So I didn't notice any mention of new dances in the press release?

Maybe they've decided to borrow a few tricks from DWTS and repeat dances in the semi, or possibly move judges' choice to the semi- assuming they no-one withdraws and they have a three person final, they won't need it in the final.

I think someone is bound to withdraw. It's such a long time and very physical and by the law of averages, someone is bound to get injured or decide it's just too much for them. I do think the BBC have made a mistake by making it two weeks longer this time. I remember how exhausted Alesha and Matthew were by the end of the series last year (and presumably Flavia and Matt as well).

I somehow don't think a new dance would be required - bringing in American style isn't need or wanted IMO If they include Mambo then they will have to drop Salsa they are far too similar. As for hip hop the stuff done on DWTS is dreadful these are Ballroom and Latin dancers - could you imagine Anton doing that ?? he can't even do good latin

Maybe they'll do Bollywood one week like they did on Diet on the Dancefloor.

Oh dear the less said about diet on the dancefloor the better - dreadful show and I squirm that Matt Cuttler got involved in it

I agree, it has been pretty dreadful. But at least it gave us a chance to see Matthew, Nicole and Karen for a little bit.

aww shame about Nicole - saw her and Matt at Dukenfield she certainly seems gutted about not being back, I wait to see who Matt dances professionally with - I hope it isn't Karen

I think it is Karen, sorry! But that's better than Hayley surely, even if you're not a fan of Karen?

No disrespect to Hayley, but she's not in Matt's league. It would be like watching him dance with Izabella Hannah again.

I just think its so so wrong to have done shame I will have to just avoid watching Karen and Matt dancing if that is the case - ewww

Definitely wrong not to have Nicole, but I'm really looking forward to Karen and Matt dancing together!

According to the little clip on GMTV it looks as if Brendan is dancing with Kristina and not Hayley. Hayley seems to have been put with Brian and Karen is definitely with Matthew. Could be interesting!

I wouldn't have minded if Kristina danced with him. She is definately talented enough. She even beat Darren and Lilia in competitions.

Only one competition! Darren and Lilia have had better results at Blackpool than that, it was their last recorded competition and they weren't devoting as much time to it by then.

I wouldn't have minded Kristina dancing with Matt either, I just didn't really want it to be Hayley. But actually if the couples are
Matt- Karen
Brendan- Kristina
Brian- Hayley
then I think all three are well matched in terms of ability. I always felt that Karen outdanced Brendan a bit.

Okayyy.. But she still is talented. I wouldn't mind her dancing with Matthew. And she seems absolutely lovely.

Sorry, just had to point that out

Yes, she seems lovely, came across really well in the interview with John. And I haven't seen her dance, but I'm expecting her to be amazing!

That's okay.

She dances amazingly well.

http://uk.youtube.com/user/KRihanoff Some of her dances are on there and some personalised messages.

I notice she has already added my youtube clips of her interviews... they've only been up twelve hours! Or would someone else run the channel for her?

She does look properly amazing, wouldn't mind seeing her dance with Matt actually. But I think Matt is a better match for Karen than Brendan, so this way works quite well.

I think someone else runs the site for her. They came on here earlier on in the year telling us about her if I remember correctly.

If I had to fit AT into one of those categories, I'd say "Ballroom", as it's progressive.



Why not?

There are hundreds of possible dances they could do - OK, I can see the argument for keeping the "Ballroom 10" as the core, but there's no reason to only have those.

I like the idea of having some new dances included. Not convinced by the mambo - there will already be three clave-based dances (Rumba,. Chacha and salsa), so mambo may be a bit too much of the same.

Personally I'd like to see Milonga or Vals added, that'd sort the men out from the boys. If they thought AT was hard, they'd love those.

I wouldn't like to see Merengue, it's a silly dance.

Oh, and hello again, everyone

As the show is 2 weeks longer, you'd think they'll need 2 more dances but in fact it leaves a gap for just one new dance and it makes sense for it to be the judges' choice as we've had that for 2 consecutive seasons already so TPTB must like it.

For e.g. for a female celeb (I only know the dances for the first 2 weeks, so I've made up the rest)

Week 1 - Girls' 1st group dance; Boy's Waltz/Chacha
Week 2 - Salsa/Foxtrot; Boys' 1st group dance
Week 3 - Girls' 2nd group dance; Boys' Tango/Samba elimination
Week 4 - Quickstep/Rumba; Boys' 2nd group dance
Week 5 - Jive/Viennese Waltz
Week 6 - American Smooth/Paso Doble
Week 7 - Chacha
Week 8 - Waltz
Week 9 - Samba
Week 10 - Tango & group dance
Week 11 - Viennese Waltz & Paso Doble
Week 12 - Rumba & Foxtrot
Week 13 - Argentine Tango & Judges' choice
Week 14 - Favourite ballroom & favourite latin; group dance; showdance

Well, in my head I am picturing Anton trying his hand at Hip Hop and it makes me go like this:


Sadly I was lying in bed last night wondering about this ~ I am guessingthat they'll follow DWTS format and add the mabo, but it needs another ballroom too


Great minds, Katie!


Agreed ~ I think there are too many couples this year ~ and anyone want to place bets on the liklihood of a third consecutive two couple final because the beeb haven't allowed for the inevitability of someone having to drop out again?

Is the milonga a bit too similar to the AT to be included? I remember a really lovely one from SDF (in fact I think I recall V&F doing the demo milonga the week before the couples did it ~ anyone else recall that, or am i imagining it?)

Not the one I was looking for, but this is the only SDF milonga can find: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rcveqvWtPrs

When watching DWTS I have noticed that they do dance the jitterbug. This could be one of the dances of the series.
I shouldn't confirm on that though,

I hope it's not that. I don't think they should add anything that shifts the balance even further away from ballroom.

Can I ask why?

Just for me, I really like the fact that Strictly has (almost) equal emphasis on ballroom and latin. Compared to some others- DWTS does ballroom throughout the series, but then you can more or less do what you like in the final. I'm not certain but I think last year's winner didn't do a step of ballroom in the final, and that seems the normal thing to do on DWTS.

I think there's a risk that if the latin dances heavily outnumber the ballroom dances, eventually the pros will decide there's not much point in working too hard at the ballroom, and the fans will ask why all the celebs have to do ballroom in the final.