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No more blogging :(

Hello to anyone who has been reading my blog this week. I have thoroughly enjoyed blogging about Strictly but my big plans for this season are unfortunately not going to be realised as the real world has stepped in and I won’t have time to blog after all. I hope you all enjoy the rest of the season, I know I will!

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Thoughts on Thursday’s It Takes Two

It is awesome to see how much Will and Janette are enjoying doing the show and I always love listening to the sound from people’s mics when they are dancing. Will’s shoes are fascinating and his joke about the photo of the plasters on his blisters was hilarious. I’m noticing a bit of a trend in the songs Will and Janette are dancing to: they both have ‘1, 2, 3, 4!’ in the lyrics, it would be awesome if they kept that theme up! I loved getting to watch Alesha Dixon’s Rumba again, it made me very nostalgic for when I watched Strictly as a kid and supported Alesha all the way, her week one dance still stands up even after all of this time. Vicky Gill’s costume preview was as charming as ever, I suspect Michelle’s costume may win the night with that awesome Italian flag dress. I love how seriously Karim takes his dancing and the statement from the National Association of Teachers of Dance was such a great victory. Choosing a Frank Sinatra song seems like a great idea for their Foxtrot because the Foxtrot is so much about the technique and that song will give him the chance to express his personality a bit more. I could listen to Chris Ramsey speak all day and it seems like Karen could as well, he is hilarious and she is clearly having fun with him. Her face when Zoe revealed their dance had been Karen’s lowest ever score was a gem. I think Chris is the person I most want to keep out of the dance off this weekend, if nothing else just to see more interviews like this one!

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Thoughts on Wednesday’s It Takes Two

It was really nice to see how James has taken his tough first week on the chin and is ready to try to enjoy this week, I think Luba is really good with him and it came across in their interview. The song they have chosen is great for an old school jive and so I am really hoping they can get a couple more points this week. Waite’s Warm Up was great to watch tonight as we got to see a sneak peak of what we can expect to see on Saturday. There looks to be a lot of great stuff going on in those training studios and Ian gives a lot of good tips on technique. Will and Janette’s salsa stuck out as a stroke of genius, the table tennis bats they will be holding in their routine aren’t just a great reference to Will’s career, they also mean he doesn’t have to worry about finger placement! It was nice to get a little sense of what the new pro dancer Nancy is like, I doubt I am the only fan who likes to feel like I get who all the pros and celebrities are as people. When it came to Alex and Neil’s interview, I found myself getting to know and like Alex and Neil all the more. My friends and I always used to call a chasse a ‘sachet’ too when we were dancing as teenagers so Alex’s struggle is all the more endearing to me. Giovanni seemed a little off in his interview with Michelle but she sparkled as expected. I do love the idea of Giovanni doing drag for a dance though! The song they have chosen for their Viennese Waltz is perfect as they are the Italian dream team and Amore is the Italian dream song so even though they seem to be having a tougher week it should still be a good performance.

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Thoughts on Tuesday’s It Takes Two

It Takes Two is always great this early in the competition because there are so many interviews and with four couples being interviewed on Tuesday, I was a very happy bunny. My main thought on Emma and Aljaz’s interview was that Aljaz is so lovely to watch. I was pleased to hear that they would be doing a Tango this week because it will really give them the chance to implement the feedback from the judges. Tango is the perfect dance to add a bit of ‘spice’ to and she will really need to sharpen things up for the staccato feel of this dance. Choreography Corner was pitched very well as it didn’t shy away from looking at actual technical elements while still being peppered with little bits of humour so that it wasn’t too intimidating. Vincent Simone’s ‘standing ovulation’ comment was one I will remember for a while. Saffron and AJ’s interview was interesting to watch because you could see how intently Saffron listens to AJ, that level of attention bodes so well for her. When they started talking about their Cha Cha Cha, it was interesting to see how ‘hard’ means different things to different people. Some people say they are having a hard week and they mean that the performance isn’t going to be very good because they are struggling, others say they are having a hard week and that means that the dance is going to be good because it is full of complex content. Saffron and AJ are definitely the second type. Dev and Dianne’s interview was great fun and really emphasised how genuine their surprise was at how well they had done on Saturday night. I wasn’t sure what to think at first when they said they were doing a Jive, this dance could go either way for this pair, but then I heard the music and saw the two of them bopping away and I now have high hopes. Emma and Anton’s interview finished off the show nicely and it was lovely to see how the whole EastEnders cast is behind Emma. The interview also reminded me of how much Anton keeps the more mature viewers watching. Pure Foxtrot is also as old school as it gets and this could be a very high scorer for the pair.

