Strictly semi results
I lurved that opening pro routine - the music and the style! -- and I’m not ashamed to admit that, because of my age, I’m turning on my previous complaints about making the pros do all these styles out of their comfort zones. In fairness, there was a mix of stuff in sync and not. Plus, it was impressive that Dianne was helping to lift Jovita right at the start, while I could pretend that Neil was tipping a hat to Rupert Giles, just a little.
Tess was in a pinky red dress, Claudia in a similar enough style to the previous outfit but glammer, Shirley in a more cocktail dress while Motsi went for volume. Anton was even more boring, while Crai had a touch of crimson. And then we had a recap, which followed the leaderboard devoutly, lowest first, although Rose was third merely because R comes after J in the alphabet for the first dances, but then they did the same in the second half so we ended with Rose.
AND then we got to see that everyone had elected to do their highest scoring dance (well, John and Johannes thought the jive was stronger or they couldn’t be bothered to change.) First to be called safe and able to celebrate unrestrainedly…Rose and Giovanni, and oh, how they delivered on the celebration front. Iiinteresting that they revealed that John and Johannes weren’t safe, but John took it calmly and maturely, and hey, we were talking about dances that had scored 38, 39 and 40 and didn’t contain lifts (oh, maybe that was why they decided not to reprise the couples choice, ust in case.)
Dance debrief, Shirley got to reel off samba steps, and I had also been thinking Anton was banging on even before Craig got a swipe in, and then Claudia got to be Claudia, which she hasn’t really this series because of the restrictions, and urged Anton to exchange seats with her, and he was game enough to do so and send himself up, before Craig got to explain his 10 for AJ (he still hasn’t given John one, as Rylan would observe on ITT.) After a reel of their ‘best’ clips, they got to be appreciative of Claudia and then we cut to Tess, doing serious Barbie, although presumably they filmed this straight after the previous reveal. I dunno for sure, I always imagine the results show is a jigsaw pule, but the switch from the riotous mood in the Clauditorium was striking.
And Rhys was in the dance off again, and AJ and Kai were a little too stunned to be able to take in that they were through to the finals until they were up with Claudia. Rhys was used to being in the dance-off and appreciative of the context, part of which was that he didn’t have the popular support o overcome his lower scores..
Two similar dances in mood, with the samba being tougher. I thought both couples were a little more hyper because of the context. Craig was the only one who gave his reasons, Motsi and Anton didn’t really (although with neither couple having made an obvious mistake, I imagine they did take the two dances and everything intmo consideration, and I’ allowed if they didn’t give reasons). There was almost a sense that ift wouldn’t have been the worst call to let all four through, except it had been thus ordained since Robert left, and they’ve planned the finals now and Rhys was, overall, a shade off (although at his best…) He melted me by sing Nancy’s full name, and then they went off and had a party last dance, while the finalists watched on knowing that one of them has never been in a dance-off, and I doubt the judges are going to ask Rose to do a Latin again, Gio, but we’ll see if the showdance lives up to his promises (oh who am I kidding? I hope it does!)
Other thought after watching ITT Monday, they must be upping the COVID protocols so that nothing spoils the final. I really liked that pop of blue in Nancy’s dress in their tango, and oh, Rhys’s couples choice and Charleston were so very good, but he did have an arc of promising beginning, disappointing downs, then ups, then character-building dance-offs then an uptick to be a deserved semi-finalist. I had come to the view that this would be the finals line-up until I had a mild panic about Dan’s popularity.
ITT’s recap, by clumping each couple’s dances together instead of going round by round, placed Rhys fourth, John third, AJ second and Rose first, which is interesting, going against the leaderboard slightly but a wink to what I’ve said above about Rose being the favourite.
And then during the stats on ITT Wednesday, I realised that John and Rhys had scored the same for the samba (so Joint best of the series). And then came AJand Kai’s interview, which is when I realised she’d been injured - I daresay it’s been all over the internets and the ‘socials’. Ouch. If she couldn’t stand on Wednesday evening and had lost two days of training…there is no way she can do justice to those dances, even if she can step on to the dance floor.
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