SCD 2019 — Semi-finals, two dances but hope we don't fill two threads! (Spoiler free)

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

Last thread here.

The gets ever closer!

street-commersh-jazzwank also under S obvs

So they all ditch two each now. I thought it was going to be 3 each this year because of Judges' Mentoring Dance but it appears not. So... Karen ditched a speciality and a ballroom
Anton a speciality and a latin
Amy a latin and a ballroom
Oti a speciality and a ballroom

I think in the semis the dances they have been allocated are best for Oti (paso and quickstep both popular) then...
Karim (AT and AS might be good depends on choreo and faking it)
Anton (chacha may be slated, waltz will redeem)
Chris (BlokeRumbaCringe and DodgyViennese)

I hope Michelle and Saff are both at home with popcorn and voodoo dolls

Wow, I missed the spoiler debacle, thank God, after avoiding social media all day!

Really thought Chris was a goner there.

Roll on next week, can't imagine Karim doing an AT...

As someone else said on another forum, doing either Rumba or Argentine with your Mum is going to be bad

They did a rumba tango dance fusion in week 10 to With or without you.
I have not the vaguest memory of it.
Someone thought Karim would have been better using his contemporary training for the rumba. If they get a decent outside choreographer ahem Vincent they might be able to pull it off if he slows it down otherwise I can see his ganchos being more like Riverdance.
If I were a pro though I'd be grateful to have the pressure off wrt putting together the choreography and you can use VW or fox for Smooth can't you and his foxtrot was excellent so Amy has got a better chance really of polishing two dances in four days than the others?

So glad I was out tonight and so avoided the internet until after the show as I managed to avoid the spoiler drama ...

I think it was fair that Chris and Alex were in the DO, they were the lowest scores and neither was the dance it was supposed to be but I have to admit that I love watching Chris (and listening to his wife Rosie on their podcast get more annoyed the further he gets in the show!) and theres just something about Neil that I just dont like but I can't put my finger on exactly what it is ... so I didnt mind the outcome.

I would love to see Kelvin and Chris in the final - as two novices I think they have done well, especially Kelvin considering he was a last minute replacement (I wonder how far in Jamie Laing would have made it?!?!) - but I am not bothered which out of Karim/Emma joins them as they're both ringers - Karim gets on my nerves with his frenetic energy in everything (I'd love to see him have to do a slow, sensual rhumba for example) and Emma is good but forgettable, especially since her and Anton's strained relationship seems to make for awkward dances.

I do think that they need to at least even the dances out - maybe allow the dancers to decide the order they do the dances but they must alternate Latin/Ballroom each week and speciality to be limited to Blackpool and/or one of their two semi final dances. That way the core 10 dances are getting the priority, people aren't able to stack multiple Latin or ballroom back to back to avoid the style they arent as good/confident with and the speciality dances are reserved for later in the competition as a way to step up the complexity in the latter half of the competition.

Also stop with the need for every dance to have a theme/impractical costume (I wasnt a fan of Ashley last year but the troll costumes her and Pasha had to wear that hindered their movements was ridiculous and sticks out in my memory) Halloween/Movies and Musicals/Blackpool/Danceathon weeks allow for more than enough "theme/costume" opportunities so the rest of the weeks dont need them.

And finally, the music/song should suit the dance, be at the right speed/tempo and the singers should be able to sing it correctly because some music choices have been so ridiculously unsuitable that it hinders the dancers, for example Alex's samba this week was hindered by the theming as it seems like they had to try and fit the choreography with the theme rather than the theme with the choreography.

thank goodness I've got that off my chest!

I'd never heard of Alex before this show but now I'm a fan for life. She was delightful on Strictly. However I thought it would be her and Chris in the dance off. I'm glad the judges votes were not unanimous.

Can't wait for next Saturday.

Oti might well be going the way of Samba and Charleston in the final then making her freestyle foxtrotty (feather boa route) or sexy sultry (Argentine chest out route).

Nice thread.

I was sad to see Alex go tonight, but it gets to that stage where they have all done so well, it's sad whoever they are.

We're all different, but I can't warm to Emma and Anton. I wish she had had Jo Varney or Aliaj. I bet she does too.

I much prefer Motsi to Darcy.

I've no problem with a ringer, I love watching great dancing. I can't believe it's only two more weeks.

I just love it all.

Nah, vent away melj the new producer might take notes and go back to series 1 old school. Certainly the vts this year have been more to do with training than the usual comedy bollocks.
It did make for a more interesting DO Blue All judges bar Shirley had given both couples the same. The one point lead Chris had was down to Shirley so she stuck to her guns in the casting vote.
Difficult to call - neither had the real content tbh but both sold their routines fantastically well. I might have given it Alex myself. She could have done salsa and viennese with arm hankies in the semis. Though Neil might have made it a street viennese

Now I could have seen Aljaz with Emma and Tony Beak with the Viscountess ha! ha! marvellous. Gio is a slavedriver/puts in all hours like Oti so I cannot imagine that partnership going so well unless he moved into Albert Square. Might have ended up like Brenda-Sunetra.
I have a different pro for each dance in my head but from the bigger women (I am plus size) I think Aljaz did a lovely job with Alison so I would want him not sure he could do gapping with my belly

Aljaz is marvellous, he's so good with everyone, very kind.
Oti is my favourite female professional (used to be Natalie Lowe), she's a joy to watch and really gets the best out of her partners. I'm glad she is still in the running with Kelvin - he has been surprisingly good!