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Thoughts on Monday’s It Takes Two

This was a great first episode. It did a great job of introducing us to Rylan and the slightly flashier take on the show we can expect now that it is on BBC 1. I like how Zoe and Rylan each have their own presenting space, hopefully each of the two of them will have a slightly different interview style, which will add a little more variety to the show. Seeing Kelvin and Oti’s interview, I felt like they were so great together even though they seem like they are still getting to know one another and it made me excited about how their friendship and partnership will develop. Kelvin seemed to be suggesting his Waltz this week might not be as strong as his Samba as he is struggling with the spinning, but it is early days yet and I’m sure he will get there as he will be keen to show he is not a one trick pony. Anneka looked absolutely stunning when it came to her interview and it is nice to see her easing her way into skirts and heels, even if she is still very reluctant to do the princess skirts. It was really nice to hear Kevin talk about how they were figuring out how to teach Anneka technique, I am so glad they aren’t giving up on the technical side of dance. I do think Kevin is exaggerating a little when he says that Anneka will be good at Ballroom but he has a good point when he says that it may well suit her more than the Latin. Watching David and Nadiya’s interview endeared me to David because he was willing to say it as it is and he was very relaxed. He has a great sense of humour and was very witty throughout. Go Team Dakova! There were no real clues as to how their Paso Doble is going but I was glad to hear we will be seeing at least one Paso on Saturday night. It was great to see Stacey and Joe back on It Takes Two, they were such key parts of what I enjoyed about Strictly last year and with them now almost literally being part of the Strictly family they have already been a much bigger part of Strictly 2019 than the finalists of any previous season were in the subsequent seasons (with the exception of Alesha Dixon, of course). I look forward to what else they will contribute. The Strictly podcast has certainly been great background listening so far.

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Review: Emma Barton and Anton Du Beke’s Jive - Week 1 (23 points, 7th place)

I think that the showrunners were expecting this to be a higher scorer than it was as the last dance in the running order tends to be one that makes sure the show ends with a bang but it was still a good dance. Online I saw quite a lot of people complaining that this dance was underscored and/or over-criticised but I had to disagree. Emma was in the top half, she scored higher than Mike but lower than Will and that seemed about right to me. The performance aspects of the dance were excellent and there was some really nice dancing but there were a few bits where she was a little unsteady and the technique was slightly off. To be fair to Emma and Anton, being tall makes you great at a Foxtrot but you really will struggle with a Jive and though shorter contestants have an advantage when it comes to the Jive, they don’t have the equivalent disadvantage when it comes to the Foxtrot. Having said that, although I don’t agree with a lot of viewers who thought Shirley was mean to Emma, I did get the impression she might have been a little frustrated that such a good dancer and performer had incorrect technique and I suspect that, like me, she may have been directing more of that frustration at Anton than at Emma. Whenever other pros and celebrities from Strictly talk about Anton they always seem to have great things to say about him and really love him and he is certainly a crowd pleaser and an excellent old school dancer but I must admit he’s not my favourite pro. Sometimes I find Anton a little dismissive of people, whether it be the judges, who he dismissed on Saturday, or his former partners, who he often labelled as incapable of dancing from the start and never really tried to teach them to dance, settling instead for entertaining people. Of course, that’s only my opinion but it does make me a little concerned that it might not have been a case of Emma not following instruction when it comes to Jive technique but rather Anton not teaching her properly, which might put her at an unfair disadvantage. Regardless, she has certainly had her work cut out with her working hours and so I look forward to seeing what Emma has to offer in future, especially if we get to see her dance on a week when she isn’t filming for EastEnders and her ‘superfan’ enthusiasm and slightly self-depreciating outlook reminds me of Faye from last year, who of course was excellent.

And so, that brings us to the end of the episode. I was thrilled with the standard of the competition this year, I had expected it to be a little lower than last year as there was no one who seemed to be coming to the competition already fully formed as a dancer but actually the standard was fantastic while still being very watchable because there was no one who was too perfect to be likeable or relatable and even though there was a spread of 21 points, which is high, there are 11-13 dancers who are relatively evenly matched in terms of potential, which means we genuinely can’t be sure who will make it to the final. I, for one, am very much looking forward to week 2.

