Professional Dancers - don't you just love em?

I certainly do - in fact, they are the main reason I watch Strictly - to see how they take their ugly duckling contestants and turn them into swans (sometimes!)

But as much as I worship the pros (and I really do!), something struck me this weakness as I watched Austin and Erin's Cha cha cha.

Maybe....Erin.....dare I say it.....wasn't very good.

I didn't enjoy Austin's cha cha cha - I don't think he looked comfortable and neither did Erin. Maybe she's happier with the ballroom?

So do we unreasonably expect the pros to be brilliant at everything?

What weaknesses have you seen from the professionals? and what strengths?

I agree that Anton and Erin both seem far happier with ballroom, especially Anton. His latin (while admittedly better than anything I could do ) isn't great at all.

That's one of the things I admire most about Vincent and Flavia - they can do any type of dance and make it really amazing. Their waltz last year moved me more than anything A & E (lolz) have ever done, and their latin speaks for itself.

I'm totally with you that the pros are the main reason I watch SCD, and their dances are easily the highlight of the show for me

Camilla is one for me. She spins and she looks like she is going to fall over, she doesn't seem to spot properly and some of the faces she pulls are scary!!!! She has bandy legs and although she is very talented she just doesn't impress me at all.

I agree that Vincent and Flavia are excellent all rounders. Anton and Erin are not known for their latin ability. Ola and James are really good too but I prefer their latin to their ballroom because for me the height difference is too big for them to look right doing ballroom.

Having said that Flavia is excellent she does come across a little bit stiff and cold for me sometimes, but maybe that is because Vincent dances with lots of personality.

Darren Bennet is ok too but like Camilla some of the faces he pulls are odd! Its quite off putting and distracts from their ability.

You have to respect all of them in their own ways, but as a dancer I would say that I definately, out of all the pros, think that Vincent has the most talent and ease of moment and Camilla is the most lacking. Only my opinion.

what I have noticed year after year if that most of the pro dancers seem to have certain moves that they do every year in certain dance - this weeks Cha Cha for Matthew & Christine had a lot of similar moves from his Cha Cha with Alesha last year, Erin also seems to use certain moves again and again

I agree. It has become so obvious this season and quite why I don't know. Perhaps it's the strict moves that go with the dance. After all the VW has been samey since the start!

I must admit that as I watched Austin and Erin's cha cha this week I did feel the same way- Erin didn't seem to be at her best and the choreography didn't especially wow me. Don't me wrong, I like Erin a lot (so much so that it feels a little blasphemous to type this), but I couldn't shake those nagging feelings...

I agree. Erin and Austin's cha cha looked awkward and laboured. You could feel that Erin wasn't comfortable and that she was yearning for a long, flowing frock and a less crappy 80s pop song.

I think this year a few of the pros have used some of the stuff Matt did last year with Alesha - Ian and Jodie's Waltz was similar for me - and bits of that cha were used not only by Matt but by others too.

The Bennetts for me are great all rounders they produce great Latin and good standard Ballroom too and does Ian and Matthew. Whilst Vincent and Flavia produce a good standard not keen on some of Vincent's latin - just my personal taste.

Erin and Anton are good at Ballroom but poor IMO at Latin

Me too totally agree.

Erin is a super dancer but when she is dancing with a celeb you do seem to notice her limitations.

I couldnt quite put my finger on why Austin's and Erin's cha cha didnt blow me away (because I love the song)... and if anything it was Erin's footwork.

Have they done salsa yet...? Because if not I think thats going to be another one that will show the limitations.

I also noticed in one of the group dances at the beginning where Austin shone but Erin seemed to be a tad slow (think it was the one in week 2?) and at the time I thought even the pros are not always perfect.


and if we are saying that face pulling/gurning is a weakness then surely Karen must be added to the list
and.... *about to duck* Brian... some of the face pulling on Brian's part earlier in the show (was classic gurning). I havent noticed it so much since Heather left and Brian is only dancing with Kristina or another pro.

And agree that Camilla's bandy legs sometimes give me a real problem with her.

I think there may be two things going on here. The first is the nature of the cha cha as one of the 'easier' dances to teach beginners step-wise. I have taken dance lessons in four different places; all have taught the cha cha and all have started off with variations on the same few steps - basic, New Yorkers, under arm turn, etc. I don't know if it just the places I have learned to dance, but my impression is that, teaching a beginner, there are some basic moves that it is easier to work with so these will form the building blocks of a routine. But perhaps a more experienced dancer/dance teacher can set me straight?

The second is that all the pros have characteristic styles of choreography, particularly for certain dances. I can't remember whose jive it was but I did speculate earlier in the series that Matthew had helped choreograph it because it reminded me so strongly of dances I have seen him do with Nicole, Alesha and Carol.

