Is anyone else ridiculously excited about the Strictly launch tonight?

[CeliaFate]

I can't wait! It's the highlight of my Saturday. Got my wine and nibbles in ready. Da da da da da da da, da da da da da DUH DUH DUH DUH
I've got high hopes for Holly, Harry and possible Lulu.

Nancy seemed rather humourless.

Waterloo Road woman just bizarre.

Rory B quite sweet and looked nervous, bless him.

Loving Anita.

Lulu is a nightmare. 'Oh no don't keep looking at me ? oh the camera's gone off me, wait til I flap my arms and shake my hair ... oh no, the camera's on me, oh, I'm so flustered ...'. Fuck. Off.

Love Russell and want to go for cocktails with him, Craig and Claudia.

Think Jason D will do well for a bit but then hit his limit and be a bit ungracious when he gets kicked out.

Audley is a sweetheart.

Tess seriously needs some tit tape or a clever bra.

Harry Judd personality of a wet whitewashed wall.

I like Alesha, Arlene was getting right on my tits TBH. But I'd still rather see see/have seen Len replaced with Ian, Matthew or Darren. He's been past his use by date since about series 3.

I thought Tess's boobage looked ama-zing on Saturday, I was actually wondering how they had taped her in so well. Though I wasn't keen on the primrose yellow and the strange wafty scarf at the back.

Justin and Anita should be pretty good having danced in West End shows and being pretty versatile actors.

Lulu is about the youngest looking 62 year old I've ever seen.

Dandy, just for you:

Savage looked nervous and like an eager-to-please Labrador puppy. I suspect he may turn out to be an unexpected Good Bloke. Terrifying hair and teeth though.

Valance has zero class but probably an earthy and smutty sense of humour. Has a great body and boy does she know it. Will work hard.

Comment of the night was Katya in group-dance training: 'Harry's pretty cute. He'd do anything I asked of him.' She can come for cocktails with me, Craig et al.

I agree about the group dance. That's why I think Jason will lose his sense of humour when he goes out; he'll work hard and think he deserves to go further. I actually don't mind Alex so far; she's got quite a raucous quality and a dirty laugh, which is never a bad thing in my book. Time will tell though.

Holly V looks beeeyyooootiful as she is, although she'll probably lose weight while training.

I think Katya's v clever too. I also love Erin for similar reasons. Did you ever see her on last year's It Takes Two? She would be using the thingy that allows them to draw arrows etc on the screen and get really carried away and be scrawling and shouting (but in a self-aware, tongue-in-cheek way). Claudia would have to yell at her to stop when they needed to move on.

Sorry, can I just hijack the thread a little bit please? Could one of the dancers on here point me in the right direction re tap shoes please? I do have a pair but they're not great. They don't make a very strong tap noise. I've just started classes again and, whilst I don't intend to be taking any exams, I'd like to get some better, tap-ier shoes. What should I be looking for?

Hope that makes sense, thanks for any help and apologies for hijack.

Can't wait for Friday 30th!!

LetUsPrey I'm not a tapper so can't offer much help. Have you tried DSI? I got both my ballroom and Latin shoes from them and they've been great.

The BBC used to have a bit on the Strictly website about where to buy dance gear, although I haven't looked this year.

Do your current shoes have toe and heel taps, *LetusPrey8? My daughter's are Bloch and seem pretty loud to me, on the kitchen floor anyway!

Something like this would surely be tappy enough for an adult shoe:

www.dazzle-dancewear.co.uk/bloch-raven-cuban-heel-pu-tap-dance-shoes-11441-p.asp

Just noticed they do velcro ones for kids, coo that would stop a lot of faffing in DDs classes!

Wow thanks for all those replies!

What's DSI CaveMum?

My current shoes have toe and heel taps. They just don't seem to make much noise .

The spring under the tap on those Bloch ones sounds what I'm after. I shall have a good look on that site later.

Excited now!

DSI is Dancesport International, though having looked on their site I think they just do Ballroom and Latin shoes/clothing [doofus]

I realise I am a bit late to the party but anyway .... did no-one else feel slightly uncomfortable watching the show on Saturday? It seemed to be all about the reactions of the pros to the celebrity they got - overjoyed/relieved if they got a young attractive one and pretend pleased with the older ones ....

I am so pleased that Anita and Russel seem to be popular on this thread - in your face young attractive celebs!

Am also of the "time for Brucie to go" school of thought and have to mute Alesha as her comments make me cringe.

That is all, as you were.

MrsWinklepicker, to be fair, the focus of the first show is the pairing-up, so inevitably they were going to foreground that and make a big deal of it. Some of the reactions were a bit OTT though, but I think that can largely be put down to excitement/nerves. I'm not saying it's not annoying though!

LetUsPrey: years ago when I did tap, you had to loosen off the "tap" at the front of the shoe, to get a better noise. . see here - click on zoom to see a better close up. I always had to "pop" the front rivet out (carefully - you are buggered if you pop more than one) and slightly loosen the tap, to get a good clear tap when dancing.

hth

Thanks for that silverfrog. I'll have a look at my shoes later. Not sure this will work because they were quite cheap fairly basic. Thanks for all the other replies too.

Thread hijack over!

Another SCD fan here Love this thread so just marking my place :)

LetUsPrey I can really recommend Bloch tap shoes - My ds has had the Jazz Tap ones, and he loosens the screws slightly, as silverfrog suggested,until he gets the sound he wants. You can find the Bloch Ladies Jazz tap shoes on e-bay. They tend to go for about £15 - they are £32+ new.

Back to Strictly - googled Russell (my joint favourite with Anita) and I see he has worked as a Redcoat at Butlins - don't they do song and dance stuff for that?

Sorry hijacking back to tap again - meant to say the Bloch sizes are a little small- suggest go half size up. Ds just grown out of US size 9 which are sold as size 6 1/2 UK - but his feet are 6 1/2 in Clarks....

Hijack over

My top six, with Harry winning:

Jason
Anita
Russell
Robbie
Alex
Harry

I'm surprised they let Harry do it seeing as he did the Children in Need special, though if I remember rightly I think Kata Tointon did the same thing.

I'll reserve judgement on who will win until I've seen them all dance a routine solo.

There are some training footage videos appearing on Facebook so I presume they'll be up on the SCD website too. I'm not able to watch them at the moment (no broadband, posting from phone) but will report back with my thoughts when I've seen them.

They penalised Harry with one week's less training. I like him, hope he'll do well. Are McFly all going to take over reality TV do you think? What will Tom do?

Poor old Holly, imagine looking like that and still feeling like you have to defend yourself? Whose figure hasn't changed since they were 16-18? No one, that's whose. Bloody Daily Mail, running a story a few weeks back saying how she was fat. She looks fab. But yes, will probably lose weight with all the exercise.

Oooh, nice to see Joe Calzaghe in the audience: so him and Kristina are still together?