Strictly Come Dancing: Week Four

I'm still sad we have to wait till tomorrow. Every week it's a new wave of disappointment. I'm sat there, in this brightly sparking world of glitter and dancing and then suddenly... it's over. I'm left with left over chinese food and an empty bottle of wine (or two.) In previous years there would have been exciting predictions, lively discussions, mad and slightly drunken voting! Eager countdowns and double-checking the times for the results show! Sometimes we would even race out to the local pub for dinner between the two shows. Would it be too busy? Would we get served in time? Would there be time for starters? Dessert? Another drink?

But now everything is flat and lifeless and grey. Wave of disappointment. etc. etc.

Anyway. I'm thinking sparkle, for the recap.

Christine and Matthew
Not as good as I was hoping. Not awful, but clearly not great. Slightly weird choreography, all stopping and starting... What happened this week? Hardly anyone managed to stand out.

Jodie and Ian
Oh, ick, ick, look at that free arm! Either dangling uselessly or Very Carefully placed EXACTLY where she had been told to put it, with her hand all floppy at the end. She looked stiff and uncomfortable. I'm not sure what the judges said, because at this point takeaway was delivered.

Heather and Brian
I thought their training looked dodgy during the week, as did everyone else on ITT. Like them, I assumed that by Saturday she would be sorted. I was wrong. It was heavy and clumsy and not very skimming. I think I spotted her going wrong early on, getting out of time with Brian and from that point onwards she had a grimmace plastered on her face.

Cherie and James
OH. Oh, that is a good dress. Okay, it's not a great dress, but Cheries looked quite good in it. Shallowness aside... she and James have great chemistry, and she was all flowy and sexy and not self-conscious about it. It wasn't ranchy, it was just tender and intimate. I liked it alot.

Jessie and Darren
Oh dear. :( It wasn't car-wreck-awful, I thought it was about the same level as Heather and James... but what do I know.

Lisa and Brendan
It's quite sad that my dislike of Brendan colours my opinion of his partners. It wasn't true last year, when I started off quite liking Kelly, until the American Smooth Disaster and then it all went a bit down hill for me. I liked Claire King before that. This year Lisa hasn't won me over and unfortunately that means I have absolutely no desire to see her and Brendan stay in. Unfortunately they danced quite well. Grr.

Mens' Group Dance
Last year, around Halloween, we learnt a dance called the 'Salsa Wheel' in my Salsa class. Suprisingly, it looked alot like this dance, except instead of a choreographed routine, there's some guy shouting out words that tell you what to do. (Not in English, I might add, which makes for quite alot of confusion.) Anyway, we even did some of the same steps! I fondly remembered 'the Flower,' which reminded us so much of the hokey-cokey, we started singing it. You can probably work out which move that was.

The guys looked about as messy as we were and we had about fifty couples in two circles, AND had a guy shouting instructions at us over the music. (In... I want to say Spanish, but I think that's wrong.) I'm quite judgey at their inability to form a vaguely neat circle. Also, they had to do one of those drops with soemone who wasn't their partner! Scary stuff.

Other comments
-Only Rachel seemed to manage a decent dress this week. I liked Cheri's, but it was a bit bold. I didn't like the sketch of Christine's yesterday, and I hated even more in person. Why do people think silver is flattering? And bright pink underneath? Ola looked awful, Camilla looked awful... It was a MESS. They tried so hard with the (usually ugly) Foxtrot dressed, and now this.

-Speaking of which, Tess has a belt. It was only thin, but I predict a downward slide. Suprisingly the dress was not bad, and she seems to be one of the few people who can carry off orange.

-If Bruce introduces a couple and then, by the end of his "joke" I've forgotten who the couple are, he is TAKING TOO LONG. Just so that's clear.

-Did Arlene and Len manage to have an almost civil disagreement on a dance? Did Len not dismiss Arlene's opnions entirely out of hand? I am in shock! Also, has Len decided that constructive critism is the way to go now? *falls down*

-I'm not sure Jessie will get saved again. I have vague hope that maybe no one is voting for Brendan and Lisa, the way no one voted for Emma Bunton, and they will drop into the bottom two. Probably Jodie will be in the bottom two, along with either Jessie or Heather. Or maybe not.




(I wish the BBC site had a scoreboard up somewhere. I shouldn't have to rely on wikipedia to remember who was at the bottom of the leaderboard! That said the wikipedia page has some interesting tables, including average scores, and they seem to know what dances the girls are doing next week, even though the girls weren't supposed to know yet!)