Strictly 2025 : Week 9, Blackpool Post Show Chat

[EineReiseDurchDieZeit]

KEEP DANCING 😍

Thank you.

No problem

Hoping the celebs / pros for the live tour are announced this week, expecting
Katya Lewis
Kaz Carlos
Kai Vicki
Alexis George

a combination involving Harry and maybe Bal?

Ta 🪩

Hi I was so behind on Saturday that ive lost an entire thread, I loved Saturday Karen and Carlos were my favourite. .the past "icons" pro dance on Sunday was fun Ashley Roberts has not aged she looks exactly the same. DANNY MAC though. Oh myyy I might have had to actually fan myself 😳

Oh Lewis Capaldi looked embarrassed to be there I know he has his struggles but he looked so uncomfortable.

i wish strictly would sort out the sound mixing on the live performances. it always sounds so crap

Checking in!

Having caught up with Saturday me and DH are going for Karen for the final and eventual win. As good as Lewis and Katya are, the fact is that the voting public really don’t like a ringer so I can’t see them winning.

Agree that Lewis Capaldi didn’t look comfortable. DH said ‘he still doesn’t look right does he’ and I had to agree.

Loved the returners dance (Danny Mac - ooh!). You could really see how ring-y Leyton was, although he is a fantastic dancer.

I agree

On the subject of ringers when we think about the most iconic dances in strictly history you think of the Laytons and Jays and Danny Macs don’t you, far more than the routines of the non-dancers. It’s harder to think of who were the really best non-dancers as far less memorable generally. Bill Bailey is probably up there as is of course Chris McCausland and Hamza. Karen would be this year’s. I’m less sympathetic towards actors because they will almost all have done some dance training in the past and they will be better than the true novices at looking like they know what they are doing.

anyway my point is it makes total sense to put a couple of ringers in there every year

Karen isn't a non-dancer on the same level as Hamza though. I think past winners like Stacey Dooley and Rose are more like Hamza.

https://womenscompetitions.thefa.com/Article/karen-carney-lionesses-football-dancing-background-271117

This year, Lewis, Amber, and Karen have dancing backgrounds to varying degrees (if you dance and compete until 15, you're clearly trained), and they are all quite obviously better dancers than George, Bal, and Alex.

I was disappointed that Jay did not do his whole jive and I was not impressed with Jowita (not a patch on Aliona).

Yes I agree - it would have been better with Lauren, or the tall blonde woman. (Can’t remember her name🙄

Place marking

Nadiya Bychkova.

She's really exceptional when she jives at her professional level.

Given Jowita recently said that jive ess her least favourite dance, I wonder why tye didn't get Lauren or Nadiya to partner Jay instead.

I think jowita looks similar to Aliona? That is probably why they were paired,

Jowita was underwhelming - odd because she's normally uh-may-zing. Maybe they didn't rehearse enough. Also far too small.

Ok fair point I didn’t realise
no wonder she’s good!

I stand by my assertion though that Alex and Bal will have had some training somewhere.
George looks like a novice. And a pretty good one.

That makes no sense to me.

Applying that logic, Nancy looks nothing like Oti yet she was paired with Danny. Vito and Pasha do not look alike either.

I suppose one of the main factors would be who is benched or not partnered anymore. Choosing a suitable dance partner is usually based on height, so fair enough if Jowita and Aliona are similar height, but the discrepancy was obvious here.

I agree. I was so looking forward to it as Jay's jive is one of my absolute favourite dances and I always loved Aliona. I normally like Jowita but she just didn't seem to put much effort into that jive in my opinion

Jay’s segment was definitely shorter

Maybe Jay isn't that good now, his Jive won him his year the other dancers were much better that is why Jay looked a bit meh.

I posted this in the dying embers of the last thread

Part of what made Jay's jive iconic was the theme /vibe and how it total picked up on the look and feel of the movie which was a bit lacking in the recreation this weekend. Also the fact it was week 3 (either through nerves or a deliberate ploy) Jay had hidden his ringer-ness in the first couple of weeks so it was a real wow moment.
I know Jay danced a fair amount after Strictly but I've got no idea how much he has done in the last few years (I've not been conscious of him in any dance heavy rolls in the last few years but that doesn't mean he hasn't been dancing) so he might be a bit less 'match fit' than the other returnees.

I would add a potential lack of connection with Jowita who he obviously hasn't danced with before. Jay comes across as quite shy and reversed so might have struggled to quickly forge a new partnership.

I would also add Jay said on ITT last week that they decided not to dance the jive in the final because they weren't sure they could nail it that well again.

On ITT, Jay commented on the height difference with Jowita (as it not being a good thing). I looked up her height and Aliona's - Aliona is 5 inches taller than Jowita. So a fairly big difference.