Strictly Come Dancing Show Introduction, Launch Show Airs This Saturday – Guest Blog By Nathan

Hey All!! Give a PureDWTS hearty welcome to Nathan from the UK!! Nathan will be guest blogging for us weekly about “Strictly Come Dancing” this season. Below he introduces himself and writes of the differences between our version and the UK’s version of Dancing With The Stars and what we can expect. Nathan has a unique charm and a UK sense of humor. So, watch out! lol THANK YOU, NATHAN! We’re looking forward to your fun blogs every week for Strictly Come Dancing and here’s to Saturday’s Launch Show!

Nathan:
So, Erm, Hello. This is my first ever blog so treat me well you lot haha. I am Nathan, 21 and I am a dance addict. Oh wait …this is Pure not Dancers Anonymous. haha Although Pure is sometimes as good as Betty Ford’s. Some of you may know me as @thengp12 on twitter or as Nathan UK from the comments section down the bottom. I have been a Strictly fan for what 11 years now, since about half way through series 1. I have been a DWTS fan ever since I saw Jennifer and Derek’s Paso Doble on a channel called Watch. This is a channel in the UK that used to broadcast DWTS from seasons 9 to 13. So I will start giving you a flavour as to the couples I have supported on DWTS over the seasons:

Season 13 JR and Karina
Season 14 Katherine and Mark
Season 15 Sabrina and Louis then Apollo and Karina then Melissa and Tony
Season 16 Zendaya and Val
Season 17 Jack and Cheryl
Season 18 Charlie and Sharna then Meryl and Maks
Season 19 Sadie and Mark and Alfonso and Witney
Season 20 Noah and Sharna

Right onto my real passion…Strictly come Dancing! The only DWTS I get to watch on my TV. Unlike DWTS, SCD does not find ways to make me psychotic haha.

So why am I here, you ask? Vogue has allowed me take over Pure once a week to do a Strictly blog. Ooo how exciting. I plan to do this every on Wednesday or Thursday. This is my final year at the University, but, I WILL MAKE THIS WORK. FOR THAT I HAVE THE POWER. 😀

So what are the differences between SCD and DWTS?

Well Len will continue to judge, and we have a Bruno, total b***h (not really. he is really cuddly and affectionate backstage), and a part time Drag Queen as a judge called Crag Revel Horwood who has issued 1s… YES ONES before. Our resident token woman judge is Prima Ballerina, a woman who had the longest standing ovation in Ballet history and 2012 London Olympics (the best olympics ever) closing act Darcey Bussell.

The show is hosted by two female presenters: Tess Daly (Tom role) is a consummate professional who is virtually infallible although slightly dumb. The other is Claudia Winkleman (Erin role) who is a hoot and so hilarious. She looks like a character out of a Tim Burton film and who would be played by Helen Bonham Carter.

We do two dance styles not seen on DWTS. One is called American Smooth. This is any Ballroom Dance, but, only 40-60% is done in Ballroom Hold and lifts are allowed. The other style is Charleston. When done right, the Charleston is not only a show stopper, but, a complete series stopper. The dances are 90-100 seconds long. We have 15 couples and the season plays out for 13 weeks. At Week 9, the studio will get a rest and we will be upping sticks and moving north to the Mecca of Ballroom “Blackpool Tower Ballroom”. Bar the final and Halloween, this is the best show of the series. A must watch I say. The Ballroom is massive about 2 or maybe 3 times the size of the DWTS Ballroom.

In the future, I aim to do a best of and worst of blog where I show you the best of every dance style and the worst of every dance style. I might do that closer to the time of Week 1 as I don’t want to front load now. Every Wednesday all the songs and Dance styles for the following Saturday will be published in the blog as well. I may put all that dances up also (not just the Gleb and Tristan’s), so you all get a better sense of the greater competition. Also, after Christmas (probably between Christmas Day and New Years Day), I will blog about the Christmas Special and write a closing Blog. I might do power rankings and comments about costuming and music, but, that is if TPTB allow me to.

So, all I have to say is…. have fun on your Saturday afternoons starting on the 25th of September. MARK YOUR CALENDARS! It will be in the evening for me and I will probably be eating a burger, hotdogs, pizza, fish and chips, curry or Chinese as they are the only dinners I have on Saturdays. I will either be pissed off if my football team (Gillingham FC) lose, be elated if they win or indifferent if they draw, but, I digress. I hope I have not missed anything.

REMINDER:
Launch Show
Saturday 5th September
7:15 BST 2:15 ET 1:15 CT 12:15 MT 11:15am PT

Want to watch past seasons of “Strictly Come Dancing”? See Strictly Come Dancing You Tube.