Strictly Come Dancing 2016 - Glitterballs ready?

[SheHasAWildHeart]

First 'celebrity' confirmed:
Ed Balls

Please don't be sorry, his Latin's not very good! but all his partners bar one have had lovely things to say about him. Plus some of the others pros' ballroom is shaky. Besides, this is his last series I reckon.

Autocorrect hates Gleb

Anton reminds me of rob brydon as uncle Bryn in Gavin and Stacey.

I really think that Tony is very good with the unknowns. He clearly doesn't give a shit. Has his dancing/celeb career and is an excellent ballroom dancer. As much as it pains me to say it .

There's something very unattractive about him, but I can't articulate what!

Love love strictly .... So glad it's back.

DS was very keen too and excited about Will Young being on it after hearing me chatting to DH about who was taking part the other week .... Cue tonight and Will's appearance - DS looks perplexed , confused even and I say but you wanted to see him & DS says - that's not Will - DH and I really confused until he adds - it's not Will from the Voice ! Now theres an option for next year WillIam

BeaLola Ha! I'd love to see that

Anton is an excellent teacher, when he was still an amateur he used to come and be a guest instructor at the kid's summer school my teacher ran (as did Len many years ago) and she always said he was great with the kids.

Sadly this was all before I started my dance lessons with her

He us beginning to stick out a bit in some of the dances though because they are much more Latin than ballroom.

Did anyone else think jay and Aliona looked really awkward together? Their body language was very odd, didn't look at each other or touch each other and he practically had his arms folded at one point.

I think they get rid of the pros when they start attracting a lot of tabloid attention.

I missed it and not in UK so no iPlayer

Might resort to furtive internet activity

Highlights?

Jay looked out of form and was out of breath at the end. I think his extra weight made it difficult for him to dance. I got the impression he didn't want to be there.

Anton impressed me in the latin pro group dance.
But most of all I liked the short black guy's dancing and the short black woman's - both giving it welly .
They did not have to show any ballroom styles, though, so we'll have to wait and see.

Greg looked awkward.

I'm hoping it's just that he has a lot of limb to learn how to control! I think his ballroom should look good.

Anton is an excellent teacher

Do you think that's why he often gets a duffer? Perhaps he is the one they think will bring the best out of them and won't make them look stupid.

Greg has such a nice face and smile but thought he looked awkward on his run up for the long jump in the Olympics.
I think we could have IT2 following the celebs progress from the start for the next 3 weeks as I have withdrawal symptoms now and don't want to wait that long..

Some of the younger professionals in the past have been very strict and rather impatient. There have been a few passive aggressive comments by past celebrities.

Every time I hear a celebrity say "I need someone who's hard on me" I think huh??? I mean if you've signed up for Strictly you're surely on board to do the work and you know it's not something you can coast through. Why give someone permission to basically bully you?

I would definitely choose an Anton type to teach me.

Or maybe Pascha. He's lovely.

Pasha is lovely and aliash too.

They definitely don't like the celebrities getting a lot of tabloid attention. Apparently the producers were unhappy with Gleb last year because of it, so don't expect a saucy calendar from any of these new pros.

I think Anton probably does get the duffers for that reason. He's also one of the few pros that will stick to basic choreography to help the celebs rather than sticking loads of complicated steps in to make himself look good.

Always far better to the basics well than complicated steps badly.

I think the reason Anton gets the duffers is because he's not prepared to do the hours it would take with a "serious" contender. That's why last year I think he got a bit of a shock that Katie was really quite good- he had to come up with dances in the latter stages that he had never done before and which don't suit him.

Tbf, when he signed up he didn't have to do half of them

He also doesn't normally do tons of lifts and gymnastics cos of his own age. So that would be very appealing to someone with a hip replacement

Mind you, he worked his arse off in the final weeks with Katie. Lots of fast lifts he hadn't done in years. But I reckon he wouldn't fancy that every year!

I'm not sure where the lifts have come from in the salsa, those never used to be there! But now if anybody were to do a salsa without lifts it might look a bit boring in comparison with the others, even if they're actually a better dancer.

I predict daisy will be first off. Ore to win.

I think it happened when everyone realised it needed to be an "entertainment" show rather than a dancing show.

Much to Lens chagrin.

I don't understand why Aliona was axed. She was a brilliant dancer and came across as very professional. Have I missed something?