Strictly Come Dancing 2014: Week 3 (part 1)

So last week, we found that the Charleston that Gregg had cooked up with Aliona just wasn't good-looking enough, and we said goodbye to them as they were the first couple to leave the competition.

We now arrive at Movie Week, an excuse to shoehorn themed costumes, props and inappropriate songs in with some dancing (ie: any other week but we expect it more of a themed week and it's even worse than usual). Donny Osmond joins as a guest judge, and by the end of the night we wanted him to bugger off back to the US :p

Loved the opening pro-celeb number, with Aljaz and Tristan (iirc) running up the stairs to get to Tess and Claude to escort them down.

In this part of the blog, I'll be running through dances 1-7 of the night (from Alison to Caroline), and part 2 will cover dances 8-14 (from Scott to Mark) as well as the dance-off and elimination. The current recycled song count is at 10.


Alison & Aljaz - Jive - "Footloose" from Footloose

*RECYCLED SONG ALERT - Colin & Erin in series 3*

Another dance where the theme is that Alison and Aljaz are interested in each other, I'm spotting a pattern here. The beginning intro section was good, but the choreography for the first verse with them just sat on the steps not really doing much was unnecessary and was what I and Len would call 'faffing arahnd'. I think it's fair to say that this dance was never going to be good for Alison and so it proved to be. She was very flat-footed and lacked in energy, although I do think Aljaz was overdancing it a little and so she probably looked worse than she was. It's probably good in a way that she got this dance over and done with early in the competition, as the only real bad dance for her still remaining is probably the Quickstep.

Judges' scores: 4, 5, 6, 6 - with Donny scoring 7 to make it 28/50
My score: 4


Steve & Ola - Quickstep - "I Wanna Be Like You" from The Jungle Book

*RECYCLED SONG ALERT - Scott & Natalie in series 8*

Hopefully this is the end of the jungle/wild themed songs for Steve, the producers have had their fun now. Nice choreography from Ola here (excluding the end which was just weird), and Steve did well to keep up with it. He had good feet from what I could see, but he needed to maintain a bit more body contact with Ola. He also tended to lose his hold when turning, so he has to try and sort that out before his next Ballroom routine. It looked as though he slipped in front of the judges' desk too. This was probably his best dance though and I think he could be one of the 'dark horses' that tends to go out around top 6.

Judges' scores: 6, 7, 7, 8 - with Donny scoring 6 to make it 34/50
My score: 6


Jennifer & Tristan - Foxtrot - "Mamma Mia" from Mamma Mia

Love the Meryl Streep look on Jennifer, but I think wardrobe could have done a bit better with it so it didn't just look like dungarees stuck on a dress. Also, I'm still struggling to work out how on earth Mamma Mia is a Foxtrot song? And where does the rowing come into it? The choreography looked much better on a second viewing, but I was screaming at my telly for Jennifer to stop miming! It never makes you dance well and I'm not even going to list the mistakes as there's too many. She's in real trouble and I think she might be the one to go tonight.

Judges' scores: 3, 5, 5, 5 - with Donny scoring 5 to make it 23/50
My score: 3


Simon & Kristina - Rumba - "Take My Breath Away" from Top Gun

Not appropriate Rumba attire for Simon there, wardrobe seem determined that the young men should dance in skinny jeans for some reason. Well, Kristina tried her best, with as much distraction work as possible, but Simon really let her down here. He never seems to finish off his arm lines and there was a serious lack of hip action, which is pretty much a requirement in the Rumba. He needs something like a Quickstep or Charleston to get him back on track, but I think he'll end up being the shock exit of the series, and Frankie/Pixie/Jake/Caroline are all so far ahead of him now.

Judges' scores: 4, 6, 6, 7 - with Donny scoring 7 to make it 30/50
My score: 4.5


Judy & Anton - Quickstep - "Don't Rain On My Parade" from Funny Girl

Erm, performing a Quickstep to a track that has been used for a Foxtrot before, huh? Then again, Anton is the master at choreographing slooooow Quicksteps. I'm agreed with Craig here - the illegal lift was the best part of the routine. Judy was a lot better than previous - she kept up with Anton for the most part, and she seemed to maintain her hold relatively well. Her hand did slip on occasion, and she got caught off-balance towards the end, which put her off from then on (the end apart from the lift was awful). I don't know what dance will be a good one for her, so I'll be heading off to the loo whenever she's on from now on.

Judges' scores: 3, 5, 5, 5 - with Donny scoring 5 to make it 23/50
My score: 3.5


Tim & Natalie - Charleston - "Money Money" from Cabaret

Wrong song for a Charleston in my opinion, just a bit too slow, Natalie couldn't do much with it so had to go down the character route (she looked awesome btw). Loved the routine though, really played into the song. Judges, she really couldn't put much technique in there and I believe her when she said it was her fault that Tim started on the wrong foot for a section - it did look as if there was a prop malfunction and so Tim got turned around late as a result. He's got a difficult dance out of the way so that's good, although Paso next week should be interesting!

Judges' scores: 2, 5, 5, 5 - with Donny scoring 5 to make it 22/50
My score: 3


Caroline & Pasha - Rumba - "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" from Armagheddon

*RECYCLED SONG ALERT - Sarah & Brendan in series 2, Nicky & Karen in series 10*

I'm fed up of hearing this song, as much as I might like it. Caroline really impressed me with just how good she was, so full credit to her as I thought this would be a bad dance for her. Those standing spins were gorgeous, absolutely stunning. She just needs to make sure that all of her arm lines are finished off (most of them are but on the odd occasion she doesn't fully extend), that and I was struggling to see the hip action, but I think it might be the dress at fault there. Nice use of the dry ice to hide the feet, but the hair-shaking bit wasn't needed. I actually feel that she was on her own too much and as it was a Rumba, they could have been together a little more. Loved this though, and I'm looking forward to see how she does next week.

Judges' scores: 8, 8, 8, 9 - with Donny scoring 9 to make it 42/50
My score: 8


Part 2 of the blog should be up tomorrow morning. Until then,


KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP READING!