I dont see anygapping.
I also notice you can see a lot more of Aleshas footwork whereas i cannot see much of Lisas at all.

I and my elderly mother and my two retired immediate neighbours gather on the leather sofa of a Saturday, (it gets a bit squashed to be honest), with pads and pens (and a few savoury nibbles excluding nuts provided on the coffee table), and we score the dances before the judges vote... we were positively incensed at the scoring for each dance and finally my furious immediate neighbour, Jenny, threw her false teeth at my beautiful 42" TFT and it exploded... my elderly bengal cat had a fatal heart attack as a consequence of the shock, but thankfully I am insured for accidental loss of my pussy... but I am not insured for accidental damages arising from impact of false teeth on electrical appliances, as I discovered when I checked my home contents insurance schedule next day! I was absolutely livid!

I guess it just comes down to personal preference.

Technically they were on a par. But as big a fan I was of Alesha's, and as unkeen (is that a word!?) I am on Lisa, her QS was better and if I put aside who was dancing it, I must confess to rather enjoying it

another thing about Lisa is her neck always looks a bit weird in the ballroom. If you compare her to Rachel she doesnt seem to have the right frame, its like shes leaning to one side.

The marking has been rising in the last couple of years to perpetuate the myth that 'this is the best series ever and these are the best top 6/5/4/3/2 we have ever had ... see, the marks are higher, it must be true'.

Dances that in previous years would have struggled for a 7 let alone an 8 are now routinely given 9's and the 10 is devalued beyond all measure - when even the pro's who are being given it are admitting it, then you do think that there's something in it!

lol!

But if they are en par technically then how can one be marked better then another?
Alesha performed it well and everything so really the marks should be equal. Its personal preference for which is better but the judges say they base there marks on performance and technically .

I couldn't agree more. Lisa's neck is simply, well, weird! Her involuntary leaning to one side is a consequence of having Brunschweiler's Scoliosis, and she said as much in Heat Magazine. It's very sad. The judges are aware of her cross. She's doing her best to overcome the affliction for the sake of the dance

The way I see it, faultless technique probably earns you a 9, that extra point is for 'wow' factor.

As for Lisa's neckline in hold, it doesn't seem to come as naturally to her as Rachel.

ok, on this link http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qHuIH3mMX_4 (the one you posted for some reason stopped working) you can clearly see the gapping at around 27 seconds in just as they get to the judges desk and also around 42 seconds - those are the two instances I pointed out to you. It is only slight but the judges obviously saw it and that's why she didn't get better scores.

If you look where her sash is you can see the gapping - if you still can't then you are determined not to see it and there's little I can do about that.

I completely agree with this post.....

I too have found R & V to be a bit dull. I will admit that I am no dancing expert, but I'm getting a bit tired of the dreamy head on shoulder routine and all her ballroom (with the exception of their AS QS) seem to meld into the same dance.

I found their AS on Saturday really boring and I agreed with Len's 8.

I also really enjoyed L & B's AT - it may not have been as technically brilliant as R & V - but it was thoroughly engaging and gave me tingles - and remember. Brendon had never danced it before - which weighed against Vincent being world champion at the AT - just makes L & B even more commendable.

My final comment is that althought Tom deserved to be bottom on Sat I put this down to Camilla's choreography more than Tom's dancing ability. He's had one bad week - and I do believe he is more than capable of producing two great dances next week - which would make for a great final.

I really would be diappointed if R & V win next week. I will bem ore than happy if the title goes to Tom or Lisa... they're dances have entertained me the most this series... and at the end of the day - that's what counts the most.... imo of course.

Lisa's quickstep was flawless and beautiful, as was her AT. Just fantastic. She should win, no question.

This is because AT is a very 'led' dance. Originally he man and woman would dance it spontaneously and he leads her - displacing her feet etc.

It is supposed to look like that. He puts his leg in place - displacing hers.

I think R&V's AT was brilliant. Head and shoulders above the competition.

Now that you put it like that, I do recall AT in the past looking that way. But the more recent dances I've seen have tended to show a little more equality.

Your choice of word "displacing" was good, as that put the picture in my mind - with the feet almost sharing the same footprint, and close to touching.

But the way I saw R+V's legs, I didn't get the feel of displacement, and more of just "stepping between". Maybe I'll go back and have another look...

Cheers for the post WWWombat. This is a choreographed routine - but Vincent still does the displacing steps as does Rachel.

Also - the top is supposed to be fairly cool and the expression focussed, still, but hot if that makes any sense.

WWWombat - if you want to find out a bit more - check out the R&V's At...Legendary?thread.
Towards the end there is a great summation by DavidJames who is an expert on the AT.

That's strange Puffle. When I pointed out that I can see the stairs' lights and audience between Rachel and Vincent throughout their waltz (39 marks) most other posters thought I was seeing things. While we think gapping is the obvious explanation, clearly we're deluded.

Thanks for the explanation - I always wondered why I could see it and certain people on these forums couldn't - now I know!

That was an interesting read - especially comparing the list of content there, against someone's later opinion that Tom's was closer to a "real" AT. I also didn't realise that the AT was meant to be less aggressive than the ballroom tango.

I'll really have to watch it again, and not just in the ITT cuts.

I'm not an especial fan of any of the last three but I think you'll find that is massively a matter of opinion... in mine:

Lisa's AT was spiky, repetitive, uncertain, and underperformed. I really liked her QS but her AT left me utterly unmoved.

Tom's told a story, but that was all it did. We were still waiting for it to get going when it finished in our house.

(And the story was arguably not appropriate for the AT - it would have made a fab rumba IMO (apart from the blimmin' awful "Looking at his watch" bit), it's a great shame that they didn't have that atmosphere for their rumba)

Rachel's AT didn't have the atmosphere of even Matt and Alesha's last year, let alone Ramps', but it was technically amazingly accomplished and did have SOME atmosphere. In terms of how complex it was and how cleanly and neatly the steps were performed it was vastly superior to either of the others, particularly to Tom's, and had more sense of performance than Lisa's did.

I'm no huge fan of Rachel's, but I was deeply impressed with how she handled that dance with something considerably more than competence.

That's nuts - you could take any one of any judges scores for any of their dances and say that!

Excellent post - I agree 100%

A more reasonable/fair (for me anway) way of avoiding the tie would have been Len giving Lisa a 9 for her AT (I think we can all agree that the 10 was ridiculous), and Craig giving Lisa a 9 for her QS just to make sure.

I think Lisa got at least two more points than she deserved to get (and possibly more depending on how you feel about her QS).

You can't rate the quality of a dance based on how many times the man has danced it! And if Brendon hadn't danced it before - more fool him: as a professional and knowing it was coming up I would think he would get as much practice as he could.

I didn't hate Lisa's AT but I thought both she and Brendan looked a bit uncomfortable with it - noticed it right from the start

I'm not a dance expert by any means but I found R&Vs AT breathtaking

Lisa's QS was good but Alesha's last year was WOW for me

it's all about personal preference - I just cannot understand the Austin love, just as I couldn't understand the Ramps or Darren Gough love!!