S13.E08: Week 6: Halloween

[ceebee]

This week's dances and songs:

Anita & Gleb - Waltz to "Once Upon a Dream" by Lana Del Rey

Carol & Pasha - Rumba to "I Think I Love You" by The Partridge Family

Georgia & Giovanni - Tango to "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr.

Jamelia & Tristan - Jive to "The Time Warp" from the Rocky Horror Picture Show

Jay & Aliona - American Smooth to "Lil Red Riding Hood" by Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs

Jeremy & Karen - Salsa to "Thriller" by Michael Jackson

Helen & Aljaz - Samba to "Take Your Mama" by Scissor Sisters

Katie & Anton - Paso Doble to "The Phantom of the Opera" by Steve Harley and Sarah Brightman

Kellie & Kevin - Paso Doble to "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter and the Glee version of "School's Out"

Kirsty & Brendan - Charleston to "Bad Romance" by Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox

Peter & Janette - Foxtrot to "Ghost" by Ella Henderson

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/strictlycomedancing/entries/15b788cc-78f7-434d-a7e5-1152c551dcc8

And the playlist for all the songs:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/playlists/zzzzhg

This week in training

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/strictlycomedancing/entries/9cf793d5-910e-47a4-9d38-fe6bb7972dfe

Edited October 31, 2015 by ceebee

[legaleagle53]

A Salsa to "Thriller"?  Please -- anyone who's ever watched DWTS knows that that's a Paso Doble (Cheryl Burke put her mark on it with her iconic choreography eight years ago):  

 

Edited October 31, 2015 by legaleagle53

[Occasional Hope]

I loathe the silly stagings and costumes for Halloween.  It says something when Claudia, dressed as a cat, is one of the most normal looking people on screen,

 

I predict Jamelia and Kirsty for the dance off.

[ceebee]

I'm hoping for a Carol v Kirsty dance off and Carol going.

[Dots And Stripes]

I'm ready for Carol to go too. The music this week didn't fit the mood of a rumba, but she also barely danced it. The most hip action I saw was when Pasha literally moved her hips with his hands. I give him part of the blame too for choreographing as much "skit" as dancing. Then again, with the ranking system, there isn't that much penalty for a super low score. If you're at the bottom of the leader board it doesn't matter what your score is, so you might as well go for the entertainment.

 

Jeremy was gifted some extra points. At first it was cute that he and Karen celebrated a 4 from Craig, but she continued it way too long. We get it, Karen, you want to support Jeremy. That was too much and she became obnoxious. 

 

Peter had a similar problem. I don't buy him "celebrating" 7's at this stage. Credit to him for realizing he should be gracious, but it came off as very phony. Jay by contrast comes across as being really genuine. I'm definitely rooting for Jay. Back to Peter, Wikipedia says his lowest score is a 28 and his highest was a 32. Not much growth happening there so far. He really should be moving up more and he's not.

 

Kellie had a valid reason for not moving up this week. I think the table also got in the way. It limited the way they could use the floor and where they could go.

 

Finally, yay for Team GG! So happy they finally moved to the top this week. 

[legaleagle53]

I'm ready for Carol to go too. The music this week didn't fit the mood of a rumba, but she also barely danced it. The most hip action I saw was when Pasha literally moved her hips with his hands. I give him part of the blame too for choreographing as much "skit" as dancing. Then again, with the ranking system, there isn't that much penalty for a super low score. If you're at the bottom of the leader board it doesn't matter what your score is, so you might as well go for the entertainment.

 

Her idiotic grinning throughout the dance didn't help, either.  I was, however, greatly amused to see her practically back-leading Pasha almost all throughout the dance.

[Occasional Hope]

It'll be interesting to see who is B2 next week.  I'm betting on poor Jamelia again (as she acknowledged, the voters just don't like her, which must be tough to face emotionally, and I give her big props for being so bright and positive in the circumstances), but will she be joined by Jeremy, Carol or an Undeserving Other, and if so, who?  Time for the Shock Boot, perhaps?  (Please let it be Peter Andre.)

