Saturday is Strictly Night

[Robbie]

Very fair, enki.

[Enki]

Just as an addendum to my previous post, I suppose I'm biased in favour of the argentine tango, because my wife and I do a sequence variation of it called an argentine stroll(well, we are both over 70) in the dances that we run.

In fact the music Debbie and her partner used was based on the same melody we use(Por una cabeza). We actually learnt it from this youtube version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1SBtBrqPGI

And I can tell you, its not easy. The timing is both difficult and exact, and your balance(both man and woman) has to be spot on.

 

[Robbie]

It is a marvellous dance. I have a friend who did it, she and her partner regularly went to a venue in Portland Place for a night of AT (you might know of it).Glad you and your wife do a sequence.
(Never dreamed you were over 70!)

Debbie really touched my heart during the series. I knew little of her before and didn't know whether or not I would like her, but now I do.  Bless her.

It was such a lovely series all round! Ah well, next year......

[Aruntraveller]

One thing I only found out recently is that not all of the dances are choreographed by the professionals - other choreographers are certainly used on the Argentine Tango and the Charlestons. This is never mentioned and is I feel slightly misleading as the comments from the judges always stress how well the dancers have done with the choreography - giving the impression that they do all of this work. They don't. One of the professional choreographers used is Jenny Thomas - but never gets the credit now. And thinking about it now, if memory serves me correctly, in the earlier series they were mentioned.

[Enki]

One thing I only found out recently is that not all of the dances are choreographed by the professionals - other choreographers are certainly used on the Argentine Tango and the Charlestons. This is never mentioned and is I feel slightly misleading as the comments from the judges always stress how well the dancers have done with the choreography - giving the impression that they do all of this work. They don't. One of the professional choreographers used is Jenny Thomas - but never gets the credit now. And thinking about it now, if memory serves me correctly, in the earlier series they were mentioned.

This might be of interest:

http://www.kelebaker.com/resources/Dance-Today/Secrets-Dec-2010.pdf

[jeremyp]

Is it over then?

[Robbie]

Yup, you can come out now  .

[SusanDoris]

Interesting point about the choreography having outside hehlp.

[Harrowby Hall]

I agree that Alexandra was the best but Joe probably had the steepest learning curve and was a worthy winner.

Pedant's Corner

I realise that you are merely following conventional usage, but a "steep learning curve" actually indicates rapid, easy, learning.

The term was first used by psychologists in the late years of the 19th century to indicate the relationship between a change in behaviour due to experience - learning (y-axis) and the amount of experience (x-axis). Experience is positively correlated with time. Difficult tasks take a long time to learn.

Hence, the amount of experience required by Joe would require considerable practice, effort and time to acquire - hence a lot of learning required to reach the demonstrated proficiency. This produces a shallow rather than steep learning curve.

End of pedantic interruption.

[SusanDoris]

But a very interesting and useful pedantic interruption!

[Robbie]

Yes, thanks Harrowby!

It's often mentioned that the professional dancers have help with choreography.  For example there was a professional this year who had never danced the Argentine Tango (same happened in previous years), so had to learn it from scratch as well as choreograph.

Katya Jones had a lot of help with choreography from her husband, Neil.