Strictly Come Dancing - Week 1
Absolutely lovely opening routine, with the pops of colour in the otherwise monochrome on-location beginning, turning into an explosion of colour in the studio, with the throughline of white-shirted Gorka looking for Karen in her yellow dress. Okay, drawing Karen up into the air to smile beatifically didn’t seem to add much other than prove they could do it.
Reassuringly, Tess was in a colour, pink, Claudia in white pyjamas and Tess failed to connect with the audience, who weren’t aware they were supposed to applaud after her first line. Claudia would later have to deal with the sound fail of the link to AJ’s family. Shirley and Anton were far more restrained than Motsi and Craig.
And then the marathon began.
Nice song choice for Tom, opening up with the first of many cha chas. He was fine. Tilly’s waltz was eh, a nice contrast in terms of where it was, but forgettable. Ugo in hot pink (Oti really should have had more of that shade on her dress) went for his samba, was no Kelvin, but left me wanting to see his paso, and then it was all put in perspective by learning his father’s funeral had been held that morning.
So what would Nancy make of Rhys the Ringer? Well, she unleashed her inner dragon lady, he looked very dapper doing his Viennese Waltz and showed the potential of being able to produce beautiful lines and dancing. I loved Sara’s dress for cha cha no. 2, and she was much more dynamic than Jacqui, even if she ended up with the lowest score. I’d clocked Dan as potentially the worst last week, although Nadiya had claimed he’d be better at ballroom. I found his quickstep a bit frantic, and am still staggered that he’d end up in the top half of the leaderboard. I really liked Nadiya’s jumpsuit.
Rose was the best female so far (not saying much, I know), but I was really impressed by her timing, although it didn’t feel like a very jivey jive. As to the adaptations, she’s clearly been spending too much time with monolingual hearing people given how touched she was at Gio wanting to learn to sign so much - but even Tess got in on it, although was her signing covering her mouth? My sense was that they’d boosted the percussion to help Rose. (Every single year, I et overinvested in Gio’s partners. Every. Sinle. Year.)
I was very excited by Katie’s dramatic tango, I thought there was some quality to it, but Gorka seemed surprised that an actress would lift her standard when performing live!? This was followed by what we knew from last week and as soon as we saw the cozzies would be the campest routine of the night, Robert’s cha cha. I would say that apart from being fun, I thought it was very much a cha cha.
Greg sold his American Smooth and didn’t injure himself, although I was nodding along with Craig saying that the stuff in hold wasn’t as good, and then Shirley got vicious (part 1). I wasn’t worried about Nina selling her routine either, but she owned her samba. The flounce on the dress didn’t help with the shoulder hunching, but she was possibly the surprise of the night, while Neil must put up with always being partnered with ladies who want to be Beyonce.
I was fixated on John’s shoulders all through his (also dramatic) tango, but he seems to have got unpetrified and the judes really loved it. By this point in the show, it was interesting to see who the producers had decided to give the final slots to, because I’d thought Rhys and Katie had the most potential after last week. Judi’s American Smooth was very enjoyable; she can move and sell, sell, sell. Grazziano’s personality seems to have transformed since he first joined the show.
My question was whether AJ could control her limbs for her jive. Well, apparently, yes, she could! I thought the song was the main reason why I didn’t love the routine, it started off fast, then seemed to require slower, less full-on choreography, then allowed for a glorious (Alexandra Burkesque) ending. Whew. Adam couldn’t quite follow that, but Katya had cleverly given him a sexy cha cha, which he did well and it wan’t a dreadful drop-off.
And Nancy may have a ringer, Kai may have- well, AJ is definitely one of those I want to see do the other style before firming up an opinion - but Nancy and he aren’t as experienced at choreographing for Strictly as Katya, and with that leg thing, she showed she’s still got her mojo and a lot of pent-up frustration after COVID stopped her last year. Johannes has plenty to think about choreographically, obviously (John may be more popular with the mainly female voting public than Nicola might have turned out to be), while for Gio, I don’t think it’s as much a choreographic challenge as a teaching challenge. Again, I need to see who the all-rounders are and who will be better at Latin or ballroom.
It’s also clear that Tom (touring), Ugo (filming Question of Sport), Kate (filming Hollyoaks), Sara (businessing) and Tilly (studenting) may have less time than others to devote, and may suffer because of it
But the big other theme was the scoring, I suppose. Judges other than Craig reached for their 4 paddles. Shirey reached for a 9. In fact Shirley was pickier than Craig, although he did go for the 3, and very snarky about fundimentals, Claudia, when commenting on Nadia’s dance. At first, it took a bit of adjusting to get used to the scores after the comments.
