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| Blackpool camp? Never! |
*Disclaimer*: Nothing against them personally, but we hate the backing dancers and they shouldn't be in any dance.
**Agreed - the arguments about the floor being too big don't stand either. Didn't stop earlier contestants...
Jay and Aliona
He's not had a great few weeks, so was hoping the magic of Blackpool would rub off on Jay with this salsa, and at least he had something vaguely approaching a salsa song. Too bad he was dressed in Kevin's dodgy latin cast-offs. Now there's two things I want in a salsa: armography and hips, and I do believe we got both in these. AND an attempt at looking funky from Jay - he wasn't going to go all jazz handy crazy (that's a technical term, that is), but he did seem like he was having a good time. A wee bit overmarked, but whatever, Blackpool!
I'd dance salsa with Jay after seeing this. From me that is a huge compliment. No, the song wasn't salsa but it's as close as the show will go, and at least was an attempt at something vaguely authentic in terms of mood. No issues with it at all. It didn't have the effortless suave of his week three jive, but it was pretty darned good anyway.
Jamelia and Tristan
Remember when Jamelia started doing ballroom and she could barely stand up? Well she just did a pretty decent quickstep - Tristian's shins are intact! She is operating at a lower level than the others, but this was her best dance since the Charleston and her best ballroom by a mile. Improvement and we didn't even have to shout GAPPING, which we normally love to do. Wasn't too sure about the 80s Barbie ballroom dress.
Jamelia's the last contestant in the competition who didn't start from being pretty good anyway (Anita may not have had training but she's quite clearly got natural ability.) Her first attempt at ballroom was like watching a mannequin being dragged about. She has improved immeasurably however. Others have not. She is eclipsing some *cough Peter*, not that you would know it from the comments. The judges talked as though she would be a dead cert to go this week, and in my opinion, she definitely danced better than two other couples... those scores are getting silly...
Anita and Gleb
Epic dress, epic song, epic curtain-y things - EPIC paso. Also the backing dancers reminded me of the Unsullied from Game of Thrones, which kinda helped, I'm not going to lie. It was a tad over the top and camp, but if you're not going to do that with a paso you've wasted an opportunity. Also so technically sharp, and the Spanish line, ooof what a star!
Let's get the negative over with first. It didn't have a massive amount of paso content - it was very theatrical showdance - but nevertheless, it was absolutely stunning. Anita's characterisation and Spanish line were things of legend. And what a difference an appropriate song choice makes. Loved this. Dance of the night. And oh, topless Gleb.
Katie and Anton
Let's just take a moment to appreciate Erin dropping in for a chat, what a treat. Also what a dream of an old-school ballroom dress. This was Anton acting out his Blackpool dreams and it was everything we thought it would be. Not a perfect performance, bit wobbly on the lifts and I absolutely hate it when they dance with anyone other than their professional partners, but this is the kind of thing we come to Blackpool for.
I popped out the room and missed Erin. Fo' shame. This was perfect for Blackpool. It wasn't perfect technically definitely good enough to stay in.
Peter and Janette
I thought jive was going to be a strong one for Peter, and he got a perfect song too. Saying that, I didn't think this routine was up to much, you have to really ramp it up for Blackpool and this was pretty underwhelming - lots of running backwards and forwards and not much else. Nice to see the judges actually mention it, was wondering how they were going to try and gloss over it actually, the two 8s were ridiculous. Quite liking Janette's family-friendly-stripper-banana-dress though.
This was abysmal. It hardly had any jive content and the bits there were, were executed by Peter terribly. Those 8s were not deserved and I am convinced that the judges were told to score that highly. Horrendous. Terrible, Dreadful. Appalling. Ghastly. Hideous. Heinous. Frightful. Lousy. I can't think of any more words without trying to find a thesaurus, so I'll stop, but I think you get the picture. Again, this is not really a reflection on Peter who may just have been having a bad week. It's the inflated scoring I have beef with.
Georgia and Giovanni
These two have suddenly rocked up to the top of the leader board and caught everyone's eye, so Blackpool ballroom was going to be a big deal. This was pretty good, they had a big song to overcome, and her technique keeps on improving. Also, beautiful frock, super-girly without looking like a bridesmaid. This was the dance that suffered from the backing dancers the most though - I lost them more than once and it totally distracted from them as a couple - stop it producers.
Where Anita really stood out in her group number, Georgia kind of got lost in it. This is not due to Georgia's dancing but more to do with the choreography. She's a beautiful dancer and (I hope) a dead cert for the final.
Helen and Aljaz
Absolutely adore Helen's camp classic outfit, reminds me of Lilia's Candyman jive outfit of legend. Wasn't sure how she was going to take to the Charleston, but she did pretty well, although like Craig said, maybe a bit too musical theatre and not enough raucous 1920s speakeasy. Saying that, I also thought this was the dance that Helen enjoyed the most for a long time, you could really see on her face that she was absolutely loving it.
Helen's an example of someone who has had lots of training but isn't really a natural. At this point in the competition, I would be expecting that she would have a better grasp of the style of each dance each week but this is not happening. And again, like Peter, this is not being reflected in her scores. Nevertheless, I much preferred this to her latin performances and actually quite enjoyed it. Again, like Peter, the fact that her scores are high in comparison to other dancers makes me inclined to be more negative about her performances than they really deserve - it's the scores I have issues with, not the dances themselves, which aren't bad... they're just not as good as they're made out to be.
Kellie and Kevin
I saw this on ITT and it looked like props upon props upon human props and I was right, I thought one of those desks was going to wipe them out at one point. This seemed a wee bit underwhelming for the pimp slot, it was good, but not knock-you-socks off. The conga line of dancers was actually quite a fun touch cos Kellie was in charge of them all. Also, Kellie's top looked like one of those ones that you rip off Bucks Fizz-style halfway through a routine, I was waiting for Kevin to do some workplace harassment!
Cute, bubbly and brimming with joy, I did really enjoy this. I didn't think it was worth 10s but I guess it was the end of the show and it's Blackpool and everyone could have got all caught up in the excitement of it all. I say this because Kellie hasn't been consistently over-marked.
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