Is there a Strictly 2018 thread yet?

[xsquared]

Lots of rumours of who is going to be on but none confirmed as far as I know.

It’ll be more Ringers than not at this rate!

Will be watching Kevins hair transplant with interest to see if it has got any better or worse

Ashley Roberts from Pussycat Dolls just been announced - we have our ringer

We now have three ringers: Faye Danny and Ashley.
I want Kevin to dance with Ashley to goad the haters and to piss off Karen i am not a very mature person

Are Kevin and Karen no longer married?

Well seeing as one Pussycat Doll (Nicole) won DWTS and another one (Kimberley) was a judge on a dance show, I think it’s safe to say they had plenty of training .

A quick look at her CV says she started dancing aged 3, studied modern dance as a teenager, obv her career as a Pussycat Doll, and has been a judge on DOI.

Thursday they announced they had separated earlier this year (though rumours were rife during the 2017 series) but they are still dancing/touring together.

Karen can have Leefromblue - she's 36 he's 35
Ashley is 36 Kev's 35
It can be a dance-off/who has the better showmance to the end...

Faye’s 42, so whilst she’s younger than me I wouldn’t class her as “younger”. I’m sure there’ll be larger/older women to come - there always are, but there’s a general suspicion that TPTB would like to see a female winner so will load this series with a whole heap of women with dance potential in the hope that the GBP will find at least one of them likeable. I’m betting that Joe Sugg will dance like a laundry airer falling downstairs.

We really need a female winner this year - come on women, vote for women rather than the young men you take a fancy to! Joe should have been an also-ran last year IMHO. Neil & Katya's choreo was what won it for that couple. It should have been Debbeh's year, that would have been the best outcome.

Thanks Cavemum.
I know so many of them manage it but it must be so hard to carry on professionally under such circumstances.

I’m still shocked that Joe won last year, and totally agree that it was the choreography that won it for them.

Ashley and Danny can slug it out for cat-related songs (Lovecats, Black cat etc) but my money would usually be on Ashley being forced to recycle: What's new pussycat?
Sadly this might sabotage my Kevin-Ashley fauxmance stylings as he has already choreoed to that song with Frankie.

I am not shocked that Joe won.
The two better female dancers happened to be the two least liked, judging from the comments here and on social media.
Gemma was not, IMO, finalist material either, let alone a winner.

Karen can have Leefromblue - she's 36 he's 35
Ashley is 36 Kev's 35
It can be a dance-off/who has the better showmance to the end

You have thought about that FAR TOO MUCH

Ashley Roberts is going to spend her time saying well Ballroom is a totally different discipline it isn't the same as every otger dance i have done for 30 years

Maybe Ashley will catch all the flack, leaving the field clear for Faye.

Ashley looks like classic box office poison to me - but OTOH Abbey Clancy won, and I’d never in a million years have pegged her as likely to win the hearts of the SCD audience, so anything can happen.

Ashley came second on imaceleb one year she is a total sweetheart she isn't as annoying as Nicole thingy.

Oh mrsjayy you don't know the half of it!
Fortunately I have a husband who is an absolute saint when it comes to humouring me. He now sends me tunes via whatsapp with ''A jive?'' etc next to them. I have trained that boy well.
ha! Sounded like Brenda then given ''This boy'' DH is in his late forties

It does irritate me when people try and make out that dancing in one genre is TOTALLY different to another - your control of your body, your flexibility, your musicality, your fitness, your brain's ability to learn choreo and to learn it from someone else demonstrating it all helps to learn a new dance well. I'd love someone to show me an example of someone dancing brilliantly in one genre and being rubbish in ballroom - there are none. OK, some find it hard to shake off hiphop/pop moves like aston but it really puts them at a big advantage. I'm not saying they shouldn't be in strictly, though, as we can't just watch rubbish/medicore dancing for a good few weeks before people improve!

I don't really mind them thatcan dance just some of them go all coy with faux modesty and that gets right on my wick.

It's a difficult line tbh...
mock humble - accusations of false/misrepresentation
confidence - accusations of arrogance
nerves - highly annoying and does not wash with an ex-performer
Any experience is held against you/the backlash itself is a handicap.
(Natalie G, Denise, Alexandra)
I did not see it but did Faye not own it, being a ringer, if she did...along the lines of hell, yes, and I want to go far then she gets a vote from me

I think (going back a bit!) Rachel Stevens trod that line quite well didn't she? She didn't annoy me at any rate. And people loved her with Vincent which would have helped.

I think in some ways there is a bit less pressure on the sportspeople — they should have stamina and be willing to train a lot, but there isn't that "of course they can already dance" thing there.

I feel like Ashley is far more of a ringer than Faye, Steps did dance routines sure, but they weren't exactly dancing IYSWIM... more sort of stepping in time with a lot of armography, although she has had more experience of dance through doing musicals on stage. Whereas the PussyCat Dolls were specifically a Dance Troupe, Ashley is very much a trained dancer and a professional since her teens albeit not specifically ballroom. PCD only became a vocal group when they deliberately headhunted Skirtswinger and a couple of others who could actually sing.

I like the sound of the line up generally though, because even if I don't agree with having trained dancers on the show I DO like both Ashley and Faye as people.

I have no idea who half (ok, more than half) of these people are, but reading the above, I'd like it if that Ashley gets voted off first for being a RINGER (capitals intended).

Hardly a level playing field.

It’s pretty much mathematically impossible for a ringer to be voted off in the first four weeks, even if they get literally zero viewer votes

Aston went quite early to be fair - one duff routine is all it takes, sometimes.

There are always celebs (I use that word advisedly some years) with dance training and/or musical theatre experience or trying to get in to musical theatre as a career after SCD so there are always 'ringers'. It is a dance show - you don't want everyone stumbling around week after week.

As for matching the celebs with the pros - it is done on height.