Strictly week 6/Halloween show
It was only announced on Friday’s It Takes Two that Judi would be returning to the live show, and doing the dance she’d started training for. I had been beginning to wonder about that, and what the show’s contingency plan was.
Re: the opening skit. Yes, use the contestant who can’t hear for the big gag reveal that it’s Anton under the mask that stops her from lip reading. (By which I mean don’t.)
Somewhat camp ‘scary baddies/Halloween/this show aren’t really scary, little kids’ pro routine. TessnClaud went for black, but the judges were in costume. The men’s made more of a first impression, but in close up I could see that Motsi was Maleficent and Shirely’s was more detailed than I’d thought. The couples were dressed in your usual Halloween garb…apart from the two lobsters.
“Johannerisms”, heh. John needed to improve on his ballroom, and he was certainly light-footed in his werewolf quickstep. I think they got away with not being in hold as much as you’d expect in this dance because it was a theme week, but maybe Johannes might want to just give him the lead in future ones.
We had a real moment of ‘from the mouth of babes’ from AJ’s nephew, cutting through all the UST narrative around her and Kai, who showed his newbieness in how he responded to Claudia. But never mind that, that Viennese Waltz was my favourite dance from her. I loved the Medusa-appropriate suggestion of sinuousness at the beginning, although shouldn’t Kai have worn something more Grecian? But I loved the quality of the dancing and the DRAMAH. I agreed with Craig about the dynamism.
I was glad that Dan and Nadiya soon got their gloves off for their jive. Although h’s really too tall for the jive, he didn’t harm his journey of improvement arc too much and it was certainly an entertaining routine. In a pattern we’d see all night, Craig undermarked it (which would have ramifications for others) and Motsi overmaked it.
Shonky horror film aesthetics in the VT, big spending AR on the show proper for Rhys’s alien invasion paso. I was with the female judges and mostly pleased, Rhys was commanding (one or two little bits weren’t so good). The order of the judges meant that they got demoralised again.
Sara bigged up her family in the VT before doing a slightly bondage-themed couples choice. Proving that the couples choice is basically a free for all now, it was basically a paso with lifts, which invited unflattering comparisons with what we’d just seen. Aljiaz claimed responsibility, as he should; he should know what his partner’s strengths are by now. Sara’s hair was even more improbable, as if the hair department had watched back last week’s footage and gone, ‘Challenge accepted.’
Queen Rose the actress lived the start of her tango and then she danced it like a dream. I know we’re only officially sanctioned to talk about AJ and Kai’s chemistry, and they’re emphasising teacher/student with Rose and Giovanni, but they have chemistry too. Early for the squeak of joy as Craig dusted off his 10 paddle and she got the full house, but predictable after the comments.
Follow that!
Actuallly, I really liked Tilly’s cha cha (I’m not going to dignify the use of Frankenstein because of Frankenstein’s mnster pedantry, although I haven’t seen the Bride of Frankenstein.) Nikita produced great stylised characterisation, while she was able to dance more naturally, and did so well. I agreed with Shirley about the balance between staccato and flexibility, and there being nothing for Tilly to fear from the green legs. Her father went full on Embarrassing Dad afterwards, though.
A neat concept from Katya (she plays the piano too!), but Adam’s VW was way too stilted and sometimes ugly for me.
I hope Grazziano did the eighties fitness video bit post Covid for Judi’s sake. Clearly theyd just lightly zombified the routine, because of the circumstances, and the circumstances overshadowed everything - I thought ‘ohh, that’s a strenuous dance if she’s just had Covid (although it was touching that she was grateful for Strictly having helped her healthwise to cope with it). She was sassy, I thought the judges were a bit too kind (especially as Tilly’s cha cha was fresh in the memory.)
Tom had a similar issue, it’s tough to do another tango after one has got a 40, although his had a different flavour. I didn’t catch the mike incident, but thought it was quite good, but the running order of dances was not the best.
I voted for just Rhys, because I didn’t think Rose, or AJ, or Tilly whom I briefly considered voting for, needed my vote. He might have been in the top half, but we’ll see how popular everyone in the bottom half is/where the pity voting goes.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/475582.html.
