Strictly Come Dancing - Week 802
Actually week 11/Quarter Finals
I’d been prepped for the story of the pro opening number by ITT…and then I got distracted that the singer was trying SO HARD to emulate La Celine, down to the accent and intonation. So maybe they shouldn’t have bothered with the guest singer? As will become apparent in the rest of this post, I have dodgy eyesight, but maybe Oti should have been in a redder dress. Even if the Acting bordered on hammy (more from Grazziano), you could feel all the dancers were comfortable doing these steps and more confident in telling the story, and actually, I thought it was overall an interesting interpretation of the song
Tess in a tight short oilslick drass, Claudia in red, but this kind of got overshadowed because MOTSI was back (poor Cynthia, TessnClaud were a bit rude in their delight at Motsi’s return, although I wouldn’t be desperate for Cynthia to play sub judge again, there are two more opportunities for COVID to spoil the best laid plans.)
John and Johannes were gifted some actual colour, while the others dancers and the judges felt quite monochrome.
John was banging on about getting a 10 in his VT and at first I snorted, wondering if Dan has even had an 8 off Craig, but then I realised that as they’ll have two dances next week, this is realistically their last chance until the finals.
I quite liked their salsa, which was inevitably a disco salsa. I liked the use of the steps in the opening, I thoght John was light on his feet (or is that wrong for a salsa?) The lifts were mostly fine and to be honest, I missed the bad lift ending. Anyway, the scores were surprisingly low.
THE LIFTS in Rhys’s Argentine tango! That routine demanded intensity and just MORE from him, and got it.(admittedly, this routine and a bit of Dan’s suffered from blippiness in the transmission/broadband issues for me again this week.) This is definitely one I’d like to go back and watch when my eyes get fixed. The judges’ comments reflected my feelings, and they praised Rhys for his partnering. Craig had given away that it’d be a 9 from him, and why. Deserved 39 (and miles ahead of John!)
Like everyone, I’d sighed with pleasure to learn that Rose was back in ballroom this week, and I smiled throughout Rose’s American smooth at how well thi partnership works and how perfectly the song fit them, the accents, and the trust - the lift was a high-tariff, make-you-gasp moment and paid off. I also very much agreed with Motsi about how Rose is great both in hold and out of it. Again, Craig had tipped us off it would be a 9 from him, but another 39.
So, you know, much derision at Dan talking hopefully about topping the leaderboard in his VT. But, you know what, THAT, that tango was his best dance. I thought he showed drive and understanding of what the dance required. And I say this as someone who thinks Dan should have gone a couple of weeks ago. Shirley was all Pollyannaish, but the other got critical and ANTON was the pickiest. Heh.
So, AJ was closing (I’d spent all week presuming John would be better at the salsa than her…) Confident opening, a quick reminder that these two have sizzle, and then, well, yes she was entertaining, but there was so much liftography that one started to wonder if Kai thought the actual Latin content was beyond AJ. Like Craig, I noticed that she was a bit sticky coming out of some, even if I didn’t quite catch the dance disaster ending (Craig tried his bitchy best, but Anton has probably got the clip for the recap)...and poor AJ was at the bottom again and I had been right about John’s salsa being better. Although it really was a leaderboard of two halves, Rhys and Rose were tied for four points. I dunno. I voted for both of them Rose twice (and I’d been half-planning to cut Rhys loose.) I was tempted to vote for AJ, but if felt like such naked pleading with her talk of letting people down that I thought, ‘Oh, let those people vote for you, then’. Despite the fact that Rhys and Rose had earned the right to go through dance wise (especially him, because this was a huge step up in a proper dance, channelling Denzel, while we know she’s a ballroom dream), it’s a popularity context (which Shirley admitted on ITT, instead of being all fake shocked every week by the dance off.)
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/479095.html.
I’d been prepped for the story of the pro opening number by ITT…and then I got distracted that the singer was trying SO HARD to emulate La Celine, down to the accent and intonation. So maybe they shouldn’t have bothered with the guest singer? As will become apparent in the rest of this post, I have dodgy eyesight, but maybe Oti should have been in a redder dress. Even if the Acting bordered on hammy (more from Grazziano), you could feel all the dancers were comfortable doing these steps and more confident in telling the story, and actually, I thought it was overall an interesting interpretation of the song
Tess in a tight short oilslick drass, Claudia in red, but this kind of got overshadowed because MOTSI was back (poor Cynthia, TessnClaud were a bit rude in their delight at Motsi’s return, although I wouldn’t be desperate for Cynthia to play sub judge again, there are two more opportunities for COVID to spoil the best laid plans.)
John and Johannes were gifted some actual colour, while the others dancers and the judges felt quite monochrome.
John was banging on about getting a 10 in his VT and at first I snorted, wondering if Dan has even had an 8 off Craig, but then I realised that as they’ll have two dances next week, this is realistically their last chance until the finals.
I quite liked their salsa, which was inevitably a disco salsa. I liked the use of the steps in the opening, I thoght John was light on his feet (or is that wrong for a salsa?) The lifts were mostly fine and to be honest, I missed the bad lift ending. Anyway, the scores were surprisingly low.
THE LIFTS in Rhys’s Argentine tango! That routine demanded intensity and just MORE from him, and got it.(admittedly, this routine and a bit of Dan’s suffered from blippiness in the transmission/broadband issues for me again this week.) This is definitely one I’d like to go back and watch when my eyes get fixed. The judges’ comments reflected my feelings, and they praised Rhys for his partnering. Craig had given away that it’d be a 9 from him, and why. Deserved 39 (and miles ahead of John!)
Like everyone, I’d sighed with pleasure to learn that Rose was back in ballroom this week, and I smiled throughout Rose’s American smooth at how well thi partnership works and how perfectly the song fit them, the accents, and the trust - the lift was a high-tariff, make-you-gasp moment and paid off. I also very much agreed with Motsi about how Rose is great both in hold and out of it. Again, Craig had tipped us off it would be a 9 from him, but another 39.
So, you know, much derision at Dan talking hopefully about topping the leaderboard in his VT. But, you know what, THAT, that tango was his best dance. I thought he showed drive and understanding of what the dance required. And I say this as someone who thinks Dan should have gone a couple of weeks ago. Shirley was all Pollyannaish, but the other got critical and ANTON was the pickiest. Heh.
So, AJ was closing (I’d spent all week presuming John would be better at the salsa than her…) Confident opening, a quick reminder that these two have sizzle, and then, well, yes she was entertaining, but there was so much liftography that one started to wonder if Kai thought the actual Latin content was beyond AJ. Like Craig, I noticed that she was a bit sticky coming out of some, even if I didn’t quite catch the dance disaster ending (Craig tried his bitchy best, but Anton has probably got the clip for the recap)...and poor AJ was at the bottom again and I had been right about John’s salsa being better. Although it really was a leaderboard of two halves, Rhys and Rose were tied for four points. I dunno. I voted for both of them Rose twice (and I’d been half-planning to cut Rhys loose.) I was tempted to vote for AJ, but if felt like such naked pleading with her talk of letting people down that I thought, ‘Oh, let those people vote for you, then’. Despite the fact that Rhys and Rose had earned the right to go through dance wise (especially him, because this was a huge step up in a proper dance, channelling Denzel, while we know she’s a ballroom dream), it’s a popularity context (which Shirley admitted on ITT, instead of being all fake shocked every week by the dance off.)
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/479095.html.