u/ShortGuidance1359

Anton and Erin dance the fallaway reverse slip pivot, followed by a series of double reverse spins

This may not be quite the post this sub is looking for, but if there’s anyone out there interested in some detail on the choreography – this is an analysis of some of the most difficult figures danced last night on the ballroom side.

While Dani did break hold a fair amount, both she and Graeme had some very difficult combinations in their routines. I believe this is the reason Anton was far more excited about Dani’s dance than the other judges, as the ballroom judge on the panel.

Fallaway reverse slip pivot

Dani danced this at 0:47; Graeme danced this at 0:43.

This step is very difficult for many reasons: the couple are driving and rotating throughout but doing various complex actions with their feet underneath. In the fallaway part of the figure, they need to drive, keeping bodies facing partner, while legs cross behind – plenty of opportunity for the hold to open up too much. In the slip pivot, they need to turn with precision while controlling the feet. At a high level, the rotary lead actually changes throughout the figure to dance this with success.

Graeme did a great job, although he lost control on the slip pivot ever so slightly.

Dani’s was also a great attempt too. she keeps the body to Nikita well in the fallaway. In the slip pivot, she needed to keep the legs more bent into Nikita and closer to the centre of turn, because her right leg in particular, took her the long way round, causing her trouble in the next step. But it is an incredibly difficult step for a beginner follower to attempt.

Combinations increasing difficulty

Both couples kept the difficulty up by including a second difficult figure after the fallaway reverse slip pivot. In Graeme’s case this was the double reverse spin; in Dani’s case this was open telemark.

If you’ve messed up the rotation in the fallaway reverse slip pivot, you’re in big trouble by the time you get to either of these steps.

Graeme: in the double reverse spin, the leader again has a difficult job in terms of controlling rotation and feet, and the leader and follower have different timings for their respective steps which can make this tricky. And, really, in order to dance this figure with any kind of success you need something called “cbm” when entering into the step. Basically you cannot enter this step straight on, your bodies need to be at a slight diagonal.

Graeme did very well; he’s missing some advanced mechanics but that’s to be completely expected, even with his prior dance training.

Dani: in the open telemark, the follower has a heel turn. The heel turn is difficult not just for balance and timing reasons but because really you need to take a huge step as a follower. See Erin in picture 3 above (she's dancing a double reverse spin but the heel turn is very similar).

Now I got super excited when I watched Dani’s rehearsal footage and saw her execute this near perfectly there. Unfortunately, while she had a great attempt on the live show, she struggled a bit more because the pair of them under-rotated the fallaway reverse slip pivot (partly due to Dani taking the long way round with her legs as mentioned above). She still does pull her feet together to do the heel turn but it’s too late – Nikita’s already passed that point in his own footwork.

Overall difficulty

This is why the combination of steps is important when assessing difficulty: given the rehearsal footage Dani would almost undoubtedly have been fine executing the heel turn if coming from a section without hold. She struggled because the step before was very difficult too, but I personally liked that they attempted the two together - it's the beginnings of proper competition style choreo.

The judges are fairly inconsistent about what constitutes a “difficult routine” and, crucially, they seem undecided on whether they want to reward this despite loss of form or not.

Personally I do rank the couples higher based on difficulty, and I will look at the combination of figures danced and where hold is broken and how much – not just the total amount across the number.  Overall, I was very excited to see these difficult combinations so early on in these two routines.

This is a quick, non-comprehensive post because I've seen some confusion on various threads (which I myself may have added to, apologies if that is the case).

Please bear in mind:

Competition results do not define how good a pro is for Strictly. It's an overall benchmark of what you've achieved in competition - it says nothing about how good a teacher you are, and how nice or supportive you are to your partners. There are also an absolute plethora of factors that goes into one's competitive results - including: when you split with your partner, if you were able to find a new one etc. As an example, I believe Aljaz is one of the best standard ballroom dancers we've had on the show; he stopped competing early so his results are not super high.

Non-career Amateur level

Across various age groups you have the following categories: Beginner, Novice, Intermediate and Pre-Amateur or Pre-Championship. These categories are different in the US btw, to make things more confusing.

-Graeme, the contestant on Strictly, danced between Novice and Pre-Am but in the over-35 and over-50 age group. His results at Pre-Am level were not very high; in Intermediate he did a bit better.

