Strictly '22 Thread 5 — Grab your popcorn and snuggle up with Neil in the back row of the cinema...

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

Previous thread here

As always, a reminder that this is a SPOILER-FREE THREAD, so please don't comment on the result before the result show.

Thanks for new thread Polka.

I think Matt is likely to be in the dance off again, with one of Ellie T, Richie (please), and James. If Hamza did end up in the DO the judges would save him over any of the others listed here, I think.

Rainbowcat99 · Yesterday 23:45
I've just watched Ritchie's dance again, they actually barely danced because they spent so long wiggling around the judges. I'm disappointed as they're much better than that.

I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing, all that faffin’ abaht as Len would certainly have said. I did wonder at the start if Joe Varney was expecting an early exit and planning a holiday, so maybe, since Richie’s been doing well up to this point, he’s trying to fast forward to the end.

I agree - or perhaps he's just very earnest and is taking the process very seriously as opposed to Tony who at least looks like he is having fun and comes across to me as somewhat humble.

I hope Tony has a breakthrough dance, so that he can stop being made the 'joke' contestant (I think it was Michael Vaughan who took a few weeks to settle in a few years back and then had a breakthrough ballroom dance).

Yes, I think Richie and Giovanni spent too long being silly with the judges.
Ellie T just never seemed to get into the dance at all.

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · Today 08:04
...Tony’s dance was much less of a car crash than I feared. Katya is some kind of a mad genius sometimes!

She’s a great choreographer and always seems so genuinely pleased with her partners’ progress, whatever their standard of dance, and I love that about her.

I am probably off, but Tony Adams looked quite uncomfortable being exposed last night. He covered up really quickly at the end (and he's in good shape!) He seemed to take a real breath for courage before losing his trousers.

Katya is quite brilliant, and manages to bring out the skills in her partner so well. I think Nikita is also fantastic with Ellie S, that was a lovely routine.
Oti was like that as well.

Thought Tony was awesome and just gave it his all , brilliant !

Cant stand Ritchie and the way the beeb ram him down everyones throat at any opportunity desperate to tick their diversity boxes

Good show overall

I'm not aware of the Beeb "ramming Richie down everyone's throat" as I'd never heard of him before.
I am aware of a lot of negativity towards him on this thread. He seems like a harmless person to me, just doing his best.

I really liked Tyler, Kym, Tony, Helen, Ellie S, Will, Fleur, Molly.

Thought Hamza, Matt, Jayde were ok and entertaining.

Least favourites were James, Ellie T and Richie.

Len used to pull the dancers up on ‘faffing about’ at the start and not getting on with the dance. Come back Len!

Strictly does seem to have gone down the tick box route. I’m all for diversity but it has possibly become more about that(cynic in me thinks for publicity as viewers drop) than the dancing.

Yes, I'd never heard of him till Strictly and don't get the hate. He seems like a nice chap having fun. The routine wasn't great but it made me smile, which is pretty much what I watch Strictly - some cheer as the dark nights close in.

Richie's problem isn't that he ticks diversity boxes. It's that he's just really fucking annoying because he's hyper and won't shut up. He's great for radio. Rumours are that Giavanni and him have failed to click because Richie is so full on and won't calm down. It does make me wonder if they drew the short straw with the laughing cow costumes because they aren't doing the work they should and it hides a multitude of sins.

why should anyone feel sympathy for Matt?

To be fair to Ritchie, I don't think the "OMG it's two men dancing together, how amazingly diverse we are!" narrative has been overplayed for them at all. The show has been there and done that last year. They're just getting on with the dancing.

Ritchie is what he is, a camp, gay overexcitable mixed race Brummie. Not to everyone's taste, to put it mildly, but that's just who he is, and he's not being rammed down people's throats by putting him on screen any more than James is being pushed down people's throats as a standard bearer for amazingly boring straight white blokes.

That samba however was a shocker, and although I'm not a dance expert, I can't see how his action was any better than Tony's.

Richie is on Zoe Ball breakfast show Radio 2 where she raves about him. He was also presenting on The Commonwealth Games from Birmingham. Not sure what else but he does seem to have come from nowhere to high profile. Well done to him.

Rumours are that Giavanni and him have failed to click because Richie is so full on and won't calm down

Giovanni's whole persona is built around being a ladies' man and gazing at his partner with those melting eyes of his!!
I feel like, with a male partner his energy is a bit all over the place because he's having to relate differently and is uncomfortable. They've vehemently denied rumours that they're not getting on so maybe we'll see a connection grow as they get used to each other?

I wondered about that @Rainbowcat99 . I wonder do the dancers have to agree to dance with either sex partner. I can see that would be very difficult if you are straight.

Ritchie is what he is, a camp, gay overexcitable mixed race Brummie. Not to everyone's taste, to put it mildly, but that's just who he is, and he's not being rammed down people's throats by putting him on screen any more than James is being pushed down people's throats as a standard bearer for amazingly boring straight white blokes.

But the Strictly scouts aren’t actively hunting for the latter. They just fill up the spaces. I think the problem is that it seems too robotic now: here is our gay celeb, here is our celeb of colour, etc, etc. Look at us ticking our diversity boxes! We would never see Rose, Ellie S and Lauren Steadman all competing in the same year, for example, but this year we have at least four (can’t remember everyone of the top of my head) straight white blokes competing.

From what I've heard they're generally quite keen to dance in same sex partnerships as they tend to have that extra attention on them. Plus same sex partnerships are quite common in ballroom dancing and are not really about sexuality. So I'm guessing that it's not that he actively didn't want to do it and more that he is just unsure of himself without his ladies' man persona.

That samba however was a shocker, and although I'm not a dance expert, I can't see how his action was any better than Tony's.

i thought it was worse. I don't think he had any at all.

i can't work out the judge's scores at all for last night.

If you don’t need to feel sexually aligned with a dance partner to tell a story though dances, why do gay celebs need to be matched with a same sex partner? Genuinely confused on that.

ie Ritchie had none.

and judges' - misplaced apostrophe!

They don't "need" to be. It's more a case of they want to be.

Jayde isn't gay for example.