I didn't see the interview but that aside I am struggling a bit with this.

Is Vincent really saying "Louisa & Emma are dancers (of sorts) by dint of past training/experience and therefore have an inbuilt advantage

OR

Is he just saying "Emma & Louisa have become better ballroom/Latin dancers than Matt & Mark" and not necessarily attributing it to training/experience in other types of dance?

Isn't it possible for someone untrained in any form of dance to do better at ballroom/Latin than someone who has had, for example, contemporary or ballet training?

Don't know, just asking the question.

I saw it this am and what he basically said was that Lousia and Emma are better dancers becuase they had dance training before - so the answer is your first point

I only ever saw that as a p*** take at his own expense - he used to make me howl with laughter. The competition will definitely be the poorer without the effervescence of L&V

yeh me too - I just thought he was sending himself and the whole italian stallion thing massively. I shall miss them, I really liked them as a couple

Me too, I thought Vincent was funny and Louisa was always laughing at him too! He really grew on me over the series.

Awwww what a lovely interview, makes me miss them even more. Did I mention I officially love Vincent?

As you are in Edinburgh you could come up to Aberdeen and do a workshop with him then

I thought it was a great interview on Breakfast this morning. What a lovely couple and poor Vincent I hope he is not hung,drawn and quartered cos he stated the obvious that both Louisa and Emma are trained dancers. It was refreshingly honest I thought!! It is a fact that they both attended the same stage school and had daily dance lessons, ballet, tap etc. of course that gives you a huge advantage in ballroom etc. My friend who is a ballet /tap teacher tells me she knows immediately in her adult classes which women have had lessons as a child and she should know!! I thought Louisa was lovely when she was asked if she had any work lined up, what her next project was, and she honestly answered that she had nothing planned!! What a sweatheart!! None of that nonesense of I am in discussions and cannot talk about it at the moment etc which you normally hear from actresses!! They were both charming and even Bill said he thought all along that she and vincent would win Strictly. I thought they danced beautifully and she just beams joy when she danced I could not believe the judges comments, especially Craig, It Was Boring!!!

I have just watched it and yes Vincent did say exactly what has been posted ,
He said :" Louisa and Emma are the only 2 best dancers because they have done a bit of dancing before "
and when asked about winners he said one of the men ,but not which as he is friends with both he said
" It's not fair for the two guys to compete against a dancer "

Actually lovely interview , quite a differnt Vincent , I have to say he grew on me as the weeks went by .

It may have been a faux pas but he was very sincere and without guile .
Last edited by arddunol : 13-12-2006 at 14:41

Just because you have been to stage school doesn't mean you are any good at dancing.

At this stage you either have "it" or you haven't stage school or not

Brilliant!

I've always liked Vincent and his tongue in cheek humour. He played on the British opinon of the Italian male and hammed it up which was funny. I hope he's back next year.

Same here. And I hope he once again has a wonderful partner.

I really hope Vincent returns. I loved his height joke deadpan face with JJ on ITT on Monday. He took the shock exit on Saturday with grace and was so lovely with Louisa.

I bet even if he got one of the oldies next year he'd still be wonderful with them. Top man!

This is a long shot, but did you record it and is there any chance you could put it on you tube?

I know you probably can't but its worth a try asking

I luuurve him! At first, couldn't stand him because didn't get his humour, but after a while it all clicked, and now find him so funny. That and his dances with Louisa were a large part of the entertainment for me.

JJ is funny too.

Agreed - but it does mean that you have training in movement and posture that would be a great advantage at the begining. As you say though at this point, it should be more than posing and the dance element should be more substantial.

Oh yes I agree he was never serious, but just for a few weeks at the beginning it still annoyed me a little! As I said he seemed to do it a bit less after that and then I really did find it funny as it was just a little less OTT! I will definitely miss him over the remaining weeks!

But surely going to a stage school will help slightly? With rhythm as they will be used to music.
If they weren't vaguely good at it they wouldn't be where they are now.

Using that rationale the girl from Casualty should have been quite good. Trust me, being able to act or going to drama school won't make you a good dancer, especially ballroom.

I've seen excellent Ceroc/Salsa dancers crumble in a heap when faced with some simple ballroom steps

The thing I think it helps the most with is arms and lines. The real presentation elements of dance and things that would have been drilled into them. Eveything else is a bit different.

Really not doing the dreaded b*****g of Emma, but where I think she has a massive advantage is not so much stage school or dance experience, but the years of performing live in front of a big audience and being used to presenting herself, working with a crowd and really turning it on, on a stage.

I have to agree with you there Erinfan - being able to perform the dance counts for a lot. For example, Louisa danced the most difficult and technically advanced choreography (compared to the others) but she was consistantly marked down because of the lack of 'performance' in her dances.

Whereas you could say the exact opposite for Emma - her dances don't include many steps (as even some of the judges have commented on) but she gives a performance, which conceals the lack of steps and any mistakes, so get's high marks.

I know people who know many many dance steps but can't 'dance' one of them. I've won comps dancing nothing but basic steps but I enjoy being in front of people and putting on a performance so that helps.

You really should 'dance like nobody is watching'

Sorry to come late into this but I've watched Breakfast as well and Vincent did say what he said. I think he's not saying it to put down Emma, it's just his opinion, as if to imply now that there is no 'trained dancer' competing with Emma, he *hopes* (not he thinks, mind you) the boys win the competition.

Still didn't like his OTT loverman image, though I agreed he toned down a lot a few weeks ago. There is a clear chemistry between them, and I remembered writing my impression of them in the ITT thread a few weeks ago, that this loverman image ironically suited Louisa, and she seemed to warm up to him in a good way and they have become good friends. Methinks Louisa even admire/has a crush on him in a school-girl sort of way...

I saw the interview live this morning and I was in disbelief at what Vincent said and I just wish the breakfast presenters would have probed Vincent a bit more so he could explain exactly what he meant by 'dancer'. I am really glad that Vincent had the honesty to seemingly confirm what a lot of people have been thinking but we cant truly know how much of an advantage the girls have had over the boys. It is an advantage nevertheless which makes what the boys have achieved incredible. Emma definately has the advantage of being able to perform and is thus able to cover up any discrepencies and I just wish the judges would just look a bit more closely at her technique. I remember on ITT that Bruno said because Emma got quite low marks on the cha cha cha, he wanted to compensate for that by giving her a higher mark because of what he knows about her ability which I just think is wrong! Sorry if I've repeated what someone else has already said!