Forgive the new thread if it has been done before.

But I am a LONG time lurker who has only just joined.

I find many people seem to vote on who they like and not always so much on dancing. (That was a bit sweeping....not meant.)

This is the one reality show that I actually vote on who is the best. I thought Colin and Denise were fab, but was not upset they did not win, as the people who pipped them won and deserved to win. But if they had won, that would be okay.

I fancy every male celeb and like alot of them too (Willie knocked me out with his crying last week) but I still tend to vote on the dance in this show.


Plus there are some pro dancers I love and others I cannot stand...so I could vote for them regardless.

Gethin is so gorgeous I could eat him. But he imo does not have the rhythm. So unless he gets brilliant I don't want him to win. I felt the same about Matt last year but adore him as a rugby player, as I do Kenny this year. I love Flavia and the Cutlers but won't vote purely on that. I cannot stand Ian or Brendan but like Kelly and Penny.

I'm not going to say who I do want to win....that is not what this thread is about....but I'd like to think that even if I do not like a dancer on SCD personally, it is all about a skill, and for me it is if they are great and excite me (Jill and Mark) or if they are the most improved and have tried really hard and ended up as good as Jill and Mark. (Darren).

Is it all about looks and personality or skill?

For me it is not about looks at all, but I think everything else comes into play.

Obviously the most important thing is the dancing. As much as I like someone, if I don't think they are a good dancer, I won't vote for them.

However, it is also more than just the dancing - I have to like the celeb, their attitude, the partnership and if I'm honest the professional. Improvement and chemistry are big things to make me vote.

Whoever I tend to support though, I will always try to throw in a vote for a really good dance.

I think for me its a mixture... If I like someones personality and attitude I seem to like the dance even if it isn't technically the best... If I don't like them or their attitude then even if they are technically the best I wouldn't be able to like it...

I usually throw a vote to some of my favs... Then a vote for my three fav dances.... But my fav dance isn't always because its technically the best dance, its what entertained me...

I always vote based on the celebrity rather then the professional dancer although it does help when i like the pro they are dancing with
I normally pick someone who i like watching. they don't have to be the best technical dancer in the world but they have to be able to perform and sell the dance.
I also like people that are enthausiast about dancing such as Louisa last year (and Alesha this year).
If someone is a great dancer but looks like they hate every minute of the dance then i wouldn't give them a vote.

I'm afraid to say I always go on the Pro dancer but if a couple's dance really makes me go 'wow',I will put a vote their way.

Dancing? Personality? Pro Dancer? Looks?

It's got to be the whole package and in that order I'd say.

Absolutely! The whole combo - celeb, pro dancer, dance on the night, personality, sense of fun, chemistry, looks - has to 100% be in place before I pick up the phone... so glad it happened early in this series as last year it wasn't until halfway through I started properly warming to my eventual favourites, Mark and Karen (I'd started off as a neutral for the first time in my SCD watching career)

The partnership, personalities and chemistry, combined with the dancing skill.

Personally the personality is key for me...i would vote for Kate and Anton ahead of Kelly and Brendan as i prefer Kate and also K+A have a more 'fun' approach to the whole thing.

It's a really interesting question, and I don't think it's that easy to answer honestly because who you like is such an emotional rather than an intellectual question. I can say that I often vote for more than one, but that this series I'm having to save money (having wasted a lot of money on TV voting before) and so am trying to pick one. Money influences me - at the moment with so many in I wouldn't vote for someone at the top of the leaderboard even if I liked them best because I think they are safe. When there are 6 or fewer in they won't be. In the past, I've voted: series 2 - Aled (every week), Jill, Denise (final Jill), and for who was that lovely boy from Casualty?; series 3 - James (lots), Colin, Patsy, (final Colin), series 4 - Mark (lots), Peter (final Mark) and I'd say that in the final I always voted for who I thought the best, pure and simple.

Many of you know all about dancing and know technically what to look for, but I don't, I just know what I like - so for example, I often enjoyed James and Camilla most, esp when they were doing ballroom because they were the most romantic for me, the most 'can I watch that again?' - for me they were the best dance on the night. I don't think that was simply that I fancied him, it was the dance, but it was probaby a factor. I voted for Colin - and that was because of his skill but his Welshness and my fear some of the audience might be racist probably were factors too. Mark I fanced, but only when he was dancing, so I think that's just a compliment to his dancing (in contrast, Gethin has yet to be as gorgeous dancing as he as himself, if that makes sense - if he brings half that loveliness to his dancing my phone bill is going to go again!)

But after a few weeks, I sometimes get emotionally invested, usually because they did one dance I loved, and then I'm 'on their side' and often a bit of a lost cause - I have been known to vote more because I know that person wasn't so good, to keep them in because I don't want them to go out on a bad dance. I never vote for the pro, because I like all of them fairly evenly - they are all brilliant. I don't vote for someone if I don't like them as a person regardless of how they dance (but I like most of them) and must admit I have been known to get fed of people if the judges fawn over them too much, but not if I really liked them before (didn't get fed up of Mark).

Sorry to go on but I find it hard to generalise about what gets me involved - I could go on a lot longer! I will say that it makes me very angry when other posters try and tell others what we should base our votes on, because it is my money, I can spend it for any reason I like.

I vote on performance - if I've really enjoyed a performance and want to see that couple dance some more, and feel I'd be upset if I couldn't see them dance again, I might be prompted to vote. I often don't vote in the early rounds. Then when it gets to the final, I'll vote for who I've enjoyed watching most. I wasn't going to vote when it got to Colin and Darren, because I'd enjoyed them both, and thought they were both likeable and talented. But then when Colin and Erin came out with those dancing dolls, and Darren did a fab show dance, I voted for Darren a couple of times.

