The dances post Rhumba though were less exhuberant in their nature - the FT, Waltz Tangos, apart from the Cha Cha which I thought she did very well, technically and performance wise.

I felt that she really did 'gel' with Vincent after the Rhumba and appeared more confident and expressive.

I really hated the manufactured storylines this year. I'm glad that Tom and Austin refused to play their rivalry and that Rachel never pushed any line. And I'm sorry for Lisa that she went with it, or bought into it, whichever.

I think Jodie has legs (36" inside leg, before getting up on her toes) which are about 50% longer than Rachel's (on the toes of her size 2 1/2 feet).

A fairer comparison would be to compare the angles between their legs (which isn't easy to do).

Taller (especially longer-legged) people tend to look more elegant in ballroom, but less so in latin.

I thought Rachel trained harder than the other contestants and had a good teacher/choreographer, which led to her making progress all the way, from the start of the series to the end. That was not always recognised by the judges eg. her performance element in the jive was largely ignored.

I wouldn't call myself a Rachel fan, but I dont see anything to dislike and I think she worked the hardest and became the best dancer of series 6, and I admire her for that.

I thought that Rachel deserved to win the series and that she was badly treated by some of the judges re the marks, and the criticism early on which was not deserved.

Of course Tom's showdance was great fun and the best part of it was the opening sequence. Something which perhaps he had learned before joining the show. The second half of it was littered with mistakes but overall much more fun than any other dance.

Did he deserve to win? No. Did the judges do the right thing in endorsing him over Rachel at the end? No. In the end they failed to give Rachel the backing which she deserved as the best dancer and that was wrong.

Interesting point HeidiB - elsewhere on the board today, and re Austin, not Rachel, there seems to be a strong feeling that because he was overall a better dancer than Lisa, to be beaten by a simpler dance in the dance off was unfair.

The final really does feel like a dance off in that respect.
It was great fun and I completely agree with your analysis of it.

Rachel was a better dancer though, overall etc. easily in my opinion.

Yet the public vote is what counts ultimately and Tom had that already. Once he was through, I knew he would win.

Rachel and Vincent were fantastic. I can honestly say that for the first time since Colin and Erin I was impatient to see what dance they would do next and they rarely disappointed me.

This is an interesting post, and something I hadn't really thought about!!

Looking back on some of the dances again, I saw plenty of emotion, and joy of dancing, coming through, but the general impression given by some judges that she was not projecting a personality was latched on to by viewing public and unfortunately stuck.

It's all a matter of opinion but not mine I'm afraid.
The Salsa was her first dance of the competition with the Quickstep second so yes she was competent at them but only in comparison to the 1st and 2nd girl voted out.
I liked her American Smooth (1st one) the week after her Jive that was slated but from then on she never did an up tempo dance again and her second AS was criticised too as having no content.
In the last 6 weeks plus the Christmas Special she danced a Rhumba 3 times, her Paso Doble was reminiscent of 'Brenda' having a tantrum, her Waltz gown hid her feet and apart from the AT danced with the master, the rest are forgettable for me.

Rachel never got less than 30 for a dance - even with 'overmarking issues' it would suggest that she was pretty competent all round.

Her ChaCha in the week of the Tango was lively and well executed, and scored pretty well - more than competent.

Whether her AS had enough foxtrot or not is extremely debatable (Vincent thought it had, as did Bruno, Craig thought it didn't matter as it was an AS etc.)


Rachel's Paso was not a great dance, she found it difficult, but she gave it her all and is was at least reasonably executed.

As for her footwork - when I saw it it was always near perfect - the quality of her footwork was commented on by the judges repeatedly and by Anton so I think whether, occaionally you couldn't see it is poor evidence that her footwork was an issue.

Rachel never did one performance that was comparable with the awful bloated self-importance and technical ineptitude that created the comedy gold that is L&B's showdance.

Oh and as for her AT - as has been said many times before - yes she was dancing with a master, but SHE was dancing.

The other pro's also have their specialisms - so all the celebs dance with 'masters' in some dance or other. Karen, for example, is a Latin Masters World Champion, why on earth, then was Gary's Latin so bad when he had such an advantage?

Why don't the other pro's learn the AT and the Salsa? Or at least not moan about it - there's no excuse for them being incompetent at any dance on Strictly - they've had years to get a few lessons.

So you're saying that Rachel was worse than everyone but Gillian and Jessie?



She did a cha cha cha in the quarter final that was widely praised.



What does Vincent being the master have to do with it? He can only make good choreography, he can't dance it for her He's the AT master, not the puppetmaster capable of moving her feet at high speed for her.

