Strictly Come Dancing 2014

[FrankelandFilly]

Two celebs confirmed so far for the 2014 series:

Frankie from The Saturdays
Judy Murray (Andy's mum)

Not sure if they are deliberately only releasing one name at a time, but it can't be long before the big reveal.

So polish off your Cuban heels and slip into something tight and sparkly, it's almost here!

Who was the amazing strong contestant who carried his partner up the stairs!! I thought the other blokes have now got something to live up to

Was it whoever has Kristina? Hang on, I'll look them up ...

Simon Webbe? That doesn't sound right. He's not that big. But I'm sure I remember Kristina being carried off, kicking her perfectly pointed feet.

Kristina was carried up the stairs, she always likes to make an entrance and exit

You're not wrong, Daisy. I love her.

Whoever he was he was dreamy lucky Christina

I do love Kristina's feet, they're so expressive.

Scott Mills training video. Bless he's a bit stiff and flat footed at the moment but he's throwing himself into it. I love Joanne's outfit though

I thought she was Ola when I glanced at that clip! She used to be much much blonder.

He's really trying isn't he. Week one cha chas are always a bit dodgy

More training videos appearing here, Caroline, Mark and now Frankie are up for viewing.

Having had a quick look at the new videos, Caroline is flat footed, not up on her toes at all, but that might be because she's dancing in trainers (pet hate); Frankie looks promising but I didn't see any heel leads (again, dancing in wrong shoes); didn't see Mark's feet, but he's very stiff and his hips need a lot of work.

They must have shoes, I don't know why they're not dancing in them It's so much easier!

Frankie could do with rotating out a bit more and getting her neck straight, otherwise she looks like she's hunching forwards, especially in the pivots I only noticed because I keep being told off for that.

Yeah, shoulders/neck are always an issue in the early stages.

I know we don't see all the training footage but it would be nice to hear one of the dancers explaining to their celeb how to achieve the lines/positions rather than things like "look over my shoulder". It's not enough to know how it should look, you should know how it feels to be sure it's correct. That's one of the reasons why my teacher doesn't like using mirrors to train dancers, there are no mirrors on the competition floor and if you don't know how the correct position "feels" how are you going to achieve it?

I agree - you can still look over somebody's shoulder and be in completely the wrong position.

I've never been taught using mirrors either. Videos of me dancing sometimes, but it's pretty much always to show what I'm doing wrong

With less than a week to go, time to share some favourite dances from the past! I could post so many (Mark & Karen's Argentine Tango, Jill & Darren's Jive, etc) but I'll stick to two of my favourite Pro dances.

First, , before they were dancers on the show.

And secondly from 2008.

Such a shame we don't seem to get these showcase dances anymore, demonstrating how the dances should be done without all the cabaret nonsense!

First dances confirmed:

Alison and Aljaz will be performing the Cha Cha to ‘I’m Every Woman’ by Chaka Khan.

Caroline and Pasha will be performing the Cha Cha to ‘Can You Feel It?’ by The Jacksons.

Frankie and Kevin will be Waltzing to ‘Someone Like You’ by Adele.

Gregg and Aliona will be performing the Cha Cha to ‘Hot N Cold’ by Katy Perry.

Jake and Janette will be performing the Tango to ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears.

Jennifer and Tristan will be Jiving to ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams.

Judy and Anton will be Waltzing to ‘Mull Of Kintyre’ by Wings.

Mark and Karen will be performing the Cha Cha to ‘I’m Your Man’ by Wham!

Pixie and Trent will be performing the Jive to ‘Shake It Off’ by Taylor Swift.

Scott and Joanne will be performing the Cha Cha to ‘Rock DJ’ by Robbie Williams.

Simon and Kristina will be performing the Jive to ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ by Little Richard.

Steve and Ola will be Tangoing to ‘Born To Be Wild’ by Steppenwolf.

Sunetra and Brendan will also be performing the Tango – to “Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor Doctor)” by Robert Palmer.

Thom and Iveta will be Waltzing to ‘You Raise Me Up’ by Westlife.

Tim and Natalie will performing the Cha Cha to ‘Shop Around’ by Captain & Tennille.

I do wish they'd restrict week one to just Waltz and Cha Cha as it's not fair to give people dances like Jive and Tango which are so much harder in comparison.

I loved Sophie's Charleston last year.

This was tweeted by Steve "Adorable" Backshall this morning:

"Currently scanning scientific papers on evolution of venom delivery systems. The rest of the day, I shall be mostly twerking. #strangedays"

Aren't they combining the first two weeks again? So maybe everyone will have one easier and one harder?

I don't think those are too bad though, if you have to pick four to start with (at beginner level I did waltz, qs, cha and jive but I would rather see better qs later on so don't mind the swap).

And I really hope he's joking about the twerking...

I think they ought to bring back the old format where everyone did the same Latin or the same ballroom every week (so half did a waltz and half did a salsa etc). The way they do it now is meaningless; you can't usefully compare a waltz with a jive.

I agree, Only ... and I much prefer to see a tango or jive done well later in the series than done badly in week 1

Ola and Steve doing a rock tango, arrrgh!

I'm so looking forward to tonight, been thinking about it all day

Nearly time! Just hope DD agrees to stay asleep until it's over!

Oooh. What time does it start? I am hoping to watch but might be banished to the bedroom TV.
My friend got tickets for us for the tour today for January. No idea who is on it though.