I did not know that Janette would be co-presenting It Takes Two. We’ll se how it goes, but I hope they’ve found a niche for her, because I know she doesn’t have the same background as the other pros ad she has let sme of her celebs down, but you can’t doubt her commitment to sparkle motion.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/471458.html.
Reassuringly, Tess was in a colour, pink, Claudia in white pyjamas and Tess failed to connect with the audience, who weren’t aware they were supposed to applaud after her first line. Claudia would later have to deal with the sound fail of the link to AJ’s family. Shirley and Anton were far more restrained than Motsi and Craig.
And then the marathon began.
Nice song choice for Tom, opening up with the first of many cha chas. He was fine. Tilly’s waltz was eh, a nice contrast in terms of where it was, but forgettable. Ugo in hot pink (Oti really should have had more of that shade on her dress) went for his samba, was no Kelvin, but left me wanting to see his paso, and then it was all put in perspective by learning his father’s funeral had been held that morning.
So what would Nancy make of Rhys the Ringer? Well, she unleashed her inner dragon lady, he looked very dapper doing his Viennese Waltz and showed the potential of being able to produce beautiful lines and dancing. I loved Sara’s dress for cha cha no. 2, and she was much more dynamic than Jacqui, even if she ended up with the lowest score. I’d clocked Dan as potentially the worst last week, although Nadiya had claimed he’d be better at ballroom. I found his quickstep a bit frantic, and am still staggered that he’d end up in the top half of the leaderboard. I really liked Nadiya’s jumpsuit.
Rose was the best female so far (not saying much, I know), but I was really impressed by her timing, although it didn’t feel like a very jivey jive. As to the adaptations, she’s clearly been spending too much time with monolingual hearing people given how touched she was at Gio wanting to learn to sign so much - but even Tess got in on it, although was her signing covering her mouth? My sense was that they’d boosted the percussion to help Rose. (Every single year, I et overinvested in Gio’s partners. Every. Sinle. Year.)
I was very excited by Katie’s dramatic tango, I thought there was some quality to it, but Gorka seemed surprised that an actress would lift her standard when performing live!? This was followed by what we knew from last week and as soon as we saw the cozzies would be the campest routine of the night, Robert’s cha cha. I would say that apart from being fun, I thought it was very much a cha cha.
Greg sold his American Smooth and didn’t injure himself, although I was nodding along with Craig saying that the stuff in hold wasn’t as good, and then Shirley got vicious (part 1). I wasn’t worried about Nina selling her routine either, but she owned her samba. The flounce on the dress didn’t help with the shoulder hunching, but she was possibly the surprise of the night, while Neil must put up with always being partnered with ladies who want to be Beyonce.
I was fixated on John’s shoulders all through his (also dramatic) tango, but he seems to have got unpetrified and the judes really loved it. By this point in the show, it was interesting to see who the producers had decided to give the final slots to, because I’d thought Rhys and Katie had the most potential after last week. Judi’s American Smooth was very enjoyable; she can move and sell, sell, sell. Grazziano’s personality seems to have transformed since he first joined the show.
My question was whether AJ could control her limbs for her jive. Well, apparently, yes, she could! I thought the song was the main reason why I didn’t love the routine, it started off fast, then seemed to require slower, less full-on choreography, then allowed for a glorious (Alexandra Burkesque) ending. Whew. Adam couldn’t quite follow that, but Katya had cleverly given him a sexy cha cha, which he did well and it wan’t a dreadful drop-off.
And Nancy may have a ringer, Kai may have- well, AJ is definitely one of those I want to see do the other style before firming up an opinion - but Nancy and he aren’t as experienced at choreographing for Strictly as Katya, and with that leg thing, she showed she’s still got her mojo and a lot of pent-up frustration after COVID stopped her last year. Johannes has plenty to think about choreographically, obviously (John may be more popular with the mainly female voting public than Nicola might have turned out to be), while for Gio, I don’t think it’s as much a choreographic challenge as a teaching challenge. Again, I need to see who the all-rounders are and who will be better at Latin or ballroom.
It’s also clear that Tom (touring), Ugo (filming Question of Sport), Kate (filming Hollyoaks), Sara (businessing) and Tilly (studenting) may have less time than others to devote, and may suffer because of it
But the big other theme was the scoring, I suppose. Judges other than Craig reached for their 4 paddles. Shirey reached for a 9. In fact Shirley was pickier than Craig, although he did go for the 3, and very snarky about fundimentals, Claudia, when commenting on Nadia’s dance. At first, it took a bit of adjusting to get used to the scores after the comments.
I did not know that Janette would be co-presenting It Takes Two. We’ll se how it goes, but I hope they’ve found a niche for her, because I know she doesn’t have the same background as the other pros ad she has let sme of her celebs down, but you can’t doubt her commitment to sparkle motion.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/471458.html.