Strictly Come Dancing Week 7 - Halfway through

Welcome back my lovely dance fans.  Halfway through the competition now and only 10 couple left.  Some surprises this week, some good, some bad, some ugly.  An unexpected score of four, the first perfect 40, Craig on his knees in adoration and Anton on the floor underneath Ruth!!! What on earth is going on under those Strictly lights?

First up to dance this week is Alexandra.  She was dancing the Cha Cha Cha, which has proven to be quite a tricky routine this year.  Not many celebs who have performed it so far have come out of it too well.  Not Alexandra though.  As much as I don't like her as a person, she definitely lit up the dance floor with a fantastic performance.  It was certainly one to set the standard of the show, scoring her an almost perfect score of 39.

Following her was Mollie.  She was dancing the Foxtrot and she was certainly more comfortable to be back in hold and back to the ballroom.  Apart from a slight slip up about halfway through, she looked elegant and graceful and it was definitely one of her better dances.

Next up was the cheeky chappie Joe.  He and Katya were doing my favourite dance, the Charleston.  They were dressed as little drummers and he had the cutest rosy cheeks.  The dance was pretty great as well and it was enjoyable, cheeky, not too cheesy and very well executed.  Scoring them an even run of 9s from each judge, he's looking better and better for the final.

After Joe came Gemma doing a Salsa.  I like Gemma, she's been looking better and better as the weeks went on but sadly the Salsa was not for her.  She seemed very hesitant, as though she was scared and seemed to really struggle with it.  She had moments where she loosened up but then she'd overthink and it became laboured again.  She might be in danger this week.

Talking of struggling, Aston was doing the Viennese Waltz and again, it was not his dance.  He's definitely better at Latin than Ballroom and the whole theme of the dance seemed at odds with the style of Viennese Waltz.  He got marked 4 by Craig, he's never had a score that low the whole series, the rest of the judges were more generous with 7s but it put him next to the bottom of the leaderboard, a very unfamiliar place for him to be.

If I thought Gemma and Aston were bad, Ruth was a sight to behold and not in a good way.  She was dancing the Paso Doble and it was awful.  It was choppy, it was stompy, it was unbelievably camp and even Craig described it as a drag act.  To top things off, Anton then fell over at the end of the routine and Ruth landed on top of him (although not sure we needed the dramatics from Ruth, I won't say anymore but check out the clip for yourself.  My eyes!)  The best part of this routine was the singer.

Finally something good again and it came from the lovely Debbie McGee.  She was doing the Tango this week and although the music seemed an extremely odd choice and for me, it seemed totally wrong, but the dance itself was flawless and she scored a perfect 40.  In a Strictly first, Craig stood up, came around the front of the judge's table and got down on his knees and bowed to her, he was that blown away by the sheer quality that came from her.  Giovanni knows how to bring the best out of her and she certainly delivered this week.  The lady is amazing.

Ahhh Jonnie.  The lovely Jonnie Peacock and I really do mean lovely.  The man was looking pretty smoking hot tonight, in my mind, he's channelling Chris Hemsworth in Thor (but that could be because I went to see it Friday night) but he was looking mighty fine tonight. It's just a pity his dancing isn't as hot as his body.  He's another one, like Mollie, who is not good at Latin and needs to loosen up a lot.  Oti knows how to showcase a partner and the lifts she gave him and the trust she has in him are incredible, the routine was just let down by the lack of hip action and fluidity from Jonnie.  Hopefully, he'll be back and in the ballroom again next week, just please let's have him back in hold.

After a rough couple of weeks, Susan was up doing the Jive and oh my what a jive.  Like her Quickstep a few weeks back, she was light on her feet, she was always moving and bouncing around the floor like a trooper.  After narrowly avoiding a dance-off in the last two weeks, tonight she thoroughly deserved her place in the top half of the leaderboard.

Closing the show was Davood.  Thankfully, Nadiya has eased up on trying to be sexy all the time and focussed on his technique and made it more romantic than sexy.  Their American smooth was polished, elegant, well timed and classy.  As for that one-armed lift, it really brought the house down and was a perfect end to a fabulous show.

So by the end of the evening, the leaderboard was looking like this:

Debbie & Giovanni		40
Alexandra & Gorka		39
Joe & Katya		36
Davood & Nadiya		35
Susan & Kevin		29
Mollie & AJ		27
Jonnie & Oti		27
Gemma & Alijaz		26
Aston & Janette		25
Ruth & Anton		22

Very surprising to see Aston where he was but it just shows how quickly things can change from week to week.

On to Sunday night and following a Prince tribute routine from the pros, it's down to the important stuff and the votes are in.  Amazingly the first couple into the dance-off is Aston and Janette.  I honestly never thought this would happen.  Given the way he has been throughout the series, I would not have expected to see him in a dance-off this soon.  He will face Mollie and AJ who sadly have been here before in last weeks face off with Simon and Karen.  Both couples were massively improved on the night and the judge's decision was so close.  Craig opted to save Mollie, but both Darcey and Bruno opted to save Aston.  This meant that Shirley, as head judge got the casting vote so whoever she voted for went through.  In a MASSIVE shock, she voted to save Mollie and AJ which meant Aston is out.  I would have bet my house on Aston being in the final. It's a good job I don't own a house really.

So now the competition has been blown wide open and with four slots open for the final, and one of the front-runners now eliminated it really is anyone's for the taking.  Nobody can take their place in this competition for granted and they all need to be dancing their socks off to get through.

Next week sees the first Argentine Tango of the series and the remaining nine couples fighting for a place in Blackpool's famous tower ballroom. My apologies in my last post, I thought Blackpool was next week but it's the week after.  Week 9 is Blackpool week. However, it's certainly getting interesting.

Until then, keep dancing!

Week 6 | Week 4 | Week 3 | Week 2 | Week 1