Let’s Get Rrready to Rrrrrumbaaa!

Well I must say, there was a lot of chest on display this week! Everyone from the rumba-ing celebs, to the pros and even Tess seemed to have invested in a Wonderbra.


Anyway, two very hard and very different dances tonight; the physically-impossible-for-clumsy-people-like-me quickstep and the often cringe-worthy rumba. The stakes have been raised once more and expectations are very high…

Clover is in purple. Yet again. She keeps beating me. Not with sticks.

Christine and Matt

Lovely song choice, which I expected would make it in somewhere this series, but unfortunately mauled by the singers. However, even with that as a distraction I thought Christine skipped rather merrily in the manner a quickstep should be done. And top marks to Arlene for using ‘beige’ as a synonym for boring- she’s obviously been reading this blog!

I'm getting slightly annoyed by her coquettish batting-of- eye-lashes, but not too annoyed and think she's still quite a sweetie on the whole. I have the problem with quicksteps in that in my unprofessional opinion, blinded by the tricksy moves, I think they always look fairly good (we'll not talk about Kate) But, alas, the judges see what I do not see and I suppose, yes, on a brief second viewing it was a bit heavy. Dress average.

Jodie and Ian

Well after Ian’s slip on Wednesday's ITT about Jodie producing her breast rather than best, I thought we were going to get an eyeful when I saw her in that frock. Saying that, she looked stunning and I thought her emoting was really improved from last week. I think there could be a Gethin Jones-style breakthrough moment if she gets the chance.

Jodie is tall. Can tall people dance? But you know, she is tall. Thought she would be in the dance-off for sure - shows how much I know.

Heather and Brian

That is possibly the most delightfully camp dress I have ever seen in six series of the show! However, it didn’t really float my boat; to me it seemed like she was dramatically better at the beginning and the end when she was out of hold. And we go back to the chests with Len’s reference to her ‘upper portions’, wink wink nudge nudge…

Well, for starters she looked like a packet of synthetic strawberries packaged to be taken on a space-mission. But again, I didn't think the dance looked that bad at all. With all the swooping camera shots I don't suppose it's possible for the viewing public to know that she's not heel-leading. OK, the frame didn't look very elegant but I do feel for them in the quickstep because, to be honest, if I were skipping about at that pace, I'd be clinging on for dear life too.

Cheri and James

Ok, as much as I don’t like James I do have to say that was rather good! Simple and elegant and very lost-in-the-moment-esque. Who else thinks Cheri must have sort of ballet experience?

Oooh what a delight. And right now I'm just talking about the deliciously refreshing monochrome costume. She just looked so damned classy. What I liked most about this dance was its simplicity - I actually recognised some steps and that's so rare with the rumba. I am beginning to wonder if James and Ola are big Eva Cassidy fans.

Jessie and Darren

Darren once again picks a song that has the right tempo but has absolutely nothing else to do with the dance (remember last year’s Material Girl tango debacle?). And oh my word another reference to boobs! I agree with what the judges said; as much as I want to like Jessie, she’s not doing very well…

Poor dress - I don't know what all that was about. Poor dance. Poor Jessie. Though I think those tears were a bit fishy (in the sense of said fish being caught in a crocodile's jaws), I did feel for her a little (and I'm a cold-hearted biatch) because the judges were harsh. She was not half as bad as Kate or Gary or Fiona or squazillions of other contestants but they really laid into her. She went fair and square but I think the fearsome threesome (and Len) were meanies nonetheless.

Lisa and Brendan

The training footage looked very good on ITT and the performance certainly lived up to that. I thought it smouldered a bit more than Cheri and James’, but maybe it wasn’t as technically as good. Plus it’s always fabulous watching Brendan doing the rumba.

What the heck was this about? It was OK. No, OK, it was good. But they were waxing lyrical about her technique when I'm pretty sure her knees were bent most of the way through. This is not the way to rumba. Over-marked. (Note - I didn't pick the picture for this blog entry.)

Rachel and Vincent

Great dress, great song, great dance. I’m always waiting for these two to come on and Vincent just has a fabulous knack for fancy choreography- I don't care what Len says, I like extended openings! Can’t wait to see her take on the boys!

Oh they are so wee. And they are so cute. I haven't much else to say. I wasn't blown away but oh! they are so wee.

Group dance (don’t ask me to spell it!) R-U-E-D-A (I'm testing you next week.)

Wow, that was a number and a half! Loved the en masse lift at the end and also the costumes- Lilia once again gets the best, but Ola scored high too. I thought Mark was a bit behind everyone else despite the spectacular shimmy, but Tom was very good. Kristina seems to be turning a deeper shade of orange every week though!

Holy guapea! What was this? It looked like a total shambles. There hasn't been a Cuban-related crisis quite as bad as this since 1962. However, I think that was partly due to the fact that a rueda is never going to lend itself well to being filmed. I think they should have considered a fixed camera for this dance so we would at least have been able to admire the pretty patterns a cuban wheel creates - or should do, at least. Maybe even an aerial view would have worked! It looked like they had a mighty fine fun time though regardless of what it actually looked like.


Results Show

Bryan and Carmen - what a treat! Received at angry text message from Frankie about him being evil for ditching Karen for the German chick (is she German?) but even so, that was a cracking samba...could it be anything else? Loved the candy-coloured dresses in the pro-American Smooth...and the song, aces! 'Hello Dolly' - that really speaks to my inner showtune maniac (I call her Liza). Glad we didn't have to suffer the rueda again and it was lovely to see Ian and Camilla perform to Simply Red - sometimes I forget it's not the James and Ola and Vincent and Flavia Show.