Other professionals are good at other things - you don't see their celebrities having their hard work invalidated by "well Hayley is just good at doing a waltz/Karen is amazing at Latin anyway".

Lol!

I think it was slightly easier, but only slightly easier, for Rachel doing the AT, but I think Vincent choreographed a challenging AT which Rachel did beautifully.

Having said that I didn't want Rachel to win, but I couldn't tell you why. I love her rumba, and her foxtrot, thought the 40/40 for the foxtrot was well deserved.

I didn't like the Tango or Waltz but then I don't like Tango or Waltz generally. Her paso was weak but I could count on one hand the number of female celebs who have done great pasos. The cha-cha was good - certainly better than Lisa's.

I think Rachel lacked a natural exuberance on the dancefloor, that Tom and all the previous champions had. That's all I can put it down to.

Having said that I was glad she made the final, and was in the final two.

It generally has no relevance. Karen had never danced the AT before but Ramps got 39, she was known for the jive but Ramps did badly.

Lilia is a latin pro as is Camilla, but Darren G, Matt D, Gethin and Tom produced some of the most beautiful ballroom dances on the show.

True but were we not looking for more than competent?

Again true but nobody else did either

No...I'm saying she was better than Gillian and Jessie in the girls' 1st and 2nd dances when she did 2 out of the 4 fastest dances (Samba was her 3rd in week 5 with the Jive in week 7 as her 5th).
She was lucky to get them out of the way really when the worst celebs are weeded out and before the competition settles down to the ones who have some dancing ability.

My main comment was that 3 times in the last 6 weeks we have seen a Rhumba from her and I feel she was playing safe.
Why not go for it and try to get improved marks for other dances instead and show all round dancing ability at the point in the competition when it's supposed to be the 'creme de la creme' of the celebs?

She may have been asked to do the Rumba in the Christmas special, to give a bit of variety.
I think they are supposed to do their highest scoring latin and ballroom dances in the final, unless they were danced near the final?

Her Paso, Cha Cha and second AS I think suffered because the sensible thing was to concentrate on having one high-scoring dance, so Vincent had less time to get the second one up to normal standard. The Cha Cha was very good, but the content was less in the second half, and I think it is a dance she could be brilliant at.

The Samba, she made a slight mistake early on and let it affect her performance through the middle of the dance. The Jive had a lot of difficult moves and she put a lot of performance into it, but her kicks and bounce were sometimes not lively enough.

Her first AS, Craig gave her an 8, leaving her one point from joint first place. Because of a three-way tie for first, that meant she was three points behind 3 competitors, which contributed to her being in the dance-off. The AS was a very good dance though - Craig just didn't like one of the lifts.

Rachel's salsa scored higher than Lisa's (in the same week). Her samba scored the same as Lisa's (5 weeks earlier) and only 2 less than Austin. Her jive scored only a few points less than the ones Lisa and Tom danced in the quarters/semis.

There's nothing to suggest that had those dances been later in the competition she would have been eliminated or struggled against any of the remaining competitors. She did fine with her cha cha cha later in the competition.

Why should she dance something she's not as good at in the final? a) they have to dance their highest scoring dance, and b) when you're already the underdog, taking a risk isn't going to help.

We also don't know who chose the dances for the christmas special.

Yes I remember Arlene being very critical of her footwork in the 'Judges Have Their Say' video that week.
Well if she never scored below 30 the whole series as someone said previously, it wasn't going to be that great a risk as far as the judges' marks were concerned, and it may have gained her more viewers' votes - it would have got rid of the :yawn: factor possibly for the viewers like myself.
Anyway it's done now and I'm sure I read somewhere that she's set her sights on acting in the USA on the strength of SCD....good luck to her.

I may be wrong, but I'm sure someone (perhaps Bruce) said that x + y chose the z dance

That happens when they have danced their highest scoring dance too near the final. They then have to choose one of their other dances, as with Lisa's Foxtrot.

Tom danced his jive for the reasons you're suggesting in the semi final and if it wasn't for Len undermarking Rachel by one point on her AS or overmarking Lisa on the AT, he would've been eliminated because of it.


Lisa and Brendan said that they had a choice between their waltz and foxtrot (both of which were 39 I think).

This is the first series I have watched all the way through so I'm thinking that must happen a lot?
It's not an exact science obviously but you would think that highest scores are more likely to be achieved nearer to the Final.
Do they have a 'cut off' point e.g. week 10 this series?

(BTW my previous comment was about choosing the dance for the Christmas Special where Lisa danced the Quickstep and Rachel the ubiquitous Rhumba)