Rhys Wooden Spoon

Dec 3, 2021 by Rob

And so there were five, and Dan Walker marches on, much to the chagrin of many Strictly fans who think it is purely a dance competition.

Cynthia Erivo has proven to be a powerful pawn in the Strictly dark arts game in the last two weeks. She led the way damning Tom’s Contemporary routine in week 9, and aided Dan’s survival in week 10 by awarding him a, frankly, ludicrous 9 for his rumba, and one point more than she gave AJ on the night. Cynthia might prove a useful ally for Dan once again tomorrow night though Motsi is expected to return for the quarter-final.

The good news for Dan is, with Tilly sacrificed last week, this year’s series appears to be going down the road of running with his feel-good ‘journey’ over and above stronger dancers who are less popular with the voting audience. Could this now spell trouble for Rhys?

A further concern for Rhys’s survival prospects is that 10th elimination favourite but, up to now, dance-off escape artist extraordinaire, Dan, is back to ballroom and has tango to the ideal piece of tango music in ‘Santa Maria’ by Gotan Project.

Week 11 (Quarter-Final) dances and songs:

AJ and Kai: Salsa to Rhythm Is Gonna Get You/Get On Your Feet by Gloria Estefan
Dan and Nadiya: Tango to Santa Maria by Gotan Project
John and Johannes: Salsa to We Are Family by Sister Sledge
Rhys and Nancy: Argentine Tango to In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins
Rose and Giovanni: American Smooth to This Will Be (An Everlasting Love) by Natalie Cole

The selection of the right sort of evocative music is a major part of the battle won on Strictly before a single dance step is performed, and on paper tango looks easier to negotiate and succeed with than last week’s rumba. And having not yet scored higher than 31, a script that could easily be in play tomorrow night is Dan achieving his highest score of the series.

Further narratives that could play out in Dan’s favour if referenced on the night, are that Nadiya has never made it past the quarter-final before – her and Davood Ghadami were knocked out in the quarter-final back in 2017 – and this is the first ever tango Nadiya has choreographed on the show. Collectively, it feels like there are enough potential ingredients in Dan’s favour for his journey to continue.

Trouble also might be brewing for Rhys with his dance and song choice. Argentine tango is a specialist dance and series pro newbie Nancy has no form dancing AT. Phil Collins ‘In The Air Tonight’ seems an odd song choice for AT, and when the song doesn’t quite look right, it often doesn’t play out well.

Rhys is also taking on AT a week after John’s triumphant, 39-scoring AT from the pimp slot, and with AT it’s very much a case of the routine either being a hit or a miss, so there looks to be plenty of scope for it to underwhelm and be scored down.

Week 10 judges’ leaderboard:

John and Johannes: Argentine Tango – (6) – 9, 10, 10, 10 = 39
AJ and Kai: Couple’s Choice (Commercial/Jazz) – (3) – 9, 8, 10, 9 = 36
Rhys and Nancy: Waltz – (4) – 7, 9, 10, 9 = 35 – bottom 2
Rose and Giovanni: Paso Doble – (1) – 8, 8, 8, 9 = 33
Dan and Nadiya: Rumba – (2) – 6, 9, 8, 8 = 31
Tilly and Nikita: Samba – (5) – 7, 7, 8, 8 = 30 – eliminated

Having landed the highest score of the night last week, John now has salsa to ‘We Are Family’. We keep seeing big come downs following series highs and this could be a script in play with John tomorrow night. He missed a full day’s training on Tuesday due to a hip flexor injury, and between his salsa and AJ’s, it appears more likely John’s will be on earlier after a string of late running order positions for him in recent weeks.

AJ has the better music for a salsa with ‘Rhythm Is Gonna Get You/Get On Your Feet’ by Gloria Estefan and could even come under consideration for the pimp slot. Her week 4 samba infamously flopped from the pimp slot and we might see a redemption storyline teed up for AJ. John could also find himself eclipsed once again by Johannes, as was the case with his samba, and this time around the judges might decide to flag it up.

Rose has the ideal position on the night, returning to ballroom in the form of American Smooth, and nicely removed from the battle of the tangos and the salsas. Rose has looked very assured in ballroom and Natalie Cole’s ‘This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)’ looks the perfect accompaniment to deliver a showcase, romantic number, teed up for a return to the top of the judges’ leaderboard, and potentially performed from the pimp slot.

Those taking on Dan for elimination basically have two potential bites of the cherry: either he is scored so highly on the night he once again avoids the dance-off altogether. Or, he finds himself in the dance-off vs Rhys, and Rhys’s AT is scored lower than Dan’s tango, allowing the judges, with plausible deniability, to save Dan in the dance-off vs Rhys, who would be making his 4th dance-off appearance.

Chris Ramsey made the 4-couple semi-final in 2019 and TPTB might just fancy having Dan in this year’s semi-final, similar to Chris, as an, in theory, easy to steer towards the exit door, guaranteed 4th placer, and to lock in its dream final of Rose vs AJ vs John.

If Dan does manage to duck the dance-off once again, pre-show it appears more likely to be John who ends up dropping into the bottom two vs Rhys, though TPTB could put AJ in trouble by scoring her last and placing Dan and John in a precise order above her to ensure they both beat AJ on the combined leaderboard ranking + public vote ranking.

It’s really all to play for and very much in the hands of the judges with only Rose looking guaranteed a semi-final place. Looking ahead to the semi-final, all of Rose, AJ and John have potentially strong cards to play in the form of Charleston, rumba and Couple’s Choice respectively.

Remaining dances:

AJ & Kai – Quickstep, Tango, Cha-Cha-Cha, Rumba
Dan & Nadiya – Argentine Tango, Waltz, Salsa, Samba
John & Johannes – Foxtrot, Waltz, Jive, Couple’s Choice
Rhys & Nancy – Foxtrot, Tango, Rumba, Samba
Rose & Giovanni – Argentine Tango, Waltz, Charleston, Rumba

Please do let us know who got your Week 11 (quarter-final) votes when our exit poll opens during tomorrow night’s show.

Strictly 2021 Exit Poll – Week 11 (QF)