Strictly '22 #15 Balls to the ⚽️. Its all about the Glitter Ball!

[xsquared]

Welcome to the shiny new thread.

One less day to wait for the next installment of Strictly!

I'll grump right along side you. I agree with all of that. I think Hamza's achievements have been remarkable, and that's what this competition is supposed to be about. Have watched back the Samba a few times now - as a pp suggested, I watched it back without the music first, and you can see how much content there is in there. Then I watched with the music - which was beautiful - and I just found it quite moving and almost like a piece of modern dance. The overall effect for me felt like it was a show dance because of the slow music, but the Samba was all in there.

Agree with @Ellmau for me, Helen Skelton (girl next door, sheep, mam and dad, Blue Peter etc) doing a dance like that makes it MORE verging on sleaze than if someone like Fleur or Kym had done it. And Gorka's revolting arse antics didn't help. I do think about the whole "family friendly" USP of SCD gets thrown out of the window when it suits them. Tony Adams via Claudia has to officially apologise for saying "shit" before the watershed (a "shit" that most people wouldn't even have heard, I didn't) yet Gorka is crawling round on all fours with his arse in the air (and provoking Craig with it) "why is that male dancer on his hands and knees like a dog and showing the male judge his bottom Mummy" is amazing. Nah.

I know what Cabaret is. I know what Berlin nightclubs were about. But rather than a "two fingers to her ex" <eye roll> (because it's something else I'm pig sick of hearing about) it just left me feeling the ick. (and as others have said, if you look at the "dance", there wasn't much- but that's the price we pay for CC and the double whammy following the Beyonce CC. )

I'll be honest. i can't be bothered with any of the contestants that are left except Hamza. (I must remember to vote for him this week)
It must be very hard for Molly and Fleur to find out that the public don't really like them. Also there's nothing unique about them. I don't remember their dances week to week. Especially Molly.

I am Hamza and Fleur.

molly I just can’t take to. I’m not sure if it’s the partnership or the earlier cheesy dances. I do feel for her though, it can’t be easy for her but she handles the bottom two voting with grace.

I think I’m one of the few who prefer sleaze to cheese. I loved Helen’s this week. I love Cabaret and was due to see it locally just before covid hit. Now it would be travel, time off, overnight stays and expense. Gutted.

i prefer hamza
i try to like helen fleur and molly for a variety of reasons
dont even try to like will

wow just watched giovanni and georgia's charlston
that was fab
and the music was better!

Will is so so desperate to win, when he was waiting for the results he had his head pressed against Nancy's as if his life depended on it.

I’m afraid I would have the thrust of Cabaret over nose booping.

I don’t mind who wins really - I liked Will before it started so I can’t say I’d mind if he won. Hamza has been grand to watch - I didn’t like this week though.

For me, Molly and Fleur are mostly forgettable. Astoundingly beautiful dancing by numbers. I’m not fond because I want to feel something.

Helen? She has grown on me. Which surprises me greatly as I’d been used to changing channels.

I do think it will be a Molly/Fleur dance off. Mainly because they’ve been there a lot and unless anything disastrous happens, I believe the judges will put Fleur through.

Helen can't do anything right can she? A couple of weeks ago she was too twee and boring, now she's too sleazy. She didn't choreograph it, just danced it.

I wasn't expecting to like Helen I've found her irritating in the past with her skimpy presenting outfits on the Olympics! But I really like her. She's my winner.

I found Helen's routine difficult to watch – I suppose the whole Weimar cabaret thing always makes me feel queasy, thinking of Otto Dix and George Grosz etc... all that suffering, damage and moral decay. Maybe it's the perfect style for expressing anger and bitterness, etc if you want to cock a snook at your ex, but it makes for uneasy viewing – for me, more sad than triumphant, and showing how raw it all is, like the musical equivalent of one of those letters you're supposed to write and not send in the aftermath of deep hurt.

I love Cabaret and I think Helen did a good job. I don't get the inappropriate stuff. Strictly is on early but it's hardly porn!

However MN relationships board is all about not doing the Pick Me dance and I felt that's exactly what that was rather than 2 fingers. "See I can be sexy and raunchy so you shouldn't have left me" a bit sad for her if that's the case. I hope it isn't 💔

i like a bit of gritty realism @Alcemeg and someone to tell it like it sometimes is.

and there’s no denying she sent it recorded delivery and looked breathtaking doing it.

I saw it more like - you may have left me with young children, you may have broken my heart but look at me now, I’ve bounced back and I’m gorgeous.

and dancing with a right sexy man who is showing me off.

