SCD week two and on!

[ThursdayLastWeek]

As you were ladies...

I love the street versions of these dances so much, the tango above and a samba or salsa a bit further up. They are just so much more real and lovely.

Are there any more street versions that are good?

That's what a good AT should make you feel Maryz!

This one is another beautiful performance and the woman very clearly dmonstrates the classic AT posture, with the woman almost leaning on her partner.

Enid the ten traditional Ballroom/Latin dances have written syllabus' (syllabi ?!) so you'll tend not to find them being danced freely off the competition floor.

Dances like Salsa and AT are what are known as "Social" dances (i.e. You could dance them with anyone in a club) so are much more relaxed and informal. There have been a few attempts to formalise them by writing a syllabus, but these are considered more "guidelines" than hard and fast rules.

Wow that's lovely. And was it in the UK? It looked like it was with the phone boxes but the announcer was speaking Spanish...

Any more? Are they proper traditional ATs?

Ah interesting
When they are on the street I can imagine they really are lovers but when it's in a competition it's fabulous too but they are just there to win a competition really, aren't they? It's not so heartfelt.

Both the AT's I posted were filmed in Buenos Aires.

Head to You Tube and search "street Argentine Tango" and I promise you'll get lost for hours

There's another dance style that is very similar to AT called "Milonga", which is also lovely to watch.

One anecdote I heard about AT is that in Argentina the men fall over themselves to dance with the older women as they're considered more experienced! No idea how true that is, but it's a lovely sentiment

So in those street videos are they professional dancers? Or just amateurs? Can we fly some over here for strictly?!

I think one of the marks of a rumba and AT that I look forward to is the change in pace throughout the dance, so there are ultra slow bits and sudden quick bits right back into a slow bit. If they are paced the same throughout, neither dance seems right, be it all slow or all quick.

Enid at guess I'd say amateurs, but no way of knowing for sure. There are a few AT festivals in Buenos Aires and during those the streets are filled with dancers, I'd assume most of them are amateur but a few will be Pros.

Quite often the Pros look a bit "too polished", these dances are quite earthy and should look natural - more a conversation between two people than a fixed routine.

MrsJamin, I know what you mean, Joanna Leunis is a perfect example of the way changes in speed can be used without losing the rhythm of the dance.

these dances are quite earthy and should look natural - more a conversation between two people than a fixed routine.

Ooh I like this.

Here's Joanna dancing a Rumba

I want to be her when I grow up

song and dance list here (with links to the songs )

opener

spot the Strictly gossip
Alexandra was announcing that she is "in love with" Gorka on It Takes 2, ahem.

Thanks for the music list herecomesthesun!

I keep wondering who's going to dance to Ed Sheerhan's new song. The first time I heard Perfect, earlier in the year, my first thought was "sounds like a perfect song for a Viennese Waltz on Strictly"!

Oh Joe Mcfadden is doing Laras theme from Dr Zhivago I will probably swoon off my sofa 😁

I'm SO glad I'm not the only one who hears a tune on the radio and thinks 'ooooh, that'd be a great on Strictly'.

I can't help but think with the dance choices this week the celebs are being given unequal chances of success. Ruth with rumba and Susan with samba, such hard dances when they could both do with being in hold for a ballroom dance a bit more to build their confidence. Compare to Debbie having another ballroom and Aston another Latin, it seems like they want Susan and Ruth to slip up!

I am hearing this complaint about Debbie having easy dances a lot and I don't get it. She started the entire series with the Paso. I am no expert but history tells me that this has been the hardest dance for celebs to do. It's often been the undoing of a lot of very good dancers.

cowgirls, the thing with Paso is that the footwork/foot positions are very similar to Ballroom dances - it's the odd one out in the Latin group. Also it's very much the man's dance, all about him showing off.

So essentially she has had 3 similar dances in a row, 2 "in hold" right after one another.

Surely if Giovanni really wanted to get Debbie to the final he’d try and get some of the dances that she’d find trickier out of the way early when she’s got lots of cannon fodder below her in the leader board to protect her.

People saying that Debbie’s ballet training may hold her back from performing well in some aspects of the Latin dances are forgetting that after she left the Iranian ballet she was a jobbing hoofer in a dance troupe for a year doing generic musical theatre/disco/jazz routines.

Honestly, I still think Aston is the #1 ringer. He's half Debbie's age, for a start.

I think he's being even more disingenuous than Debbie, and it's driving me mad. I know he'll get to the final......whereas we don't know that about Debbie. Historically >50s are voted out at some stage, despite being good.