Hello, I am new to this forum, and hope you don't mind if I speak a few words.
I have been a dancer for 30 years, and a teacher for 8 of those years. I can no longer dance or teach because of an accident.
I am so appalled at the vitriol towards the celebreties on this forum.
The last few dancers that were left before the semi final, were all good, and all worthy of the praise they received.
Matt DID certainly mess up and forget his steps, but he had been pretty consistent, and technically good before that. His performance had always been really good. Letitia had not reached that standard, but was well on the way. Alesha had always been faultless in performance, but not so good technically and Gethin had been poor in performance, but coming on in leaps and bounds technically.
Matt was voted through by the public, and probably deservedly so, who knows.
Letitia did well, and it was also unfortunate that she went. She was really coming on technically, and showing her enjoyment.
Matt danced a faultless Waltz, technically perfect, and also an almost near perfect Argentine Tango, but his performance was not great . Alesha danced faultless performances, but her footwork was not perfect. Gethins performances were great, but technically not perfect.

My own favourite was Alesha, but I thought Matt did deserve the 4 10's he got for that waltz. As a dance teacher, I would have been thrilled by it.

What I did not like was the question that was asked of Phillip Jackson, and the reply. It should never have happened. What it did was undermine the judges, Matt himself, and most of all the programme. It was his opinion, but was made to look as if he was the only expert, and his remarks counted.
The vitriol towards Matt on this forum has been overwhelmingly sad, because if you are lovers of dance, and the programme, it is not deserved.
If he read these remarks, then it would be no wonder his confidence was shot at the final.

Could you not all just enjoy the final instead of countless cries of 'he does not deserve it'.
Based on his performances throughoutt, I believe he deserves to be in the final, and if he wins, good on him.
I am hoping that Alesha pulls it out of the bag I think Matt Cutler is the best choreographer, and deserves the win also.
I hope its a good final, and I hope the many vitriolic posters can stop the vitriol and enjoy it.
Sorry if its boring, but just wanted to post my opinion
Mac
Last edited by deaconswit : 20-12-2007 at 12:36

What a brilliant post! Welcome. Nice to have a little informed objectivity on here.

Why do you think Matt Cutler is the best choreographer? I know nothing but there seems to quite a view that Flavia is a great choreographer. I'd be interested to know.

Thanks that's a lovely post, and shows that liking one person doesn't mean to slag off another. Agree completely with you about ITT and PJ. His comments were not very well measured.

Well said deaconsworld but you will not get a lot of joy on here.

I am watching it for the dancing not the personalities so have no actual favourite. I like Alesha and would have wished that Kelly had been able to stay in as she would have added to the mix I am sure.

Only point I disagree with is on Matt's perfect 10's. The waltz was lovely but his rise and fall came from his knees not his feet IMO. He appeared to have a fixed expression and I thought he was dancing in a world of his own and not connecting with Flavia.

I agree that Matt C is a great choreographer and manages to produce some amazing routines in both Latin and in Ballroom even though ballroom is not his speciality.

Gethin suddenly came out of his shell and he was amazing but perhaps a little too late for the public and the judges.

I am looking forward to this Saturday's final, whichever of them wins it it will be deserved as they have both worked really hard for it.

So somebody is SUPPOSED to have danced the bestest dance of the whole show and nobody is supposed to question it. Claudia had every right in fact DUTY to ask the question. Everybody else has apart from a few Matt fanatics.
He ain't favoured on this forum look at the top thread a less than inspiring 27% - so damn near 3 out of 4 people DON'T want him to win. I suspect that little of that is due to dancing skills and more to his antics.

Can I just ask which antics you are referring to? And if you have a look on the pro-Matt threads, you will see that people aren't as fanatic as you think. They can actually see when their favourite doesn't produce a good dance and talk about it rationally. I'm not so sure about some fanatic Gethin fans (I don't mean all of you, we have some lovely ones on the Matt threads), but there are enough anti-matt threads on here already.