Yes, I think that's the idea, and there's no doubt that she did it spectacularly well! I just have mixed feelings about it (partly the Weimar associations). I suppose in my ideal SCD world she'd be floating like a fairy, showering gentle blessings on whatever comes next 😁 and the lovely Gorka would act less like he's down the Bulldog pub in Brighton 😉

I rewatched Helen and gorka and it left me a bit cold. It was ok, but it wasn’t amazing. She isn’t a very natural dancer so the flow was missing a bit, her lines could extend a bit more, her hands a bit prettier. It was all a bit placed with lots of walking, posing and slightly lacking in actual dance content for me.

for that reason, I don’t actually think it was very sexy because it was a little bit wooden.

if she comes back with a total Ginger Rogers number next week or two it’ll be perfect.

she needs a stunning, classic ball gown, feather trim and demure bodice. Gorks in tails, beautiful music and a dance to die for.

Totally agree. Something that shows off her elegance and can cover up her lack of dancing a bit.

just rewatched Georgia may Foote and giovanni’s Charleston which was almost perfect and got the same score as Helen. Soooo much better, much cleaner lines and so much content.

I don’t think it was a pick me dance either.

it was a ‘you picked wrong’ one.

But a beautiful ball gowny/tails dance would be splendid to put that cherry on.

Back in the days when they had no dance-off (series 1-4 and series 7&8) the good dancers still tended to make it through, with the odd shock and perhaps an increased fighting chance for a journey contestant who'd connected with the public to survive longer. If the dance-off were scrapped then there'd probably be a few contestants whom I personally liked going out earlier (like Mark Benton and Mr Charles Venn) but, in all, I don't see the point of steamrollering someone like Molly through the show when the public aren't that interested in watching them.

All this talk about sleaze vs. Disney, also back in the day the ballroom dances were more sophisticated, the latins were more camp, and a lot of the female pro costumes were definitely more 'something for the dads.' (I always find it uncomfortable that they made the female pros have different hair colours, like they were offering up a few brunettes and blondes and one or two redheads.) Nowadays the show seems to lurch between warthog onesies and Sex Marigolds, with not enough in between.

Hamza is basically BBC viewer catnip: middle-class, educated, doctor parents, lives in the countryside, goes to ceilidhs, tosses cabers, plays rugby, and (to make him just perfect) he's a wildlife film-maker. He's a Nice Young Man, and he can really dance, not in an instantly good stage-school way, but because he's obviously a good student, and we love a good student. He should do his showdance to Sailing Away, with Jowita dressed as Valerie Singleton and the Christmas Radio Times as the backdrop.

I want Hamza to win, Helen and Molly 2nd and 3rd. Who comes fourth, don't really care (not that we ever get given the order or votes which annoys me).
It will probably be the Dance Off Assassins next week Molly (5x) vs Fleur (4x) including week 12. I'd prefer it to be Will and have the three women through, but he has never been in the bottom two.
I have enjoyed the series but not had that many on replay.
Jayde's samba, Richie's QS, Tony's samba, Hamza's salsa/tango/cc/samba,
Helen's jive/cc, Molly's tango were my favourites. I liked how they made me feel and the latter two, costume and music.

Show dance for me is whoever does a great medley. Mine would either be to Metro Station's Shake it or Miley's See you again because I could do tango/paso in the verses then jive/salsa in the choruses. Not that I haven't got it all choreographed in my head already, oh no!

Hamza is basically BBC viewer catnip: middle-class, educated, doctor parents, lives in the countryside, goes to ceilidhs, tosses cabers, plays rugby, and (to make him just perfect) he's a wildlife film-maker. He's a Nice Young Man, and he can really dance, not in an instantly good stage-school way, but because he's obviously a good student, and we love a good student. He should do his showdance to Sailing Away, with Jowita dressed as Valerie Singleton and the Christmas Radio Times as the backdrop.
Helen grew up on a dairy farm just like me and I can't bloody abide her for some reason.

Your last paragraph made me lol. PLEASE write to them and suggest it!
And I agree 100% with your second. I remember it all seemed a bit wtf with female professionals having to change their hair whereas the men didn't. Brown anyone? (I'm also now musing if all those sleb Dads who supposedly love SCD better than their own children still come over all fast and furious if they even think the words Ola and Jordan together.)

Me too. Brava 👏

Lol at ola Jordan too. That dance she did with Kenny (I think) where he stood still the whole routine and she danced around him like he was a pole and she was a pole dancer, clad just in her scanties.

aliona and flavia both no stranger to a skimpy outfit too

Oh my days, the hair dye, yes...poor Aliona and poor Jo Clifton. Emma Slater had the same on DWTS and Shana was flame-haired for years. Dianne doesn't seem to mind but it is weird how the GBP allegedly cannot differentiate between pros.
Although didn't Motsi say all Italians looked the same to her or some such this year and I have seen it on here and telly addicts drama threads when viewers cannot remember who anyone is
Karen, I assume, has changed her hairstyles over the years by choice. The less said about bright blonde Gorks look the better (except it work as Ken if they ever do Barbie girl for film week).