We're halfway through the series, and boy is it starting to show. An odd night fully of slightly off routines and people really trying to keep up with the hectic pace of the show. Oh yeah, and the judges possibly took some sort of communal hallucinogen at the start, read on for our journey through randomness...
Tilly and Nikita
From dance off to death slot, they really know how to make people feel better on this show. Saying that, Tilly looked delightful, I loved her Missoni-inspired dress and the whole look really suited her. I expected her to take quite well to the quickstep and this was pretty good. A bit of a Charleston overload but she is very good at it, plus her frame has improved. She needs to tighten up her footwork a bit but she is genuinely improving.
It was cute, but her feet looked a tad sloppy. At one point it definitely looked as though she were trotting up on her toes to catch up, when there should have been heel leads (although it is quite difficult to tell with the swooshy cameras). As Frankie says, she is improving, but feels as though she might be starting to stall a little.
AJ and Kai
We're seriously testing AJ's ability to pull off any outfit with that omelette yellow fever dream of a dress. The whole thing felt like a fever dream actually, at first I thought it was going to be overwhelmed by the theming, but these two sure know how to bring the drama. Even the slip seemed part of the drama! I do agree it wasn't her best, but the standard we're setting for her is ridiculously high, the judges seemed so keen to point out the bad bits that they didn't actually mention any of the good bits, of which there were plenty. Craig can get in the sea.
WTAF. OK, so it wasn't her best dance but the judges almost certainly were holding AJ to a whole different set of standards to everyone else last night. Which isn't at all fair. There was plenty that was good here - in fact, I actually liked it. And this lady would look fab no matter what costume she's given - I believe it is an impossibility for her to look awful. She got all my votes yesterday.
Dan and Nadiya
So glad to see Dan and Nadiya in some classic ballroom once again after a few weeks of daftness, plus in spectacular outfits! I wasn't a fan of King of the Road as a song choice but mostly because I thought they were going to set it in a motorway service station or something, so thankfully that worked out better than it could have. This was another example of Dan putting in all the hard work, it was definitely improved even though he looked terrified whenever he had to do a lift. Scores ranging from 4 to 9 is ridiculous, but that's not Dan's fault.
Craig's 4 was bang out of order. And I think the others 'upped' theirs somewhat to mitigate it - but that led to him being above AJ, which is just odd. That said, again, I really liked it. Dan is really joyful to watch - from some comments on Twitter you'd think that he's being kept in because it's bad/funny but he's genuinely dancing. His timing, performance and style are improving week on week. Do I think he's final material? No. Do I think he's a Kate Garraway? Absolutely not.
Rhys and Nancy
I think I've been waiting for Rhys to do a Charleston from day 1, he was just made for it. This was suitably bonkers, the swivels were huge and there were limbs and knees flying all over the place. Plus the lifts were confident rather than haphazard. I don't agree it was the best Charleston of the series, you can't just wipe AJ's away, they were two different styles of the dance, although once again I am looking at you Craig...
Yeeees, this was Rhys' dance and I loved it. I wasn't expecting a 40 but I have no idea what was going on yesterday with those judges. Something was certainly amiss. But hey, I'm really glad Rhys did a standout, memorable performance.
Sara and Aljaz
This was a bit of a weird one and not just because Sara seemed to have been given an early Christmas special dress. It started off well (including an amazing solo section from Aljaz) but then never really went anywhere for me. A disco song was not right for an AT, but the arrangement was thankfully paired down a bit. It was an intricate routine and Sara certainly couldn't have managed it at the start of the series, but it wasn't quite sharp enough for me.
Disco themed tango. Let's have a samba themed waltz next week, shall we? But hey, that's not Sara's fault. I thought this was good. It didn't blow me away but it was decent.
John and Johannes
The ITT rehearsal footage of this looked a-mazing, so my expectations were quite high. I think they might have been a bit too high, because I was expecting to be blown away, whereas this was a perfectly nice samba with lots of content and basic steps. I'm also jealous of John's shimmy, since I cannot do them to save my life. Two 10s felt like a step too far here. I think I agree with Craig though that John needs to push himself out there a bit more, he has a lovely natural way with his dancing but sometimes I just want a wee bit more oomph.
I actually missed most of this due to being so incensed by the fact that they finally had some salsa music on the show, but it was used for a samba. John is great though. Such a natural.
Amy and Tom
After last week's bonkers paso a VW was always going to be quite the gear change. Saying that, this didn't really feel like a VW to me, too many dramatic interludes and random arm-wafting for me. Once Tom got into hold, his frame really has improved but I found the routine too stop-start. I'm glad the judges finally agreed with me on a routine,
To be honest, at this point I was still smarting about the salsa/samba thing above. What I did catch I thought was OK. Tom does seem to be improving, which is good, and I do think he is possibly someone who could knock one of the TOP THREE (Rose, AJ, John) from a place in the final if he keeps at it. But in order to do that, he needs a standout breakthrough dance. And soon.
Rose and Giovanni
Argh, and rounding off a weird week with Couple's Choice. Plus outfits made of grey bedsheets. The odds were stacked against me liking this, but I found it positively charming. They were so well synchronied and the choreography looked quite difficult, unlike a lot of CCs which just look like jumping around. The silent interlude was wonderful too, not just for what it showed us about Rose but also the way it was seamlessly incorporated into the routine. A real highlight to a very odd night!
This started like a relatively standard Couple's Choice contemporary routine and I was just not prepared for how much the silence would affect me. It was absolutely beautiful and absolutely important. I am so glad it was included and this dance basically made my night. Rose has got to be the favourite to win now, surely? She is captivating to watch.
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