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Review: Karim Zeroual and Amy Dowden’s Cha Cha Cha - Week 1 (31 points, 2nd place)

I knew exactly what I was expecting from Karim and Amy, they are young, short, bouncy and fun and he is a children’s TV presenter so he is exactly the kind of celebrity who ends up doing all the cute performances and does really well in Charlestons, Jives and Cha Chas but struggles to get out of that box when they have to be a bit more serious and sexy in a Rumba, Argentine Tango or Paso Doble - something akin to Dr Ranj last year. But boy was I wrong! The main word people associate with the Cha Cha Cha is ‘cheeky’ but there are two main ways you can take that, there is ‘cheeky cute’ and ‘cheeky sexy’ and I was all set for a cute routine and was blown away by how sexy Karim was. He was so slick and smooth and sharp and I just thought he was so hot in that performance. Karim obviously has excellent timing and the pair have awesome chemistry (although I suspect Karim might have even more electric chemistry if he were to dance with Jamie Laing somehow), so much so that Amy seems genuinely a bit worried people will read into their great friendship and think they have inappropriate feelings for one another, given her only somewhat jokey horror at his comments about her telling him when to brush his teeth. I think they may need to stick a little closer to Ballroom and Latin American dance steps rather than maintaining the commercial vibe this dance had in future but, on a night with five Cha Cha Chas, I think Amy was right to do something a bit different with the choreography. What a great partnership and I expect to see lots of great things, I only hope he doesn’t go the way of Ashton Merrigold and get voted out before his time.

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Review: Will Bailey and Janette Manrara’s Quickstep - Week 1 (26 points, 6th place)

I might have mentioned that I love Janette and after this dance I love Will too. Will is quite different to the Paralympians we have seen on the show before because, while it was clear to see what they could and could not physically do because they either had the body part involved or didn’t, Will’s physical challenges are more complex and therefore it is hard to know precisely what can be worked on and what is already at its max. As such, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Will’s performance but I thoroughly enjoyed it. He has great timing and gave a fantastic entertaining performance. I suspect that, given his fused ankle joints, rise and fall might not be fully possible so I won’t focus on how it was all quite level but I will instead say that the awesome song choice and the choreography made this dance feel a little more like a Charleston/Quickstep cross than a straight Quickstep and we could have seen a bit more in hold, as Craig suggested, because as much as I love this song and loved the out of hold choreography, Will’s frame is really nice and he handled a lot of steps which showed that he could have a lot more skill to show us. I think Ballroom will probably be Will’s strength in this competition but I am looking forward to potentially being proven wrong when Will and Janette perform their first Latin dance.

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Review: Anneka Rice and Kevin Clifton’s Cha Cha Cha - Week 1 (14 points, 13th place)

Here was another routine that actually had marginally more dance content than I thought on first viewing - though the steps Anneka did were mostly very basic. I have very mixed feelings about this one in general actually. Anneka clearly knows she’s not going to be the best dancer on the show but she has embraced the fun of dance and is clearly having a great time, which is wonderful to see, but Shirley is so right when she says her coordination needs work - she couldn’t even clap in time. I felt that this was slightly overmarked, for me it was a 3 and not a 4 because it was flat-footed and had no hip action and too much of the dance was Anneka either standing still or running around. Ultimately, I felt that she should have been scored lower than Chris, who’s lack of hip action was commented on even though I felt there was a lot more to commend in his performance than in Anneka’s. That being said, there were times when Anneka was on beat and so I think that timing is one area she may be able to learn how to do - perhaps that is the potential Craig saw. I think Anneka knows what her role is in the competition, she is delightfully fun and any improvement in the technique will be a bonus. I saw online that a lot of people were criticising Anneka’s costume, saying it wasn’t right to put her in trousers and flat shoes but it seemed to me that, while the tracksuit could have been a little flashier, starting her off in this costume meant that she didn’t feel quite as out of her comfort zone as she could have done, though I hope to see her in them soon I don’t think Anneka is ready to learn how to dance in heels and as she said in the launch show, she hadn’t worn a skirt in a very long time. I hope Kevin can coax a little more out of Anneka in the weeks to come but even if this is the best we get out of her, I will always enjoy singing ‘Anneka’ to the tune of ‘Gloria’.

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Review: Dev Griffin and Dianne Buswell’s Foxtrot - Week 1 (30 points, joint 3rd place)

Dev followed Michelle and they actually had quite a lot in common tonight. Both got a score of 30, both did better than I (or even they) expected and both had partners whose teaching I really rate. I think Giovanni and Dianne are particularly good dance teachers and the fruits of their labours really showed. I’m a fan of Dianne’s and have been enjoying her new YouTube channel over the last several months and since I love it when the celebrities do as Dev has done and really try to get good at dancing, this may be a pairing I am pre-disposed to like, but even with my bias aside this was a lovely performance. Light, graceful, rhythmical and he knew all the choreography. However, the other thing Dev had in common with Michelle was that the judges didn’t give him anything to work on and I think that should be his face and neck. Although Dev had quite a nice frame, when in hold he looked like he was really trying to force himself not to look at his feet or at Dianne and so he was stretching his neck up in a slightly exaggerated way, which might not have been so obvious if his face had looked more relaxed. To be fair to Dev, whenever he was out of hold his face was great and he really performed but I would like to see him maintain that throughout. I’d say he earned those 8s though and Dev could be a great all-round performer.