Career level dancers

Different federations

The dance world is a political nightmare, and politics at the top (retired dancers who now judge - think Shirley type calibre, although she's not heavily involved in the mess) means that the dance world has sadly split into a number of federations.

In the UK (and US and Asia), the vast majority of dancers stayed with the traditional federation - WDC. In continental Europe, many left to dance for WDSF, although because WDC is considered a higher standard at pro level, some then come back to dance for WDC when they turn professional. As far as I'm aware, WDSF has a lot of world championships throughout the year, and I think pros like Nadiya were world champions in WDSF. I don't know enough about this federation to comment on various results here.

WDC competition results

These tend to be defined by how they placed in four major competitions at world level: Blackpool (or British Open); UK Open; International Championships; World Championships. Generally speaking, these competitions are all of the same calibre. (There is a whole mess ongoing with some of these as well, which I'm not going to go into, but results at the UK Open and International Championships are reliable as a benchmark).

Juvenile, Junior and Youth

You can be a champion in these age groups. Youth is U21, Junior is U16.

-AJ Pritchard and Chloe Hewitt were Youth Champions at Blackpool in Latin.

-Maddie Ingoldsby and her partner were Youth Champions at Blackpool, the UK Open and Internationals in Ballroom.

10 Dance

-The 10 dance world championships are not as well-attended as the majors listed above, because most dancers specialise in ballroom or latin from a fairly young age. Those that attend these world championships tend to be very young.

-What is notable about Maddie is that although she and partner were making semi-finals in the amateur category in ballroom in Major events, they were still also competing in amateur latin. That's almost unheard of these days, and very cool that they still made time to do latin, even if their results in this category were not at the same level as in ballroom.

Amateur Quarter Finalists

Of the current crop (and I may be missing some - this isn't on purpose, I'm just going off this from memory today)

-Amy Dowden is an Amateur Latin Quarter Finalist (she did dance one or two comps in professional after Strictly, but because she was concentrating on Strictly at this point the results weren't super high)

-Cristian Prior and Aleksandra Isaeva are Amateur Latin Quarter Finalists

Amateur Semi Finalists

-Carlos Gu is an Amateur Latin Semi Finalist

-Maddie Ingoldsby is an Amateur Ballroom Semi Finalist

Amateur Champions

-Neil and Katya Jones were Amateur Latin Champions.

-Matthew and Nicole Cutler were Amateur Latin Champions.

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Professional Level

Top level Amateur dancers when turning professional will tend to go straight into the quarter, semi, or final in pro. Neil and Katya, as former Amateur Champions, went straight into the semi in their first professional competition.

Professional Quarter Final

-Anton Du Beke and Erin Boag were Professional Ballroom Quarter Finalists.

Professional Semi Final

-Brendan Cole and Camilla Dallerup were Professional Latin Semi Finalists.

-Ian Waite and Camilla Dallerup were Professional Latin Semi Finalists.

-John Byrnes I believe was a Professional Latin Semi Finalist.

Professional Final

-Neil and Katya Jones were in the Professional Latin Final.

-Matthew and Nicole Cutler were in the Professional Latin Final.

Professional Champions

-Shirley Ballas has won several majors in Latin. What is notable is that she won at a very young age with one partner, changed partners to Corky, Mark's dad, who at the time was not a great dancer, and then won 10 years later with him, having trained him up.

-Paul Killick and Hanna Kartunnen won one or two majors in Professional Latin.

-Hazel Newberry has won all the majors in Professional Ballroom.

Strictly Pro Maddie and ex-partner Mark showcase the three main positions in Quickstep, mirrored by three Strictly couples, all of whom do a great job at achieving these

Aside from Tasha’s waltz, there is really only one other dance (ballroom or latin) on Strictly that manages to touch high level competitive quality - basically achieving the impossible. You may be able to guess which it is; this post will explain why, while also looking at the remaining 15 best quicksteps, many of which are brilliant too.

In the Quickstep you’re basically looking for two things:

1. Maximum floor coverage in the smoothest possible manner.
2. Togetherness. The more difficult and dynamic you can make your choreo while staying together the better.

In order to achieve these, you need impeccable frame, footwork, and timing – particularly in relation to body positioning. There are three main body positions in ballroom: closed (default), promenade (both partners look and move in the same direction), and outside partner (bodies turned towards each other at an angle but legs move parallel to each other rather than in between).