I still don't know if the dance deserved a perfect score, but the question is - should any dance on SCD get a 10 (perfect) and should the judges have dished out as many 10 as they did this year (e.g. Gethin's Paso, John's salsa and Alesha's Samba, add Matt's waltz to it, if you like). I think the OP made some very good comments.

Well, I disagree. What Phillip Jackson said echoed what I thought after watching the dance off - that Gethin improved after hearing the judge's comments to a point where, at least to my (admittedly un-dance-educated) eyes, his dance surpassed Matt's waltz. The previous night on ITT two of the judges had given explanations as to their decisions - Arlene backing up Phillip's opinion that Gethin's dance had improved to the point where he deserved to go through, and Craig suggesting that if he'd been making the decision on factors other than just the dance off, he may well have put Gethin through.

Why shouldn't the judges' decisions be questioned? They are after all only opinions, and opinions that a large percentage of the viewing public seem to have disagreed with last week. I don't think the credibility of the program would've been helped if they'd ignored that, and I'm glad they saw fit to allow those viewers who were unhappy with the result to have their opinions expressed through an expert who agreed with them.

What a shame you have made such comments on this well balanced , objective thread started by someone who obviously knows what they're talking about.

If you don't like Matt or his dancing that's fine but why such vitriol?

Thats going by a poll with only a few hundred voting...there are MILLIONS who watch the show

So what - those opinion polls only ever have small samples. I would have thought it was representative.

to the original poster - really good try, it was a lovely post but you see what you're up agaisnt

Bob I can assume Matt has personally done something to you for you to hate him so much

His good looks and stunning smile

Of course, not forgetting those lovely dance movers..oooh yeah

Size isn't the only, nor even necessarily, the most important component of good sampling technique. How representative the sample is (of the total population from which it is drawn) is important too.

All those times Kate was favourite to go and most hated, she never went until quite far on

very nice post but i would recommend you stay away from the BBC forum, its chaos over there

Ah a fellow statistician. Fully agree with you, and the SCD forum is by no means a good representation of the voting public.

However, I think in previous years, they were mostly right with the prediction of the winner in the last week (oh - I might be lying, I think Colin Jackson was ahead of Darren).

I only picked out the bit that applied to the title the rest was an interesting viewpoint but irrelevant. The negativity comes from the fact that Letticia was robbed and so was Gethin. Vitriol I didn't see any, I didn't call him "a waste of oxygen" or anything.

The DS polls mean nothing.
IACGMOH had janice leading - she lost
X Factor had Rhyd leading- he lost

Letita was robbed - not Matt's fault. it was GBP

Gethin was robbed - not Matt's fault. The judges.

Sorry but Matt is a much more worthy finalist than Letita!!

Me too, deaconswit. Welcome to the forum, but I really don't think much is going to change here before Saturday. And if Matt dances fantastically on Saturday and (you never know) wins it, then I dread to think what vitriol and cries of "Fix" will pour out. I have personally always been more excited by Matt & Flavia's dancing and choreography but I also appreciate that Alesha & Matthew are great. I'm really looking forward to seeing both of them perform and whoever wins on Saturday will be deserving.

I think the detractors (of any celebrity) are less into the actual dancing and more into their partisan views being right. The pleasure, for me, about Strictly Come Dancing is that it's actually made me want to get up off the sofa and watch dance (actively seeking out events and buying tickets) and even learn to dance. A miracle!

Not that I know of and hate implies something emotional; I don't even dislike the fellow.

Thats great

"I have a penchant for controversy. That's what makes good boards with lots of people posting. I don't see quite as many "cat fights" on my usual haunts "

oh right I see - you come here for the arguments. Can I clarify if you wnat the 10 minutes argument or the full half hour

deaconswit - Welcome
What a fantastic post and totalling agree with you. We Matt & Flavia fans love Alesha & Mathew too so may the best man/women win

Thank you deaconswit for a sensible post. I have pretty much stopped posting altogether on a lot of the threads due to the vitriol content.

I'm really looking forward to the final and although I support Alesha I wouldn't be too unhappy if Matt Di won as long as he does some great routines and doesn't forget his steps.