I'm not entirely sure that this last is a 'weakness' per se, just a reflection of how different professionals' approaches choreographing and teaching the dance. More obvious weaknesses, in terms of Strictly at any rate, are things like Anton and Erin's lesser ability to dance latin than ballroom (far more so in the case of Anton than Erin), Vincent's tendency to over-complicate his choreography (note that when he choreographs something intensely and beautifully simple he gets 4 10s!), Karen and Erin's occasional dips into gimmicky choreography and Ian and Brian's over-dancing to compensate for their partners' weaknesses (a habit that unfortunately tends to highlight the very weakness they are trying to hide). Related to this is the choreographic trick used by Ola and Kristina, of dancing around their partner to focus the attention on themselves - although in the case of both Kenny and John this was, at least for a while, a strength rather than a weakness!

All the pros have, at one point or another, displayed a weakness of some sort (they are only human and under a fair amount of pressure themselves) but, as has already been said, they are all great performers and professionals and one of the primary reasons why I love watching Strictly.
Last edited by TheHistoryGirl : 26-11-2008 at 11:44

I'm not fond of Camilla's style of dancing , it's manic and as someone said earlier a bit scary. I liked her salsa though as I think it suited her style.

Hayley doesn't exactly blow me away either , she claimed the waltz was her favourite dance but I was just bored when I watched her and Mark do it.

I think Matthew is a pretty good all rounder but saying that I could watch him doing his housework and be entertained so it's not really a valid point.

Camilla showed last year how great at ballroom she can be. I think with latin shes better at Salsa's and Cha Cha's.

I think the "flaw" in Austin and Erin's Cha Cha were the prolonged pauses in between sections. For me it just didn't flow. Could be the choreography, could be the band that tends to slow down faster songs.

Brendan seems to be a pretty good all-rounder as well. He is officially a Latin-dancer but his Ballroom dances have beautiful choreography as well. The Samba seems to be his weak spot more than anything else.

We noticed Matthew's copying of certain moves as well when watching the Cha Cha. I agree that this is not necessarily a weakness. I think since there are strict rules for most of these dances that they only have a certain arsenal of steps to draw from and to "wow" the public all the pro's tend to put in certain moves they think will do this.

with me I picked up on the standing splits thing that Alesha did at the end of the dance & Christine did in the middle, Erin seems to have this move in certain dances where she walks round her partner whilst they stand still, Camilla has a couple of signature moves as well

I would have preferred to have seen Austin paired with Lilia. IMO, she choreographs better for the celebs. Erin's strength is ballroom and she is amazing at that but the cha cha cha left me a little bit flat.

Camilla's dance style is not my favourite out of all the pros and her manic faces put me off even more. Tom might have done better with someone who could tone him down a little. Darren is another one who has a crazy dance face. It's verging on scary. It looks like this ------> and in some dances, it's totally inappropriate.

Ola and Karen are a little bit too show-offy for my liking.

*yawn*

with the speed she spins I fail to see how she could not spot properly...

I agree. If she didn't spot properly and spun that fast, then she'd probably end up sitting in an audience member's lap.

So if:

= Darren

then how about:

= Camilla

= Ola

:sleep: = Rachel

= Viincent

= Tom Chambers

= John Sargeant

= Andrew Castle

Love this!

I didn't like Erin & Austin's cha cha either; the routine wasn't exciting; Austin's arms were like lumps of wood, and Erin's feet were all over the place. But then Erin isn't a Latin dancer, and although she has worked to improve since the first series of Strictly (and has improved more than her pro partner Anton, who is really bad!) she is far from great.

Feel much the same about Camilla - but the other way round. She isn't a ballroom dancer, and although I know she gets help with the ballroom routines and technique, she is still not good.

*Double yawn* Erm yep thats why I said she looks as tho she is going to fall over.... and she actually very nearly has on a few occasions. She spots, of course she does, just lacks control on coming out of fast spins and maybe that is because of bad spotting or something else, weight distribution, bad leads, nerves anything. Its looks like bad spotting to me tho. The other female pros seem to spin just as fast and can come out of it alot better. Camilla has her strengths am not taking that away from her, just spinning isn't one of them in my opinion.

I don't think her legs are bandy are they? - her gurney face puts me off I'm afraid also Darren's face when he dances.

Yes. Will someone please tell Ian to stop doing that thing where he fluffs up the hem of his dance partner's skirt. It's a prepubescent boy's version of zecksy.... In a word, naff.

I felt this to be a large part of the problem with A&E's cha cha ~ the band semed to be playing veeeeeeeery slowly (I once performed this song in panto - don't ask! - and I don't recall it being as laboured and slow), and this reflected in the awkwardness of the dance. There was a few points when they seemed to 'pause' to allow the music to catch up (if that makes sense) making the moves look very separate, rather than flowing smoothly into each other.

In a previous series didn't the band play someone's salsa music too fast, resulting in them insanely trying to keep up? Can anyone remember who it was?