It was messy, imprecise and clumsy-looking, so the precision she gets with Vincent in slow ballroom dances was gone. She cannot do it all, and Lisa has more competence in a wider range of dances.

It wasn't great but it was OK. Rachel is nothing if not consistent. Like all of the celebs, not all dances suit her.

I didn't rate Lisa's cha cha nearly as highly as the judges did. In fact I couldn't really separate Rachel and Lisa last night. Lisa's Latin is less convincing than Rachel's generally.

The difference is to be found in the pros. Brendan showed off Lisa whereas Vincent showed off himself. I could see Len's comment on the cape swirling coming, so Vincent should have done. Arlene obviously didn't think much of it either. Rachel was concentrating on the character of the dance so hard that she didn't dance as well as she usually does. Lisa, last night, looked happy and relaxed doing both dances.

As much as I loved Austin's "Paso", on reflection Rachel's was the better of the two as it actually was a Paso. I think that it might have been a little difficult for her as it was a very complicated routine. If the OP is saying that Lisa's was better then I would have to agree, her Paso has been one of the H/Ls of the series for me and I'm confident if she did it now she would get 10's it was fantastic. However, if this is yet another thread to "slate" Rachel, then I think it's very unfair. Whether people like her or not the girl can dance and she can dance VERY WELL!

But it shows in the marks. Rachel gets 10's for her slow very precise ballroom dances, but on fast dances or dramatic dances, she loses the precision and gets 8's.

Tom's the only contestant this year who can deliver equally in ballroom and latin, and in slow or fast dances. Everyone else really suffers when the dance doesn't suit them. He has the opposite problem he doesn't wow in either.

Rachel's paso was a competant effort she had the technique but lacked the aggresion. Not surprising for a sweet, shy girl. But she can do slow and romantic better than anyone else.

The paso was quite bad. However, I don't agree about Lisa. I find Rachel is, overall, a better dancer - both in Latin and Ballroom. While I find Lisa pleasant to watch, I'd have trouble saying that any of her performances were memorable - while some of Rachel's were outstanding (ex. the rumba, which I usually hate but hers was something else).

I don't watch the pros...I focus as much as possible on the celebs...and I don't pay any attention to how 'happy' the celebs look because that's very easy to fake.

Rachel's paso was below par by recent standards and was marked accordingly but Lisa always looks a little awkward when her legs aren't hidden away. I thought the cha cha was the most noticeably overmarked dance of the night.

Unfortuantely the marks this year (and in particular last night) have been all over the place; sadly I don't think that's a strong argument. I would love both girls to be in the final but, neither have a strong enough fanbase so this argument will moot in a few weeks time.

I don't think this is a Rachel bashing thread. Rachel excels in some dances e.g. the rumba but hasn't so far been as good at the faster dances although I enjoyed her Jive much more than Len did. After a shaky start, Lisa has steadily improved at the Latin dances.

It will be interesting to se if Rachel does a good Cha cha cha. I think she is capable of doing so and it depends very much on Vincent's choreography.

I also focus on the celebs but Vincent's choreography didn't allow as much focus on Rachel as there could have been. My point about Lisa was that their dances had been polished to a greater extent and she could just enjoy the dancing. Vincent let her down this week.

For me the most overmarked dance of the night was Austin's paso. Rachel's Paso had more content. Shame on Craig, Arlene and Bruno for awarding it '10's. The judges marking doesn't seem to take into account difficulty.

The whole issue of content is fraught with hypocrisy and double standards. Put an extra lift in your routine and you risk a 'storm' of protest...but somehow that seems to depend on whether or not it's perceived as 'deliberate'. March on the spot like John did instead of attempting a paso and there's relatively little objection.

Consequently I don't think it makes sense to be too much of a purist when it comes to Strictly (particularly with my limited knowledge). That's Len's job and, to be fair, he did it with regard to Austin. My feeling was that the panel did its job properly for that dance which certainly seemed to be a crowd-pleaser.

I had a bad feeling as soon as I saw what they were wearing and then the cape - Vincent does tend to misfire sometimes with his choreography and he surely did with the Paso, I could barely look at it. The waltz was beautiful. He has to be very careful and think clearly about next week, otherwise I think they may go.

Rachel is better than Lisa IMO but Lisa is riding high at the moment and I think she could pull it off again next week. I do think Rachel is quite capable of being fantastic in both dances though.

Also I did wonder why there was no mention that they hurt their backs at the start of the week which restricted their training. Tom had a cold, Austin's twins etc etc.

I think my expectations were high thinking that Vincent might produce something on the level of Louisa's paso. I thought the beginning was actually quite strong. It made quite a dramatic image. I would have liked to have gotten into Paso properly a bit earlier but she certainly had more content than Austin's. I think it was a fairly decent paso as they go, and I found it quite dramatic and a bit raunchy too. But she wasn't as strong dance-wise as I think she could have been.