SCD#7 - It's the Glittery Semi-Finals

[Fiderer]

And off we sassshhayy...

Jay attended Charlotte Hamilton's School of Dance where he learnt ballet and then went on to attend Midlands Academy of Dance & Drama as a teenager - his interest lying in dance rather than drama. He also had intensive dance lessons prior to SCD starting in preparation.

Kellie Bright attended Sylvia Young Theatre School and has been on TV acting from a young age.
Can't find references to Georgia's schooling online but she has been on TV from when she was very young too.

Caroline Flack did a two year dance course in Cambridge, my teacher met one of her tutors last year.

I'm sure they all had lessons prior to starting Strictly once they knew they were going to be on it.

I guess your view all depends on whether you want a final full of Jeremy Vines and Ann Widdicombes or whether you want to watch good dancing.
Ever since Jill Halfpenny there have been questions about previous training. I think it would be very hard to find fifteen people who had had no training at all. And if you are invited to go on a programme then it is the producers who need to take responsibility for whether the contestants qualify for the competition. It's hardly fair to penalise someone for having had experience when they've been asked onto the show.

As I've said before technique is one aspect of the show, showmanship (which Jay has definitely had to work on and others who are trained actors have had an advantage) is another, being able to perform live in front of a huge TV audience and overcome your nerves another, likeability is probably the biggest factor - and you can't really learn that. In the past the public have often gone for the 'journey' storyline over the better dancers - Chris Hollins, Darren Gough etc. So dance training can be a disadvantage in the final from that point of view. I think over the years there have been such good dances that people expect a higher and higher standard - you won't get that from people who have never danced before - it's a bit of a no win situation for the contestants, they have to put up with a lot of flack whatever their dance background, it's such a high profile show.

I think it's a shame that once people have got to the final people start questioning their right to be there - I wouldn't have picked Katie over Anita, but she's there now, good for her, I hope she does well. I've definitely got my favourite and would love for him to win, but I really want to see a fabulous show where everyone does well and may the best person win on the night. I like it when I get a chance to see my favourite do all the dances - that's the main thing for me, the glitterball is just the icing on the cake.

The most important thing obviously is that no one does a Lisa and Brendan Meatloaf special for their show dance.

A friend of mine taught at Georgia's secondary school, she had some acting jobs,but dance didn't feature as far as she remembered.

I agree with this from the Guardian article:

"Revel Horwood has to play a ridiculous pantomime baddie on the show, which only very rarely accords with his true personality. But I think he is ultimately a person of integrity, and when he thinks someone is Just Not That Good a Dancer he will do everything within his power to get rid of them. I found it hilarious that he marked her a 4 for her Charleston. But he was right. It was awkward and out of synch."

Wish he'd drop the pantomime baddie stuff but think the producers reckon it makes for good telly. The audience reaction this series is for me OTT with booing any mildly critical comment from any of the judges.

TBH, I don't think previous dance training is quite the unfair advantage that a lot of people think it is. It is unlikely than any of them have had previous ballroom training, so the training that they have had might even work against them (like Helen who was too 'ballet' for latin dances). Anyway the marks are half dance-related (from the judges) and half popularity contest (from the public), and if the public think a competitor has an unfair advantage then public votes will be lost. The reason that the judges have final choice in the dance off is that there were times that really good dancers went out because the public thought they had an unfair advantage and didn't vote for them.

I think it's probably really hard to find celebrities who haven't had any dance training whatsoever. As already stated if you do any kind of course at drama school dance and movement feature quite heavily, I know someone who rejected for a place at a theatre school because she didn't have enough dance experience.

I think most women had dancing lessons as children as well, I know I did.

I just think they should be up front about previous dance experience.

I think Craig has been less of the Baddie this series - he has always been the most critical but it has been good criticism and usually followed by a small positive or advice. Although not in the case of Jeremy! I sure I remember him usually coming across as simply critical rather than helpful but maybe my perception has changed. I really like him and I think the celebrities value what he says as it's usually not vague "you've got great energy!" type comments.

I used to like it when you could have Karen commentating during the dances.

Yes, I don't know why they dropped that. She'd be great on the judges' panel though. My ideal line-up would be Len staying as head judge (I don't think he's sour and he's right to have a go at the audience for the silly booing), Karen, Arlene and Craig. I think we'd get much fairer and more realistic judging that way. There's nothing fair about marking everyone no matter how bad at 6 and over.

Gutted that Jay and Aliona aren't doing their jive in the finals.

Dd is doing a drama course she has 2 left feet bless her but they still do a dance class 1 class a week

i much prefer Craig to Bruno, bruno seems to have lost the plot this series

Craig is the most constructive judge I think. He's the hardest to impress, so you know you've done a good job when he praises you.

Bruno has been ridiculous this year

The final 4 are usually the best 4 in the competition. The winner is not always the best dancer, it's a combination of ability, personality, fan base, chemistry with and popularity of the pro.

Natalie Gumede was probably the biggest ringer, she was superb.

Do we know officially that Jay isn't doing the jive?

According to the Radio Times he won't be doing the Jive.

Jay announced on the Chris Evans breakfast show this morning that he won't be doing the jive in the final. He and Aliona decided they couldn't match their first performance so decided against it.

They're doing the Quickstep instead, which certainly had plenty of potential to improve. It's a bit of a risk though, because it all comes down to the public vote and the public really loved that jive.

pointing out that Bruno miraculously went from hating Anita's waltz to loving it.

Assuming this was intended to refer to Katie, I don't think his stance was inconsistent. He said that he didn't like the waltz the first time round because she made mistakes which meant that her timing was out, and that showed up all the more when she was dancing to tricky music like that; also because she wasn't extending her arms enough. The second time round she sorted out her arms and didn't make the mistakes so her timing was spot on, which instantly meant that the dance complemented the music much better. Essentially first time round he was saying that it could have been a lovely dance but wasn't; second time round she had sorted it out so that it achieved its original potential.

I love Strictly on a Saturday night and while I can't wait for the final I will hate to see the end of the show for another year.

I would love to see the BBC showing some of the old shows. I lived in Italy for a number of years and had BBC Prime which showed the old series of Strictly. My little ones only started watching a few years ago and I would love them to see some of the earlier series.

That's a real shame about Jay's jive. But I can see it's a risky dance and if they made any mistake at all everyone would be saying how disappointed they are.

Having said that, don't the judges get to make a choice for one of the final dances?

It is a shame about the jive - but I get the pressure that would be on them to be perfect, I think they pretty much said what they wanted to with that dance first time round. I am hoping for a jivey-charlstony-lindyhoppy type show dance from them though (although I am also sort of expecting a wafty contemporary thing)

I was really disappointed that Jay stuffed up the quickstep - so I'll be really happy to see that again done well.

Calfon - the BBC Strictly website has a 'best dances' DVD advertised - I don't know what's on it, but it sounds like it would cover some of the old shows.

I do think it should be that they have to do a ballroom and a latin in the final, to show all round ability. It always seems as if the judges pick is quite random - sometimes it is 'we want that again because it was so good' and sometimes 'we want it again because it was crap and you can do it better'

I hope we don't have to see Kellie's hip hop thing or the texting one (was that the same dance or two dances - I forget?)

There's a DVD called Strictly Come Dancing: The Showstoppers, which is quite fun and pretty cheap now because it's a few years old. The judges' blurb is over-scripted but the dances are worth watching.

You know when you get a 9 or 10 from Craig it's worth it rather the other handing out 8s and 9s.

How can anyone still say that Anita doesn't really like Gleb after watching that? There's obviously a lot of warmth between them.