I think with Lilia Austin would have won the series Lilia is an 'all rounder' and Erin is not, whilst her choreography looks great with dancers who don't have the ability to win in recent weeks Erin's lack of latin expertise has shown through

I cannot believe that Salsa routine was done by a Salsa 'expert' as it was 95% Samba

People need to get a grip on reality and try to remember that we are sitting in armchairs frequently spouting ill-founded criticism of skilled and dedicated professionals based on a very small amount of knowledge. I include myself in that description at times.

However,it might be a good time to remember that none of the pros, excepting Brian and Kristina, are salsa specialists, since they didn't have to dance it in their pro careers. Therefore they all seek specialist pros to choreograph and help train their salsa routines. Erin was no exception. To blame her for the salsa routine is therefore ludicrous.

Secondly, it is very easy to be wise after the event of the AS, but in my opinion, Erin made perfectly rational choices that didn't work out on the day. Given the fairly vicious criticism leveled at her last week by Len (who would be the decider in a dance-off) that her Paso lacked technical content, it was a perfectly reasonable strategy to pack her AS with reasonably difficult steps and easily the most dangerous and difficult lift of any performed this year. It would appear to play to her celeb's strengths, just as Brendan played to Lisa's by packing her jive with turns and very little leg work. It's hardly Erin's fault that the judges' were less interested in technical content than performance for the five minutes they were critiquing her dance this week.

Before people point the finger of blame at Erin and accuse her of being a poor teacher, choreographer and even dancer, it might be worth considering her achievement with Austin. Alone of the final four she had the celeb with no prior dance training or experience and transformed him into (until last night) the dancer with the highest average scores from the judges, the bookies favourite and, possibly the one with the most public votes.

If I were a conspiracy theorist I might think that her only 'crime' was not only to not sign up for the SDC tour in which the judges have a financial interest but to also have the audacity to go on a rival one! In reality, a combination of defects in the show's format, random judging and desertion of lady luck all played their part. A lack of professional competence on Erin's part did not.

Erin is neither a poor dancer nor a poor choreographer. With regards to the salsa, there is a thread on here about it. I wasn't saying she was no good, I just wondered if there is another pro who would have been slightly better at it. No one is denying Erin's talent but her strength is in ballroom dancing.

Erin is an amazing choreographer and teacher and always choreographs to the strengths of her partners. No one could have done more with Austin than she did. It was unfortunate that last night other couples were overmarked. They didnt stand a chance

I love Erin, but will be one of the first to stand and say her Latin just isn't as good as some of the other pros who are latin experts. I think it's really unfair to blame the pro and she would have done the best she could with the salsa which is nothing like what she is most comfortable with (ballroom).

I think all the pros do a great job with their celebrities, working incredibly hard and at the end of the day it comes down to the luck of the show.

I do love (not) the backlash against Erin who has been the best choreographer through the series and has played a blinder overall with the public.

A very nicely put post - I wanted to express similar feelings but you've put it here so well.

To those who blame Erin for losing Colin series 3, I completely disagree. That Darren was bottom with the judges but still went through to the final two showed that he had the maximum amount of support: so much hype was made around the 'journey' of that particular sportsman that Colin, who was less showy but who still made an improvement under Erin's capable teaching, was somewhat ignored. It should be remembered that Colin scored the highest rhumba - a LATIN dance - back in the day when 10s still counted for something.

Similarly this series then, Austin was fantastic from the start and so he had no blinking 'journey' as such. Erin has played to his strengths as she always does, for example, emphasising his fantastic bounce in the jive - compare, perhaps, his week 2 jive, the first latin dance he's ever done, with Matt Dawson's week 8 jive - hell, even Mark Ramprakash's week 10 jive (and I was a staunch Mark supporter) and see who has the best leg action. Her ballroom routines are always solid, always commended - the AS seemed to contain a lot of difficult technique and while it is understandable that it might not have appealed to the public, oddly the four professional judges didn't give Austin full credit for it either. It is the folly of the pros that the judges do not take into account the difficulty of the routine: to rave about how Lisa was good at her waltz because it was simple seems at odds with the point of improving at dance. Why, then, would a pro bother to choreograph something hard and attempt to teach it to their pro if they can get 10s for smoothly done but basic steps?

As for the salsa, Erin didn't choreograph that herself. She'd never done the salsa before and for me, the dance was enjoyable. I certainly rank it higher than Lisa's sloppy jive (about half of which was spinning), Tom' bizarre rumba (as much as I like Tom), and I don't even remember Rachel's cha cha.

I'm sure Austin doesn't blame his pro partner. I'm sure he'd agree that as a team, they've done very well and it's very unfortunate that they're leaving, imo, before their time.

I don't agree Erin is to blame with her choreography.

I think there are two reasons for A&E going this week -

1. Every couple have a 'bad week' where the celeb struggles and they can't get it all to click. The problem for A& E was that it was last night, whereas it had happened to all of the other couples earlier in the series when there was still a chance to bounce back the next week.

2. The judges marked Austin fairly and their comments reflected the marks they gave. But they over marked Lisa and just one extra mark per dance from a judge for Lisa made a huge difference last night. Her waltz was good but not worth 39 and her jive was just dreadful for this stage in the competition and the comments from the judges did not match the three 8s and and 9 they gave her.

Of course this is imho.

I have no axe to grind about Erin. She's not my favourite, but she's obviously excellent; to criticism or blame her is absurd.

