DWTS: The Game

OK, so there isn't a Strictly Come Dancing game, but you can get the next best thing - Dancing With The Stars: The PC Game.

Choose your favuorite celeb or pro and dance the night away.

The screen shots on the website look pretty impressive.

You can order online and download straight away, or send for a CD-rom version. For $14.99, it might be worth having a look.

Erin's Rash

Sprained ankles and twisted knees are par-for-the-course on Strictly, but other problems can also come up during the gruelling series.

Dancing beauty Erin Boag spoke of her medical complaint - skin condition rosacea - in this week's Fabulous magazine, and Dr Hilary Jones gave his advice.

New Lesson 25

I was delighted to find out that my Tuesday night class with be continuing 'for the time being'. Hoorah!

I was also told there there will also be a new Tuesday night medal class soon right after my lesson. Double hoorah!

This week, we added an extra telemark and a weave to our usual foxtrot routine. That was very pleasing.

Then we did the tango again. Although we've done the same tango for ages, I love it! I also kinda liked the people peeping in at the door who were waiting for a private lesson. The private lesson people are quite often 'first dance-ers', so they look all impressed at a very simple routine. I'm such a show-off. It's so bad...

Letitia Goes To High School

Strictly quarter-finalist Letitia Dean has landed a part in the stage production of High School Musical.

According to the Daily Mirror, Letitia will play drama teacher Miss Darbus for a nine-week run at the Hammersmith Apollo in London.

"I think Strictly allowed people to see me as something other than [my EastEnders character] Sharon and so has certainly helped take me along this new path. It's opened up new opportunities for me and I'm thrilled about it."

"Miss Darbus is such a great character - she's so completely in love with what she does, the students adore her and she's a little bit eccentric and camp which is great!"

New Lesson 24

This week we recapped the foxtrot and tango. Same basic patterns we've done a million times.

I'm really starting to get frustrated by the class. Looking at them shuffling about, you'd think we'd never done it before. We spent about three months on that bloody foxtrot. That's what happens when people don't bother to come every week!

The teacher still doesn't know about the fate of the class. Frankly, I'd rather move to a slightly more advanced class before I go too doolally. Although it might be too late anyway...

She's going to start a new bronze medal class. But the set that is about take it spent about 6 months getting it together. Six months? They should all come out with honours with that amount of practice. How hard can it be, really??

Lesson 38

I decided not to play the Kentish Town teacher lottery this week, and went to Kingston for a lesson instead.

We worked on Viennese waltz and learned to do the infamous fleckle. The step pattern isn't actually that difficult, yet somehow it is hard to get your feet to do what your brain wants them to do! Probably because of the speed. Even though we didn't do it up to speed.

It was great fun, though. I really enjoyed the class and my well go back more often.

Vincent & Flavia In Dukinfield

I enjoyed the Donaheys dance and workshops with Anton & Erin last month so much that I decided to return to see Vincent & Flavia on Saturday.

I attended their intermediate workshop on Saturday afternoon. We started with Argentine tango. Myself, Bev, Nicola and Andrea were all partnerless, which makes the Argentine tango pretty tough when the whole point is about following the man's lead. Ha ha ha! But Vincent did come and dance with all of us, which was great. I had to be reminded to relax and not anticipate a few times, but by the end I was loving it. I could feel I was being tested to see if I was really following a few times, and I think I did OK.

We followed on with foxtrot which seemed really alien after the Argentine tango. But you could see Vincent & Flavia's influences on the style, with zig zagging figures, the ballroom equivalent of ochos. It was interesting, and very different.

The evening's dance was lots of fun. I didn't do any ballroom or latin, but I did do the line dancing. It takes a few goes through to pick up the line dances, but I can usually get them before the music stops. Great fun.

Vincent & Flavia's showcase was just breathtaking. Probably the best I have seen.

They performed a fantastic opening number that was a mixture of styles. They clearly like to play with choreography, and this routine demonstrated that.

They did a fantastic quickstep, I think. I 'lost myself' in it all. When it was over I had trouble remembering anything.

They also did a samba, which was as energetic as you would expect.