Re: the opening skit. Yes, use the contestant who can’t hear for the big gag reveal that it’s Anton under the mask that stops her from lip reading. (By which I mean don’t.)
Somewhat camp ‘scary baddies/Halloween/this show aren’t really scary, little kids’ pro routine. TessnClaud went for black, but the judges were in costume. The men’s made more of a first impression, but in close up I could see that Motsi was Maleficent and Shirely’s was more detailed than I’d thought. The couples were dressed in your usual Halloween garb…apart from the two lobsters.
“Johannerisms”, heh. John needed to improve on his ballroom, and he was certainly light-footed in his werewolf quickstep. I think they got away with not being in hold as much as you’d expect in this dance because it was a theme week, but maybe Johannes might want to just give him the lead in future ones.
We had a real moment of ‘from the mouth of babes’ from AJ’s nephew, cutting through all the UST narrative around her and Kai, who showed his newbieness in how he responded to Claudia. But never mind that, that Viennese Waltz was my favourite dance from her. I loved the Medusa-appropriate suggestion of sinuousness at the beginning, although shouldn’t Kai have worn something more Grecian? But I loved the quality of the dancing and the DRAMAH. I agreed with Craig about the dynamism.
I was glad that Dan and Nadiya soon got their gloves off for their jive. Although h’s really too tall for the jive, he didn’t harm his journey of improvement arc too much and it was certainly an entertaining routine. In a pattern we’d see all night, Craig undermarked it (which would have ramifications for others) and Motsi overmaked it.
Shonky horror film aesthetics in the VT, big spending AR on the show proper for Rhys’s alien invasion paso. I was with the female judges and mostly pleased, Rhys was commanding (one or two little bits weren’t so good). The order of the judges meant that they got demoralised again.
Sara bigged up her family in the VT before doing a slightly bondage-themed couples choice. Proving that the couples choice is basically a free for all now, it was basically a paso with lifts, which invited unflattering comparisons with what we’d just seen. Aljiaz claimed responsibility, as he should; he should know what his partner’s strengths are by now. Sara’s hair was even more improbable, as if the hair department had watched back last week’s footage and gone, ‘Challenge accepted.’
Queen Rose the actress lived the start of her tango and then she danced it like a dream. I know we’re only officially sanctioned to talk about AJ and Kai’s chemistry, and they’re emphasising teacher/student with Rose and Giovanni, but they have chemistry too. Early for the squeak of joy as Craig dusted off his 10 paddle and she got the full house, but predictable after the comments.
Follow that!
Actuallly, I really liked Tilly’s cha cha (I’m not going to dignify the use of Frankenstein because of Frankenstein’s mnster pedantry, although I haven’t seen the Bride of Frankenstein.) Nikita produced great stylised characterisation, while she was able to dance more naturally, and did so well. I agreed with Shirley about the balance between staccato and flexibility, and there being nothing for Tilly to fear from the green legs. Her father went full on Embarrassing Dad afterwards, though.
A neat concept from Katya (she plays the piano too!), but Adam’s VW was way too stilted and sometimes ugly for me.
I hope Grazziano did the eighties fitness video bit post Covid for Judi’s sake. Clearly theyd just lightly zombified the routine, because of the circumstances, and the circumstances overshadowed everything - I thought ‘ohh, that’s a strenuous dance if she’s just had Covid (although it was touching that she was grateful for Strictly having helped her healthwise to cope with it). She was sassy, I thought the judges were a bit too kind (especially as Tilly’s cha cha was fresh in the memory.)
Tom had a similar issue, it’s tough to do another tango after one has got a 40, although his had a different flavour. I didn’t catch the mike incident, but thought it was quite good, but the running order of dances was not the best.
I voted for just Rhys, because I didn’t think Rose, or AJ, or Tilly whom I briefly considered voting for, needed my vote. He might have been in the top half, but we’ll see how popular everyone in the bottom half is/where the pity voting goes.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/475582.html.