On tonight’s episode: Peter & Erin; Alisha Dixon; Ann & Anton; Felicity & Vincent.

The show starts with Ola Jordan taking a video camera round behind the scenes and chatting the the dancers and celebs.  We see James jokingly telling Ola about what it’s like to still be in the competition. Len and James share a kiss (so that Len can see if it ‘prickles’ when you kiss a man with a beard).

Then we’re treated to another brief recap of some of the highlights from Saturday before it’s time to talk to Peter & Erin.

Peter feels like he let himself down, but also that Charleston wasn’t really his dance.  Erin points out that Charleston was around week 11 last year, not week 4, and considering there’s acting as well as dancing involved that does make it much more difficult.

Peter’s highlights do unfortunately include his Salsa, but there’s a nice outfit of Erin’s in the training vid

Next up a VT showing all the animal references the judges made on Saturday, leading up to Alisha being on the show.

I understand that she can relate directly to the celebs, having been through it herself, but she’s still just not a viable judge for me.  However Emma and I both agree that she is improving…though I do wonder how much of her comments are scripted???

It is revealed that Patsy will be doing the Jive next week, given how soon she ran out of puff with the Charleston she does need to work on her stamina.

Our next couple are Ann & Anton,

Ann reveals she is afraid of heights but actually enjoyed the wire work by the time she was landing.  Anton reveals that he originally suggested the idea as a joke!  Their next dance will be the Paso Doble, I’m seeing shades of John Sargeant already…

Now onto Felicity & Vincent,

Apparently the kiss was Vincent’s idea (surprise, surprise) and they weren’t sure if it was going to be allowed.

A VT on Vincent’s Magic Eyebrow (lots of twitching at camera).

Felicity & Vincent will have Viennese Waltz at the weekend, choreography-wise it will be a lot simpler but the constant rotation at speed makes it such a hard dance.

That’s our lot for today.

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1. 35 points – Scott & Natalie
1. 35 points – Matt & Aliona
3. 34 points – Pamela & James
4. 32 points – Kara & Artem
5. 29 points – Tina & Jared
5. 29 points – Felicity & Vincent
7. 28 points – Patsy & Robin
8. 27 points – Jimi & Flavia
8. 27 points – Michelle & Ian
10. 23 points – Gavin & Katya
11. 21 points – Ann & Anton
12. 17 points – Peter & Erin

For me I think Gavin & Katya and Peter & Erin are going to be in trouble this week…I still think Gavin has more to give so Peter should probably go home.

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Peter’s not his best when he’s dancing on his own, so Charleston could be a disaster…

Oh dear, Peter does look like he’s a bit of a puppet on a string at times, better in hold but unfortunately not much of that in this routine and he obviously isn’t confident in the routine as he keeps looking at Erin for guidance.

Almost looks like he’s walking through it by the end.  Only a 5 from me.

Craig: 2 “I’m glad you had a good time, I couldn’t wait for it to finish…white gloves a BIG mistake”
Len: 5 “You have gone to town on this outfit…more comfortable in hold doing proper dancing”
Alisha: 6 “So sweet…massive timing issues…such a shame”
Bruno: 4 “Oh Peter…you look like a penguin stuck in the mud…timing has to be spot-on…didn’t really gel”

Total Score: 17

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Peter needs to keep his bum in, and try to keep his feet in contact with the floor when he opens to promenade – seems to have a tendency to life his foot quite high off the floor.  Much better shoulder line, though he looks a little bit awkward at times.

A better performance than I expected but I think it’ll only get a 6 I’m afraid.

Craig: 4
Len: 6
Alisha: 6
Bruno: 5

Total Score: 21

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So Strictly Come Dancing is less than a week away from starting, the spray-tanners are spraying, the dress makers are sewing and the celebrities are shaving; and we’re being treated to our last few training videos.

Up first is boyhood favourite Felicity Kendal & Vincent Simone.  I read a great blog post about calculating your Ballroom or Latin quotient and apparently Felicity Kendal is a borderline case, so should in theory cope quite comfortably with both disciplines.  Let’s see how the training is coming along…

Dancing on heels really does make a huge difference to your dancing.  Latin American dances should be danced with the weight fully over the balls of the feet – the heels lightly touching the floor – and higher heels push your weight forward.  This then allows for easier hip action and even guys wear 1 1/2 inch Cuban heels (as opposed to the Ballroom 1 inch).

For someone who isn’t used to dancing in heels this can take quite a bit of adjustment.  I must admit that I’ve never tried anything higher than the Cuban heel, but if a student ever ordered a pair of ladies shoes in size 10 I’d be tempted to try them on.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a cross-dressing fantasy or anything, but how can you truly teach someone else about the importance of high heels, and also understand a students limitations, if you don’t know how it feels yourself?

Anyway I digress, Felicity has a Cha Cha Cha as her first dance, and I think she has the personality to produce a fun and cheeky performance.  However it does look like she is struggling with those heels and I’m sure she could have had slightly lower ones – they look nearer to 3 1/2 inch to me when I’m sure 2 1/2 inch would have been a good starting point!

Standing still Felicity excudes a very naughty sexy side (I’m thinking 48ish seconds in!) but she needs to be able to do that whilst moving too, which seems to be an issue right now.  Her shoulders are too high during the natural top but I actually think Vincent could hold her a little lower and that would help.

I still have high hopes for Felicity but there is quite a bit of work still required I’d say.

Training clip number 2 this week is Kara Tointon & Artem Chigvintsev.  Kara was restricted from training in week 1 to make up for the 20-odd hours of training she received taking party in Strictly for Sport Relief, will be interesting to see how that’s affected things.

So, one of the ‘hot young girls’ paired with one of the new ‘hot young professionals’, can’t imagine what the Strictly producers were thinking when they came up with that one?!

From the launch show I felt Artem was the strongest of the new professionals, and looked more at home than either Jared or Robin and the training video doesn’t disappoint.

Kara is looking like she’s picking up the steps quickly and does appear to have a good natural balance during those spins.  I wish I could see more of her dancing as it’s difficult to see how well her hips are moving during the lock steps, obviously the body roll seems to work well.  She probably should have her arm up, rather than down, during the locks away from him…but I’m sure it’s not polished yet.

Our third video of the week is Peter Shilton & Erin Boag.  Peter is Erin’s second goalkeeper celebrity and whilst Peter Schmeichel didn’t exactly trip the light fantastic, Erin did wonders considering the starting material.

Peter is definitely going to excel more at Ballroom than Latin American I’ll wager.  He does need to work on keeping his shoulders down and level, especially in promenade position (when the guy opens his left side and the girl the right side so that they are both looking in the same direction – see 25secs in).  I also think more work is required in softening his rise and fall action.

I don’t think Peter will do too bad a performance on Friday, but I also don’t think he’ll stay long in the competition on current evidence.

Our final couple is Tina O’Brien & Jared Murillo.  Jared didn’t impress me much in the launch show so I’m hoping to see a bit more potential in the training videos.

Not looking too bad as a starting point, though Tina does need to keep her toes in contact with the floor during her back locks and should concentrate on more separation between her top half and bottom half of her body.

Still there is some potential there so will be interesting to see how she performs this weekend.

Strictly Come Dancing is back with a vengeance on Friday 1st October, hope you’re looking forward to it?!

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