Leaders have to lead the body positioning with precise timing, just ahead of when the follower needs to get there. If either party dance the wrong position, or the lead is wrong or too late, chances are there’s bumpiness in the couple.

In the image above you can see new pro Maddie (a fantastic ballroom competitor) and her former partner Mark hit these positions, alongside some of our celebs, all of whom are in lovely positions too. Maddie and Mark are so good with positioning and with their frame that you can stop a video of them at any point and they look picture perfect. This consistency allows for quality of movement.

(Most leaders on Strictly are not going to manage to develop a great understanding of the different body positions during their time on the show – let alone have the coordination to produce the positions at the speed at which quickstep is danced. It’s just too advanced. Those that do are an anomaly.)

Swing content – where real dynamism shines

There are two broad types of content in quickstep: runs and swing. We mentioned that you want to be able to dance a dynamic routine. The way you achieve this is largely through the quality of the swing content. This is the part of the quickstep routine where the heels and feet drive through steps – you often see it through steps that spin, pivot or move up and down the floor in a zig zag pattern – without running or hopping.

For most of the celebs on Strictly, you can tell when they’re dancing swing because these will be the “slower sections” they dance where they essentially stop moving so much – they don’t have the quality to make these sections silky smooth with loads of drive or alternatively, super dynamic. 

The best quickstep dancers, however, will dance quick and dynamic swing pieces too – often with a huge amount of sway if they are capable of creating this.

The 16 best Strictly quicksteps, ranked - all of which are excellent (I’ve probably forgotten a few so do shout in the comments)

16. Colin Jackson. Lovely feet in the runs – doesn’t lift them too high off the floor which is correct, allowing for smoothness of movement. Distractingly, though, leads everything through his arms in a manner which is totally incorrect – you can see him actively pushing Erin into the promenade positions. Also makes footwork errors on the swing sections meaning the movement and drive is not as smooth on the slower bits as it could be. No sway.

17. Ore Oduba. Dances a very nice series of difficult changes of position (flitting between closed and outside partner) from 0:23. Arms are far better than Colin’s. Overall, though, looks like he’s jogging at the gym: not enough ankle and leg control to keep the movement smoother. No sway.

18. Alexandra Burke. Gets into some lovely promenade positions. Some lovely light feet in the swing sections although looks to be missing a couple of heel leads. First run is very nice and smooth, but once they start the step hops (0:33) they are not in the correct position (if I’m honest I’m not sure this is Alexandra’s fault), leading to bumpiness. Both of them are picking their feet far too high off the ground in the scatter chasses from 0:35 leading to a lack of smoothness and Alex’s head is too far to the left.

19. Molly Rainford. Beautiful movement across the floor and the pivots right at the beginning are gorgeously danced, although they could drive more. Usually I love Carlos’ ballroom, but in this dance both he and Molly are picking their feet off the floor way too high in the step hops (both in the final and original videos). If you watch ballroom specialists – while they have moments where they jump for effect, in the step hops and scatter chasses they keep their ankles as close to the ground as possible for maximum smooth movement.

20. Kelvin Fletcher. The run from 0:53 to 1:01 is lovely and smooth. But the scatter chasses from 1:23 get pretty bumpy because he’s not leading the position changes (it is hard to be fair) and also he’s basically bouncing up and down on the spot rather than travelling them. There is no sway and – importantly – this is the only routine listed here with no swing choreography whatsoever – difficulty therefore far lower than any of the others and missing a key element of the quickstep.

11)  Alesha Dixon. Keeps with Matthew beautifully – never picks the feet too much off the floor, keeping movement clean. Lacks a little dynamism of some of the higher ranked ones and gets fairly stiff in the spine – head appears stuck in closed position and the stiffness impacts the shoulder line when she’s turned to promenade position – you can see this quite clearly from 1:38 until the end of the routine.

10. Karim Zeroual. Lovely frame. His “wing span” is extremely wide and he keeps it up for the whole dance. Musicality is superb and footwork and movement generally very nice. Karim’s real issue is in the swing sections and in the leading of positions (and as we said above, it is hard). At 0:40 in the video from the final he is not leading the promenade position, instead he is dropping his heel too early, causing them to bump (this moment is better in his Week 7 attempt, but in that version he has positioning issues at other moments e.g. going into promenade at 0:52). Can be walky in the swing sections in both versions – spin turns in particular are weak from a footwork perspective. No sway.

