SCD '24 #9: Through hallowe'en advancing, We're chatty and love dancing... (SPOILER FREE)

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

...Are Pete and Jo romancing?, The glitterba-all gang!

<snaps fingers>

Previous thread

Spoiler thread if you like to indulge.

Video thread. Please post videos here to avoid slowing the main thread down.

Just seen a video on Facebook.... Anton's got two puppies called........ Fox and Trot !!!!! 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

Oh dear imagine shouting for poor Trot when Fox has already come back.

Love that!

I would find it impossible - impossible, I tell you - not to length poor Trot's name to Trotsky. I'd try not to but I'd fail.

must be hard for JB changing partners. at least he is in the entertainment industry so hopefully that will help.

To those mourning the standard of dancing and the artificially high marks.... and I'm just putting this out there, not wishing to offend anyone.

Could it possibly be the standard of the professionals has changed a bit in recent years?

I remember getting excited for dances just based on the professional. Dancers like Brendan, Ola, Flavia, Vincent, James, Aliona, Oti, and (much as it pains me) Giovanni would pretty much guarantee something special.

We have a few now who make me feel like that, like Katya, Johannes and Nikita but it doesn't really feel the same, possibly because there are so many more couples nowadays so it's diluted.

There are doubtless other reasons but I do miss some if the older dancers!

Every year there are about three (male and female) dancers without celebrities, so I don't think Lauren wasn't give a celeb this year because of Amy. It could just as easily have been one of the other pros (Michelle was "spare" last year, and in years past it has been Luba or Nadiya).

Interesting to see which dancers have never been without a celeb. Karen and Katya, off the top of my head, and Alijzaz and Giovanni on the male side. Of the newer ones, I think Vito and Nikita have had a partner each year, as has Jowita (did she get a celeb her first year?).

Not a bad Halloween week, but here was some daft marking as always.
I thought Punan did really well at the character of the tango. They definitely wanted her gone, though; it just isn't a flashy dance and it was bound to suffer in comparison. I will miss her and her enthusiasm. I thought Gorka looked genuinely sad. He's right, she is what Strictly is about – or should be about, anyway, although they are more and more going for people who will wow from the start.
I feel for Shayne being in the DO again. I liked their dance and thought he did have paso shaping and gestures even in the standing-still intro.
Surprised myself by liking Tasha: I loved the stiff and clunky stylisation. Very hard to do – whoever said earlier you'd do that with a duffer not a ringer, no, you need a ringer to be able to do it!
Enjoyed Chris: lots of samba content and his timing is impeccable.
Montel was great, I thought; cha chas are usually dull IMO, but theirs was full of character and interest.
JB and Amy were OK, a bit dull. Poor Amy; I hope she gets better soon and it's nothing too serious. It will be nice to see Lauren though.
Yet again, I didn't get Jamie: good concept and choreography, but I just don't enjoy watching him. And why is he always styled and presented like someone's little brother?
Pete was superb. Love how he shocked himself by falling in love with dancing, and how he's getting visibly better and more confident every week. He also has genuine wit and originality. I love watching him and Claudia bouncing off each other.
I liked Wynne at first, but I'd rather have seen him go than Punam; she had more potential than he does, IMO. I do wish they'd stop positioning him as a comedy contestant though.
Sam is another who has grown thrillingly since the start. She gives everything her best go. I love it. I hate the Rocky Horror and don't get the references/don't know or care if they're dressed as the right people, I just thought she was so entertaining and energetic. Nikita is HOT in those glasses too. I like that for the results show he stayed in the suspenders and just put the glasses back on
Sarah's AT wasn't great and was stupidly overmarked. How can it be a 10 when even a layperson like me could see that first lift nearly went badly wrong? I thought the lifts in general looked like her being bundled around; she didn't seem to perform them cleanly. You couldn't see what her leg or body positions were meant to be, IYSWIM. Vito didn't look like Vito, it was very weird. I was getting Roger Federer
Is that everyone?

YAWN to Icons Week and, I'm sorry, Bruno Mars isn't one.

Absolutely the case. Back in the day the pros that were used were high level ballroom/latin champions with multiple trophies under their belts. As they left the show found it harder to recruit from the top level professional ranks and started to recruit from further down the ranks and dancers from the West End who had some ballroom/latin experience quite a few of them were recruited from the stage show Burn The Floor - Kevin Clifton, Trent Whiddon and Robin Windsor were all in the original Broadway production with Artem, Karena and Pasha joining the cast later, and even more of the pros came from the West End version of the production including 6 of the current pros.

As my dance teacher said (not meant in a bitchy way, just matter of factly), they ended up in the West End as they weren't good enough to cut it as professional ballroom/latin dancers on the big circuit.

Burn the Floor - Wikipedia

Thanks @CaveMum that makes sense, although I do wonder why it's so hard for them to recruit the top level professionals nowadays. Do we know why?

How do top level professionals earn money? Prizes and teaching?

Interesting to see which dancers have never been without a celeb. Karen and Katya, off the top of my head, and Alijzaz and Giovanni on the male side. Of the newer ones, I think Vito and Nikita have had a partner each year, as has Jowita (did she get a celeb her first year?).*

I think Jowita didn't have a partner her first year. Pretty sure Oti was never benched (with good reason!)

It think Dianne has always had a partner as well

*I

I think it's also why the pro dances have become more genetic and stage-y.

In the olden days they could put together an intro and ending, and in between each couple could just do a bit of their own routines or make up a bit.

Now none dance with their own competitive partner (the last couple recruited together were maybe AJ and Chloe?) and they're probably far more used to working with a choreographer than the original pros.

And sponsorship.

Sometimes their entry fees and expenses will be covered for comps.

Katya has a collaboration with IDS for a line of practice shoes so I would think she gets a cut from sales of those.

Pretty much yes. You compete to make a name for yourself and then teach and train others, charging accordingly with your profile.

You only have to look at the quality of the demo dancers they used to get on the show in the early years to see that most of the pro dancers now can't hold a candle to them. I'll stick something on the video thread by way of explaining.

I also think the pro dances are more generic/stagey/music video-style because the producers think that's what (younger) viewers want.

I'd love to see more proper ballroom with the men in tails and the women in serious dresses, but they just seem to be giving up on that.

I'm guessing that there were several factors involved -

1. the top level dancers probably started asking for more money when they realised how popular the shows were, so perhaps studio execs decided to go for the cheaper options.

2. You probably can't maintain a high level competitive career and be part of the show these days. It's a commitment from August to December and that would mean missing a lot of big competitions. If you are still in your dance prime why would you risk losing your profile and your longer term career?

I've always said you never see a proper Salsa danced on SCD. What they dance is a cabaret-style version of the dance. In the early years when they had people like Chris and Jacqui helping choreograph they were much better, but these days - nope!

Yes, and the structure changing hasn't helped either. When the competitors did only two dances per week the pros used to dance one the week before to show us what to look out for.

Now they never say the pros are going to do a foxtrot or anything.

How do you rate John Barnes' salsa? Often touted as the only legit salsa ever to have been danced on Strictly.

I used to love that. And then Len (gone but never forgotten) was always called on to explain what the judges would be looking for.
To go full-on Lord Reith for a minute, it does seem to have drifted away from the spirit of 'Inform, educate, entertain.'

I can kind of let the salsa thing go, actually, seeing as it's not a canonical Latin and ballroom dance anyway.
Having said that, I do love to see it danced in its social form. They should have a group of salsa dancers from a social club or something on one week.

I get that, it's just that the lifts annoy me - you're never going to pull that off in a Salsa Club!

I've put some videos up on t'other thread for now.