Dancing With The Stars and Strictly roundup

Now that we have finally caught up with the US for DWtS, in the sense that we are seeing the show in the same week, I can get back to reading and writing about it, without worrying about spoilers!

Last night, we saw the samba and the rumba danced by the remaining contestants, and it gave things a little shake up in terms of the leader board. We also had Len back to judge, after last week’s guest appearance by Baz Luhrmann.

There was something very odd about the prospect of watching Donny Osmond dance the rumba, but in the end, I thought Kym Johnson had done a fantastic job of creating a romantic, soft dance. I think it would have been awkward watching them do a very sexy dance, and I’m glad they didn’t. However, by far the funniest moment was Donny and Bruno, during the judges’ comments as shown in this clip:

I am liking Donny a lot more than I thought I would at the moment, as so far, his dancing has been good enough to keep him in anyway.

My favourite couple of the evening were Alec and Natalie, I thought he pushed her quite hard with this dance, it was outside her comfort zone but she did well to stay in the performance and not let it show. I do worry that they may disappear into the crowd, as they are both quiet and don’t seem to push for the attention.

I’ve been disappointed by Anna Demidova this year, she seemed so promising in last year’s pro competition that I expected her to wow everyone, but she seems not to be able to tailor her dancing to her partner, Michael. I’m not sure he would be that great anyway, but possibly with someone like Kym he would appear more capable. I’m also quite disappointed by Melissa Joan Hart – she seems to be a lovely person, but she hasn’t yet done a dance that wowed me, and I think it may be that she always seems uncomfortable on the dance floor. Her nerves are getting the best of her in much the same way as they are with Debi and Kelly.

Aaron and Karina’s rumba was a massive letdown, I felt – he was far too harsh and spiky in his movements, and he overexaggerated a lot, which is hard on this show. I loved Louie and Chelsie’s rumba, he looked so different with his hair out of his face, and Chelsie has done a great job with him:

I also enjoyed Chuck and Anna’s samba. It wasn’t a great dance, but he looked to be having fun. I was a bit let down by Debi and Maks’ samba, she seems to be a bit floppy, and lacking in core strength. I maintain that the best teacher on the show is Cheryl, who always manages to create a dance which suits her partner, even when they are not very good. Her samba with Tom DeLay could have been an absolute car crash, but it ended up being a good, basic dance, and Tom pulled it off despite two stress fractures. It’s actually disappointing that they have now been forced to withdraw due to the injuries, as I will miss seeing them dance together. I’m not surprised that Debi and Maks were eliminated, she didn’t seem to be getting any better, and I’m still not convinced they got on that well, but I will be sad not to see as much of Maks every week!

In Strictly news, we have the salsa and foxtrot to look forward to tonight. The big contest will be between Ali and Brian and Ricky and Natalie, who both have the same dance on the same night for the first time. Brian has gone for a ‘street’ style salsa, whilst Natalie’s looks more traditional, but both should be good. We’ll also see how Phil Tufnell has recovered from his knee surgery in his salsa. In the foxtrot, we have Zoe and Laila up against each other, plus we get to see if Ricky Groves can drop the clown tag and pull off a serious dance. Should be a good night all round. The BBC have also launched a Strictly widget, which anyone can add to their site, giving the latest news and behind the scene videos. I can’t get it to work though, which I suspect is more down to me than anything else!