the night. A couple of weak moments but she had great footwork and good posture
Last edited by Eclipse80 : 29-10-2006 at 13:25

Thank you Eclipse I agree with all the things you said. So my eyesight is still okay just that I have some different opinions from other. Phew!

Lilia is terrible for it, even Len had to make a comment on it in week one. I remember last yer I was so fuming when Darren won becuase their show dance consisted of him holding her whilst she did complicated moves and lifts. Camilla, to a lesser extent, does it too. Erin and Karen on the other hand go out of their way to make their male dancer look good and be the centre of attention and the choreography is subtle enough to work as a whole but allow their dancer to be challenged. I was watching Lilia (bending, again...how novel) last night, I can't even remember Matt being there.

Lilia, as much as I love her personally, is the weakest celeb dancer for doing that IMO.

I thought especially in the Paso, which they flag up to be "the guy's dance", it was a shame.

agree with your comments except for Matt and Lilia didnt like their Paso much at all. I did think Mark and Karen should have been the top but only by a point or two above carol and matt.

Re posture yes the tailoring of a suit can help with the shoulder line like drew lachey said

Oh bendymixer just want to thank you for answering my queries re competitions/teachers the other day! (I can't remeber which thread it is in now)

LOL I do feel like that sometimes on here, it helps that I don't have a favourite couple.

your welcome frodora