I'm trying to think who I've voted for in the past... I don't think I voted in Series 1. I know I voted for Jill and Darren's jive, because it was just so fab. I voted for Mark and Karen most weeks, and I must have voted for Lilia and Matt too, because I appear to have both those number stored in my phone, oops!

Very interesting thread. Last year I had a favourite before it started with Mark, but this year I have no strong feelings for any of the contestants its all pretty equal. I have no understanding of the technicalities of dance so at this stage I would say that personality, chemistry and then dance.

Well i'm only really voting for matt because i loved him in eastenders and have been a fan of his for a while, it does help that he is actually quite a good dancer aswell. I usually vote based on skill, looks, and personality but not really on the pro dancers.

In the past I've only ever voted at the end on who I thought was the best dancer. However I do conceed that my opinion is probably swayed psychologically by the chemistry between them & their professional & how attractive they are.
I'm however not voting on these shows any more, after all the scandals - I'll donate to CIN another way.
I'll just cheer my fave couple on verbally & hope they get to the final.

Interesting post, jnorth, and it made me reflect a bit more broadly on my voting habits - not just for SCD but for other shows I've watched which have a voting element e.g. pop idol, comic relief does FA. I'm someone who rarely votes as I have this "it's all rigged anyway" or "my one vote won't make a difference" mentality, but once a contestant "gets" me I'm a lost cause and I never change sides unless something really awful happens. It does take a lot to make me vote, though, but once I start I only ever vote for the same person.

In SCD, one thing I have never done and probably never will do is vote for the pro. I adore Matt Cutler but won't vote for him unless I really like his partner, which is why I'm really loving this series as I adore Alesha.

Dancing first and foremost, but I think I would be lying if I didn't admit that personal perceptions/judgments of the pro/celeb also come into play.

As most of the others said - a bit of everything....

But least of all on the pros

40% performance

30% technique (to the extent that a non-expert can judge it)

20% personality

10% attractiveness etc

....approximately.

And I should add I judge them as a 'couple'.

I vote on looks and personality in the pro dancers cos I know nothing about dance (and the celebs don't really interest me) So Ian gets my vote every time.

I vote for what I believe to be the best dance of the night, I might throw in a sympathy vote now and again if I think my favourite pair are in danger.

hi there everyone

this is actually quite difficult to answer!

I think for myself (I have been learning Latin and ballroom for a year now) I look at all kinds of things - and if all those things together create the most favourable picture - that's the eventual "package" I go for.

I must admit I study their feet and their posture! to see what I am doing wrong myself! and therefore I look at both the pro and the celeb to see who is doing it correctly and who is not................

I also have dances I love to see - and dances I love to do.

I love to do the waltz, quickstep, foxtrot and tango - and I at times have trouble with the cha cha cha - in learning my steps - somehow this is the one that goes out of my head the quickest even though I love the beat and the rhythm of it - so it depends on what dance they are doing as well.

I also look at the general proportions of the dancing couple together.........add in the music and if it all kind of "fits" or is on the way to "fitting" then that's where my inclination - and my vote - lies.

I also prefer some celebs to others and really don't like some.

(this is not meant to be a critical post!) but I find that, with the professionals, if I am watching Vincent Simone, Flavia Cacace, Lilia Kopylova, Brendan Cole or Matt Cutler.........I adore watching those dancers - they all really do it for me - and I am therefore rightly or wrongly more disposed to their partner and wanting them to do well, than if its one of the others. (One exception to this for some reason is Kelly Brook ! she is irritating me this year sadly!)

In the same vein, sorry Karen Hardy fans but if she is dancing I find for my own personal taste that her facial expressions really ruin things for me - other people will like them and feel it enhances the dances - but for me they don't - it turns me off, and so I find that I kind of "switch off" when she is dancing. Likewise Darren Bennett - I find he just doesn't move me at all.

so..........like everyone has been saying..........a whole mix of things - psychological, technological, visual, musical and - am sorry to say - the mood you are in at the time!

But respect to all those pros - whether I like them or not - they are all fantastic professionals - its just personal taste.

I love Strictly - I love the WHOLE THING and always feel utterly bereft when it ends!

Well hello there Cinderella2, and good on you for not lurking any longer and diving in. For me it's all about the dancing FIRST AND FOREMOST. As I'm quite partial to a good Tango and Paso whoever dances those pretty well always gets a vote from me (Hence the reason I voted for Darren's Paso in SCD3...even tho he annoyed the hell out of me with his blokey utterances). Maybe because I have little idea of who these celebrities are prior to seeing them on SCD (I LOATHE daytime/evening soaps, can't stand cricket, don't watch GMTV etc etc) that I can't really get caught up in voting for them irrespective of how good (or as is often the case) or toe curlingly bad their dancing is

has to be the DANCING everytime surely??

All of the above posts are interesting and I guess I am similar to a lot.
I try to keep an open mind until the first few dances are done, although this is sometimes difficult if it is someone you quite like from their day jobs.
I don't always vote and it's not always for the same reasons when I do.
I want to enjoy the dance and that is the biggest factor.
The pro - I wouldn't vote just for the pro, but I sometimes think I don't like a dance because of the pro rather than the celeb.
I have been guilty of voting because I think the judges marks were incorrect. Not their comments but the scores.

I judge on the chemisty of the couple and their dancing ablity