Strictly Come Dancing 2018 Week 9 - Blackpool

The lights just got brighter and the sparkles more sparkly as Strictly comes to Blackpool.  The Tower Ballroom, home of Ballroom and the pinnacle of the season, only the final is a more important night in the world of Strictly.  It's the one aim for everyone to say they danced at Blackpool but only eight couples out of the original fifteen can make it.  It's sure to be a spectacular night as they roll out extra props, extra dancers and in some cases, fire! Oh, and Craig's 10 paddle got an outing at the seaside.


So how did our celebs fare this evening?  Well, let's just pause a minute and appreciate the amazing opening number.  Pro dancers and celebs combined to dance to a Gloria Estefan medley and the lady herself was present to sing it.  She may look older and not quite as nimble as she was but she can still crank out that Dr Beat and boy did the rhythm get ya!

So onto the celebs dances, and opening the show tonight was Kylie Minogue, sorry I meant Stacey Dooley and Kevin Clifton.  My inner nineties pop child had only just got back into its locked box from last week's Hanson number, but it's busting free for a Salsa to Gina G's Oooh Ah Just A Little Bit.  It's cheesy, it's cheeky, it's total Eurovision (it actually genuinely is) but Stacey seriously sold it.  They just looked to be having so much fun out there, although she looked a bit unladylike sitting astride that big stick of rock.  Not a bad effort and still looking like she could go all the way.

Next up we have Lauren and AJ, they are tackling the Argentine Tango.  This wasn't great for me.  It lacked any kind of precision or continuity.  It just looked like a bunch of dance steps that she had to get through, there was no connection with the dance, with the music or with her partner.  I didn't like her outfit either, it seemed to restrict her a lot with her movements.  A reasonable effort but nothing like an Argentine Tango, my favourite is still Alexandra Burke's last year, that was outstanding.

Next, we have Graeme and Oti doing their Couple's Choice and they've gone for Theatre/Jazz.  More Theatre than Jazz definitely and a proper old-style musicals number here.  It was good, but not that great.  Graeme always brings such personality to his performances and you can tell he is having a lot of fun in the competition.  He's not always the most technical of dancers but he is a performer which helps in this new category particularly when you don't have to follow any rules as such.  He just needs to polish the performance up a bit more.

The next couple though, now that was a performance.  Faye and Giovanni were dancing the Paso Doble.  There was Giovanni in a see-through shirt, there was Faye looking all fierce and angry and there was fire.  Yes, you read right, there was fire.  I confess I was watching this almost from behind my hands, I was convinced Faye's dress was going to set alight but it didn't fortunately.   This was a strong Paso, full of passion and energy.  There was a strong connection between the two of them and some lovely shaping and Spanish lines.  Off to the top of the leaderboard with just 2 points off perfect.

Next, we have Kate and Aljaz, on their Blackpool honeymoon after their Quickstep wedding last week.  This was an American Smooth and it was very smooth.  It was sweet and romantic, but also had some good timing and good lifts.  Very enjoyable, I think Kate may have hit her stride after a bad few weeks, we are starting to see a dancer emerge once again.

Oooh, next it's a pool party at Charles and Karen's place.  Dancing an energetic Samba to La Bamba, this was  A-MAY-ZING.  Charles totally nailed that Samba which not many of the celebs have managed so far.  Bruno even went as far to say that when he was dancing with the other male pros he looked like one of them.  Charles has suddenly gone from consistent scores of 25 to joining Faye at the top of the leaderboard.  Getting his first 10s and two of them to boot, another dance just 2 away from perfect. Oh, and they were Karen's first 10s as well, having been in Strictly now for 6 years.

Next up were Joe and Dianne.  They were dancing the Quickstep.  Joe had previously said he wanted to get to Blackpool because his nan used to dance there at tea dances and god bless her she was in the audience to watch him.  He certainly did her proud, it was a proper old-fashioned style dance, very Fred Astaire like and his timing was impeccable.  Craig only scored him 8 but with three 10's from the remaining judges, Joe scored 38 points as well.  It's getting rather crowded at the top of that leaderboard.

The final dance of the night to bring the show to a close was Ashley (who else, talk about giving her top billing, always the last celeb to be announced at the beginning).  She and Pasha were dancing the Jive.  Yes it was good, yes it was fast and slick and yes it was perfect because she is a trained dancer.  I think we all know she's going to be in the final, but if previous years are anything to go by, she won't win it because the general public is very unlikely to vote for a trained dancer.  Danny Mac, Alexandra Burke, Debbie McGee.  All finalists but it was Ore Oduba and Joe McFadden, the non-dancers, that lifted the Glitterball.  The public knows best, I'm sorry.   Still, with a perfect score of 40, she has to knock down the other three and claim the top of the leaderboard for herself.

So at the end of Saturday night, the leaderboard looks like this

Ashley & Pasha	40
Faye & Giovanni	38
Charles & Karen	38
Joe & Dianne	38
Stacey & Kevin	33
Graeme & Oti	32
Kate & Aljaz	30
Lauren & AJ	25

Then it's onto Sunday night.  Nothing memorable about the opening pro dance tonight, not even sure what the story was other than Giovanni and Graziano having a fight over a girl.  Anyway, nothing special.

So the first couple into the dance-off is Graeme and Oti.  It's Graeme's third dance-off, joining Charles for the number of times for being there.  As I said, I liked his routine but it wasn't anything spectacular.  Joining him in the dance-off is Kate and Aljaz.  Surprising, because I was expecting Lauren as Kate was stronger than Lauren but clearly Lauren has the public support behind her.

So after a performance from Take That (seriously what is with these singers bringing their own dancers to a dance show?), the dance-off commences.  Both couples performed well, no obvious errors from either of them but all four judges voted unanimously to save Graeme and Oti, which means we have to say our farewells to the lovely Kate.  It's unfortunate as I feel she was just starting to bloom again, she has had much worse weeks when I expected her to leave but the last couple of weeks has seen a vast improvement.  However, it's not meant to be but she can leave on a high, she danced in Blackpool and danced well.  We will miss her.

So we are down to seven couples and next week sees something new.  Last year we had the Paso Doblethon where all remaining couples dance the same dance together.  This year sees a Lindyhopathon, so not only will they have to learn their own routines, but they will also have to learn a brand new dance as Lindyhop has never been featured before. It's a lot like the Jive apparently but I can't wait to see what happens.  Might make the leaderboard very interesting.

Until then my friends, keep dancing.