Although emma was in the bottom 2 a few times she did come third and top female so she was clearly not hated.
The same with Zoe.
I do think people like a journey so wont be suprised if Gethin or Tish win but i guess you just never know. Its only week 7!

Yes, I supported Mark and Karen but Louisa was very likeable last year in a charming vivacious and genuine way. I thought after a few weeks she could get irritating but I was one of the ones that was really sorry that she and Vincent didn't make it to the finals.

I thought Emma's performances were technically really good but the performances left me cold. Plus the judge's (even CRH who is usually spot on) blatant favouritism turned me off and sometimes the way she came across was really artificial. Technically I don't think Alesha's routines are quite as complex as some of Emma's but I enjoy Alesha's dances more as she is capable of pulling off a genuinely believable emotional dance if you like the sappy stuff. Emma's dances, you just never believed any of it. I agree that Alesha and Matthew's partnership and now performances , while consistently lovely are not the most exciting.

I am enjoying and supporting Kelly and Brendan (exciting partnership, great talent, works hard and doesn't get enough credit when it goes well), Gethin and Camilla (nice partnership, interesting to see if he can improve his Latin dances), Matt and Flavia (very entertaining and can potentially do Latin and ballroom very well)

No matter what you say Kelly and Brendan haters are just going to disagree.

Being a strictly fan, I loved it and feel that it deserved at least a couple of 10s!

for me it was Gabby that was this year's Emma - technically good but didn't get the emotion of the dance over.

that's why Alesha is my favourite - because I get into the mood whatever dance they're doing

I thought the leaderboard was about right last night

I understand that the original thread was comparing Kelly's jive to Jill's (no contest!) but as always these threads end up saying that Alesha is better. I enjoy both Alesha and Kelly's dances, but find that even when Kelly's is obviously stronger, she will get slated.

I personally beleive that she said she hoped hers would be as good as Jill's because she recognises where the benchmark is. Again Kelly is attacked for being ambitious, where Kate was allowed to stay in week after week without reaching for the stars.

I believe there are double standards for everything when comparing Kelley and Alesha - and I am warming more to Kelly as unbelievably a fantastic dancer and performer is becoming the underdog for being ambitious.

I think that the fact that so many people dislike Brendan is not helping her - but I have to admit to looking forward to their dance each week.

I do thinkk though, as we are not prepared to forgive either girl for being beautiful and talented, that possibly Matt and Gethin will steal into the final - I would love to see Camila raise that trophy.

I don't get the hater thing - to me, Kelly's jive was great by most standards, but wasn't perfect (bounce; arms; soso choreo. etc.) I had similar feelings about about Alesha's salsa.

What bugs me about both of these couples at the moment is their apparent lack of genuine ambition (as in realising that getting better involves identifying and rectifying faults instead of merely wanting to be great), which is a symptom of the judges not telling them how they can take it to the next level (comments for a 9999 dance shouldn't be 100% positive). Gethin & Matt are getting better, but the golden girls are on a plateau.

Re Emma... there will be always be good-at-dancing celebs (usually better at ballroom than latin) that I'm somewhat indifferent to; Kelly for SCD5, Emma for SCD4, and Zoe for SCD3. That indifference onlys get nasty when the judges start dishing out stupid marks... the night of the tittaruba paso being the breaking point for me last year...

I think this is a really interesting point. From my point of view, the jive is one of the dances I look forward to the most. Love the music, the fun... And now, a good number will perform the dance very early on due to the scheduling, and others will prefer to get it out of the way as soon as they have the chance. All resulting in it being generally not "good enough" for the final.

but not all Alesha fans hate Kelly and vice versa.
And actually if you were to compare Alesha and MAtts appreciation thread to Kelly and Brendans one you can see Alesha fans are a lot more supportive of Kelly then Kelly supporters are of Alesha!
Both girls look like they get on well so its a shame its got to this.

Kelly and Brendan are my second favourites - and that's pretty amazing considering I can't stand Brendan!

I think your being unfair on Alesha in particular there. Whenever she has got critisim from the judges (and she has got it for most of her dances) she has obviously worked on it. For example in AS week Len critisised her body contact, she's obviously worked on that as she is now always together with Matt. She quite clearly improves her technique every week. She is doing by far the most hours out of anyone so to say her and Matthew lack ambition is wrong IMO.

I'm not a Kelly fan, nor a hater. I don't think he Jive was as good as Jill's. Yes she was good at it but it was noway near to the standard she wanted it to be. I don't know what it is about her dancing but it just bores me, it always seems like they are dancing for themselves, never totally with each other; whereas I think other couples do that.

Paradigm, I know you didn't say anything about the Kenny comment I was just using it as an example of things being blown well out of proportion on here and how the BBC skew the VT for their own uses.

I agree shellshell we don't know and will never know whether she said a proviso or not seeing as the BBC edit it as they see fit. The only time we can believe anything that anyone says is when they say it on the Saturday show or in interview on ITT as it's live and no chance for editing.

To some extent I agree with this - it's partly down to the fact that the marking has been on the high side from week one - I wish 9's and 10's were a bit rarer.

Also for me there doesn't seem to be very much competitveness in evidence between the 2 best dancers left (Kelly +Alesha) and you need that edge to push the performances up a notch....IMO that's why it's a SUCH pity Gabby went out so early. She and James had that hunger and a desire to push themselves. (Funnily enough I think Flavia's got that instinct too - testing Matt to his limit with the choreography, risky but exciting to watch.)

There's no point "competing" with former contestants, they should be pushing each other. Friendly competition is a good thing, it motivated Jill and Denise producing some knock out performances. I also think it brought out the best in Darren and Ian too.

er excuse me? you quoted my opening post, where i had even said Arlene had said she thought it was the closest yet to Jill's jive-i never said Arlene said it was a better jive or on par anywhere. i disagreed that it was the closest to jill's jive, simply because i didnt believe it to be even in the same League as Jill's-i thought her jive to be in a different class altogether and found Kelly's to be personally underwhelming. so i made a topic about it, since she made the comparison to jill's on the show i wanted to discuss. which im entitled to do.

I dont know whether to laugh or not at this post

Some of Kelly and Brendans fans get angry and upset over criticism as do some of Alesha and Matthews.

Both couples have some fans who think their favourites are demi-gods .

Tbh I`m fed up of some fms criticising fans and putting them all in the same category.