SCD '23 #14: We're in Blackpool! So many tailsuits <does happy dance> NO SPOILERS

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

Let's not mention the corsets.

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That seems quite late. Maybe the producers hope they'll be better able to pull off genuinely show-stopping numbers by then.

Nigel seems lovely, he’s very assiduous, and I really like the fact that he cares enough about the competition not have hidden his disappointment about his subpar performance which I think shows due respect to the viewing public, to behind-scenes SCD colleagues, and to Katya.

However, he’s not really improving and I think that the public will stop voting for him in favour of contestants who have got better unless he pulls a massive rabbit out of the hat on Saturday. If he is average on Saturday and Angela, Bobby and Annabel do well, he will get the boot I think. Especially with Bobby possibly getting a post-DO bounce.

I started off predisposed to like Nigel and I do but he needs to up his game. Mess up next week and no more votes flung his way. I didn't expect to be moved by Annabel but I have been and I hope she has a couple of weeks left in her at the least. Ellie is really good but I was disappointed with her Charleston, not because it was bad, it was danced so well but it lacked great Charleston magic for me. Angela S is right up there for me now. Her and Annabel are the ones whose improvement can be mapped from dance to dance and she blew me away on Saturday. As my Irish family would say, she's a dote. She won't win but I'd love it if she did.

@MouseMinge do you think it was the theming for the Charleston? I felt the same and wondered if the choreography would have hit different had it been a different song & styling. My favourites have been some of the more vintage theme ones.. like Georgia May Foote and Giovanni.

Is musicals week always this late?

Anyone want to throw in any guesses what themes we might see? Or that you'd love to see?

Have they done the King & I?

I'd like to see a dance to the theme tune from Amelie since that's now a musical stage show.. either that or one from My Neighbour Totoro which has some lovely music.

A bit of Googling tells me that Musicals Week last year was week 11 (which I think ties up with when we think it is this year). In 2021 it was on 20th Nov - not sure if that was before or after Blackpool - did they even go to Blackpool in 2021??

In 2018 it was in late Nov/very early Dec.

So I don’t think it’s particularly late this year compared to other years.

I didn't like the theming of Ellie's Charleston either... not the hair, not the costumes, not the colours, not the flat-footedness of it without a heel and not the teddies at the end. The dance was amazing. The rest, not so much.

Ellie still looks like the favourite to win, but I think there's a much narrower gap between her and Angela - and even Annabel - than before.

Thank you. So it is always quite late on. Don’t know why it seemed particularly late to me this year; maybe because, with Amanda absent, there’ll be one less couple and the floor is looking a bit empty already.

@covetingthepreciousthings, two great left of field (in a good way) ideas for musicals week 😁

There are some great songs from Camelot that I would love to see be performed on Strictly!!!

I didn't like Ellie's dance. I thought it was really unremarkable (she paused and looked where to go next at one point) and the perfect scores from the judges over-generous.

Though this is my first time watching Strictly and I don't know anything about the technical aspects of ballroom dancing.

I'm a big fan of Layton, and I thought his turns in second, the other week, meant he'd had ballet training at some point (were they turned out? I can't remember, so possibly just jazz). I also love Nigel but his arms, hands especially, are terrible, like paddles at times. I don't know if that's been mentioned by the judges. I like the Angela and Carlos pairing too.

Hoping to learn more about how it all works from this thread!

@covetingthepreciousthings it usually is quite late...is it not usually the week before the semi-finals or the actual semi-finals?

Had a wee peek on Wikipedia and last year's theme weeks were:
Movie week - week 3
Celebrating 100 years of BBC - weeks 5 (extra theme week)
Halloween week - week 6
Blackpool week - week 9
Musicals week - week 11 (quarter final)
Semi-final - week 12
Final - week 13

They seem to like a bit of a gap between each themed week, which makes sense!

Are we going to have one less week this year after Amanda Abington pulled out?

I'm just watching back the Results show now today.

Gosh Carlos is getting a LOT of air time at the front of the various Pro dances isn't he?

The singing was so bad it took me almost to the end to realise it was Harry Styles songs.

The Pro ladies looked absolutely stunning in the purple outfits. I'd look like an over inflated aubergine stuffed with far too much Lorne sausage

I am sure this has been said before, but what a graceful and lovely speech by Kai.

@KeepSmiling89
Not once less week, it's just there'll be one less person in the final, unfortunately. Three instead of four.

One less, sorry

@Bluffinwithmymuffin of course, that makes sense. Thanks :)

I always think that’s better.

I have always thought four couples seems too many for a final.

Yes,I agree. A classy individual, and he was clearly touched by working with Angela R.

I'd love them but of course we'll likely get some rehashed version of an overdone musical..

For me the line is anyone who has ever been in a position where if they were asked their profession would answer dancer. At least with Layton there has been honesty that that's what he is. Kimberly Pussycat was always referred to as a singer on Strictly but I saw her on something else recently introduce herself as a dancer. Any mention that before she was 'attracted to multimillionaire Paul Daniels' the lovely Debbie McGee was a professional dancer was always very much shutdown.
The defence that they haven't done ballroom/Latin before is rather undermined by the pro's being expected to turn their hands to styles they haven't done before but also to teach them to celebs.
I don't mind someone having done a spot of ballet at primary school or even having lurked at the back of jazz classes at stage school because their talent and ambition was to be an actor or a singer/musician if only because we have seen that plenty of stage schools grads haven't exactly set the strictly ballroom on fire! If the primary talent that landed you a spot a stage school was dance when for me that should close the door to Strictly - but the producers obviously have a different opinion to me (as they do on arm hankies and everyone starting with the waltz/ cha cha).

I don't think it's a straightforward as that; yes, Debbie McGee was a ballet pro, but by the time she did Strictly she was decades out of training/performing.

Although ringers annoy me – or, to be more accurate, the judges disingenuously fawning over how good they are annoys me – at the end of the day once the Great British Voting Public takes over in the final they hardly ever win. Which gives me hope for mankind

It was more than they tried to silence any mention of DMcGs experience that annoyed me - it was a muddying of the waters.
If they had said yes she danced professionally from X until Y then had Z involvement when she ran a ballet company then Joe public can vote accordingly either concluding that her experience is relevant or not but when previous experience is hushed up, particularly in the earlier series when we were far less able to Goggle up a full CV it let some ringers slip under.the radar. As I say it's refreshing that Leyton's background is being acknowledged but I suspect only because it is so well known that it can't be hidden.

I agree. Debbie McGee had trained as a dancer, but was about 60 when she appeared on Strictly. That's not old, but it's not the same as a 25 year old with very recent training/professional dance roles.