11. Ashley Roberts. This is a difficult routine (on the follower’s side, it’s perhaps only trumped by Claudia’s and Katie Derham’s in difficulty). The first few bars are astounding and the tipsy at 0:58 is gorgeous. The timing and musicality is stunning. That said, right from the off her right arm is locked straight, which paves the way for future problems. She loses the quality as soon as she turns to promenade from 0:31 – she doesn’t get far enough around Pasha in the turn before, causing a bump between them, and then subsequently if you catch a camera angle from the back when they’re in promenade, you can see the arms are in the wrong position. The bumpiness when transitioning from position to position throughout – combined with a general lack of drive across the floor – makes this lower ranked than some of the others.

12. Layton Williams. I prefer his attempt to Ashley and Karim because it does the job of quickstep better: it’s travelling around the floor to the maximum that one can, with great movement and few errors. Also, people who say Layton didn’t improve – his quickstep in the final is evidence that he did. In week 2, he was picking up his feet in the step hops like Molly, but by the final, his feet are clean. He is in a lovely outside partner position from 0:42 and the swing section (1:06-1:15) is clean too, although there are moments that they could travel more here. Doesn’t quite have the dynamism of some of the higher placed dances in the basic ballroom sections and occasionally slips into skippiness.

13. Aj Odudu. This is exactly what you want from floor coverage. It’s incredible. The pivots are extremely dynamic and beautifully danced. She gets blocked in the back which hampers her ability to stay as smooth and as with her partner quite as much as the person ranked just above her. That said, the volume of movement is lovely.

6) Lisa Snowdon. This is smooth as silk. (They seem to dance two quicksteps, the one I’m watching is the blue dress from the semi, although the pink dress one is pretty much the same level in quality). They start fairly quiet, with a swing section danced really nicely from 0:11. Then, at 0:25 they start to run, and they absolutely cover the floor. To be able to be this consistently smooth you’ve got to have outstanding control over the ankles and knees – you are relying solely on the quality of your movement. And they do have some highlights: at 0:32 she jumps into a contra check (after having danced the most beautiful outside partner position).

She’s another one who gets blocked in the back later on in the routine, impacting her frame and could drive a little more overall, but the togetherness achieved is lovely.

5. Chelsee Healey. Absolutely love this attempt. More than any of the others so far, she is properly driving when she’s moving forward. Floor coverage is brilliant and gets into a lovely promenade position. A difficult routine with loads of changes of direction which she dances exquisitely. Occasionally picks feet too high off the floor in the step hops and gets bumpy in the scatter chasses from 1:13 onwards in the video of the final, dancing on the spot rather than travelling (same issue in the Week 4 version).

6. Ricky Whittle.

We’ve arrived at a celeb leader with swing and sway! Unlike the previous leaders, whose arms were always just held at the same level, he actually has shaping (aka sway) and it’s created correctly for the most part.

Lovely natural turn to commence the routine at 0:16 – there’s proper sway there – but on the spin turn that follows, puts his heel down too early, and collapses left side of the frame slightly (this is from the final, he dances this moment better in the original but dances some of the other swing sections worse). Recovers really nicely though. The whole swing section from the beginning through to 0:24 is gorgeous – properly driving and shaped vey well. The run he dances subsequently in promenade is absolutely wonderful.

Like many of the others, loses the quality when entering the scatter chasses (0:35) because doesn’t close his body enough back from promenade. They start to get a little bit rattly between them. At this point, he is also swaying by collapsing his side too far. But he does recover and they dance another lovely swing section at 0:54.

3. Maisie Smith.

Maisie follows Gorka’s body positioning to absolute perfection in every single ballroom dance, and this one is no exception. Her feet are astounding. I’m going to be honest and say I think she dances this better than Gorka, who does a number of distracting things like leading with his arms at times by moving them up and down. He also picks his feet up in the step hops but Maisie does not copy this incorrect action, dancing them correctly herself. I don’t want to dismiss Gorka’s ability in ballroom though, despite being a latin pro and doing a few odd things in this number, he has clearly taught her extremely well and he’s choreographed an absolutely beautiful routine.

The tipsys from 1:38 are a total joy. Most beginners will fail at this point to keep their sides long, tipping too far on one side or the other, but Maisie is perfect.

