Strictly My Views Part 1

Tonight was the first vote of Strictly Come Dancing 2015, and what follows below is my view of what happened. Did I mention I love Strictly Come Dancing.

#Strictly

Let us first talk about what a great production the whole show is. Absolute quality. The music from The Dave Arch Band is simply brilliant, consider how much music they have to practise each week and you come to understand the job they actually do. The singers don’t do a bad job either although, personally I feel the male singers are better than the females and they should all stay away from the high notes.

Then our hosts Claudia Winkleman who is simply enchanting in her job, and an absolute delight. Tess Daly, looks a little wooden in the main floor, but comes into her own at the judges desk where she is much more personal and easy. And then we have the judges themselves, Craig, Len, Bruno and Darcey. All great in their respective areas.

Onto the show, we kicked off with Jamelia and Tristan dancing the Cha Cha. Personally I felt Jamelia was trying too hard to be sexy, and the dance didnt go too well for me. Then we Daniel and Kristina dancing the Charleston. I think he did a good job, it is a really hard job to do, keeping the tempo and at his age, he did a really good job. Then came Kirsty and Brendan – Salsa. Go Kirsty, really looking sexy and great lifts after the first week. She did really well and Brendan great choreography. Jay and Aliona dancing the Waltz. Aliona is one of my favourites and he did such a wonderful job and that must have been a big deal cutting his hair after such a long while. Iwan and Ola Cha Cha, Of course Ola looked good and Iwan tried to do the chest out routine, But as the judges said, he was trying way to hard. Team GG waltz, beautiful and cracking routine. Ainsley and Natalie did a Salsa. Natalie is beautiful and graceful, love watching her but Ainsley pulled it off brilliantly. He did marvellous. Carole and Pasha did a foxtrot. And it was a great improvement on last week. I understand you are good at Ballroom or latin, so it was clearly hard lines to be given latin on the first week. But to win you have to be good at everything. Kellie and Kevin Cha Cha. Kevin is a great dancer and choreographer and Kellie is quite good at the dancing. One to watch. Anthony and Oti danced the waltz, he is a likable fellow and he did very well indeed. Anita and Gleb danced the charleston. I love the charleston. It is a cheeky, happy and lively dance, I just wish I could do it. Anyway, I think she did a top job. For me one of the better dances on the night. Jeremy and Karen American smooth, not a great job. On the night the worst for me. Katie and Anton tango. The tango is such a great passionate dance. I feel Katie is extremely beautiful and elegant, and this dance suited her to a t, and it was amazing to see Anton get to flex his ballroom muscles. As a nation we love Anton and we want to, no need to, see him do well. Peter and Janette dancing the quick step, A fantastic job. Now I happen to know Peter does wing chun kung fu, and this martial art tends to sink your weight down into the ground, making it very hard to get light in the feet to dance. This in no way means he is a bad dancer, just that if you understand this fact and watch the feet, you will see he is not quite in the position dictated, but his replication is superb, as I would expect. Then lastly Helen and Aljaz danced the cha cha. She is quite beautiful, and it was a great effort.

So my favourite on the night was Peter, followed by Katie. I think the dance off should be Jamelia and Jeremy with Jeremy probably, on balance, being the first to go.

Im really interested in your comments, so please do comment on what you thought was good bad or indifferent and lets see what we all think, and how that will compare to the Sunday night vote.