To think that Layton shouldn't be allowed.....

[TyrannasaurusJex]

Layton Williams is not only a trained dancer in the West End but has been the lead in two shows with a huge dance element (Billy Elliot and Everyone's Talking About Jamie). AIBU to think that it's massively unfair for him to compete in Strictly? It's like a chef taking part in Bake Off! I know they'll claim it's a different type of dancing but the techniques/learning methods/muscle memory are SO transferable....

I think the "no prior dance training" ship sailed along time ago on strictly.

It's just entertainment dressed up as a competition (as it really always had been). It has never been a fair fight.

I thought he was a professional and not a ‘celeb’ 🤦🏻‍♀️

YANBU. He's basically a professional dancer/performer. He won't be learning anything new. Always more entertaining/heartwarming to watch celebs who go on a learning curve!

He won't win, he'll give us some good entertainment for a few weeks but that's all.

He won't win. Partly because he's an over theatrical pain in the arse, and also because the audience is not stupid and does not want to see a fully trained dancer progress in the competition.

He will regularly be in the bottom two, will keep being saved by the judges, then we'll get the tears and tantrums and stropping off.

Can't stand him. Angela S to win.

There have been several previous contestants with tons of experience, Ashley Roberts etc. They never win. Think it's good to have a range of ability on there but people definitely prefer a journey and a less experienced dancer doing well.

YANBU but I'm quite looking forward to Nikita staying in for ages as I fancy the pants off him.
I'm fickle.

The thing is, most of the younger contestants now have dance training. TV presenters/soap stars/radio DJs have very likely been to stage school, and will have dance/acting/singing lessons. And a whole group of lumpy politicians/sportsmen/news anchors would be a hard watch.

There is a difference though. My DD "has dance training" in that she did ballet and tap from age 4 to age 16. Or someone who went to stage school where they did academics along with singing, acting, jazz/ballet/modern a few hours a week and is now earning their living as a DJ or TV presenter.

This is a person who is earning their living as a dancer. They will say that it's all very different, and they have no advantage whatsoever, as if they think the audience is a bit thick. People who earn their living as a dancer, or who did so in the past, should not be on Strictly. Like Ashley Roberts and Debbie McGee.

Three shows with huge dancing elements. He was Angel in Rent and was amazingly talented and gymnastic with his dancing.

Me too, even though I'm old enough to be his mum

I thought he seemed great and can’t wait to see them dance.

It's just part of the programme. The thing is, we think we want only novice dancers, but the truth is that would make for a programme mostly full of absolute mediocrity that I think would get samey quite quickly. The show does need a handful of contestants who actually can dance, it allows for a few classier, more ambitious dances to break up the weak/middling ones.

Oh saying nothing at all against him as a person and sure he will be great! just questioning whether a professional dancer should be on it!

And Angela Ripon, she was on the original original shows and can dance very well

Yeah but at least she's 78 so not exactly in her prime.... as opposed to 28 year old perfectly fit Layton 😂

Agree!

It's a bit like Nigella Lawson being a contestant on The Great British Bake off isn't it?! Wrong IMO.

Nigel Harman is also triple threat trained at Arts Ed.
Leave triple threat training end up in presenting or pop careers or straight acting and then use strictly to relaunch their triple threat career.
Jill halfpenny, Karim, kelvin Fletcher, pixie Lott, Louise redknapp to name a few.

He's an A grade ringer like Ashley Pussycat. He'll do some great dances which will entertain us all. He'll irritate the hell out of some of us with his personality. He won't win.

TBF I think Ashley Pussycat had even more of an advantage on Strictly, because she was used to picking up multiple routines really quickly and then performing them in slightly different environments as opposed to perfecting a fixed set of choreography for a musical staging and then repeating it for months on end.

Debbie McGee had similar experience from her work as a jobbing end of the pier troupe dancer (as opposed to her work as a professional ballet dancer) and I'm sure it stood her in good stead on Strictly, but that had been decades earlier.

It is a bit ridiculous. And he's not toning it down at all, he was dancing all out, even more so than Nikita. I completely agree Strictly needs a range of talents, but not someone who is basically already a professional dancer, just in another discipline. They may as well ask Darcey Bussell back as a contestant.

As others have said though, he won't win. And I suspect that will be a blow to his ego 😳

We were surprised as well. He seems a nice chap, but has performed in dance shows recently. It’s not like he was in stage school fifty years ago.

I don't think it's much different to Ashley Robert's and Alesha Dixon appearing as celebrities.

There's having some dance experience and then there's earning your living in the West End doing a lot of dancing. I'm quite put off by it and from "meeting" him from the first time on the show I'm quite put off by him. He's a lot. To be fair to him he's not the only celeb who's a lot, verging on too much. He's also dancing with Nikita who I can't get on with.

At the moment I'm looking forward to Amanda Abbington because she's had a lot of nastiness and seems nice, Angela Scanlon because I love her on that redesigning your home programme, Nigel Harmon because I like him in Casualty and he seemed really sweet tonight, Krishnan Guru-Murthy because he's so up for it and based on "meeting" him for the first time tonight, Eddi Kadi.

What was Alesha Dixon's prior dance training?

Ps: she had none.