2016 Strictly Come Dancing Week 2 – Rank The Dances, Pro Numbers, Review The Shows
Are you ready for Strictly Come Dancing Week 2? For episode times in the UK, see this link. The dances and songs can be seen here.
If you tune in, let us know your thoughts and rank the couples in comments if interested. If you can’t watch it LIVE, let’s hope they will post videos at their Official You Tube page. More later and have fun!! We look forward to reading your comments as always.
Streams:
Watch SCD 1 (works for UK and other International viewers)
Watch SCD 2 (works for US viewers and possibly Internationally)
Watch SCD 3 (works for US Viewers and possibly Internationally)
Watch SCD 4 (works for US Viewers and possibly Internationally)
Watch SCD 5 (works for US Viewers and possibly Internationally)
Watch SCD 6 (works for US Viewers and possibly Internationally)
Also, if you don’t know about Gleb Savchenko and Kristina Rihanoff’s Dance show in the UK, you can read on it here. Be sure to get your tickets before they run out.
Tuning in! 🙂
So my friends are at a concert at some park so no funny comments this week but I’m watching online so this week is probably the first strictly I’ve watched on my own lol. Ore and Joanne bounced back from that weirdness last week and the choreogrpahy was slick. I actually really liked it. I’d give that a 7 though. Claudia and aj bored me this week. Last week was meh and this week I wasn’t feeling it but she danced well so I’d give that a 7. Ok warning rant coming: what the hell was Karen thinking? She has a contender. Her best partner yet and she gets a great song. Yet that’s all she came up with? The 5 was overkill I’d give to a 7. Anton delivered this week and I’d give that a 7 too. Lesley is having a blast. Greg and Natalie were great. I would have given that an 8 not really getting the judges on that one. Tameka and gorka were my favs thus far. She is a very pleasant surprise but my worry is this: when she gets a slower dance where she can’t bring the fun or a tough atitude what happens? Gorka is a star. Can we steal him for our version lol. Laura and Giovanni clearly ade a great pairing last week wasn’t feeling t but this week definately. Easily an 8 (same for tameka). Saying that, I’m already dreading the stories when they start dating. Melvin and janette remind me of Jake and Jenna but he actually seems to want to be there. Id give that a 5. Louise and Kevin were great. I would have given that an 8 as well. Yay Kevin I guess lol…he hasn’t annoyed me nearly as much as he had before so either I’m softening or he has realized it’s better to be more about his partner than him. Brendan hit the jackpot with ansastacia. She can dance and is hysterical. I’d give that a 7. Ed is adorable. I would love to say the dance was good but it wasn’t lol. I’d give that a 6 but keep it up Ed becuase you are great fun to watch. Naga and pascha….I want to like it because I like her but oy was that just not good. I’d give that a 5.
Judge rinder was amusing. I like the way he dances but she need to work in the footwork more. He looks like a uncle at a wedding sometimes and compared to some of the others who seemingly are adept at footwork it shows. I’d give that a 7.
Daisy and aliaz….dance was good but no to that costume lol. Like wow. But she is quite the contender. Danny and oti are amazing together. Wow. I’d give both an 8.
I’m pretty much loving all the celebs and couples on this year’s Strictly. They’re all fun to watch and most are decent dancers. Eliminations are going to be painful.
Ore and Joanne: I thought last week’s tango was technically better than this week’s cha-cha, but I’m fine with their performance and score.
Claudia and AJ: Definitely a better overall performance from Claudia this week. Showed she can actually dance. She and AJ got their body contact where it needed to be to accommodate the height difference. I want to see more personality from the, but maybe they’re too young.
Will and Karen: Fun to watch; good but not great. Love Will’s acting and his dancing is adequate. Jive is tough. So I’ll give them a pass and hope his dancing improves next week.
Lesley and Anton: I love Lesley (to look and dance like that at 74?) Still needs to get her shoulders down, but great legs.
Greg and Natalie: After watching their ITT training bits, I was worried; but this was better than I thought it would be. Yes, bum was out and it was a bit stompy, but not bad. The last move with Greg straddle jumping Nat was a fail – he looked like a frog (or worse).
Tameka and Gorka: Girl can dance and Charleston IS her dance. She nailed it. Their costumes were sublime! Like Vin, I wonder how she’ll cope with the more restrained dances.
Laura and Giovanni: So much better than last week. Great body contact. Loved Laura’s back extension. Yeah, Vin – not looking forward to the (show/faux/ro)mance chatter that’s bound to break out.
Melvin and Janette: He’s in a tough spot because while his dancing isn’t bad, he’s on a season with a lot of much better dancers. He seems like a nice guy and he and Janette look so cute together.
Louise and Kevin: I loved this waltz. There’s such a gentle, refined quality about Louise’s dancing. Her arms are gorgeous and she hears and dances to the music. Fingers crossed she won’t sink when it comes to getting out the hips and sexy attitude for Latin.
