I agree with you except that I thought Lisa was worse in the dance-off whilst Austin was about the same. There was a heck of a lot of gapping in Lisa's waltz the second time around which wasn't there when she originally did it.

I've never liked the idea of doing the best dance again because surely the whole point of the two dance stage apart from filling the program is weed out those can't do both the ballroom and the latin and the dance-off allows you to get through in spite of being weak in one or the other. Lisa has always been stronger on the ballroom side but she ended up in the dance-off because of her weak latin whilst it's Austin's ballroom that let him down - it would have been fairer to give them a second dance to improve those dances.

his salsa might have been authentic but he just didn't do it that well

What do you mean? He was fantastic, he moved stylishly, he added a lot of authentic steps - everyone knows the forward-and-back basic is the core of the dance - and he added showmanship to the whole thing.

The judges clearly know nothing about salsa, it should have been a 40 not a 36.

But then, that'd have kept him in the competition, and that wouldn't fit the judges Tom vs. Rachel plan for the final.

he was stiff throughout and didn't look comfortable - his performance wasn't all that good

if you think it was worth 40 then there's clearly no reasoning with you

No...

As the couples are given the dances rather than choosing them from a limited selection as in earlier series, the competition has been unfair throughout. Vincent, specialist in At, hada Tango to choreograph last week, and the AT is the dance for the semi-final. Some of the other couples have not been nearly so fortunate. To some extent the judges stitched Austin up (and I'm not a fan) by awarding him an undeserved '37' for his Salsa.

I agree that the judges know nothing about Salsa for the opposite reason to you. Austin may have been able to demonstrate the butt movement, but I didn't see it during the dance.

The scores are for the celeb, not the pro.
Last year Flavia had the lowest scoring AT.
It is always going to favour one dancer or another at each stage. I think the semi-final suits Lisa most, because she avoids a latin.

Yet the AT can hardly be called ballroom .

The others can avoid Latin too if they want to and both have appeared at their most comfortable in Ballroom.

I can't see how the dance off this week was any more unfair than in other weeks; it worked in exactly the same way.

I think when its the last 4-5 the judges should not decide, this series think they all sheep

At such a critical stage all couples should be performing the same dance.

It makes comparisons easier and fairer.

That would be great - even the public would be better able to compare the dances that way. At the moment, it does seem to be a bit random.

It has always been this way .

How boring would it be if we saw 12 cha chas or 12 waltzes ?

By this stage the standard dances and salsa have been completed and so in came the AT in series 4 . Next week all of them will do the same dance , but it still won't be the same choreogrpahy !
The dance off was brought in , wrongly as far as I am concerned , to prevent the advancement of weaker dancers at the expense of better ones , but it doesn't work out like that as the public can still ensure their favourite survives .

D'you know, I think that's the problem - the dance off couldn't be fairer - but it just didn't go the way that a lot of people wanted on Saturday. Me included, I have to say.
While Austin has never been my favourite, almost since the beginning, Lisa has been my least favourite and I would much rather have seen her go. But she did the better dance in the dance off, by some considerable margin - part of me was hoping that the judges might have overlooked the parameters set i.e. to decide on the basis of that one dance and disregard previous weeks performances. Austin just wasn't up to scratch, dammit !

ps your namesake let in 45 goals the year we were relegated

My suggestion in the 1st post was that the couples in the dance off only should do the same dance and so there would only be two waltzes etc. This would be useful whan as now there are couples of similar standards. It was a suggestion.

Life is not fair but would it be entertaining to go back and see each couple dance the waltz one week, the salsa another, etc.etc.?. I think, then, the boredom element would creep in. I do think, though, in quarter, semi-finals and finals the same choreographed dances should be used as a benchmark to see who has given the best performance. That would stop all the whining, it's not fair, etc. etc. I do think though that the Judges are experienced enough to know the strengths and faults of each couple after 3 months of competition.

It amazes me that some contributors on this forum are deluded enough to think that they are more qualified to judge the dances than Len, Bruno, Arleen and Craig Upper-Norwood (oops Revel-Horwood). That is why they command such a high salary and are at the top of their profession.

Thank you, thank you, thank you ~ best laugh of the day!

The problem with this is that they would have had to prepare two waltzes. I have no problem with that and would prefer comparing like with like. Having all couples do different dances, as happened some weeks this series, is ludicrous.

And a good suggestion, in my opinion.
How can you compare a Waltz with a Salsa anyway..there is a totally different degree of difficulty.
It's like in diving, someone does a double front somersault with pike and is near perfect..the other attempts a triple back somersault with twist and doesn't quite pull it off.
They have a "degree of difficulty" factor to even up the discrepancy.

Quote:
Originally Posted by samiskim http://images.digitalspy.co.uk/forum...s/viewpost.gif
It amazes me that some contributors on this forum are deluded enough to think that they are more qualified to judge the dances than Len, Bruno, Arleen and Craig Upper-Norwood (oops Revel-Horwood). That is why they command such a high salary and are at the top of their profession.Quote

[quote]Dancingbearbear
Thank you, thank you, thank you ~ best laugh of the day! [quote]

Yes, a classic. And just to prove it, here are the geniuses explaining how Kenny danced better than Brian in the Dance-off.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dIhMwxFhb8w&fmt=18

Had Austin performed a mind blowing salsa and Lisa an average waltz, with the result that Austin stayed and Lisa left, would you still be screaming NOT fair?

Fantastic post.

I was almost fooled.

Thats not what the poster said though is it ?
Lisa did not perform a "mind blowing" waltz..its not a dance that lends itself to that description anyway.
A better conundrum would be... what if Austin had performed an excellent waltz and Lisa had performed a Salsa that was entertaining but not perfect ?
A judgement in favour of Austin in those circumstances would have been equally unfair..simply because the Waltz is an easier dance to master..ask the experts.

Again my opinion - a judgement in favour of Austin would be the fair result and according to the experts the waltz is not an easy dance to master: the judges constantly point this out.

The rules were the same for both Lisa and Austin. They both had two opportunities to impress the judges and public. Lisa's waltz did just that (and I will repeat I found it mind blowing - a very apt description imo)! I expected Austin's AS to be something very special - if it had been the dance off result would have been far less cut and dried. In the event it was simply no contest.

Given the hypothesis you quote - Austin doing the waltz and Lisa the salsa with Austin emerging victorious do you really think the OP would be claiming NOT fair?