The Strictly Sweep – Week 10
Well, how about that then? I think that just goes to show that when you get to the last few weeks, the standard goes through the roof. For most of them anyway. We had six 10s dished out on Saturday, the most for a single week thus far. We had yet another almost perfect score (Judge Craig still has yet to blow the dust off that double digit paddle). And we had me exclaiming when I found out who was in the bottom two “No fucking way!!!”. Head Judge Len had said that over the years Movie Night has provided thrills and spills, and this was far from an exception – three ballroom routines (a pair of american smooths and a quickstep) and three latin (a rumba, a jive and a paso doble), all intended to display a film influence – so we had
- Alex & James – American Smooth (Oh Pretty Woman from Pretty Woman)
- Chelsee & Pasha – Jive (I’m A Believer from Shrek)
- Harry & Aliona – Rumba ((Everything I Do) I Do It For You from Robin Hood: Prince of Theives)
- Holly & Artem – Paso Doble (The Plaza of Execution from The Mask of Zorro)
- Jason & Kristina – American Smooth (Singin in the Rain from Singin in the Rain)
- Robbie & Ola – Quickstep (Little Green Bag from Reservoir Dogs)
I’m sure you’ll agree that that’s a pretty eclectic mix of songs and movies. Some of them came off, some of them not so much. For example, I wasn’t too sure about Robbie & Ola’s quickstep. I mean, clearly Ola was wearing far too many clothes in that black suit…yes, I get the whole Reservoir Dogs thing, but still, there are certain things that are just not done.
Ola as she should be.
That being said as well as also, we had some good routines. But we also had some totally feckin A1 routines, starting with Harry & Aliona’s rumba, which (for those of you that are regular viewers of Strictly will know) is bloody hard to do well when you’re a female celebrity, and even harder than that if you’re a male. Hip action is everything, and Judge Craig commented that Harry had clearly been working on his as he got his score of 36. Then things did explode, with Holly & Artem gaining their first 10s of the competition on their way to a score of 38 for their paso doble (which had all the hallmarks of a proper paso, complete with proper flamencoesque music), while Jason & Kristina picked up another 10 for their american smooth to the perennial dance favourite Singin in the Rain, which saw Jason doing his best Gene Kelly. That though meant the best was for last – Chelsee & Pasha’s jive, with Pasha all shreked up for the occasion was (to use a well worn Strictly phrase) A-MAZ-ING. There is no doubt that Chelsee is an absolute natural when it comes to dancing, because she is able to pick up Pasha’s choreography so quickly, and then they are able to get their performance so crisp and clean and synchronised that it is almost impossible to tell she isn’t a professional. Hence the reason she picked up three 10s (plus a 9 from Judge Craig). And so it was to the bottom two – one would have thought that it would have featured Robbie & Ola (which it did) and Alex & James (which it didn’t). That’s why we had my “no fucking way” outburst when Tess read out Jason & Kristina’s names. While I know that when you get to the end of the competition the good dancers will start to fall, you don’t expect it when there are good dancers and great dancers left. Alex is certainly coming on leaps and bounds, but she is still not up there in terms of quality to compare to Chelsee, Harry or Jason (or even Holly). Added to everything is the week that Robbie had following the suicide of Gary Speed, and you had the feeling that the public might spare him elimination. As it was, they didn’t, and Jason & Kristina made it to the semi-final. And so, I’m afraid if you had Robbie & Ola, then your time is up.
Moving to the leagues, we find that Chelsee & Pasha remain top of the shop in the main table, with an almost impossibly small three point advantage over Harry & Aliona, while Jason & Kristina are 25 points further behind in third place. In the ballroom table, Jason & Kristina return to the top with a 17 point lead over Alex & James, while Holly & Artem a just a single point further behind in third, while the latin league sees Chelsee & Pasha return to the top with a healthy 18 point advantage over Harry & Aliona, with Anita & Robin still hanging on in third place.
In the minor competitions, Harry & Aliona still hold the highest number of tens with 7, but they are now just three ahead of Chelsee & Pasha, whose trio of maximums now give them a total of 4, while both Jason & Kristina and Holly & Artem have a pair each. Harry & Aliona also still lead the average score competition with 33.6 points, which is now just 0.1 of a point ahead of both Jason & Kristina and Chelsee & Pasha. And in the highest weekly score competition we return after just a single week to countback, and find that once again Jason & Kristina’s 33 in week 2 is the highest individual weekly score, thanks to Chelsee & Pasha’s 39, which equalled Harry & Aliona’s from last week.
It’s the semi-final coming – each couple will have two dances to learn, with each of them doing a ballroom and a latin. Alas, as I’ve lamented, the argentine tango is now used as a standard dance, rather than as something special for the semi-final. However, we’ll still be seeing two of them. What we’ll also see is a double elimination, to get us to the three couples taking part in the final. The Glitterball Trophy is so close now, and so (for some of you) is the chance to win prizes. I’d suggest you watch closely.
Chairman Pip’s Railway Thoughts Strictly League 2011
| Dancers | Points |
| Chelsee/Pasha | 673 |
| Harry/Aliona | 670 |
| Jason/Kristina | 645 |
| Holly/Artem | 633 |
| Alex/James | 620 |
| Robbie/Ola | 561 |
| Anita/Robin | 546 |
| Russell/Flavia | 454 |
| Lulu/Brendan | 407 |
| Audley/Natalie | 371 |
| Rory/Erin | 318 |
| Nancy/Anton | 224 |
| Dan/Katya | 204 |
| Edwina/Vincent | 131 |
For the ballroom and latin leagues, the tables look like this: Celebrations Ballroom League
| Jason/Kristina | 178 |
| Alex/James | 161 |
| Holly/Artem | 160 |
| Robbie/Ola | 149 |
| Chelsee/Pasha | 136 |
| Harry/Aliona | 135 |
| Audley/Natalie | 111 |
| Anita/Robin | 91 |
| Russell/Flavia | 88 |
| Rory/Erin | 83 |
| Lulu/Brendan | 67 |
| Dan/Katya | 58 |
| Nancy/Anton | 52 |
| Edwina/Vincent | 29 |
Roses Latin League
| Chelsee/Pasha | 249 |
| Harry/Aliona | 231 |
| Anita/Robin | 216 |
| Jason/Kristina | 197 |
| Holly/Artem | 189 |
| Alex/James | 178 |
| Robbie/Ola | 163 |
| Russell/Flavia | 156 |
| Lulu/Brendan | 155 |
| Audley/Natalie | 83 |
| Rory/Erin | 66 |
| Nancy/Anton | 66 |
| Dan/Katya | 61 |
| Edwina/Vincent | 52 |
