Charles In Charge

Oct 5, 2018 by Rob

It came as a surprise to see Lee dragged down into the first dance-off of the series last Saturday. Looking at the scoring permutations it seems likely he either polled last or second last on the public vote. A CCC for him tomorrow night is not ideal comeback material but a bounce is usually forthcoming at this early stage of the series.

The bookies make Seann strong favourite at 6-4 for 2nd elimination but he polled well last week, has paso to an impactful track and with Katya to call upon this has the potential to be vote-winning enough for him to escape the dance-off, with training footage suggesting he will be flying through the air, like Neo in The Matrix.

Graeme had lots of issues with his AS last week but a Charleston for him looks primed for a fun and entertaining comeback, and he has looked much more at home performing this in training.

Katie Piper did well to avoid last week’s dance-off and it looks like she polled at worst around 8th place (out of 15). She has a foxtrot to a lyrical song for a ballroom routine. Training footage has not looked great and while she earned a strong sympathy vote last week, her support is going to be tested again with another low score looking on the cards tomorrow night.

Dr Ranj has enjoyed very positive critiquing and generous scoring over the first 2 shows dancing Latin numbers. Dancing his first ballroom in QS dressed as Aladdin doesn’t bode as well for him and training footage has looked unconvincing. He will likely require more generosity from the judges to aid his safety.

Lauren was a bit of a disappointment last week dancing Charleston. She now has the difficult CCC to negotiate. Training has only looked ok and this looks the sort of routine likely to earn a mid-table score at best which is always a vulnerable spot on the leaderboard.

The routine that could be vying for pimp slot honours this week is Danny’s paso to ‘The Greatest Show’. It is a chance for him to put in a commanding performance though he has looked a little bit stiff in his upper body for this in training.

As things currently stand, it is highly competitive at the top of the Outright market and you feel something has to give in the coming weeks. It is going to be informative to see how current favourite Joe gets on performing a first ballroom for him in AS. He has looked only ok in training and will the judges be keen to talk him up for a third successive week?

He has grabbed all the early momentum with 2 fun routines and no matter how he fares tomorrow night you sense there will be plenty of bumps in the road ahead with lots of tricky dances still to negotiate in the weeks to come.

Ashley looks like excelling again dancing salsa to the iconic ‘Dirty Dancing’ track which could make it harder for Vick to impress performing the same dance. That said, training footage has looked promising and it’s a Latin dance that looks like suiting her. The microscope will be more on Graziano’s choreo and whether it does her justice.

Faye returns to ballroom and what promises to be a lightning fast quickstep dancing to a fun movie track everyone has fond memories of. Stacey has the tougher proposition of the jive. Her and Kevin’s outfits could look pretty hideous but at least they’ve got a decent track to dance to and Stacey has looked light on her feet in training.

Charles has the AS to an iconic song and he will no doubt be dressed like Richard Gere in full naval attire ready to sweep Karen off her feet. Given his strength, this looks like including some impressive lifts and could turn out to be one of the stand-out routines of the night.

Kate S stays in ballroom for a second week. She looks more comfortable in hold and this should be competent enough. It is a song that demands being sultry which looks like being something she can pull off well.

This week’s songs and dances:

Katie and Gorka Foxtrot to ‘City of Stars’ from La La Land

Ashley and Pasha Salsa to ‘(I’ve Had) Time Of My Life’ from Dirty Dancing

Lauren and AJ Cha Cha Cha to ‘Fame’ from Fame

Stacey and Kevin Jive to ‘Happy’ from Despicable Me 2

Faye and Giovanni Quickstep to ‘You’re The One That I Want’ from Grease

Kate and Aljaz Foxtrot to ‘Why Don’t You Do Right’ from Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Vick and Graziano Salsa to ‘Take A Chance On Me’ from Mamma Mia

Danny and Amy Paso Doble to ‘The Greatest Show’ from The Greatest Showman

Lee and Nadiya Cha Cha Cha to ‘The Power Of Love’ from Back To The Future

Seann and Katya Paso Doble to ‘Matrix Theme’ from The Matrix

Dr. Ranj and Janette Quickstep to ‘Prince Ali’ from Aladdin

Charles and Karen American Smooth to ‘Up Where We Belong’ from An Officer and a Gentleman

Graeme and Oti Charleston to ‘Spider Man Theme’ from Spiderman

Joe and Dianne American Smooth to ‘Breaking Free’ from High School Musical

 

Week 1 + Week 2 combined scores:

Craig – Darcey – Shirley – Bruno

Ashley & Pasha (8) VW 7 8 7 7 = 29 + (15) CCC 8 8 7 9 = 32 (TOTAL 61) 15

Faye & Giovanni (15) CCC 7 8 7 7 = 29 + (12) VW 8 8 7 8 = 31 (TOTAL 60) 14

Joe & Dianne (14) Jive 6 7 7 7 = 27 + (6) Charleston 7 8 8 8 = 31 (TOTAL 58) 13

Danny JJ & Amy (1) Foxtrot 6 7 7 7 = 27 + (9) CCC 7 7 7 7 = 28 (TOTAL 55) 12

Dr Ranj & Janette (9) CCC 6 6 8 7 = 27 + (11) Salsa 5 6 7 6 = 24 (TOTAL 51) 11

Charles & Karen (7) CCC 6 6 6 7 = 25 + (2) QS 5 6 7 7 = 25 (TOTAL 50) 10

Lee & Nadiya (13) Waltz 4 6 6 6 = 22 + (8) Jive 6 7 6 7 = 26 (TOTAL 48) 9 – Bottom 2

Kate & Aljaz (2) CCC 4 6 4 6 = 20 + (5) Tango 6 7 7 7 = 27 (TOTAL 47) 8

Lauren & AJ (3) Waltz 6 6 6 7 = 25 + (13) Charleston 5 6 5 6 = 22 (TOTAL 47) 8

Vick & Graziano (5) Jive 3 5 4 6 = 18 + (10) Waltz 7 7 8 7 = 27 (TOTAL 45) 7

Stacey & KfG (12) QS 6 6 6 6 = 24 + (1) CCC 4 5 5 6 = 20 (TOTAL 44) 6

Graeme & Oti (11) Samba 5 6 6 5 = 22 + (4) AmSm (Foxtrot-based) 3 5 3 4 = 15 (TOTAL 37) 5

Seann & Katya (4) Tango 3 5 4 6 = 18 + (14) Jive 2 4 4 5 = 15 (TOTAL 33) 4

Katie & Gorka (10) Waltz 4 4 4 5 = 17 + (3) Paso 3 4 3 4 = 13 (TOTAL 30) 3

Susannah & Anton (6) Samba 1 4 3 4 = 12 + (7) Foxtrot 1 4 4 3 = 12 (TOTAL 24) 2 – Eliminated