I love watching Erin and Lilia, Erin for her elegant poise and Lilia for her sense of fun. I like to see Flavia and Vincent dance together, I think they are total magic. Brendan and Matt are great to watch...I just hope Brendan lets his dancing speak for itself this year.

I think this always of Camilla with the latin- she always over dances and makes lots of movements round her partner and this disguises many of the partners faults- sometimes it works and they get good marks but in particular last series I remember lots of people finally picking up on it on these threads- but not the judges of course!!

Of course she dances around her partner! - shes not going to sit with the judges whilst her partner does a solo

I don’t know anything about ballroom dancing and the technical side of it. But I know that for me the routines that Karen did with Mark has never been topped by another pro. That Argentine tango that Karen choreographed still gives me goose bumps and I have never seen anything like it. Not forgetting that amazing salsa and Viennese waltz.

I know Karen sometimes over does her performances and full marks to Lilia who is a great teacher, and despite not having the best dancers manages to make a dancer out of them. But Karen routines are so exciting and have that extra special something which makes you remember the dance. Love Karen.

I agree. Camilla is beautiful woman but she puts me off when she is doing Latin, she grins like mad woman and is over frantic. Like Camilla as person but don’t like her routines except her Viennese waltz are fantastic, loved the one with Ray and Gethin.

I loved Flavia and Vincent's pro Argentine Tango last year and loved Flavia and MAtt together.

Agree with a few others that like to see Lilia's routines which are always fun and especially created for her celeb at the time, like last year when she did a lot of cheeky moves for Dom.

Also love Ola and James and liked their pro dance this week. She seems to have a great energy and dances with real passion.

Karen and Camilla's faces can sometimes be a little manic for me.

My favourite pro is Lilia. I think she does the best with the 'celebrity' she gets and choreographs to their strengths. I also find her incredibly captivating in the pro performances and can't keep my eyes off her (I'm female BTW).

My least favourite pro based solely on dancing would either be Erin or Nicole. I always find Erin's latin dances to be a bit dull and lacking in choreography (I know she specialises in ballroom) and while Nicole is an amazing dancer I have found a lot of her dances on the show boring to watch, especially her ballroom last year.

Find the criticism of Ian's latin quite funny as he is a latin specialist!

Best all round teacher - Ian
Best Ballroom teacher - Erin
Best Latin teacher - Matthew

Best all round dancers - probably Vincent & Flavia as 10-dance pros
Best Latin dancer - Matthew
Best Ballroom dancer - Erin

Worst all-round teacher - Karen
Worst ballroom teacher - Karen
Worst Latin teacher - Anton

Worst all-round dancer - Anton (he's not even as good at the ballroom as some think!)
Worst ballroom dancer - tie between Karen and Ola
Worst Latin teacher - Anton

[Those who I haven't mentioned are neither the best nor the worst!!]

kaycee I would be Interested to know why you think Karen is the Worst all-round teacher. Personally I would give that title to Anton.

Of course the salsa and AT aren't choreographed by the pros themselves, so any assessment of their teaching skills shouldn't include them.


I think Ola's gorgeous, sweet and great fun but to my untrained eye she's the worst overall teacher. It could be because she's never had a Ramps/Colin, but I can't recall a single good routine of hers.

I'm surprised Lilia isn't on your list, Kaycee. Many people think she's by far the best teacher on the show...

In dance terms, I'm with the Darren and Lilia fans who've pointed out that they always make their partner look great in every dance. I'm sure that's contributed to the survival of a few of their partners in dodgy situations! I think Ian does a pretty good job of this 9 times out of 10 as well.

I do love Vincent and Flavia's willingness to step up the difficulty when they think they've got a partner who can handle it, and I was impressed by Flavia's daring in a few of the music choices last season (Gwen Stefani for the paso? Class!)

I don't want to be a Karen-basher but I felt that part of the problem with her and Gary's routine last weekend was that she made it so much about her - all that beckoning and leading Gary around the floor, when Gary's a strong personality in his own right and should have been allowed more of a chance to shine (although that could have made it even more of a disaster )

Darren and Lilia do seem good all-rounders in terms of personal performance, choreography and nurture of their amateurs.

Erin's disastrous dummy routine for Colin was a huge lapse of judgement and may have cost Colin the title as I think that series was actually quite close at the end. So that was my memorably bad moment. Far worse to let your partner down when they actually have talent than not to make a weak partner shine!

I do admire Erin's ballroom though.

Mr Cutler and Alesha were a fantastic pairing. I actually think she made Matt look good! He was a very lucky chap to get her.

For consistency in all aspects Darren and Lilia top my league table.

Although I know nothing about the technicalities I've decided to wade in with my opinions anyway. would also like to hear from those who know what they're talking about.

Have to agree with many on the D&L front - they both seem very patient and lovely people who are good at getting the best out of their partners and do great routines. Sometimes this annoys me as they manage to keep their partners in longer than people who are better *cough* Dom and Letitia *cough*

Also think Erin is a good teacher - she got a lot out of Willie and Peter to make them look really elegant for example. Ian is also very elegant and I love his choreography, a real sense of musicality.
And Anton is the master of giving nervous partners confidence. Would be interested to see what he did with someone really good, as obviously his latin is weaker, but also routines so far have been for people with little to no ability (would you like to choreograph for Kate? ). The exception being Patsy's Tango, which was superb.

I have to say I really don't like Camilla. With the exception of her Tango with James I find her routines (and facial expression) quite cheesy in general and she wears the most awful costumes, though I suppose that's not her fault .
Karen is an odd one - some fantastic performances with Mark (no grimacig in the AT for example) - I thought their Samba in particular was underrated - and clever choreo of Bill's cha cha. She also brought both him and Bill out of themselves. But then we have disasters like Saturday night - what was she thinking? I think she over dances the fast ones a bit, like cha cha and jive - perhaps their her favourites?

