Week 2: Monday Musings

Here are my thoughts on Week 2 of Strictly Come Dancing.

As a whole, I don’t think the women were as strong as the men. But that said, some of the women were amazing.

Carol and Matthew did a good job. Carol looked confident and poised. I wish everyone could hear what I say in my armchair, because otherwise it sounds like I’m copying the judges, but I did say that Carol needs to keep her shoulders down before Bruno. I thought Carol had a lovely headline, though.

I expected more from Mica, and I have to admit I was disappointed. As a musical performer, I expected her to wow, but she looked as if she didn’t know what she was doing. I love watching the male dancers in action with the celebs. You can see their skill as they push and pull the girls to where they should be and make them look good. Ian was doing a lot of that.

Why is it that the most nervous performers are so often the best? Louisa and Vincent made the floor their own. They made a very complex quickstep look effortless. I noticed that they’d had the fake tan out on Louisa!

I was pleasantly surprised by Georgina and James this week. After the group mambo, my expectations of Georgina were at rock bottom, but she was better than I anticipated. She was lacking in hip-action, she stuck her arms up like a gymnast several times, but she got from one end of the rumba to the other.

Like Craig, I had commented on how Jan and Anton got stuck straight into the routine, with no endless intro. They looked really good, and Jan must have known she was in a safe hold with The Master. I think she might be a Lesley Garrett, strong at ballroom but not so strong with latin.

Brendan knew that an illegal lift in Week 2 was not going to jeopardise their place in the competition, so he went for it. Twice. I loved Craig’s description of it as “absolute filth”. Claire smoulders on the dancefloor, and she and Brendan are a great match. I wonder how they can work together on the less sexy ballroom dances like the foxtrot or quickstep, though.

Emma and Darren delivered exactly to form. They were bouncy, they looked good together, she pointed her toes and smiled. I didn’t like the shoulder action right at the end of the routine, and did wonder if there was an error there. I’m expecting a Halfpenny-esque jive next week.

The group swing was very hit and miss. The three boys, Ray, Spoony and Mark, delivered another great performance. Mark’s swing of Karen was particularly noteworthy. But Peter didn’t look as confident as he did in the waltz, and Matt barely danced at all, Lilia was doing all the work. I loved that they used Right Now, which we used in our show earlier in the year. It’s a great track to dance to.

Like last week, I thought the bottom two couples were the correct bottom two, and if I’m honest, the right couple were eliminated. Unlike the judges, I thought Georgina and James had the edge on Mica and Ian.

On a personal level, I was gutted to see Ian leave the competition. He is one of my favourite pros, and I would have loved to have seen him go further. Thank goodness for the pro demos! At least we’ll still get to see him each week dancing with Camilla. And I’ll have a reason to look forward to It Takes Two tonight!