Anastacia and Brendan: Shame they had to cobble together a new (pared down) routine because she injured herself. Think she could have nailed a well-rehearsed Salsa. This one was messy, but her poise and performance quality is unparalelled.
Ed and Katya: For an older, out of shape politician, this guy has some dance talent. He really embraced the Charleston and stayed on time. I was pleasantly surprised.
Naga and Pasha: She looked amazing and she started off pretty well. Then she seemed to lose confidence and get into her head as the dance went on. I want her to do well, but if she doesn’t master her performance nerves, she’s going to be gone soon.
Rob and Oksana: He’s surprisingly good, but Craig’s description of his dancing as “noisy” is very apt. Far too much facial expression (and I’m sure he doesn’t realize he’s doing it, that’s just his ‘schtick’).
Daisy and Aljaz: Another excellent dance from Daisy. She has natural talent, but I think Aljaz deserves a ton of credit for being an excellent teacher — he teaches fundamentals. Loved her legs.
Danny and Oti: My favorite dance of the night–again. These two are phenomenal together. Fabulous chemistry on the floor. I love Oti’s choreography; just hope she always remembers to balance interesting choreo with solid dance content.
Right now Daisy and Danny strike me as the two celebs who can do both ballroom and Latin. It’ll be interesting to see who might join that club.
With 15 couples, this is way longer than it should be. Sorry.
I’m just hoping that the couples up for elimination are Melvin and Naga but I’m honestly worried about Ed. Something about him I love watching (much like Rick this season on our version) and I really want to see him do a paso or something super intense.
Agree with Cids – the show last night felt like it run forever. By the time Danny danced I’d been barely paying attention anymore. Another great week though, it’s very nice to see a cast surprising you each time – and not necessarily positively either. My thoughts:
– Really, Joanne? A fireman stripper-themed Cha-cha? Dang. His lousy attempt to pole dance aside, it largely showed once again how promising Ore is. He stayed on time, he got his groove on and overall I do think it was even better than his Tango. Joanne’s choreo wasn’t as tragic, but it still didn’t do him justice, and once again he couldn’t work a pole for his life. I see they still hadn’t given up mentioning his wife either there.
– After several weeks of wondering, now I know who the heck Claudia is reminding me of – she reminds me of one of the Stranger Things kid, the one with curly hair and lisp. Anyway, am I the only one who felt their Waltz was a bit too half-assed? It’s a bit too much for me, it had a lift and most of the tricks felt way overdone. Also, I HATE it when a pro choreographed a Waltz that waits for them to start dancing in hold until the song’s chorus came – they wasted a good twenty to thirty seconds in process there.
– Has Will always been that, and by that I mean THAT level of campy? He seems way more grounded on his interviews that I’ve watched, but here he kept on seeming more and more… stereotypical. Anyway Will’s Jive scores were a bit weird, but overall I do think they kinda balanced everything. I don’t dislike his Jive, yes a bit more actual kicks and flicks would do, but I loved the essence of the dance, although his shirt as a bit overkill.
– I liked Lesley, but I’m not sure if they’re the ones I remember a lot this series, since no matter how much she and Anton tried to grind up their Cha-cha to the next cringey level, I still couldn’t remember her all that much in the end. But she indeed did much better than my estimation in the Latin, even perhaps better than the Ballroom. Still not really interested on them.
– The chances of Greg winning seem to diminish more and more each passing minute, don’t they? And I am quietly sobbing for Natalie now. Sure, he’s not a complete duffer, but looking at how everyone switched from being in unison of liking the idea of him winning to barely mentioning him now when discussing their favourite couples IT IS NOT A GOOD SIGHT. I haven’t lost faith in him though, and oh my God what a booty. All those times landing on the sand pit definitely helped shaping that, no? His Tango had lots of potentials but unfortunately it kinda didn’t go anywhere.
– I guess I’m just not a fan of Tameka then. She’s not a bad dancer, and Gorka is so pretty that I can easily overlook any moment of him talking, but all I’m seeing is still a bit too much of Tameka laughing at Tameka, and really not much else. And their Charleston was… messy. Gorka seemed to be able to lift Tameka, why didn’t do a more interesting lift? And while I don’t exactly mind Kevin’s Sailor attire last week, I do admit that their costumes this week were rather distracting.
– I’m really not seeing the genius in Laura’s Waltz – if anything, I prefer hee Cha-cha last week to this one. It seems sentimental, with Giovanni choreographing a Waltz with barely any dancing in hold. They’re surely playing off the romance area here, and while that definitely plays better to Giovanni’s Italian Stallion narrative to Vincent’s, I have to say I’m not exactly moved by them trying to be all romantic. They kinda remind me of Jana and Gleb in that area to be honest.
– Well, Melvin tried, but he’s still Odoomed here. Not only that nobody seems to be thrilled seeing him and Janette dance, the slandering by the judges didn’t seem to help either. I liked Janette’s do on their Tango, but that’s probably it, really. It’s hard to say things about perhaps the most forgettable and most boring routine of the bunch.
