Strictly Come Dancing 2013

[Tal]

This is way too geeky to post elsewhere...

...Mark danced to You Can't Stop The Beat from Hairspray. Now, I know he is in that at the moment, but why do the producers let these people dance to songs that have already been danced to before, especially the more modern ones?

Austin Healy did a jive to this before. His was also much better than Mark's

[Tal]

Seem to recall this was early, so allow for that. Yes it was a bit skippy and yes his arms weren't very good. Very light on his feet, though.

[Tal]

I didn't really get Natalie's dance. It was obviously brilliantly innovative, but she wasn't clinical throughout and I think Artem missed a trick by dancing too well himself. It made her look unfairly bad by comparison. The judges can see past that, of course, but the voters might not.

I think the gap overall has closed. Fiona and Mark are below the others, then Ben and Patrick, then everyone else.

[Ironside]

seen a poll last night with suzanne geting 48% of the vote

infact here it goes

Mark and Iveta   3.28%
Ashley and Ola   10.00%
Abbey and Aljaz   8.73%
Ben and Kristina   3.23%
Natalie and Artem  14.16%
Sophie and Brendan   7.26%
Patrick and Anya   3.45%
Fiona and Anton   1.23%
Susanna and Kevin   48.66%

Read more: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s104/strictly-come-dancing/news/a531743/strictly-come-dancing-week-eight-poll-who-stole-the-show-in-blackpool.html#ixzz2kvTu8rwO
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[Tal]

This isn't the public vote; just an opinion poll of who had the best dance.

Don't forget that the public aren't voting for who they thought did the best dance, so take those numbers with a pinch of salt

[Omm]

Patrick Robinson available @15 on BF if anyone wants to get on, generally 7 to 9's elsewhere.

[Tal]

Have been out this evening, so just watching tonight's episode...

Patrick did a belter, but I had to agree with Craig that his weight fell back a bit towards the end (you need to be on the balls of your feet for a lot of this stuff), but that's frankly understandable, given just how much work he did in that dance. Worse dances than that definitely got tens, so can't really fault the marks, even though he'd only have got a 9 from me.

[Tal]

Natalie has what these arty folk call musicality. She feels the music and has a wonderful way of interpreting it.

Len was spot on that there wasn't a lot of foxtrot in it and IIRC the American Smooth is supposed to be 40% in hold and 60% as you wish. This had nowhere near that ratio. I wonder whether the judges are getting a bit picky just to create a bit of drama, because if Patrick had done that dance tonight, I would be interested to see the score.

She's a glorious dancer, though.

[Tal]

Mark wasn't born to samba. He gave it a jolly good go, though. Hard not to smile watching him, because he enjoys it so much. Lots of technical stuff in there and he didn't forget any steps.

He will surely have to do it again, though.

Tbf, not sure what price you'd have got at the start of the competition on him getting 29 for a samba, but I wouldn't have taken it.

[Tal]

Sophie next.

A proper Viennese Waltz. Seen too many VWs with lots of time out of hold. I think she got a bit tired towards the end and her shoulders came up a bit, so she lost her posture.

Brendan is not frightened to test Sophie and that was a very difficult routine. It is sort of Sophie's comfort zone, being that refined character. Next week's Latin will be another beast.

Four nines entirely fair IMO.

[Tal]

This was probably Abbey's breakout dance. She nailed it. I must admit I find her a bit distant sometimes when she is dancing, as though she's focusing on remembering the routine or worrying about the lift that's coming up. Not a bit of it tonight.

Again, she had LOADS to do and handled it with aplomb.

As before, the question is whether she can carry that into the ballroom next week, given how natural it is for us to "get" the mood of a disco song. No question, that was a final dance.

[Tal]

The rumba is a beastly dance for the men but Ashley coped well. To be honest, this is generally a dance the men just look to get past, so that they can get it out of the way. If he doesn't get hips on the forward and back basics, he can't win. I didn't think he got his arms quite right, but it is hard to be harsh to him, as he's had two Latin dances with stupid themes in recent weeks.

He'll get through if he's up against Mark and he can get back to pushing for the big scores.

[Tal]

Susannah, what went wrong?!

I'm afraid Kevin gave her too much to do; it was simply too quick for her. Had he toned it down just 10%, she could have got 40, because she can do it, she has furious energy, lovely lines and excellent footwork. But she made a mistake - I'm guessing forgot a step or two - and one begat two, begat three and so on.

These are the margins. Like I say, she could have delivered an absolute blockbuster tonight, but she made a couple of slips and ended up second bottom.

As ever, just my own armchair opinion.

One of my favourite musicals as well, Singin' in the Rain. Two incredible dancers in that film. Gene Kelly got all the accolades, but Donald O'Connor couldn't half move.

[BigAdz]

Cheers for the rundown Tal.

I can go to bed now, thanks.......

[aaron1867]

Hope Natalie doesn't win it, sick of her crying e every week, bore off with the waterworks!