Sunday Service: Week 8

It's such a close competition this year. Everyone is desperate to hang on for one more week, and not be the couple who just miss out.

Arguably the weakest couple left, Jamie & Karen kicked things off. Their first dance was the disco salsa. They might as well just make disco salsa a style and be done with it. We seem to get them regularly. Jamie lacked hip action, and he was slightly ahead of the music in a number of places. The first lift looked a bit awkward, but subsequent lifts were better. He always looks like an enthusiastic amateur. It was fun. It was competent. But it wasn't quite the standard for a finalist. 

Jamie & Karen's second routine was the heavily themed hoedown quickstep. Thank God I'm A Country is a very bold choice because it has a weird time signature with extra counts at the end of phrases. I guess this is less troublesome if you are listening the the music rather than counting it, as I suspect Jamie does. I didn't care for the bench section in the middle, especially as Karen tended to look down at her feet (she did this last week when dancing on the classroom tables, too). The parts in hold were OK. His frame is quite nice and he is light on his feet. There wasn't really any gapping. I did actually enjoy the routine. I just miss the days of routines with less out-of-hold sections.

The waltz was always going to be a good choice for Ranvir & Giovanni. Classic ballroom. Nothing could go wrong. Giovanni is one of the few pros who goes pure with ballroom and I love it. This was elegant and controlled. It was difficult to see Ranvir's feet under the dress, but her topline looked nice. I have a problem with her head position at times - it's a bit far back and looks like it's sinking into her neck. But otherwise, it was everything you would want from a waltz.

I have no idea what Ranvir's jive was like, because did you see Giovanni's costume? OK, I went and watched it back after. Ranvir's dress was similar in length to Maisie's jive dress, and both were giving me flashbacks to Jill. I was waiting for her to catch her heel. Thankfully she didn't. In order to do that should would have had to have picked her feet up more. This was probably one of Ranvir's weakest dances. It lacked energy. The flicks were heavy. She needed to point her feet. It was fun, but pretty ugly. Why Giovanni didn't opt for a rumba it beyond me. What might have been. But we'll always have his sailor suit, and an overwhelming desire to buy perfume.

Bill & Oti started their night with the Charleston. It wasn't the best Charleton I've seen on the show, but it was decent enough. Fun and breezy. Some of his lag action was a bit heavy, swivvels and kicks could have been sharper. But I liked it.

The tango sounded like a winner on paper - Enter Sandman is a all time classic. Perhaps it would have made a better paso, though. The routine lacked a bit of drive and intent. Bill's posture was not as good as it has been, his shoulder were forward and his hips were back. Perhaps doing two routines meant they didn't have the time to finesse these details that would have elevated the performance. The small sections out of hold looked better. I wanted to love it, but I just didn't.

Maisie & Gorka's couple's choice was the dance she needed to do. For the girl who often attacks each dance with too much energy, this was uncharacteristically laid back. It was perfectly in sync, it was fun and it was super cool. I'm really not a big fan of couple's choice, but it has given us some great routines this year. I was a bit put out when it was pointed out by Keep Dancing Podcast that Getting Jiggy Wit It was a hit before Maisie was born. Ugh.

The Viennese waltz was a big change of pace, but I liked it almost as much. OK, so it did feel like a young adult movie where one of the main characters going to die and then the other finds a note written from the beyond telling them to be free and find happiness with someone else, but it was still lovely. It was beautifully danced. Maisie's footwork looked good. Her topline is natural and relaxed, and she dances from her soul. A great job.

The final couple, Harvey & Janette, took a risk and gave us the only rumba of the series. I like rumba, as it's great for separating the wheat from the chaff. We have not had many good rumbas on Strictly. It's difficult and exposing, and has become the dance the pros like to dodge. In leiu of a Christmas special this year, we got Harvey & Janette dancing in a AR snow globe. This routine watched like a competent medal test. Lots of basic steps executed correctly. Harvey presented Janette nicely. Of course it had no chemistry, but it was sweet. It was definitely the best rumba of the series.

Their Charleston was helped along by the song, which did a lot of the heavy lifting for me. Another Day Of Sun is such a feel-good song (and easily the best part of Laa Laa Land) that the audience is in a good mood before you've danced a step. I liked the concept of moving around the different areas - the café, the gas station, the park - but it had a frantic nature which I didn't really enjoy. I liked the content of Bill & Oti's routine more than this one. It was fine, but I didn't love it.

The leaderboard was probably fair, but it's not the order I wanted to see the couples in. I voted for Ranvir, Bill and Maisie, mainly because those are the three I definitely want to see in the final.

I can't help thinking that Ranvir would have been higher if they had done a rumba. Their waltz scored higher than either of Jamie's routines, but they ended up at the bottom because of the jive. It's frustrating. If Jamie ends up in the final at Ranvir's expense I will be livid.

I have enjoyed Jamie throughout the series, but he is the one I would be most happy to lose from the competition.