The best part was their amazing Kissing You waltz. It was the routine that blew everyone away on Strictly, and it was amazing to see it live. I don't think I've ever been so swept away. If you've forgotten it, here is their Strictly performance.

The finished off with the incredible Argentine tango showdance that they performed on the Strictly tour.

What really shone through for me was their infectious love of what they are doing. It was clear that they are enjoying performing together and truly love what they do. As someone who only gets to dance for fun, aside for the odd show at my local theatre, I would give everything to do what they're doing. It's heartbreaking for me to watch dancers who are going through the motions. No-one could accuse Vincent & Flavia of that. They literally took my breath away.

As ever, after the show there was a meet & greet session.

They were both so wonderful. I am so glad that their partnership is strong and they are so connected on the floor.

I shall be moving mountains to see Vincent & Flavia again.

Thanks and praise have to go to Paul and the gang at Donaheys for yet another fabulous event.

Anton & Erin In Liverpool

Anton & Erin were the star attraction at a Viennese ball in Liverpool over the weekend.

There is a report and several videos of the event on the Liverpool Daily News website.

Viennese waltz
Quickstep
Interview with Anton
Interview with Erin

Bruce's Last Waltz?

An article in the News Of The World says that Bruce Forsyth is thinking of making Series 6 of Strictly Come Dancing his last.

Although I continue to reserve judgement until an official announcement is made, there have been several similar stories doing the rounds for a while, so perhaps it is true.

Who could replace Bruce?

There have been endless discussions about it online, and I have yet to decide for myself. But please not Graham Norton. I love him but he is never off TV. The beauty of SCD is that Bruce and Tess don't do too much else. Graham does all the ALW shows, and did The One And Only. I prefer a change.

The best suggestion I have heard is John Barrowman, although I wasn't that taken with him on that new BBC gameshow last night.

It will be a difficult quest.

James & Ola At Brent Town Hall

A couple of weeks ago James & Ola Jordan performed at Brent Town Hall in Wembley at a dance organised by Mr. Wonderful Dancing.

The evening began with lots of social dancing, on one of the biggest dance floors I have ever seen. The people were very friendly, and I got up and danced the rumba with a lovely chap. They also did some sequence, so I was able to dust off my Rumba One.

Of course, the reason Catherine, Andrea and I were there was to see the cabaret.

James & Ola were amazing. They started with an energetic samba.



James spent the time between Ola's dress changes answering questions from the crowd. James answered honestly and candidly. He mentioned quite a number of times that he and Gabby left Strictly too early last year. I don't think he's quite over it yet. I love how open the male pros are about their competitiveness.

It was brilliant to see their rumba to Fields Of Gold, which I'd seen parts of on the Strictly tour.

Their paso doble was brilliant.

They ended their cabaret with a cha cha, for which Ola wore an amazing pink dress.

They were also asked to come back out and dem some basic rumba. Even doing the most basic of figures, the couple looked absolutely stunning.

Afterwards they were on hand to chat (and we chatted to James quite a bit), sign and pose for pics.

It was a fantastic night of dancing and cabaret. I throughly enjoyed it. It was well organised with fantastic music, and I hope to go to another Mr. Wonderful event in the future.

And it was brilliant to have an event in London for once. I got a train straight home. No hotels, no expensive travel costs. Brilliant.

Guy Pelly For SCD6?

The Sunday Mirror reports today that Prince William's friend Guy Pelly is in talks to be on the next series of Strictly Come Dancing.

Royals Princess Beatrice and Zara Phillips have also recently been linked to the series.

Personally, I don't think Pelly would be a good selection. The public know little about him, aside from seeing him on the celeb pages falling out of Boujis with his royal mate, and I don't think they would be that interested in seeing him either.

Kate Wins Damages

Kate Garraway has won "substantial" damages from MGN after they printed stories suggesting she was having an extra-martial affair with dance partner Anton du Beke.

BBC News reports that Kate said: "The way my friendship with Anton was twisted into something sordid was terribly unfair and upsetting... The accusations threatened to cast a shadow over the wonderful time I had on Strictly Come Dancing."

The Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror have agreed to publish apologies and will pay Garraway's legal costs and undisclosed damages.

It's good to see Kate winning this case. The accusations were clearly ludicrous, and 'news'papers should not be able to get away with making things up when they have nothing to write about.

Lesson 37

It was my first Monday class in quite a while.

We started with a bit of quickstep. It was something they'd worked on while I was away. Since when was a fishtail a beginners step? Not that I mind myself...

Then we did some jive. Jive is fast becoming one of my favourite dances to do. I love it. Some of the men weren't sure what to do with their left arms, I noticed.

In the second class we did tango. I probably picked it up better than I have anything in that class for a while, but it was far from correct. I love the challenge of that class, but so often I'm left feeling like a failure. One day we're going to do something and I'm going to nail it. I just don't know when that is going to be!

Bruno: "I Was Dancing In The Womb"

Celebs On Sunday caught up with Len and Bruno to quiz them about the differences between the US and UK shows, and lots of other fun stuff about their jetset lifestyle.

Do you have trouble knowing who some of the American celebs are?
LG: "We know some of them. Monica Seles is a tennis legend."
BT: "And Priscilla Presley, of course. But, to be honest, sometimes we don’t even know who the people are over here in Britain. Len and I don’t watch soaps."
LG: "I had no idea who Matt Di Angelo was. Or Gethin Jones. I’m not a big Blue Peter fan."

When asked when he realised he could dance, Bruno answered: "Two. No, I was dancing in the womb, my dear."

My favourite part of the interview is when Len is asked if he would ever have cosmetic surgery: "Yes. I’m thinking of having breast implants. I’d love big boobs and I’d sit in the bath and fondle myself."

Read the whole interview. It's very funny!

Strictly Job Swap

Could we see Simon Cowell swapping jibes with Craig Revel Horwood while Bruno gets cosy with Sharon Osbourne?

According to Now magazine, the judges met in Hollywood recently and mentioned the possibility.

Bruno said: "Simon has a lot of ideas for new TV shows and we were discussing swapping jobs. I'll do X Factor and he'll do Strictly. It would be for charity, perhaps Children In Need. It would be funny."

It's a nice idea, but the judges are constantly coming under fire for not being ballroom/latin specialists. At least they know about dance, though. What would Simon add to the panel?

Although, with his high-waisted trousers, he wouldn't look out of place in the ballroom...

Arlene: Emma Was "Totally Ineffectual"

Arlene Phillips recently gave an interview to the Irish Independent. It contains all the usual invterview topics - the loss of her mother, having a baby later in life and her career. She doesn't talk much about Strictly, but does give her opinion about Emma Bunton.

"I think she is sweet but bland. Totally, totally ineffectual. Emma Bunton should have won that competition. She was pathetic, absolutely pathetic. She had no attack, no drive ... She really, really learned to dance on that show but in the end she did it without any fire."

I have to agree with Alrene. I said of her paso at the time: "For me, Emma lacked a bit of aggression, particularly in her face. It needed a tad more attack. Despite telling everyone how she can have a nasty streak, I didn't see it one the floor."

So You Think You Can Cook?

Anton du Beke has been given his own cookery show by the BBC.

According to the Daily Record, the daytime series entitled So You Think You Can Cook? will see members of the public compete against professional chefs.

Forty 45-minute episodes have been comissioned.

New Lesson 23

The class was a bit bigger this week, but still dangerously low.

We did a new walts routine this week, although it wasn't hugely dissimilar to the last one we did. We took out chasses and added a lock, and moved the hesitation. But the start and end was identical.

We then moved on to cha cha. Again, it was the same steps as always but in a different order. I am gagging to learn something new!

With all the class size issues, I really don't know what is going to happen. We may well have to move into new classes. I just wish I had more flexibility in when and where I can attend. Something has to give, and as I am intending to take medals, it may be Anton's classes that I have to knock on the head. I hope it doesn't come to that...

Congratulations Natasha

According to The Sun this morning, Series 1 winner Natasha Kaplinksy and her husband Justin are expecting their first child.

The baby is due in early Autumn.