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Review: Michelle Visage and Giovanni Pernice’s Cha Cha Cha - Week 1 (30 points, joint 3rd place)

A lot of these reviews have started with a bit where I say I expected this person to be good, this isn’t one of them. I thought Michelle would know how to sell a performance because that is a big part of drag but I had no idea she would be quite such a hard worker and a great dancer. Emma Weymouth could learn a lot from Michelle because this is exactly what I mean when I say that confidence actually helps the technique especially for a Cha Cha Cha, Michelle had great attitude, great hip action and great straight legs. It was remarkably well danced. I did notice, though, that in their joy at how well she had done the judges failed to give her any real advice on what she could improve and there were things that need a little work. The key aspect for me was balance as there were a few times when Michelle looked a little unsteady. Most of these seemed to be after a spin or some other sharp movement and so it seemed she was putting a little too much power into some of her moves and then struggling to stop quite as sharply as she would have liked, so while her energy is great, she does need to balance it out with a bit more control. That being said, this was yet another great performance and a real grafter so I really hope Michelle can figure out the Ballroom dances too because she deserves to do well.

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Review: David James and Nadiya Bychkova’s Cha Cha Cha - Week 1 (17 points, 12th place)

This dance was actually quite lovely because David and Nadiya’s smiles seemed really genuine. When they started it was clear David wasn’t a natural dancer as we could see Nadiya showing us what he was supposed to be doing but once he got into hold it was actually quite good in places. I completely understand what Craig meant in comparing David to a deer in the headlights and I think Motsi did a good job of advising him how to address it - who wouldn’t want to take Beyoncé’s lead, after all? David had the smile of someone who was very aware of how silly he looked and was having fun anyway and if he had still enjoyed it and had the same fun with it but taken it and himself a little more seriously I think it would have helped to sell the dance a little bit more. Faking it until you make it is really effective for those parts of dance that make you feel like you’re an 8-year-old dancing in a school assembly. For me, this was a 4 or a 5 and it landed in more or less the right spot on the leader board but I think David could be someone who does quite a bit of travelling when it comes to the score board, some dances will likely suit him a lot more than others.

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Review: Kelvin Fletcher and Oti Mabuse’s Samba - Week 1 (32 points, 1st place)

Before I even get on to talking about this masterpiece of dance, I want to take a moment to recognise how good the executives and showrunners at Strictly are at what they do. Having just got all upset watching James and Luba I was immediately distracted by an introduction to Kelvin Fletcher that was positive, efficient and helped viewers who might only have watched the launch show and none of the extra content to understand what was going on with Jamie Laing’s injury. This whole transition from Jamie to Kelvin has been executed excellently, with great respect shown to Jamie but also making sure that he was not replaced half-heartedly. And what a lovely VT it was! Oti looked stunning, we got to see more of the fun side of her, rather than the strict teacher we know and love but not every celebrity needs and Kelvin came off as a lovely guy who really appreciated the opportunity, had a sense of humour and was willing to put in a lot of hard work. Kelvin is no surprise to me on the personality front, I am a fan of Emmerdale and I always find long running members of their cast to be lovely, hard-working people but his dancing would have surprised anyone. I expected Kelvin to be quite good at dancing - Jamie had seemed to have a certain amount of rhythm in the launch show and they would have needed to pick someone who had at least as much basic ability to handle the shorter preparation time for the first routine, but he was absolutely fantastic. Kelvin had great body movement, great performance value, lovely shaping, almost the whole package! Why not a 9 or 10 then? Well, he has to have something to aim for and I noticed a few times when he did slightly strange shaping with his hands and the section where he was moving about with Oti hanging onto him between his legs felt a little laboured so it wasn’t perfect and no week 1 dance is going to have quite enough difficult content for a 10, even though this dance had lots. His bounce was also awesome for so early in the competition but would have been picked on if we were in the quarter final, for example, which I am confident Kelvin will get to dance in. All in all, Kelvin is a fantastic addition to the competition and he looks to be as good a dancer as he is an actor.

