Strictly Come Dancing 2019 Part 7
Strictly Come Dancing is now over halfway through the season and there’s no room for mistakes or relying on past successes. The judges will now penalise technical errors and the public votes have now become less predictable. With Blackpool on the horizon, there was a lot at stake last night. Karim Zeroual and Amy Dowden danced the Viennese Waltz to Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran. However, he did make several errors during the routine and was noticeably rattled by the end. Subsequently, he scored lower than last week. On a positive note, Saffron made a major comeback. Her Waltz with AJ was outstanding, lacking the excesses of her previous dance. This was a focused and traditional routine and it was very well received. Kelvin an Oti’s Samba was a success with the audiences but the judges still found some minor mistakes, so they dropped a few marks. Michelle Visage excelled with a slick American Smooth. Her professional partner Giovanni Pernice always fines the right balance between the theatrics and traditional dance content. At present, these four couples are the frontrunners in the show.
It was an interesting evening for Emma Barton and Anton Du Beke. They danced Couples' Choice to Right Now by The Pussycat Dolls. This Bob Fosse influenced, Jazz flavoured routine really suited Emma and she seemed to thrive on it. It's also nice to see Anton get this far into the season and tackle various dances that he’s previously missed out on. Alex Scott was once again dancing with Neil Jones. Despite the disruption over the last few weeks due to Neil injuries, she is still maintaining a standard and making progress. Their Jive was a crowd pleaser, although she does now need to focus more on technique, as the judges highlighted. But I think that Alex still has scope to get better. I’m not sure if there’s room for improvement with comedian Chris Ramsey. He does seem to put in the hours rehearsing with professional partner Karen Hauer but his Tango was just too rough around the edges. Certainly Craig thought he needs to move up a gear if he wishes to remain on the show. I suspect that Blackpool may be his Waterloo.
Which brings me on to Mike Bushell. Despite his dedication and commitment to the show, Mike has struggled to move forward. The judges seem to respect his work ethic and his routines with Katya are always well received by the audience. But I think his fanbase has been waning for weeks and as a result he’s been in multiple dance offs. On Saturday night his luck finally ran out and he found himself facing elimination for the fourth time, after a rather mechanical Paso Doble. However, the real shock was that he was competing against Michelle. Despite a total score of 36, the public obviously didn’t want to vote for her or assumed that she was “safe” and that someone else would. The judges were naturally flummoxed by the public vote as they felt she did not deserve to be in the dance off. And as she was competing against Mike, the outcome was pretty much a forgone conclusion. So Mike has gone and doesn’t make it to Blackpool. But I think this situation succinctly highlights that no one is now safe. Although your performance and marks are important, so is mobilising your support and getting people to vote for you. This is a tough challenge and one that can lead to surprises such as tonight. But that’s Strictly for you.
