The Mambo would be a logical addition- but you's need another ballroom to balance it out

They could make every couple dance all nine of the Ballroom dances . . . International style and American style. Although I doubt very much that they would do it.

If they had done it before Gethin would have won that heat!

Would he? I never thought his latin was that strong!

They could start introducing some of the old time dances such as the Veleta, Saunter Reve, Lilac Waltz and old time waltz

Technically they're sequence dances BUT they could have a round in the latter stages where it's a group dance and they're judged on it

I believe here benymixer could be influenced by history - that Come Dancing lost its audience when a bright spark at the Beeb introduced a massive influx of foreign dancers, including numerous Norwegians if I remember. They were beautiful blondes but the public somehow did not warm to them, possibly because their names were unpronounceable, certainly unspellable.

I believe if SCD is to do the AT then it should do the real McCoy as done in a Buenos Aires bordello (I missed out on this grownup pastime ). The paso doble was never danced in Shepherds Bush with true Spanish fire and passion.

A New Zealand girl is coming. A chaka?

The BBC website lists the mambo and jitterbug amongst the dances along with the ones that were there last year so on that basis they are the ones going in. I always thought the jive was mostly based on the jitterbug - but hey ho what do I know.

A Haka would be great for the men to do as a group dance (the Kenny/Goughie equivalent would ace it)

I hope not, especially if they're going to put in crap like bollywood and hip-hop. I though the whole point was that it was a ballroom/latin competition.

I suspect the idea of a ballroom/latin competition died a death when it became hugely popular - in the ongoing quest to attrack the younger end of the audience I doubt it'll be long before we see such dances - shame as hip/hop just turns me right off. I just don't understand this need to appeal to ever younger audiences - next they'll be having nappy changing to a latin beat!

I do believe the more dances they throw into the mix the more the quality is going to suffer AND the more likely it's going to be of someone doing themselves a serious injury.

Bollyroom dancing, line dancing, belly dancing, buttocks dancing, the jitterbug, the moonwalk, the Haka, they are all a-coming.....

I really like that Strictly has such a strong emphasis on ballroom. It always bugs me on DWTS that the contestants aren't even required to do a ballroom dance in the final. Most of them just do latin and hip-hop.

It seems a bit unfair on our pros as well to keep adding dances they might not feel comfortable with. Although selfishly I'd love Anton to do hip hop!

Agree completely. This is a latin/ballrrom competition, not a "general dancing" one. Adding hip-hop etc would be taking the piss.

Again, agree completely!
They have enough dances as it is and if they add more that even the pros aren't familiar with than there is a chance that the quality could suffer and I'm sure the pros prefer doing dances that they are comfortable with and can choreograph themselves.
Not impressed that they could be introducing mambo and jitterbug - there's no point in adding mambo when they already do the salsa (and salsa is more exciting IMO) and if the jitterbug has to be anything like when that couple did it in the '06 pro jive....I'm no expert on jitterbug but it's hardly the most graceful of dances! and what's the point when you have the superior jive to do?! They should just leave it with the normal latin/ballroom disciplines and stop playing silly beggars with the format!

Having the mambo, merengue etc as unmarked group dances is something I can live with, but introducing more dances to the proper competition would muddy the waters too much (it already seems a little unfair that getting through the semi-final depends on something as specialised as the AT). SCD is what got me into ballroom dancing in the first place, so don't go messing with it now!

Defintely agree. Quite clearly, the BBC do very well out of SCD ratings. What makes them think that viewers are going to embrace more changes?

Especially when the mambo and merengue are so dull as a stand-alone dance!
Why is it so hard for the producers to listen to what the public want?! Surely they could conduct internet polls on their website to test the waters on any proposed changes?
I thought it would be unfair in this year's semi-final when Matthew and Camilla would have to perform an AT against Flavia but Matt and Flavia's AT turned out to be my least favourite of the night!

I don't see that being unfair as Cam had a choreographer helping her out for the AT. It didn't hurt Alesha and actually Geth's marks were better for his AT than his paso and Matt's were better for the waltz than the AT ergo proving absolutely nothing. The best AT routine was delivered by Karen Hardy who probably knew as much about AT as Cam did when she entered the competition. The only worry is that as more dances come in that more outside choreographers will be involved taking more control of their own choreography away from the pros.

I'm dubious about internet polls as I think probably only a small percentage of the SCD viewing public goes online and most would say don't introduce anymore new dances which like or not if they are trying to up the number in there isn't helpful.

I meant it was unfair because that was the first time Camilla and Matthew would have been dancing the AT whereas Flavia was a world champion. I didn't suggest that C&M were choreographing the routines - just that they would have been at a disadvantage in performing it as they would have known very little about the technique prior to that week.

Except in theory Matt C ought to have done the worst because at least Cam had danced it before in a group dance in series three but he hadn't. I think the judges and public compensated by expecting more of Mavia than they did of the other two couples in the AT and in the end it's telling that they were the only couple who didn't choose to do it again for the dance off. Personally I didn't think any of the AT's this year quite had the wow factor of Maren's last year although they were all decent efforts.

The pros actually seemed quite keen to try something a bit different - Cam said an interview for Radio Norfolk the day after the final that although she was disapointed in not making the final at least she'd finally got to have a go at the AT.

I am shamelessly bumping this thread (instead of starting anew one and having eveyone say "we've already discussed this").

With the length of this series and the number of participants, sure there will have to be new dances added?

Didn't they do the Lindyhop last series as a show group dance? Might that not get the nod?

I think Mambo is a likely one, with Kristina being very successful in this style. It's possible they might also bring over the DWTS idea of repeating a dance in the semi-final. If they have two more latin dances it's going to get very unbalanced... with Cha Cha, Rumba, Jive, Paso, Samba, Salsa, AT (sort of), plus two more... against Waltz, Quickstep, Tango, Foxtrot, VW and AS.

I'd like to keep an 50:50 emphasis on ballroom latin. I agree with katie_p that even now ballroom often gets sidelined, even though in the first series it was the glamour of ballroom dances (e.g. Natasha and Brendan) that engaged a lot of people. To add dances like hip hop would just change the whole character of SCD. Better to have a competely separate series to do that type of thing so that the audience can be targeted correctly.

Like the idea of couples reprising their weakest dance though.
Last edited by Vivacious Lady : 25-08-2008 at 15:02

If we are going to have new dances I would like to see one from the time of Henry VIII, from the Renaissance.

That would be interesting, but not so much a case of "doubt they Would do it" as "Could do it" as the British pros only know the international style, unlike the US pros who do both styles.

I vote for the Hokey Cokey... Tee-hee!

As a group dance - what fun!!! Ending with Knees Up Mother Brown, of course !-