SCD#8 - It's the Final, dahhhlinngs

[Fiderer]

Be fab-ul-ous.

Be aww-right baaht...

Be line something shoulder mumble...

Be that was full of energy my darling but really (insert leg gesture) ...

Be what you want to be. The Final is now here.

I just have to say, top line, darling

Weeeeelllllll........

It was a charity ball for clic Sargent. Chris was guest of honour-it was just a year after he'd won. I was volunteering, and one of my jobs was monitoring round the sidelines during the charity auction. And one of the prizes was "first dance with Chris". There was no bidding, and I thought-I'll have that! And won! I had very little time to prepare, it was just "ok, you're on the floor!"

Chris was absolutely lovely-he said, should we do a waltz? I said I think we need something more upbeat-can you salsa? He laughed and said I haven't salsaed since week 3! We looked at the band, they said, shall we play Valerie?, and we looked at each other and said OK, let's busk it!

And off we went. Totally improvised, great partner ( he even took his jacket off and swung it around), and he sweetly signed a photo for my mum with " your daughters a better dancer than Ola!"

I've lost about 2 stone since those pics btw.

I only realised Kellie had been in The Archers when she was on ITT and I was listening rather than watching and suddenly thought, "Heh, that's Kate Aldridge."

Also not a great fan of Jo Clifton as a presenter/guest person. Wish the BBC would realise how good Karen Hardy is and use her more. She may not want to mind, but heh, I want her anyway Loved how she applauded Anita's paso doble. Still annoyed with Gleb for that weird non-salsa that got them out.

I agree re Zoe. Generally I love her presenting style but honestly, every week, every pro gets the "how proud of x/y/z are you" question. Tedious!!
Not sure about Jay's music either. It feels a bit mid tempo, not slow enough to be amazingly tender and graceful and not fast enough to be "wow". We'll see smile
Georgia is an excellent dancer but I'm never thrilled by her dances. Other than that lovely samba. I think Joe Varney's choreography is quite 'safe'

Karen's away in NZ at the minute, I think Zoe said. (Well, she said t'other side of the world and Karen's married to a Kiwi so I extrapolate.) I miss her on Choreography Corner, but I thought Jo did a good job last night.

Love those pics, Melanie.

Thanks for the clip of Jo Clifton polkadots. That was great - was worried her head would fall off though! Prefer her hair now. Makes you realise how far from the standard of the top professionals even the best celebrities are. A lifetime of practice I guess.

Lovely pictures melanie . Great shoes btw!

polkadots that's an amazing Jo Clifton dance! Did she win?

Golly, that Jo Clifton dance looked like it was on fast forward, it was soooo fast. Her partner was a right gurner though.

I love all the videos, like Maryz I could lose hours watching them.

Melanie
Wow, such a lovely upper back and neck backwards stretch showing great flexibility. Nice hands and fabulous pointed foot -a 10 from me.

That Jo Clifton quickstep shows how quick they are meant to be. Even the best of the celebs have been nowhere near that quick.

I am not keen on Katie's music, it seems far too dramatic for her, I'm not sure she can pull it off. I agree Jay's seems a bit slow. I like K&K music though.

Think it could be a toss up between Georgia & Giovanni and Jay & Aliona.

I'd love Kellie & Kevin to win though, she's really grown on me in the last few weeks and their American Smooth last week was just beautiful!

I'm also rooting for K&K. I think Georgia's a great dancer but the little girl stuff gets on my wick as Len used to say (haven't heard him do it for a while now but I've got a long memory) and I don't intend to forgive Jay & Aliona for not doing their jive again.

Here's another video for you all - a Samba. It features Karina Smirnoff who is now a regular pro on DWTS. It's not great quality but I love to watch it. My teacher showed it to me as a good example of a male dancer who dances strongly but with fluidity. A lot of men struggle to find the balance and either end up looking effeminate or too aggressive.

I don't mind Kellie but there's feeling like a bit of a bias towards them on ITT this week - Not sure I want Kevin and his third final in a row rammed down my throat any more ! Even Ian bigged them up and criticised the others. (At least he said they've all worked hard rather than pedalling gthe 'Kellie works harder than anyone else' storyline)

Sorry that was a bit gripey - I find ITT quite irritating in finals week - I should stop watching it

I thought K&K's Lindy Hop looked v stompy, having looked it up I don't like it as a dance, theirs or anyone's.

Am also a bit that suddenly it's not Jay or Georgia but ta-da, Kellie too. Don't warm to her, don't think she and Kevin have any chemistry and their dances lack any spark.

I thought so too, Fiderer. It doesn't appeal.

Do we know what dances they're all doing? K&K are doing their Charleston again, which is very on the nose with Star Wars coming out tomorrow.

J&A are doing the quickstep, yes?

I don't know any of the others.

I have a feeling that G and G are doing their Charleston again too - as their dance choice rather than the judges choice.

DD is asleep in bed, DH is out so I have tea and cake and am trawling YouTube

I've come across , I thought I'd post it as it shows a great example of what the judges mean when they talk about "foot pressure". If you watch Yulia's's feet, when taking the majority of steps, they never fully release from the floor - she maintains some kind of contact at all times. The contact is not just lightly placed, it is deliberate in order to be able to use the floor to push against and create movement.

The level of foot pressure you need varies from dance to dance, Rumba requiring a lot and Jive much less for example, but this video helps to give you an idea of what the judges are looking for.

Love , the energy is amazing and you can see how exhausted some of them are by the end. It's also got some great examples of competition tactics - watch Joanna Leunis (cropped blonde hair) and her partner Michael dance across two other couples. It's a common tactic to try and throw your competitors off their line! It's even worse in Ballroom when couples can try to box each other into a corner!

The music choices for the show dances seem odd. Do they choose themselves or is it another producer forced song?

Can't watch the final live

Am at work as is dh. We've agreed to take the night off next year

I'm guessing for the Show Dances that the Pros have to come up with their concept a few weeks in advance and then tell the producers what sort of music they want. A lot will come down to what can be butchered played by the band.

Someone has posted a link on Digital Spy of a couple in Dancing With The Stars dancing an Argentine Tango to the song that Jay and Aliona are using for their showdance - it looks good and makes me wonder if they are planning on going down that route. Will try and link.