Hello again everyone! Now this blog is posted a bit later than usual, as it was my older sister's birthday this weekend, so we've been celebrating that. I didn't get to see the show live on Saturday as I was out for a meal with the family, but I've seen the dances twice and watched the Saturday show yesterday.
Last time, we saw Sunetra & Brendan granted their last request to stay, and that meant Steve & Ola had to go home. Love Ola's new hair colour btw, she suits being a brunette.
In the style stakes, Tess won for Saturday's show, and Claudia for Sunday's, so honours are even. The theme for this week was 'Around the World' - sadly not the ATC, Aqua or Lisa Stansfield songs of the same name, but an excuse for bad song choices, weird outfits, and backing dancers. So basically, Blackpool mark 2.
Pixie & Trent - Viennese Waltz - "Tulips from Amsterdam"
Now this is the kind of song that I could imagine being done at an Andre Rieu concert. I might not like this pairing but I can always appreciate when they have done a good dance. On this occasion, I thought it was good, but not worthy of 10s from the judges. This is probably the first instance where I think Trent might have put too much in to the choreography - lots of faffing abaht, yes, but also lots of times where you could see Pixie trying hard to get into the correct place for the next move. It just about worked, but could have so easily gone wrong. It took them about 30 seconds to get anywhere near each other let alone in hold, and that's a good third of the routine wasted. Trent is a good storyteller, but like Janette, sometimes I think he'd be better off with less story and more content. This might have made things easier on Pixie as he could have had simpler choreography for the rest of the routine. As an aside, what was going on with the backing dancers? Apparently they were doing the 'Single Ladies' dance during the routine? I also felt that Trent and Pixie were apart too much, I would have liked them dancing together more. That being said, Pixie did very well with the content. I was looking out to see if they'd do a fleckel, and I'm not sure that Pixie had the correct footwork for that (you more knowledgeable people out there can tell me that one). As for what she has left, she could go either way, but I get the feeling she'll skip the Argentine Tango, and so be doing a Latin this week.
Judges' scores: 9, 9, 10, 10 for a total of 38/40
My score: 8.5
Mark & Karen - Salsa - "Viva Las Vegas"
Mark had to head back to Tenerife this week so he's not had much time to train, and sadly it showed in this routine. After his impressive Samba a while ago, I had hoped that this would be a good dance for him. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. The lifts and tricks weren't particularly great (aside from the ending press lift which I thought was brilliant), he was out of time with Karen, and he just didn't seem to get into the performance as much as he usually does. I was wondering where the usual armography had gone - there wasn't any (as far as I can remember) in this routine, so maybe Mark couldn't do it for some reason? That or his training time was SO limited (like Sunetra's usually is) that Karen and the choreographers had to give him a relatively simple routine? I'd say probably the latter, as last week's Tango wasn't up to his usual standard either, and he also had limited practice time then. With only one Latin left, Mark has to be doing Ballroom this week - his options are the AT, Foxtrot or Viennese Waltz - with Caroline doing AT and Simon having to do Foxtrot in the semis, I think he'll have the Foxtrot for this week.
Judges' scores: 7, 8, 9, 8 for a total of 32/40
My score: 7
Sunetra & Brendan - Rumba - "Girl from Ipanema"
They should have had Amy from 'The Big Bang Theory' doing this on her harp. Isn't this song normally a Foxtrot? To fit in with the 'theme' I think the producers have just gone for any song that has a place in the title (Simon excepted). It was a bit of a different kind of Rumba, and like our Bruno, I thought the concept was good so props to Brendan for that. However, it was a bit boring to watch if I'm honest and I didn't see much actual Rumba going on between the two of them. Like Pixie's dance, I would have liked to have seen S & B dancing together more, it felt like the Sunetra Show with a cameo from Brendan, which might work for some dances (Showdance for one) but definitely not a Rumba. All arms and nothing else from Sunetra, which she's struggled with for a while. As Marian Keyes put it on ITT tonight, Rumba is 'the dance of death', and so it proved for this pair. Also, LIFT! Probably intentional, but still, points must be deducted for that. There was also an accidental lift when Brendan did the drag, which was corrected when they did it second time round for the dance-off. It's a shame that Sunetra couldn't have gone out on a better dance, but this was the right time for her to go.
