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

[EineReiseDurchDieZeit]

Carry on!

Layton is so annoying. They couldn't pair him with JoJo as he would, inappropriately for a family audience, look like his twink.

I think it could be a great year. There was some terrible dad dancing from some of the men, but it's harder for the men especially in the early stages.

Some one early posted they hoped Nikita (pro) would tame down Layton a bit but given he mentioned he is going to “Laytonise” all the dances I don’t think that is going to happen.

He will score top of the leader board (pro dancer etc… plus the judges love camp over technique) so it won’t matter for the first half how the public vote for him as he will be safe.

Then later on the public vote can have an impact but even if he is in the bottom 2 the judges will save him, as “it is a dancing competition and he is the better dancer on the night”.

I suspect he will be through to the final. The only question is can I tolerate his over the topness and being such an obviously ringer or will it ruin this season?

@Sunbird24 Neil's baby is due soon, not April.

I read some articles about what the plan was if his GF goes into labour during a live show.

The usual (crap) defence for ringers is that they may have done ballet/contemporary/musical theatre for years but ballroom and Latin are whole new disciplines. If they Laytonise all the dances then they won't even have that defence to fall back on. It will just seem that not only is Layton already a professional dancer but he's not even bothering to make the effort over this style of dance. It also gives the impression (which I already sense is justified) that Layton is the one running that partnership, not the guy who is the actual teacher.

I am obviously very much in the minority as I don't mind Layton being in Strictly and he didn't annoy me last night.

I think it is good to have a mix of abilities and I like there to be at least one celeb that can dance pretty well right from the start. I do like seeing the complete non dancers learning to dance and improving week by week but I also like seeing some decent dancing from the beginning.

He doesn't stand a hope in hell of winning so I am happy to see him there for quite a few weeks

I agree with this. I also thought that he seemed like a nice person (as all the celebs did, actually). I’m looking forward to watching him and ProNikita on Saturday.

@bizzey thank you, that makes more sense! It was only a comment on an article I saw and I didn’t go digging for more info

They couldn't pair him with JoJo as he would, inappropriately for a family audience, look like his twink.
What a ridiculous comment, no one is saying that Kai would, inappropriately for a family audience, look like Angela’s toyboy. If Johannes and Leyton were dancing together it wouldn’t be inappropriate for a family audience at all?

Yes he said this in an interview and that he's glad he hasn't got a partner this year so that he can focus on the baby.

I think it must be Neil’s choice to rarely have a partner. Surely if it wasn’t his choice and he was constantly being overlooked he would have left by now?

Where would he go? And why would anyone choose not to have a partner?

Neil neve has a partner, don’t think you’d choose that …probably still gets paid well enough so sticks with it 🤔

He still does a lot of pro dances and I think he does choreography as well

For someone who has only had two celebs ...he is very well known and recognised.

Am I right in thinking he helped Karen with a lot of her choreography?

Maybe that is where his true passion lies as opposed to teaching.

When he was with Alex Scott he was ill for two weeks and she had to dance with Kevin ...and those of us on the thread all said how much better Alex dance with Kevin than with Neil.

One of the dances was the Ghostbuster dance.

I could be misremembering something though ??
🤔🤔.

No, he definitely did not help Karen with any of her choreo..Did you mean Katya? I doubt he helped her either since she managed to get Tony Adams quite a long way with her own very ambitious choreo.

Ahhh yes !
I did mean Katya !

Karen was married to Kev !

I do remember one of the pro couples helping each out with choreography though 🤔?

I miss alijaz shame he left, but don’t know what he’s doing now

It might be a break, they have a newborn

Yeah I know they’ve got a new baby can’t see him taking a break though and returning once you go you go I think ! I thought he was fab

I loved Aliaz too, when we went to the recording of the show he was laughing giving thumbs up a second before the music started he was lovely! On the other hand Anton was far more serious and focused guess just different personalities, but he was so lovely after the recording was over.

I wonder how Leyton is going to do his VT's ?

Celebs normally do the ...

. Wow , such hard work..
. Found muscles I never knew existed..
. This is sooo hard ..
. So tired..
. I keep forgetting the steps...
. It is so difficult...

Learning a new physical disapline is hard...

But it's not gonna look good on his CV if he is complaining about it and finding what he does as a day job difficult is it !!

Will he just be on a "J " in order to make his mum happy ??

Aljaz and Jeanette have a Christmas tour coming up like they did last year

*Then later on the public vote can have an impact but even if he is in the bottom 2 the judges will save him, as “it is a dancing competition and he is the better dancer on the night”.

I suspect he will be through to the final. The only question is can I tolerate his over the topness and being such an obviously ringer or will it ruin this season?*

This.

I plan on telling myself he's a guest pro not a contestant and the marks don't count.

It will mean a lot of pointless danceoffs in the later part of the season (because they will make no difference, the non-Layton will go home), but there you go.

He had a hard enough time last night absolutely not using the words dance/dancer with his "hello, I'm Layton and I'm a <hesitates a nanosecond too long> actor and er, performer and I'm absolutely going to forget to mention I was Billy Elliott"

Mind you, for every time he didn't mention the D word he mentioned how "out" he is.

I do think the backlash about this level of ringer-ness will help him rather than hinder him. At least initially. I predict he'll be the first sobbing mam back home story.

On a more positive note, how fab is Bobby. 😍 Had no clue who he was and didn't really know much about Jade Goody apart from her sad death.

Love Lauren's interaction and KGM is possibly my favourite. Luba is a mystery to me. She just doesn't seem enthusiastic even when she is somehow.

Tbh if you're top of the leader board it's difficult to be in the dance-off for the first ten weeks even if you have literally zero public votes - unless there are a lot of ties.