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Review: James Cracknell and Luba Mushtuk’s Tango - Week 1 (11 points, 15th place)

This one actually made me feel quite upset. I was gutted for James just watching the dance and seeing how tearful Luba looked for him and the way the judges and presenters were trying to encourage him and make him feel better really made me feel sorry for him. It wasn’t even until a second viewing that I noticed the look on his face after he got his scores, which I am glad I didn’t see the first time as I might have actually cried. It was very telling that Claudia said he saved his best run for the night as we can only imagine how much James struggled with this dance. I almost feel bad reviewing it as I’m sure the judges did because it was so lacking in anything to commend and it feels wrong not to say anything positive but I will do my best. Craig is absolutely right when he says the main problem was James’ posture, he was so hunched over that at times it felt a little like watching Frankenstein’s monster and unfortunately because most of the variation in any of these dances is in the lower half of the body, if you have poor footwork, you have moments within the dance that are poor but if you have a poor frame it makes the whole dance look bad. It is OK not to be a strong dancer on this show, not everyone is, but they still find their place and their role in the show, even if that means leaving quite early on. The thing that made me feel so upset watching James was that his performance didn’t give him any role. Usually if someone has no clear dancing ability whatsoever they either play up the entertainment value as the judges were encouraging James to do - he could own his Frankenstein posture and tell a Frankenstein inspired story with his next dance, for example - or they are a real tryer and even if their dancing improves very little, their confidence does and that becomes the focus - think Katie Piper last year. Personally, I think this second option is James’ best bet, the only way from here is up so any improvement in his dancing or his performance will show and will be a really commendable achievement. As I have said before, he lacks a little of the charisma that, say, a comedian would bring to the show so a really entertainment-heavy performance might overwhelm him rather than bring out the entertainer hiding deep inside him, but quieter people are often great listeners and if he listens well to the advice Luba gives him and remembers all his moves like he did this week - there’s something to commend - he should earn himself at least a few more points next time.

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Review: Emma Weymouth and Aljaz Skorjanec’s Cha Cha Cha - Week 1 (19 points, 11th place)

Emma is one of those people who might have to try a little harder to get the audience on side, largely because not many people can relate to having that enormous house, no matter how ‘tiny’ a proportion of it she may actually live in, but she is doing a great job so far of showing how much she appreciates the opportunity to take part in the show and emphasising her work at Longleaf Safari Park. As far as the dancing goes, Emma had a lot of good points but she seemed a little nervous and was probably a bit too controlled. I actually think that a lot of the technical issues with her dance could have been addressed if she had worked on the performance element. If she had strutted about with confidence her legs would naturally have been straighter and her hips would have swayed more and those things would have done a lot of the legwork when it came to her footwork. She doesn’t look like she will take to the Latin dances like a natural but we could see some lovely Ballroom performances from Emma with her excellently honed elegance and grace.

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Review: Mike Bushell and Katja Jones’ Jive - Week 1 (22 points, 8th place)

This is another dance that I changed my mind about on second viewing. Initially I had felt that this dance was over-scored because there wasn’t enough Jive content, although I felt that Katja had played this well, making sure he mastered the technical skills he did do, while not spreading him too thin by filling other parts of the dance with fun, loud, bouncy polystyrene filler. But actually, on re-watching the dance I found that there was a lot more Jive content than I had thought. His feet weren’t always as sharp as they ought to have been but his energy was phenomenal and he had great bounce, which can be a difficult aspect of Jive to accomplish. You can tell Mike has been working hard because he already looks like he’s lost quite a bit of weight and if he can channel that work ethic into some of the dances that aren’t such a perfect match for his personality, Mike could surprise us all. It seems odd to me that Mike scored higher than both Catherine and Alex but I probably would have scored him a 5 or 6 so I can’t really say he didn’t earn his place on that leader board.

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Review: Saffron Barker and AJ Pritchard’s Tango - Week 1 (27 points, 5th place)

This was a dance that really showed how much of a difference a good frame can make. It was clear right from the start that Saffron had been working on her frame - which is a little bit different but even more important in Tango. She was someone I had expected to do well from the launch show, partially because of her good basic dancing ability but also because of her determined attitude and sportsperson-like approach. This is the kind of couple that will treat each week’s score as a personal best that they need to beat next time. I had very little criticism for Saffron. She seemed to lean a little too far into her hold at times and with the high level of complexity and difficulty - not to mention the speed - she didn’t quite have the tightness in each section that would be required for a higher score, but she got a very respectable score, totally earned those 7s and I look forward to seeing how far she can push herself. I couldn’t help but notice, though, that Claudia got a bit confused about the stats she was being fed through her earpiece - that was not the best score ever for a first show.