Strictly Come Blogging: Monday Musings: Week 6

Here are my thoughts on this week's Strictly Come Dancing, a little late after another busy weekend.

Jade is really hitting her stride now. I thought her samba performance was confident and sassy. The routine had great choreography from Ian. Jade had some pretty decent hip action. It was brilliant.

Chris finally showed the flair that he had shown all those weeks ago. He and Ola covered the floor well with their American smooth. The lifts were clean. It was really a nice job. I actually thought the judges were a little hard on Chris.

I really liked Katya's choreography, but the performance didn't have the classic Tuffers charm. It was competent and enjoyable, but not Phil's best. Phil leads Katya really well. But despite all Phil's hip gyrations, the voltres were completely devoid of hip action.

Zoe & James had Hollywood glamour. Their American smooth was as smooth as silk. It was a shame the second lift was late, because it let the routine down for me. Zoe glows on the floor and is a pleasure to watch.

I'm glad Craig looked like he was having fun, because I didn't enjoy his samba with Flavia at all. I thought it really lacked technique, and it was quite boring. I thought it was Craig's worst dance.

Ricky & Erin's Viennese waltz-based American smooth was fantastic. It had proper glamour and brilliant choreography which really complimented Ricky. He still needs to watch his shoulders (although we know from training footage that Erin has been nagging him about that). I thought the judges scores were a bit low for Ricky.

I didn't really like Ricky & Natalie's samba, although I can't quite put my finger on why. I thought he was completely over-marked by the judges. I thought Ricky's knees were too flexed throughout the routine. His timing seemed to be out here and there. Maybe it was the choreography I didn't like. I really don't know, but this dance just didn't do it for me.

Natalie looked like she was loving the American smooth, but there is something not quite right about her lines. She needs to relax her shoulders and pull up through the spine more. I thought the choreography was uncharacteristically uninteresting and not to Vincent's usual inspiring standard.

Jo & Brendan's American smooth was quite charming. In the beginning Jo was really performing to the audience, something I'd never seen from her in the past, although she lost the performance in the middle. There were so many things wrong. Brendan was dragging her around the floor, her knees were too flexed, her timing was dodgy. Her hip action was pretty nice though.

The American smooth was a return to form for Ali & Brian. Ali still looks slightly off balance at times, but that was all I could fault her on. She seems to be much more comfortable with the ballroom. For me it wasn't a ten, but it was excellent.

Laila & Anton were better than I expected. Laila seems to have broken her mental block with latin. The timing was slightly off in places, but it was a much improved performance. Unfortunately, most of the negativity was directed at the choreography. I thought Laila performed what she was given pretty well, and the judges shouldn't penalise her for that. I have to comment that I thought the lighting for their routine was brilliant and really set the disco mood.

I was shocked to see Jade & Ian in the bottom two. They really upped their game and turned in a fantastic performance. I think it was right for Jo & Brendan to finally depart, but I would have put Craig & Flavia in the bottom two with them.

Here are the videos:

Jade & Ian