Some earlier post has highlighted a real problem that I have generally with SCD: namely, it is better to play safe and be smooth than to go for content and technical difficulty. This is particularly so with the ballroom dances for the women, when the pro's leading makes a big difference to how easy it is to 'sell' the performance of the dance. The not comparing like with like is another factor: a smooth, slow but simple waltz can easily look enchanting in a way that the a more difficult foxtrot might not. I've noticed that there has been some very slow latin dances this year, too, though it might not be immediately obvious to the GBP.

But then, how much can you blame the celebrity for the strategy opted for by the professional? It is a difficult one, but the judges need to consider whether hauling out a ten for a clean, proficiently executed but simple dance is really the right choice.

Judges comments and marks have never made sense this series........

Brilliant, show stopping when its just about average.

Terrible dull - when its about average maybe bordering on the "a few mistakes more"

For judges to even comment on errors witnessed, then to give them a perfect 10, is just beyond me.

How many more "let's slag off Erin threads do we need?" Leave her alone, PLEASSEE!

I don't think her choreography was weak at all. She's done what she has every year and worked to the advantages of her celeb. If I'd done six series of the show and had to think up ANOTHER Cha Cha routine, maybe my choreography would be a little unexciting but I've never for one minute had any reason to criticise her for a routine ... other than muppetgate. But that's beside the point, I adore her and she gave this year her all.

x x x x x

My thoughts exactly - I have been utterly bemused by all the 10's in the last few weeks. I have not found many of the dances memorable or show stopping and yet 10's are flying! It has been beyond me.

I cannot understand Lisa being chosen over Austin - yes his dances were poor this week. The AS was disappointing and I hear what everyone is saying about Erin and her choreography, but she needed to pull something out of the bag last night and she didn't. That put them at the bottom - she's seen how the judges have been scoring, she would have known their smooth needed wow factor or else. The salsa, well, I feel for her with that - I don't know why it's in the show seeing as none of the pro's (apart now from Brain and Kristina) know the dance. They all need to bring experts in to choreograph it for them and as a consequence, it's always weak. It seems pointless to me.

But on the over side of the coin, it must be very frustrating to be the pro and to see the judges mark they way they are I mean whats the point. Im sure it must put off a lot of them even trying, the judges are so way off that no matter how good or bad you are if your not a judges favourite your going out.

They over mark their favourite to keep them in. Makes a nonsense of the show.

Be creative at the beginning of a dance on the stage or steps and Len marks you down, even tho what they have done is all right. Dont do anything and Craig or Arlene then mark you down. I mean......its a no win.

I can understand the pro's gettting cheesed off with this. Its stupid and unprofessional of the judges. The more they tell us how great these dances are and all these tens.
The more my eyes say.....YEA RIGHT. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me

Its all turning to poo......thanks to the judges.

I'm not sure that the problem was the choreography of the AS, so much as Austin seemed to lack the usual sparkle in the performance. Blame it on fatigue, maybe?
Last edited by Paperbag_Writer : 07-12-2008 at 18:10

I'm not really a fan of Erin's, but I don't think the relative failure of the AS was entirely down to her choreography. At the very start of the dance, when Austin was dancing out of hold, he seemed a bit unfocused and lacking in commitment. He took too long to get into it. If there had been better build up that lift would have been really spectacular.

I felt quite sorry for Erin last night. She looked far more devastated than Austin did. She knew the writing was on the wall for them and obviously making the semis/finals meant a lot to her.

I agree, that could have been a wonderful dance but Austin's heart didn't seem to be in it at all.

The same with his Latin, he seemed, to me at any rate, to be struggling to keep going.

He did look very very tired.

The first lift should have come earlier.
I'm not bothered about the salsa. I didn't expect that to be good.

But the AS is virtually a show-dance and Erin is a ballroom expert.
With a foxtrot base (although I prefer QS) and plenty of Hollywood.
I know that Austin wasn't so good out of hold and you have to be for a proportion of the AS but it was still weak IMO. Very weak.

I'm not an Erin fan at all.
She looks like a completely different woman now as well lol.

I love Flavias choreography also ... much better than Erins or Camillas )

Could be Erin but it could be tiredness, tiredness because Austin started training early or it could be the hip injury.The olay paso looked as if it was avoiding something too,

I wonder too if its the two dances. Austin will attack a problem but it needs other skills to deal with two problems at once. Rachel not only sang live but she also did years of the S Club TV shows - rapidly learning scripts and marks, Tom is from an assembly line soap where you have to learn bits of a show randomly at short notice. Lisa is a dj that requires the ability to learn the script daily and react to anything that turns up. Austin's talent is turning out once at week at full effort - it may be a diferent skill .

He's not the only one with similar problems. Lisa obviously has some degree of nervous exhaustion at times and Rachel I think worked so hard some weeks that she was too tired to actually perform as well as she could. The amount of action Camilla was putting in this week compared to Tom suggesting she was working around his limitations doing two dances too.

Have to say i do agree.

Am most disappointed Austin went out, the show will be far worse off without him. He really SHOULD have been in the final.

I have to agree with you cant warm to her at all

Erin has always been in my top 6 but on Saturday it was not right after they did the AS. She looked miserable at the scores but it did not deserve anything more.

SHe should of just knocked it on the head and got on with it but she seemed to carry on the disapointment to teh Salsa (IMO).

Maybe she blamed herself too much.

No way was it Erins fault,
she wanted it and was just as dedicated as austin was!!
It was the idiotic judges undermarking him!!

I blame the hair pieces - see how quickly they jumped ship