Judges' scores: 5, 7, 8, 7 for a total of 27/40
My score: 5 (would have been 6 if not for the lifts)
Caroline & Pasha - Charleston - "Istanbul"
I already knew this song from a Strictly game, so I knew it would work for a Charleston. I wasn't sure how Caroline would cope with this dance - not so much the technical and fast-paced side of it, as we saw from her Jive that she has no problem in that respect; but the performance side. She pulled off everything with aplomb! Some of the lifts were a bit clunky (she seems to struggle with the transitions of getting into them) so I can't give her a 10, but other than that it was FAB-U-LOUS! Caroline's got the Argentine Tango this week, and I reckon this will be a cracking dance for her. It will definitely challenge her - with the lifts, and maintaining the performance throughout, but that's a good thing I think. I'm not really a fan of Pasha, but I would be happy for him to lift the glitterball with Caroline.
Judges' scores: 9, 10, 10, 10 for a total of 39/40
My score: 9.5
Simon & Kristina - Waltz - "Edelweiss"
Simon's back in the game with this dance! It was beautiful, moving, and although he didn't have enough swing and sway, it was magical. Credit to Kristina, the choreography was sublime, and that's how you tell a story whilst still having tons of content (take note Trent). Simon's been confirmed to have the American Smooth this week, so we already know that he would dance the Foxtrot and Samba in the semi-final (he did the Cha Cha Cha in the Christmas special so he'll skip that). I think AS will be a good dance for him, the interesting thing will be what dance style he does for it - will he go traditional Foxtrot which would help him for next week? Or go for something different which we know he can already do? Whatever it is, I'm sure Kristina will do a great job with it.
Judges' scores: 9, 10, 10, 9 for a total of 38/40
My score: 9
Frankie & Kevin - Jive - "Surfin' USA"
I've been waiting for Frankie to do a Jive for ages, and after this one, I'm not really sure what to make of it. For some reason, Frankie seems to struggle in the fast Latin dances, and I'm starting to think that it's the performance that lets her down. She has a smile on granted, but sometimes you need to do more. Take Simon's week 1 Jive - you could tell that he was enjoying it and that enhanced his performance. That might be where Frankie has a problem - she needs to import not more energy, but more enthusiasm (that might not be the right word, but it's the best I've got). Perhaps take a small leaf from Kevin's book - he might overdo it sometimes, but he does have that enthusiasm that Frankie lacks. Aside from this, she did pretty well, just going out of time with Kevin on occasion. They have the Salsa this week: I'm not sure what to expect really, it could go either way.
Judges' scores: all 9s for a total of 36/40
My score: 8
Jake & Janette - Argentine Tango - "Zorba the Greek"
Oh, good lord. This was just awful, and I can't even blame Janette this time. What did Jake actually do other than shout 'Opa!', swing his leg a few times, and basically stand and get Janette to do her tricks? Even the outrage over the backing dancer bumping into him (sorry Craig but you were wrong) couldn't change the fact that this was just weird. Not an Argentine Tango whatsoever and I feel sorry for Jake getting the novelty songs and comedy dances at this stage of the competition. I can't even give a real critique as I really don't know what I can say about this dance. He could go either way in his dance choices for this week, but I'd guess he's doing a Latin - which means either Cha Cha Cha or Charleston. He'd be better off with Charleston I'd say.
Judges' scores: 5, 8, 8, 8 for a total of 29/40
My score: 4
Strictly Leaderboard:
1. Caroline & Pasha - 39
=2. Pixie & Trent, Simon & Kristina - 38
4. Frankie & Kevin - 36
5. Mark & Karen - 32
6. Jake & Janette - 29
7. Sunetra & Brendan - 27
My Leaderboard:
1. Caroline & Pasha - 38
2. Simon & Kristina - 36
3. Pixie & Trent - 34
4. Frankie & Kevin - 32
5. Mark & Karen - 28
6. Sunetra & Brendan - 20
7. Jake & Janette - 16
Dance-off: Mark & Karen vs Sunetra & Brendan. Not that much of a surprise, as we know that Jake and Frankie have support from previous weeks.
Elimination: Sunetra & Brendan. Like the last few weeks, this could have gone either way. On the dance-off alone, I would have saved Sunetra, but if you're looking at overall, then Mark had to go through to next week.
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