Dont blame Kate keep voting for Anton and her

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The Swampster

29-10-2007

Originally Posted by fraggle_bean:
“You certainly implied that since you pay your licence fee you have the right to be entertained - to entertain you specifically all the time, the program would have to be run to your specifications - as at the moment it clearly isn't satisfying you.
And I think you're very right - there is [i]not[i] a level playing field. Some dancers end up with more popular teachers, but also many of the competitors now have a very strong experience in dancing before it starts. How is it fair to compare someone like Kate with Gabby on a technical basis, when Gabby has clearly been dancing before and Kate clearly has not? The fairest way to balance this is to give those with less experience a more well known teacher. Also, I don't think Gabby had improved. She was still a brilliant dancer, but to be honest I didn't see anything different than what I saw in Week 1 and if anything she seemed a little stiffer and not as relaxed.”

I don't think Gabby danced particularly well this week - just infinitely better than Kate, who also had not improved. Not having a dance/sports background does not seem to be a big disadvantage in this show. Jill Halfpenny and Zoe Ball did rather well. As I said, I think a new broom approach to the pro dancers would be immensely useful to this show, which is becoming predictable and taking the focus off the efforts of the celebs.

fraggle_bean

29-10-2007

Originally Posted by infiniteboom:
“If it was truly a charity thing then ALL of the 25p would go to CIN, but only half does.”

In agreement - it's sad that the contestants aren't willing to donate their fees to CIN. However, Kate is almost certainly at the lower end of the pay bracket, and she's certainly no different to any of the other contestants.

fraggle_bean

29-10-2007

Originally Posted by The Swampster:
“I don't think Gabby danced particularly well this week - just infinitely better than Kate, who also had not improved. Not having a dance/sports background does not seem to be a big disadvantage in this show. Jill Halfpenny and Zoe Ball did rather well. As I said, I think a new broom approach to the pro dancers would be immensely useful to this show, which is becoming predictable and taking the focus off the efforts of the celebs.”

No, having a dance/sports background is not a disadvantage - it's an advantage - that's my point. It means there's not a level playing field on skill. In earlier series, people with experience were in the minority, whereas in these new series they're almost in the majority. I don't have a problem with this, it just means I'm more open minded on the less experienced contestants.

As for whether Kate has improved, we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one. She made mistakes, but she recovered from them every time and got going again. And on occasion I actually saw some decent timing and steps from her. Not saying at all her dance was better than Gabby's - but she had improved. And personally I found it far more fun and entertaining. But that's just an opinion - and opinions are what decides who stays and who goes. Having Anton probably helps - but only because they're so much fun as a couple. If Kate let herself get all bitter and twisted about it I don't think they would still be there.

dome

29-10-2007

Originally Posted by The Swampster:
“I don't believe I said it did. Only a fool would expect such a thing.

It is, however, supposed to be a competition about learning to dance and some people are clearly making better progress than others. The problem, for me, is that they do not seem to be starting with a level playing field, as it appears that some people will vote for a specific pro however poor a teacher/talentless a pupil the pairing.

In the interests of fairness - and in making the competition more interesting - I think it might be helpful to weed out some of these too-popular teachers (Make them judges? Give them a dance to do?) as it must be very demotivating for the celebs who put such a huge effort into dancing as well as possible to know that, actually, they might do better if they try less hard and get a sympathy vote, or - if they have a popular teacher - that little effort is required on their part. In the long term, the cult of the pro is rendering the competitive aspect of the show a bit meaningless, IMO.”

Well I pay the licence fee as well and I'm entertained.

I do agree about levelling the playing field though, this year more than ever the experienced dancers are and have been pretty obvious from the start.

And it's highly likely that Kelly and Penny are being paid well for taking part which is why the Beeb will do everything in their power to keep them in imo.

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