Strictly 2023 Thread 2 - Let's Take To The Floor NO SPOILERS

[EineReiseDurchDieZeit]

Carry on!

I think the best seats in the house are on the sofa!

I just see individual professional shows in smaller venues I don't think I'd like the full strictly tour because there will be partnerships I'm not keen on and areanas are too big !

From what I've read, the pros get a flat rate of about 50,000, which is good money for four months work by civilian standards, but not life changing. Whether it's a good rate per hour depends on how long your celeb stays in.

The bonus comes in the way that it changes your status to "celebrity" - there are a load of commercial opportunities that come with being a Strictly pro. And I think the tour pays well.

Songs and dances are out on the BBC Strictly FB page.

Quite a few cha cha chas, but there are a couple of showcase style dances, that I think should be saved until the contestant has developed more confidence.

I saw the dances were up some of the songs I dont know 😳 I've got to the out of touch stage of life 😄

In the good old days, everybody had to do either a waltz or a cha cha in week one, coz they were considered the 'easiest' ballroom and Latin dances. Probably less exciting for viewers but fairer for contestants.I don't think anybody should have to do a samba or a jive in week one or two

I liked that least you knew where you were I struggle to keep up and it doesn't seem that they get equal .Ballroom/Latin

Yes, I remember everyone doing the waltz or cha cha for the first two weeks - easier/fairer for the judges to score. And when the AT was saved for the semi-final (think that was the first year they included it). And the “Couples Choice” and Charleston always score highly, so it’s not very fair to include them so early.

That said, Jay and Aliona’s jive was their Week 2 dance!

I always think its unfair when couples have a more popular or fun dance which will entertain the viewers at home up against a less so dance so get kept in.
The music choice helps hugely too.

Hamza had a waltz right at the beginning and he was so graceful that everyone fell in love with him.

Jay's jive was week three: movie week.

An eye catching Charleston might get a dodgy dancer through the early weeks but if you've got a contender then you're best advised to get the boring / difficult/lower scoring/won't suit you dances over with early and save the ones in which you'll shine for the sharp end of the competition.

It's so much easier to compare people when they are on the same dance. I would love a return to week 1 half waltz half Cha cha cha week two swap over. When you have multiple different dances it can be hard to get a feel for what level they are at. I'm not surprised to see Layton has what is considered a hard dance for celebs - it feels like an attempt to mask just how good he is.

Don’t get me started on the way dances are allocate now! I’m very much an advocate of Week 1 half do Waltz and half do Cha Cha Cha and no one’s goes home. Then Week 2 they swap and the first person gets voted off.

And yes please save the AT until at least after Halloween!

If they did it this way they’d be able to do a VT of (say) Anton demonstrating a Waltz, with figur# for the viewer to watch out for, and Shirley or Motsi dancing a Cha Cha Cha.

I’d also be restricting the figures danced in the first few weeks to no higher than Silver to make sure they master the basics, but then again I’m a boring old fart!

'If they did it this way they’d be able to do a VT of (say) Anton demonstrating a Waltz, with figur# for the viewer to watch out for, and Shirley or Motsi dancing a Cha Cha Cha.

I’d also be restricting the figures danced in the first few weeks to no higher than Silver to make sure they master the basics, but then again I’m a boring old fart!'

I would LOVE all of this! I suspect we're in the minority though 😁

I’d also be restricting the figures danced in the first few weeks to no higher than Silver to make sure they master the basics, but then again I’m a boring old fart!'

What figures? What silver?
I’m completely missing something somewhere along the line… please explain :)

I’m one of those who is glad they DO have a variety of dances each week. I do take the point that it’s harder to compare and is more unfair on those who have a harder dance style, but I would find watching 7 cha cha chas and 8 waltzes really boring.

I know nothing about dancing though and I just want to be entertained. I vote for whoever’s dances I like best, which may or may not be the best dancer.

I vote for the ones who make me cry, the ones who move me with their dances. Still can’t watch Rose and Gio’s “silent” dance without weeping!

@Bluffinwithmymuffin sorry for using technical speak! So each of the main ballroom/Latin dances each have their own syllabus which is followed when you are taking dance exams or competing. They’re usually graded Pre-Bronze, Bronze, Silver and Gold. If you restrict the choreography within the dance syllabus then it means people have to focus on the basics of each dance rather than pulling out the flashier looking moves which are higher up the syllabus.

Within the syllabus, each dance move is called a “figure”. You might have heard reference to names of the figures within a particular dance. So a “New York” is a basic figure in both Cha Cha Cha and Rumba; a “Volta” is a figure in Samba, etc.

I should add that “basic” doesn’t have to mean “boring”, you can still have a great dance with basic figures, it’s all about how you put them together and how well they are danced.

'Still can’t watch Rose and Gio’s “silent” dance without weeping!'

I don't have much time for all the weepy 'journey' stuff and dedicating dances to dead relatives etc, but that was a truly emotional moment - really beautiful and so creative

I don't mind watching 7 cha cha chas and waltzes, as the different music and choreography will make it unique enough.

For me, it's more the wasted opportunities for outstanding performances when you get a "wow" dance out in the early weeks.

Nigel Harman has a Paso Doble in week 1, which I think is ambitious for a first dance. What makes this more unfortunate is that Aston Merrygold did an amazing PD also to Smells Like Teen Spirit in week 7 (before that disastrous Vienese Waltz the following week), so I think it will be tempting to compare unfavourably.

I think it's ok to list the dances we normally do on this thread.

Yes, we always discuss the songs and dances on here. If the BBC have publicly announced something then it's not a spoiler.

I've always wanted someone to tango to Don't You Want Me on Strictly ....... Never thought it would be Les Dennis, though. (Plus, when Graziano is a dead ringer for Phil Oakey you'd think .... Oh, never mind.)

My favourite dance is the quickstep and my pet peeve is when a quickstep is squandered on a dreary modern song. Safe to say I'm not excited about Eddie and his potential doing one to a Phil Collins tune.

I also don't like twee pop songs for foxtrots. I'm sure even the younger celebs would rather look like they were in the Rat Pack than in an Impulse Body Spray advert. (Not that anyone young would actually remember the Impulse Body Spray adverts.)

A cha cha to Boom-Shack-a-Lak might give Krishnan the kind of impact that pushes him through the first weeks of the competition. But I hope they don't Mike Bushell him.

They need to find some new waltz songs. Some of them have been recycled five or six times already.

I haven't actually heard of a lot of the songs because I am old enough to remember the aforesaid Impulse Body Spray adverts and Phil Oakey. Ballroom dances to newer songs (Lewis Capaldi, etc.) always end up being a bit wishy-washy, don't they?

Does anyone else listen to the Parenting Hell podcast? This week’s guest is Ed Balls and as well as talking about Strictly a bit, he also said that his family had taken in a Ukrainian family.

One of the children in the family was an Under 11s ballroom/Latin champion back home in Ukraine so they arranged that the child’s dance partner’s (can’t remember if it’s the girl’s family living with them or the boy’s family) family were found a host family 10 minutes away so that the children could continue to practice together and they’ve been competing around the U.K. in the last year or so.

He said it was his wife Yvette’s idea, I had no idea they’d done that! Not sure if they knew the child was a dancer before the family was placed with them or if it came to light later.