[Dots And Stripes]

Peter vs. Jamelia would result in Jamelia going home. Peter said he has Charleston, a dance lighter on technique and relying heavily on performance value, so I suspect he'll be fine. I'm curious to see when they give Peter salsa. He's pretty much guaranteed to kill that one. 

 

Jamelia is in trouble in part because jive was in her wheelhouse and she still ended up in the bottom two. I think Jamelia showed great athleticism in her Charleston and she's got great energy for the jive, almost too much so. She was off time in the dance off and I don't see her having many dances left that she is as well suited for as this one. I know a lot of people are put off by her personality, but as someone who is largely in the dark about the content of her controversial statements, I don't mind her.

 

I want Carol in a dance off. Clearly her fans know they have to vote to keep her safe because it's hard to imagine her surviving a dance off against anyone but Jeremy. Carol seems like a sweet lady, but that last dance looked more embarrassing than fun for her.

[Anothermi]

I want Carol in a dance off. Clearly her fans know they have to vote to keep her safe because it's hard to imagine her surviving a dance off against anyone but Jeremy. Carol seems like a sweet lady, but that last dance looked more embarrassing than fun for her.

 

YES! She was given a difficult dance for her - both movement-wise and personality-wise. Also, from her twitter, she didn't like the song much. She was embarrassed to do the rumba moves and I suppose having to perform it on the Halloween show was the only saving grace for her. She didn't have to take it all that seriously. Their music was just the cherry on top of all they had going against them. I really don't like seeing the celebrities put in that kind of situation and I hope her dance next week is one she can really enjoy and do a decent job of. Then I hope she's in the dance off and gets to go home with her head held high.

 

[rant] As a big Pasha fan, I think Len treated him badly by asking him if he taught Carol the rumba walk. He looked really taken aback by such a statement as it was clearly set up to either damn Pasha or damn Carol. Good on Pasha for falling on his sword and protecting Carol. See Anton and Brendan? It is possible to put your ego away and take the blame instead of mincing words to try to make yourself look good (I gave her what I thought she could do - Anton) or getting all "this girl works soooo hard" huffy (Brendan).

 

Pasha has proven that he always tries to teach his celebrities the correct dance. They don't always get it and in the short time they have he focuses on perfecting what they can do to make a good show and try to make the celeb comfortable with their dance. Pasha always takes his responsibility towards his contestant seriously. He always pushes them to do the best they can with the actual dance but still ensures they are enjoying themselves. [/rant]

 

I like Halloween week. There, I've said it. But this one was really difficult and I think it may be down to the exceptionally poor choice of music. Oh, and the fact that they only get one practice with difficult costumes (Anita) before the show. Given the last minute nature of some of the Halloween stuff I think the celebs coped quite well. Jeremy does a blog of his time on the show and posted a pic of Ainsley serving food in their eating area to a guy he identified as Matt, the guy who chooses our music. I know you can't judge a book by it's cover, and I'm wondering if this guy is also in a no win situation. It's his JOB and I suspect he given a list of criteria that starts with Theme, moves on to how recognizable it is, and then to cost. I'm thinking fitness-for-the-dance doesn't even make the list. That's about as kind as I can get.

 

Not quite sure why the judges decided to be critical of these Halloween prop and costume issues this year when they've excused these problems in the past like, for example: "it's a pity your heel got caught in your partner's cobwebs". They seem to have stopped even mentioning the lack of fitness of the music choices. Maybe they just marked on the dance but address the trappings for something to say? I don't know because Kelly and Kevin seemed to be marked down for dancing on the Hogwarts dining hall table. Perhaps Kevin designed the dance that way, but I read a few interviews where Pros talk about not even having control over the set design. Perhaps it was like this:

Kevin, your theme is Harry Potter and you're going to have a big bench table in the middle of the floor. Work with it.