Great stuff in store on the next two weekends.

Yes, I wouldn't mind an Oti win #Dannywuzrobbed, especially as it amuses me she wins it on her sister's first outing as a judge: it's always funny how the fickle hand of fate works as had she been handed a ringer people would have cried unfair!, had Motsi been giving her 10s under other circumstances there would have been cries of favouritism but given Baron von Biscuit's injury, she really landed on her feet with Kelviteer. She is very good with those that can train hard. She was less good with duffers (on Let's Dance Germany).
It is time she and Gio had proper duffers though.
My favourite pro this year was Johannes - his charleston shrieks were joyous and I liked him from his work on South African DWTS. Karen and Janette have worn me down eventually- I do think Janette had a chance making the final with Will. The public love an underdog and he had a lot of goodwill. I wanted Chloe on the main show rather than just one special, Nancy looks...an interesting addition but my favourite female atm is probably still Katya despite some of the mania this series. Whilst I hated the end lift of Mike's paso I do think she tries some creative things they don't always work rather like Aliona did. She was my favourite pro for ages. Gleb had a terrific series with Anita.
On DWTS it was always Mark Ballas and Sharna for me. My favourite contestants who should have won were Lindsay Stirling and James Hinchcliffe. Mark was very creative and should have won an Emmy by now.

Michelle on twitter said she would have had Charleston and Waltz in the semis (ditching jive, Gio's favourite and AT). Thank you lavenderlady for this snippet.

Insomnia, don't mind me. I always forget salsa is speciality not party latin.
(Alex: B L L B S S S L L S (L#)
Chris: L S S L B L S B S L (B#) semis: L B
Emma: L B S B L B L S S B S semis: L B
Karim: L B L B S L B B S S L semis: S S
Kelvin: L B S L L B B S L S S semis: L B
#StreetSamba/MusicaltheatreFox

@KitchenDancefloor

Emma a time constrained pita?

I see that.

I think that time constrained should be replaced with constant though.

Should he rise above it? Maybe. But I suspect he is trying and failing.

A ballroom grin only works for the duration of the dance. Plus I’ll bet that gritted teeth is his normal expression in her company - a smile in those circumstances just makes you look like the tortoise in the Creature Comforts animations.

@iklboo if you loved Craig as Dolly. See if you can find him on YouTube doing lipsynk battle. He was fab-u-lous darling 😁

I don't understand how and why all the dances seem to be optional now, instead of compulsory. It's an unfair set up.

Me neither Vanya.

The whole set-up is losing it's unique attraction (I wasn't sure if "uniqueosity" was a word, so played safe ) and becoming just another "reality" show.

If it wasn't for the calming, informed and erudite comments on these threads, I'd stop watching.

Agree with every word of melj's post

I’ll bet that gritted teeth is his normal expression in her company

That's called a "rictus" Numbers. I think the Wikipedia description says it all:-

A highly characteristic, abnormal, sustained spasm of the facial muscles that appears to produce grinning. Risus sardonicus may be caused by tetanus, strychnine poisoning or Wilson's disease, and has been reported after judicial hanging

Well I've been awake all night and have read all the last thread (yes, every one of the thousand comments) and whatever has been written here as well.

I watched SCD with DS last week. It was the first time he had ever watched it.

He remarked that Emma's eyes were very scary.

Can I ask you all what a "ringer" is?

Rictus...….has been reported after judicial hanging

Mmmm.

Puts a new complexion on the expression "that'll wipe the smile off your face" but of course, if the smile is still there despite the hanging then it didn't actually work.

Watched both shows back to back late last night as been away for the weekend & catching up on threads this morning.

Really sad Alex is gone - so generous when she went. But I said to dh when watching her dance that the powers clearly wanted her gone. Not keen on Neil.

Switching my votes to Chris now.

Emma & Anton - clearly do not get on.

Cannot warm to Karim at all. That was not the best jive on strictly. Bruno you need to go to specsavers not the audience.

Kelvin hmm not sure.

I feel Motsi has been told not to critique the dances. Probably by Shirley, who I dislike.

Craig is the only judge for me.

TheMustress a ringer is someone who has had dance trading prior to the show, often in some cases attended stage school....(looking at you Karim) I don't mind a ringer, but hate it if they try to gloss over the prior experience, as that seems dishonest in a dance competition.

Sylvia Young school has dance as part of the admissions process, so Karim’s been dancing for ages. Mind you, it doesn’t irritate me anything like as much as Debbie McGee claiming being a professional ballet dancer didn’t give her an advantage. She seriously irritated me.

Am I the only one who doesn't really see frostiness between Emma and Anton?

I don’t think they are as close as say, Anton and Ruth were but I think they are getting on okay and seem more relaxed now. Reports are that he’s being less fun in training as he wants to win. Her lack of time to train I think was an issue in the beginning and I suspect frustrated him when others are doing 12 hour days.