As a teacher myself (though not of dancing) I find Brendan and James very hard to watch. Their lack of patience will only work with certain personalities. James was unlucky that the only partner he's yet had that he got on with so well was a cold personality the public didn't like (I didn't think she was that good either, no feel for the music and I don't think she'd have made the final).

Love V&F but agree sometimes they do seem to overcomplicate. I thought Vincent and Louisa were fab and loved their Tango

Well I'm not particularly expert on technique (although I can usually predict the reactions of the judges). Therefore my choices might be a bit quirky.

I particularly like to watch Ian dance ballroom even though that is not his specialism. His style reminds me of Fred Astaire. I guess he would be my favourite dancer. (I rather like watching Brendan dance ballroom as well - again not his specialism.)

I find Matthew's latin dancing very sexy (not suprisingly) and his ballroom dancing also very graceful. A brilliant all round dancer.

Out of the women Lilia stands out as a teacher (as well as being a great dancer). She has had celebs of varying abilities and makes the most of whatever she gets. She also has a wonderful personality. (Her partner Darren seems to be a good teacher as well, again making the most of his partner's abilities and choreographing to them although he is a bit more quiet and serious and so has a less entertaining personality.)

I also find Ola's enthusiam and sense of fun very entertaining. Again, she is also a great dancer. Watching her shout instructions at Andrew on ITT was quite amusing.

Erin for me is the best dressed and most elegant of the female ballroom dancers.

Just edited this to add that Kristina seems to have got off to a good start on the teaching and entertainment fronts. Looking forward to seeing more of her.
Last edited by Vivacious Lady : 24-09-2008 at 16:01

Interesting. I didn't know that about the salsa and AT. But still love what Karen did with Mark. I have to stay I agree with you about Ola. She is such lovely girl, but yeah I think perhaps if someone like Lilia had Kenny she would taught him how to dance better. But having said that Ola routines are fun and I don't think Kenny would have got as far as he did if it was not for Ola entertaining routines. Remember the Paso.

Totally agree with all that.

Brendan is my fav dancer but I am not sure I'd say he was the best teacher.

I like Matt as a teacher. Also he is a fab dancer. But Brendan has the edge in the sex appeal 4 me!

Why thank you Yasmin26 - I think that's a first for me in here! Nice to meet a like-minded person

You welcome bunsengirl;

Matthew, for me, comes across as the best overall dancer and teacher. I also think Flavia's great too. Such a shame that she's out already this year. Hopefully she'll get a decent shot again next time. Cue Matt Di Angelo for the Xmas Special!

Not really a fan of Camilla's dancing TBH as I find her uncomfortable to watch. She's too frenetic and strained for my liking. Agree with the poster above about her awful dresses too (most of the time).

i think (as mentioned) because of their ten dance background, vincent and flavia are the best at all around- they also have the advantage of the AT as shown with flavia last year.

I think ola did a good job with kenny last year, and although i think she is an amazing dancer. sometimes her ballroom routines don't quite work.

Karen doesnt know what to do with an untalented student which explains the success with mark and the complete failures with gary, brian and bill.

James has been unlucky, with voting last year and bad partner the year before so i dont think we can quite judge him yet. (although i love to watch him dance!)

Ian shines in teaching particular dances like the samba, quickstep and tango. (suitable for the taller person therefore is understandable)

I love camilla's choreography and think she did a brilliant job with Gethin last year and was very unlucky to be knocked out (again!) in the semi.

Darren and lilia seem to be very good teachers aka getting the best possible out of their students no matter what the ability.

We saw what matthew could do last year and he didnt do a bad job! i know he had an amazing partner but he got her to be equally strong in each discipline.

I think erin is a brilliant ballroom teacher and makes credible latin routines too, i like her a lot and want to see her at least in the final!

I cannot stand anton. I think his latin is awful and can't see why the bbc asked him back, or perhaps they will just keep giving him duds! his ballroom is never exciting either- i just dont see the point of him!

i cant wait to see what the new pro's are like!
Last edited by rose92 : 24-09-2008 at 21:56

When I said that, it was actually Colin I was thinking of. I'm not trying to imply Colin was bad at latin because obviously he wasn't! But at the same time, and purely IMO, I don't believe Erin got Colin's full potential on display in the latin routines.

I'm not trying to get at her, I think she's lovely and a great ballroom teacher. Of all the male celebrities, Austin is the one I'm most excited about, because Erin did an outstanding job with their Waltz. It's just I don't enjoy watching her dance latin, any more than I enjoy watching certain of the latin pros dance ballroom. I think the advantage the latin pros give their celebrities is that they sparkle and give the routine impact.

I don't believe that Karen choreographed the AT. All the pro dancers had help as it is not a dance they know. I am not convinced with her choreography, as I did not rate her cha cha cha with Gary.

Lilia is great, as she seems to find ways to bring out the personality of her celebs into their dance routines.

My fav pro though is Matthew. He is very patient, and doesn't show his frustration (if there is any). He doesn't feel the need to upstage his celeb (take note Brendan, Camilla and Flavia). He manages to highlight his celebs strengths

Both Flavia and Karen are guilty of this. They don't concentrate sufficiently on the celebrity and making the celebrity look good. Both have come unstuck on occasion - Flavia with Matt and Karen with Mark.

Overall I think Lilia is the best teacher. She did a fantastic job with Darren Gough. Camilla and Ian are both pretty good too. Brendan is a good teacher provided he has the material to work on.