Strictly 2025 : Week Five. Can anything be as Iconic as the Tess/Claude duo? NO SPOILERS. 18.25PM

[EineReiseDurchDieZeit]

Getting it ready early as I am out this afternoon.

KEEP DANCING

I agree with this.
I only started watching Strictly eight years ago.
Did they ever have a format where all fifteen contestants were beginners?
Or has there always been a contingent of ringers?

True..But then Lewis has his fans and he is a ringer. So too did Danny Mac, Faye Tozer, Jay McGuinness, Debbie McGee..

@TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOneThere were ringers people didn’t realise were ringers like Jill Halfpenny but the roster was mainly amateur in the early years of the show. I mean it started out as a bit of a lark on Sport Relief. That’s how Chris Parker got to the final

The thing for me is that she's only done one ballroom dance - the waltz - and if she's competing with everyone else, she has to be doing more ballroom than she's been doing.

I think the "ringer" business can be over played on here - anyone who has had any drama school or acting training has likely been taught some dance and singing. Lots of people who haven't will have done things like ballet and tap when younger.

The sad fact is that it seems the audience generally is harsher in its treatment of women, particularly younger women, who show themselves to be competitive and ambitious.

I don't think we'll ever agree on the ringers debate, but I know that for me, without them we would not have Danny Mac's samba and American smooth, Alexandra Burke's paso and jive, Faye Tozer's Quickstep, couple's choice and show dance, Nigel's paso amongst my favourite all time Strictly dances.

I still watch Oti and Danny Mac's samba! Simply wow!

Absolutely. The first samba to be awarded 40 points for good reason. No one else has ever come close in my opinion.

Am I the only one who likes Halloween? The other theme weeks (and bloody Blackpool!) annoy me but Halloween is great. Particularly when you had Pasha and Aljaz competing on most ridiculous costume...

And like Beetlejuice, because it’s been mentioned at least 3 times I’ve now stuck Oti and Danny’s Samba over on the video thread 😜

Add Jay’s Jive to the best ringer dances. I could watch it all day. Oti reposted her and Danny’s first dance recently and wow he did come out the blocks running didn’t he. we went to the tour that year and they were incredible in real life.

I think it’s sometimes down to what a person is known for. Soap stars get a pass so Danny sneaks by the ringer-detector among the general public. Boy and girl bands to a lesser degree. But stars of musical theatre don’t get the same free pass at all because they’re expected to follow quite complex steps AND act out the character of the dance with more ease than the rest.

We all have our own personal line as to what makes a ringer - mine is dance focused further/higher education or earning money from dancing so my two years of ballet classes forty years ago when I was in infant school would not make me a ringer but Debbie McGee's past as a professional ballet dancer would. Others felt she wasn't a ringer as her pro dance career was years ago.

Kimberley Pussy Cat Doll referred to herself throughout the time she was on Strictly as a singer then popped up on something else and called herself a dancer and singer. It is partly the disingenuous nature of the ringers that annoys me. If those that have dance training would own it and admit they have a massive advantage they would bug me less.

I have exactly the same gripe.
For me I just find it all a bit fake.

Caroline Flack was another that divided opinion. She studied dance and musical theatre in Cambridge - my old dance teacher knew one her instructors!

💯agree.
Also I know everyone rightly says that it's not a popularity Contest but I have to like and engage with a contestant to enjoy their dance. As it is I have enjoyed the dances by Chris, Hamza, Mark Ramprakash, Helen Skelton, Susannah Reid or Alex Scott more than the ringers who danced better than them.

I can appreciate the dance that people like Ashley Roberts, Leyton, Amber and so on do. But I don't enjoy it in the same way.

Ashley not Kimberly I'm dreadful with names!

The trouble with having celebrities competing is that any actor or musician has had some form of dance training. A lot of sports stars have danced as children due to their competitive natures. If it was a rule to only allow complete novices to enter then there would never be enough contestants.

I don't mind the ringers as it is very rare to have someone with no dance experience whatsoever.

I also think the female ringers get a much harder time than the male ringers which is unfair in itself. You either like the ringers or you don't.

But a ringer isn't anyone with dance experience - no one is suggesting that if you hit the dancefloor at family weddings you shouldn't be allowed on Strictly. A ringer is a pro dancer. Actors will vary greatly from drafted in to a Soap as kids with no acting training to theatre school kids who did have dance as part of their education to RADA trained 'serious' acting qualifications that didn't include musicals training.

Yes, that's the point. A few dance classes? Ok. Headlining in an all dancing musical in the West End? Being part of a dance troupe? Not really ok.

Les Dennis was also in musical theatre before he did Strictly.

Does he count as a ringer?

No. He clearly wasn’t a dancer.

True! Walking on and then singing isn't the same as a complicated routine!

True. But if they were ever to put a rule in saying nobody who's done musical theatre then it would need to include people like Les, even though he wasn't very good. Otherwise it leaves too much wriggle room.

And unless you know how much dancing was involved in their role, you can't discount them for having musical theatre experience.

Take Alexandra Burke for example, I've not seen the Bodyguard but I have seen Sister Act and the choreography is mainly jumping about, waving hands and clapping.