Interesting what you say re salsa, but are there different types of salsas danced? My memory may be a little hazy, but didn't Brian say he specialized in street salsa?
As nearly all the routines are choreographed by the World Champions surely it would be in their interest to produce dances that are salsas?

As someone who has never tried to salsa, what did Heather and John do to make theirs a salsa that the others didn't, or vice versa?

All three were enjoyable dances. For entertainment value for me then, it would be Mark and Karen. Wasn't so keen on Matt's (it may have been the shimmy ) - I actually enjoyed Gethins more in that series as it was such a breakthrough for him, though probably less difficult. Tom's was full of energy, though I do agree with a previous comment about it being slightly camp, though somehow it seemed less so the second time around

Gethin's is getting alot of praise so I may re watch it.

My favourite has got to be Matt and Flavia's salsa. It was one of the stand-out dances from Series 5 and the choreography and performance was fantastic .

Exactly!!
Matthew is soooo much better

Favourite Salsa has got to be Matt and Flavia's .....the technique and performance were worth 40...the dead mans drop was awesome and even the judges commented on the difficulty of the routine and it being performed by a celeb

Mark and Karen's was good although he shook her about like a blow up doll

Tom and Camiila nope didnt enjoy it at all ...boring :yawn:

Interesting. I take it you're a pro? Out of interest, if they are not Salsas what are they?

Matt and Flavia's salsa was my favourite. Loved the music, loved the choreography, and loved the connection between them.

Also really enjoyed Mark and Karen's because it was a lot of fun.

I would - in the first place, Chris and Jaclyn are not exactly undisputed world salsa champs. They won one championship - to be honest, not one of the most respected ones either. They're good, but they're not the best - and I suspect they're chosen for good telly rather than anything else.

They're the salsa equivalent of Len Goodman - they've achieved some things, but no-one's calling them the world's best.

In the second place, and more importantly, none of these outside experts robotically choreograph each step, any more than Kele and Richard do for the AT. They provide advice and guidance, that's all.

Loads of different styles - LA style, Columbian, Cuban (which is what they're "supposed" to be doing in SCD), New York, etc.

But none of these styles includes "chacha / samba / freestyle mash" style, which is what most of the pros do, because they don't know salsa.

And, of course, this is why they should learn salsa (and AT), or bugger off and let some people in who do actually know these dance styles.


See my post above.


John moved - he had a lovely continuous motion which is a key defining characteristic of salsa. You've got to dance to the rhythm, and you've got to make it look smooth.

Not a pro, just have some experience in it. I used to teach a bit, a few years ago, but that's all.


"Salsambas", mainly

I'd forgotten that they're supposed to be dancing CUBAN salsa - none of the dances mentioned are even close to Cuban salsa - except John and Nicola's (maybe why Len gave it a 10 - to encourage the professionals to produce a choreographed routine that at least tries to reflect the essence of the style they have been given - rather than putting together a group of latin moves to a salsa beat.

I loved Mark, Matt and Tom's dances and rate everyone of them in my top 10 SCD dances and I'm ok that they scored well - but just not as Cuban salsa,

on youtube the most popular salsa is alesha and matthews http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IIfoFNs91Go with 857,985

Marks is in second place, with 184 000 http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Oii94hMC92k

Then i think Gethins has more views then Matt Di Angelo. I loved Gethins,

EDIT - sorry i was wrong Matt has more views (65,000)

I thought Matt & Flavia's had the best choreography; would like to see Mark dance it.

Mark & Karen's performance is great, but some of the choreography (the Ole! Ole! hand clapping thing for example) is naff.

Tom & Camilla's Salsa was good, but lots of other couples have danced it as well as them.

And better! :0

I'm not trying to be pedantic or anything but if you add the BBC 59,000 views plus oOBBCOo 65,000 views then Matt and Flavia views make 124,000. I do know that M & F have several Salsa's on YouTube but I haven't added those.
I'm sure that others celebs have more than one YouTube showing the Salsa though.

Mark's is easily my favourite. But I really enjoyed Tom's, Matt's, Gethin's and Alesha's as well.

Thanks Anna for posting Alesha's salsa - i don't remember it at all so am going to have to watch it!!

fair enough. The same might be true for Gethin? Im not sure.
I preferred gethins i think except camillas crazy dancing ruins it a bit but he looks great. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=J0qkoqHAZ7w

Of the three listed in the first post i'll go for Tom and Camilla.


You're welcome angelac.

In terms of viewing figures, we are such a small percentage on here and as we tend to be very blinkered about our own favourites, I will go with the SCD season 5 favourite dance of the series as voted for by the less blinkered of the viewing public ............MATT AND FLAVIA salsa da da da da daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

just watched Gethin's salsa and to be honest didn't think much of it.

I will go for Matt & Flavia's Salsa as the best... it was so fast and electrifying .... the choreography was top notch and WAS the best dance of SCD5

Mark & Karens Salsa although also good, but i think the music was rubbish and definately puts me off it .... also its not a patch on M&F's

No contest. Mark and Karen's salsa was the best.

As you can probably guess from my name I have done some salsa (both cuban and LA/NY) and while I'm no expert the nearest I've seen to a recognisable salsa was Brian and Heather this year.

Having been taught by a cuban teacher the SCD 'cuban' salsas bear very little resemblance to the real thing.

Which 'salsa' did I enjoy the most - had to be Matt and Flavia. Definitely the best performance, it's technical difficultly, shock at the drop, Matts embarrassment at the end - I could go on........

Matt & Flavia for me as it had the wow factor for me!

Mark & Karen's is a very close second and I had the pleasure of seeing it live when I went to the first show of SCD5 when they performed it!