(Tristan is good for giving behind the scenes info during interviews to a fansite - the MacManiacs. Scroll down to Oct. 19 interview - 4th question - to read where he presented a song and concept for a dance which was rejected because it didn't "fit")

 

Putting all the complaining aside, I quite enjoyed these dances:

Helen - she's beginning to loosen up and Aljas did great choreograph for the concept. Also, no props.

Anita - just wish they'd work on her feet. Only thing I didn't like was the feeble kick she gave. She's still one of my top contenders and gives an excellent performance every time. (Thought Mark Ballas had subbed in for a second there when Gleb did the magic "fall down, reverse up" hip hop move.)  ;-)

Jay - lovely dance. Thought he forgot to take his "granny" spectacles  off, but it may have just been the makeup. Agree with the judges that he has to start acting now. His dancing fine.

Georgia - very happy for her that she got to be top of the leader board. I think this was the 1st dance of hers that I really liked. I'm also happy that Giovanni is no longer being required to try to be Vincent 2.0. It's not him and I like who he actually is.

Jeremy - oh boy. I've joined the crazy train and fallen in love with him. He may be a "bad dancer" but he's both entertaining and working hard. He also a lovely, thoughtful man. Impressed by his facebook response to people who posted he should quit because he can't dance. I know it's not dancing related but it sure results in feelings of good will towards him.

 

I thought Kirsty was the right person to go, but I felt bad for her that her make up made her look miserable even when she was dancing. She couldn't even make a good impression upon leaving. Her words were magnanimous but her face didn't look it. Why couldn't she have gotten make up that allowed her to look beautiful like all the other women?

 

One last comment - Jamelia is having a rough time and I feel bad for her, but at least she's getting Life Coaching from Tristan that will hold her in good stead for the rest of her life - if she chooses to apply it going forward. :-D

 

Long post. Sorry. Perhaps I should break up my thought over a few posts? Might be more readable.

[Dots And Stripes]

 

Not quite sure why the judges decided to be critical of these Halloween prop and costume issues this year when they've excused these problems in the past like, for example: "it's a pity your heel got caught in your partner's cobwebs". They seem to have stopped even mentioning the lack of fitness of the music choices. Maybe they just marked on the dance but address the trappings for something to say? I don't know because Kelly and Kevin seemed to be marked down for dancing on the Hogwarts dining hall table. Perhaps Kevin designed the dance that way, but I read a few interviews where Pros talk about not even having control over the set design. Perhaps it was like this:

Kevin, your theme is Harry Potter and you're going to have a big bench table in the middle of the floor. Work with it.

(Tristan is good for giving behind the scenes info during interviews to a fansite - the MacManiacs. Scroll down to Oct. 19 interview - 4th question - to read where he presented a song and concept for a dance which was rejected because it didn't "fit")

 

I don't think the judge's held the table against Kellie exactly, but it's kind of hard to judge what a dance would have been without an intrusive prop. Maybe Kellie would have moved better without the table there because I think it limited what Kevin could do choreographically and the size of Kellie's movements. Not to mention she couldn't go very far when dancing on the table itself. It wasn't Kellie's best dance. I think being the bride in a tv wedding was also to blame. I would assume she had a lot of long hours and a lot of lines. SCD would not be her priority. Craig said he thought the theme worked for the dance too.

 

I agree Kirsty going is no great loss. While her dance off Charleston was improved, she's just wasn't going to compete with the top 7-8 couples. I'm fine with Jeremy being the last "bad" dancer standing. He is entertaining and has a good attitude. That said, I would be majorly angry if he outlasted Georgia or Jay somehow.

[Anothermi]

I don't think the judge's held the table against Kellie exactly, but it's kind of hard to judge what a dance would have been without an intrusive prop. Maybe Kellie would have moved better without the table ...

 

That's what I was trying to get at. They know what Kelly is capable of and they know the table would restrict movement (not to mention those non-capes with sleeves :-O ). But in the past they would have at least make a mention of how the prop or costume may have restricted her movement when they critiqued her shaping. They have marked lower due to accidents or costume restrictions in the past, but had at least pointed that out rather then criticize the dance as though the person was not capable of better given different circumstances.