Monday Musings: Week 3

I had a busy weekend, so I am only getting to write this today. I am writing without knowing the result.

Movie week comes along early, and I'm still not sure if that's a good thing. On the one hand, it means that all but the first couple out get to experience a theme week. On the other, it means that the couples don't really have to focus on technique, because they have an early week where they get to fudge it a little.

The first couple out this week, and definitely using the theme to hide the technique was Richie & Giovanni. Even my husband said "When are they actually going to start dancing?". There was a lot of character work, and eventually some very basic samba steps. Were they well executed? Not really. I didn't think it was anywhere near as good as last week's quickstep.

Molly & Carlos' waltz was wonderful. Lovely characterisation, perfect storytelling. Her lines were gorgeous, her footwork was well studied. It was dreamy. Wonderful choreography from Carlos. When the theme and dance come together, Movie Week can actually be a joy.

I loved Kym & Graziano's Charleston! It was so wonderful to see such a fearless side of Kym. She was a little tentative over the last couple of weeks, but she gave this everything and it made for a much more enjoyable performance. The lifts were challenging and well executed. This version of Kym needs to stick around. I feel like this could be her breakthrough routine.

Hamsa & Jovita's rumba was pretty simple, but it worked well with the understated music. They made some nice shapes, and Hamsa presented his partner very well. A competent rumba, which was sweet, but perhaps a little safe as Anton suggested.

Ellie & Johannes' cha cha seemed a bit tentative. She didn't look very confident, and tended to drop her eyeline. She also needs to work on her arms, which tended to not be very well placed and were either too short and close to the body, or a bit droopy. Her New Yorkers weren't too bad, but overall a good effort. She gives good facial expressions, and I still want to see more.

I find Matt really difficult to watch, and I still can't pinpoint why. His posture is very odd. Nothing her does looks natural. I can see that he's working really hard, and he's feeling it in his heart, but it's just translating to his body. The parts of his Viennese waltz where Nadiya was in hold were probably the better parts, but it just isn't coming together.

I loved Tyler & Dianne's Charleston. It was high energy from start to finish. It was clean, fast, the lifts were ambitious but well executed with very smooth transitions. Absolutely deserving of the 10s it received. 

I liked Fleur & Vito's American smooth. Fleur is getting better every week. She needs to work on her footwork more and really needs to straighten her legs more, and make sure her feet track together more closely. This is definitely going to be a journey for Fleur. The thing that bothered me most was her shoes. I don't understand why she was in light shoes. If it was a style choice, because Ariel really wants to have feet like humans, then they should have matched her dress. If not, they should have put her in brown shoes.

James gave us lots of dad dancing. His cha cha with Amy had lots of timing issues, and didn't hit the mark stylistically. It was fun, but he needs to work really hard to have any chance of progressing further in the competition.

I really liked Ellie & Nikita's quickstep. It was very well presented in hold. Ellie is confident and performed really well. The timing was dodgy right at the start, but she quickly rescued it. The judges seemed a bit down on her routine this week, but I really liked it.

I loved Will & Nancy this week. Give me an Amercian smooth, but make it sexy! Will was perfect in the Johnny Castle role. He captured the character perfectly, and had brilliant chemistry with Nancy. He presented her so well. He looked so in control and I felt so comfortable watching it.

Tony & Katya's samba was definitely theming over content, but I actually didn't mind because it was so entertaining. His timing was off in a number of places, and it lacked content, but it didn't really matter. I still felt more relaxed watching Tony than I did watching Matt.

I really loved Helen & Gorka's Viennese waltz. It's so lovely to watch a Viennese with so much content. There wasn't much filler in this dance. Lovely natural and reverse turns, and a very well executed fleckerl. I loved the sequence of underarm turns toward the end as well. This was my kind of dance. More of this please, pros!

I love the message of Jayde & Karen's cha cha. I love the body positivity. I loved that Jayde and Karen were side by side in very similar costumes with completely different body shapes. I love that Jayde wears whatever she wants in training. When I was growing up, there were very few women who looked like Jayde on TV, and even fewer in the dance space. I stood on stage with girls half my size in costumes I was not comfortable in, and I would have loved to have had someone like Jayde to look to. Jayde's performance in the cha cha was great. She's there, she's doing it and she's living her best life. But all I really want from Jayde is for her to get up onto her toes and use her feet. It seems that every larger woman who has ever been on his programme has been flat footed, and I am dying to see a bit more care taken with footwork. But it was inspirational, and I am here for it!

My favourites this week were Will, Tyler, Kym, Helen, closely followed by Jayde and Ellie S.

The bottom for me was Matt, followed by Richie and James. Tony rescued himself this week by having such an entertaining routine.