– And my liking to Kevin Clifton keeps on growing, Lord help me. Now, I do see how Louise wants to be dressed modestly, but is it necessary to give her a dress that seems to have been shredded in a paper shredder first? Seriously, what an ugly frock. Still a gorgeous dancer though, still clearly the best female dancer of the series. Nice little nostalgia to Joanna and Derek’s magnificent Viennese Waltz too with the song.
– Really sorry for Anastacia for being injured, and it’s painful to see a celeb who seems to be doing really well on the rehearsals only to perform much inferior on the show. Even with the simplified choreography it still looks a bit too off-guard, she didn’t look steady at all and while I marginally liked it more than Melvin’s, it’s not exactly undeserving either of being on the bottom of the board. Just hoping she could bounce back from here.
– Good for Ol’ Eddie for trying, and I was surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. Him managing to remember the choreography is already neat, but him managing to do so while being in sync and in time with Katya is even more impressive. A cute dance from them and I’m certain now that Ed won’t be going anywhere for a while, unless he delivered a Quentin Wilson-level of dancing next week of course.
– Naga is so… dry. That’s probably the stiffest Cha-cha I’ve seen so far this series, and even Daisy the model did better than her. I admit though seeing her absolutely feeling repulsed on that 80s glam do was funny, but her dancing lacked any sort of energy, her chemistry with Pasha is close to none and she’s not that much better in Latin either, so there it is for me.
– Funny that my two favourite performances of the evening came one after another nearing the end, and the two of them got slandered by the judges. I’m not seeing the offense, I think Rinder did a great job with his dance. It was smooth, it traveled the floor a lot, and he’s AMAZING on lifting Oksana. They’re not even out of sync a lot or anything, I’m still amazed this didn’t worth a single 8 for the judges.
– Daisy’s Waltz was beautiful, and while lots of people question Len’s 9, nobody seem to dislike the dance. But for me, her Cha-cha is even better. I don’t read stiff anywhere, her legs are distractingly fabulous and the cheekiness level was amazing. Aljaz is probably one of the best teachers there (with Pasha), so while it’s still unknown what type of pre-show dancing Daisy had done, I’m going to assume it’s him and his wonderful teaching technique that propel Daisy on her platform now.
– And finally Danny. It’s still endearing to see Oti practically wetting herself every ten seconds because she clearly got the best male dancer of the series, but I’m a bit let down by the performance and the choreo this week. It’s still the most traditional Viennese Waltz by nature this week though, and Oti looks absolutely breathtaking in Ballroom frock, and overall I still like them a lot.
Just found out who got eliminated…..not surprised. Saying that my friends were very annoyed about how it played out though. I think it’s one of the first times I ever heard them yell on the phone lol.
One elimination down and one controversy — not a good start for TBritPTB. I doubt Melvin had more than another week in him anyway, but to end up in the bottom two and then get kicked off in favor of an injured higher profile celeb without even getting a chance to show improvement in the dance-off is harsh. If they were so desperate to keep Anastacia, they should have let both continue on to next week. Then if Anastacia has to withdraw, they could have had a dance-off with a single elimin. If she stayed in, they could have had a 3-couple dance-off with a double elim. That would have been exciting and got them back on track. Now all they have is a big brou-ha-ha on their hands. Silly.
I’m not a fan of his at all but i felt so bad. Love her but if she can’t dance next week due to injury I would be annoyed if I were Him. It’s interesting that she ended up in jeopardy though so maybe she is a bit too much for some viewers? Brendan….tone down the sexy.
Thanks so much for all of your reviews and thoughts. I haven’t had time to watch the dances yet (I’ve been getting ready for a business trip and I’ll be gone Monday and Tuesday), but, I watched the Pro Number from yesterday. OMG, it was just amazing!! Powerful stuff. Beautiful!!! Ok, see you all when I get back and take care. xxx
Have a great trip!
Have a nice trip, Vogue! =)
I just loved the show.
Just want to point that:
Tameka is a joy to watch. I’m not a big fan of charlestons but this one was very creative and fun.
Judge is really improving. And Oksana really believes in him. I’m loving this couple. Hope they go far. They have tons of charisma.
Danny, man, he can dance and Oti is doing a fabulous work. Loved the dance. I love SCD waltzes. They are beautiful.
Also liked Laura, Louise and Claudia. Ed was fun to watch.
Tameka’s charleston made me wish for more (and better) charleston a on dwts. When ‘bang’ started playing during her rehearsal vid I was briefly thrown back to Amber’s charleston. Stand outs for me are Danny, Laura, and Tameka and Louise. I think Ore is good too but Joanne’s choreo…sigh. I feel like Daisy and Will were overhyped week 1 and this week they were pretty dull. Still expect more from Claudia, but this week was an improvement at least.
I realised one thing about SCD is that while I appreciate the longer dances, it can get really draggy if you don’t enjoy that contestant.