On Tuesday’s show they featured Sid & Ola, Fern & Artem and Lisa & Robin along with the return of Karen Hardy’s Choreography Corner.

Fern Britton & Artem Chigvintsev

Fern reveals that her skirt ‘wafting’ was due to her inability to know what to do with her hands.

It seems Artem has calmed down from his ‘Dancing Terminator’ training footage from previous seasons, though how long nicey nicey Artem will stick around as the series develops.

Fern has Viennese Waltz this weekend and is already preferring it to the Cha Cha Cha, I’ll look to training footage later this week.

Choreography Corner

Let’s hear Karen’s thoughts on the weekend choreography:

Denise & James’ Waltz

The great thing about this…the smoke on the floor…no one could see her feet…Len thinks she can go all the way so goes straight for the feet

Colin & Kristina’s Cha Cha

He made the dance his…facial expressions, energy…if you’ve got it, move it, and that’s what he was doing…I thought he was brilliant

Michael & Natalie’s Waltz

Started with his hands behind his back…great choreography by Natalie…[however his frame] does start to drop again

Nicky & Karen’s Waltz

You only lower and prepare for a lift!…a little slap, we don’t want to see that again…another good contender for a long stay in the show

Victoria & Brendan’s Cha Cha

Some great content, absolutely brilliant…when she melted it all went to pieces…has to think that Brendan is her bicycle…don’t be distracted

Fern & Artem’s Cha Cha

The cuban breaks…slow and quick timings…got it all wrong…I think she could be a dark horse

Louis & Flavia’s Cha Cha

It’s bit flat footed, makes it look heavy…we’re looking for the use of feet, ball of foot to flat foot…I just think he’s got big feet…one of the best hip actions out there

Kimberley & Pasha’s Cha Cha

The legs are bent throughout…impossible to create hip action with bent legs…I thought she delivered a spotless performance…a nice performance, need it to be a little bit more dangerous

Dani & Vincent’s Waltz

As she turns away her eyes are looking down, and then she goes all wobbly…got to look out

Johnny & Iveta’s Cha Cha

What’s so great is they’ve used the ‘Red Herring’ affect…showing her off…distracted [from Johnny]…[I loved] his energy…very proud of him

Jerry & Anton’s Cha Cha

Great thing is when she’s in the arms of Anton…when we hit the ballroom dances she could potentially look very good…divine, glorious, glamorous woman

Richard & Erin’s Waltz

High toes, heel leads…footwork in the early days is very difficult…footwork is the foundation of movement

Lisa & Robin

Zoe: “Are you still on a high”
Lisa: “Absolutely…I never thought it would get the reaction that it did”

The music was the key, fun and camp suiting them down to the ground.

Lisa has just finished filming Waterloo Road, but had previously been training in the morning, shooting 5 hours, then additional training in the evening – quite the punishing schedule!

They show a VT of Lisa ‘having’ to practice the Robin body stroke section again…and again…and again…as Lisa says ‘I love my life”.

Lisa has Viennese Waltz this weekend, which I think could prove to be more difficult dance for her.  Robin knows there’ll be more pressure on them now after finishing top at the weekend, but hopes they will do well.

Sid Owen & Ola Jordan

Sid: “First show, very nerve wracking, but I did get a bit emotional”.

Sid & Ola were overwhelmed and surprised by the good comments they received, especially after the harsh comments the judges were handing out on the Friday show.

It’s always difficult for the guys to keep their heads to the left, and most find their heads drifting towards their partner, but I’m sure Ola’s constant nagging will start to pay off – I know it does with my students (many of them hear me shouting ‘left’ at them inside their heads when I’m not around they tell me).

Salsa at the weekend could be a more difficult dance for Sid, depending on how loose his hips are.

A quick update on James’ broken nose, his doctor has given him the all clear thankfully.

So that’s episode 2 of 55 out of the way, Albert Hall for the International Ballroom Dance Championships tonight so don’t expect Wednesday/Thursday until early tomorrow I imagine.

The post It Takes Two – Tuesday 9th October appeared first on Learn To Dance.

On today’s show: Michelle, Ian & Brendan; Karen Hardy Choreography Corner; Pamela & James; Gavin & Katya.

So first up are Michelle & Ian, fresh from their bottom two finish on Saturday night, joined by Brendan Cole back from his father’s funeral.  Brendan reveals that he felt a little jealous watching Michelle dancing with Ian on Saturday night.

Ian felt nervous about the responsibility of making sure that Michelle made it through to the next week so that she could go back to dancing with Brendan.

Michelle has the Jive this weekend, I’m guessing it’s going to be a disaster and this could be the week Michelle goes, but I will have to wait to see the training videos to be sure.

I’m afraid I always skip past the “Out of the Glitterball” section so I can’t tell you much about that.

Now onto Karen Hardy’s Choreography Corner,

Karen reveals she likes the added extras and props, so long as it’s not overboard and doesn’t last too long. 

First for analysis is Felicity & Vincent: Looking at their floor spin with Felicity balanced on one leg.  Karen applauds the trust between them and also Felicity’s flexibility.

Jimi & Flavia: Claudia felt they were undermarked.  Karen doesn’t agree with Bruno that Jimi was out of time with his cane work and actually felt he was “masterful”.

Matt & Aliona: a “brilliant” double cartwheel though Tina & Jared performed the same move slightly lighter.

Scott & Natalie: great “light and shade” in their dance, really using the music to express the dance.

Gavin & Katya: Gavin’s strength in his legs allowed them to do a throwaway oversway all the way down to the ground, when they could’ve done a much easier movement.

Ann & Anton: Whilst everyone wants to talk about the “flying hippo” Karen concentrates on the outside swivels and her basics and body contact, something Ann is improving at.

Patsy & Robin: “Great Charleston, classic”.  She doesn’t need any gimmicks or gizmos.

Pamela & James

Pamela reveals she wasn’t worried about the score itself, but rather James’ reaction to it.  James wasn’t disappointed by the scores as apparently in training they’d only managed to get through it once out of three attempts.

Also it appears that this was the first Tango that James has performed on Strictly.  This weekend they will be dancing the Jive and I look forward to seeing their training.

Gavin & Katya,

Gavin is a bit of a mixed bag for me, some weeks he seems to be really developing and then one thing, like the slip at the start on Saturday, throws him back into himself.

It looks like Gavin will be the first person this series to visit an acting coach and let’s hope this increases his confidence.

Personally I don’t tend to touch my hair after I first do it in the morning so I can’t quite understand the fascination, though I must admit his hair is looking quite good today!

They have Paso Doble this weekend, which requires even more acting than the Tango so if Gavin doesn’t start coming out of his shell this could be another poor performing week.

I’ll update tomorrow with some of the training videos, and I might actually be able to do that one live this week!

The post It Takes Two – Tuesday 26th October appeared first on Learn To Dance.

Personally it’s not my cup of tea in a Cha Cha routine but if it gets people up and dancing who am I to complain.  I’d have thought Time Steps would have been easier rather though, that’s how we start our under 10’s off.

For something trying to encourage people with two left feet to get up and dance I think the music could have been quite a bit slower too.

Karen had the following to say though,

Details of where the events are being held, and how to apply for the London event can be found here.

The post Strictly Get Dancing appeared first on Learn To Dance.