The reason she’s not further up is that the quality of movement is not on par with the top 2. In the scatter chasses there is an increase in bumpiness with the feet compared to the best ones; and – in particular – the swing section from 1:30 to 1:35 has extremely limited drive (I’ve watched both versions and these issues are present in the earlier one too). In fact, the drive in swing is probably lower than anyone else in the Top 8. But she still thoroughly deserves this high placement because of her incredible following, frame and feet.

2. Claudia Frangapane.

 When Craig and Darcey watched this fiendishly difficult routine, the most dynamic but also smooth quickstep so far, danced pretty much to perfection – with an enormous height difference which they somehow manage to completely overcome with no issue – and still thought, nahh it’s only worth a 9….gahhh. You have to laugh or you’d cry lol. (Jason Donovan’s tango got the same score! The one where he’s on straight legs leisurely pottering about the floor!)

No doubt it was the minutiae of gapping they occasionally have. Someone needs to tell Craig this: there is a difference between gapping and becoming bumpy. Even pro couples gap from time to time. The point of quickstep is quality of movement, not perfect body contact. While Claudia and AJ do gap, they never get bumpy because her positions are always correct.

There is tons of swing choreography and this is why this quickstep is so beloved. Had they just run about the room, we’d be impressed but not blown away. Crucially, when they are dancing the swing, they drive and move! They don’t just stop being dynamic like many of the previous couples on this list. The floor coverage is unbelievable. There are loads of rhythm changes in the feet which are subtle but keeps the routine incredibly exciting – and these are difficult to dance.

The very tiny flaws are as follows: the head positioning and extension from the sternum aren’t quite right – her head is often tipped backwards into AJ’s space. But that’s the height difference; she has no other option.

There are also a couple of heel leads missed from Claudia (AJ does use his heels), most notably in the two sections of pivots which she dances on the tips of her toes. This may partly explain why they get windmilly, which you don’t want to get in ballroom – you always want to travel more than you sway, even in rolling pivots which have exaggerated sway. But Len overlooked these tiny errors, and Craig has given many a worse dance a 10 before. There isn’t really any excuse not to give this a perfect 40.

1) Harry Judd (final version – Blackpool tower – video from AlionaFan27)

It is mind-blowing how you could pretty much slot this dance into a decent level competition and it wouldn’t stand out negatively. All other Strictly routines, no matter how stunning, do have tells that the dancers are not ballroom or latin trained to a high level (Tasha's waltz aside). Even Kara’s rumba is a bit off balance.

The cherry on top is that Harry had no prior dance training at all!

The opening swing section (0:20 to 0:27) is the most difficult swing section danced by anyone on this list. They start with a natural turn, followed by a spin turn, then straight into a series of varied and advanced rotary figures. Harry dances the swing basically faultlessly.  You can see at 0:20, before he goes into the natural turn, that he moves his left arm and side backwards slightly to prepare for the swing into the turn. He’s the only leader to use his feet correctly in the spin turn, with superb ankle strength – there’s no collapsing to one side like Ricky or basically picking up and placing the feet like Karim.

He then takes this to the next level and uses the momentum from the spin turn to swing through the fast rotatory figures that follow, while still controlling his feet. This is pretty advanced. The rolling pivots are not as windmilly as Claudia and AJ, they travel more.

His sway throughout is superb. Pause the video from the final at any moment and his arms are pretty much never dead parallel to the ground – they’re always at an angle. On top of this, the sway is created correctly – while Ricky (the only other leader who can sway at all) sometimes collapses his side to create the shape, Harry’s is nearly always correctly derived from the hips. Sway, alongside footwork, helps to control the momentum.

You’ll notice that they are the couple that are by far the most together throughout the routine. Aliona is a superb ballroom dancer so this is partly the reason, but the other reason is that Harry leads all the positions correctly – and early enough for Aliona to stay in the right position. You can see this very clearly in the jump hop from promenade to closed at 0:40, but he’s pretty consistent with it throughout. Being a drummer, his sense of timing helps with this. But it’s one thing to hear it in the music and another to have the coordination to achieve it.

Their movement across the floor is just unmatched, produced by beautiful footwork. The tower is much bigger than the Strictly studio and they make that floor look small. Both of them have brilliant ankle control and proper use of the inside edges of feet to achieve this – their feet stay very close to the floor, they never pick them up unduly unless it’s to emphasise a particular jump. When Harry needs to stop the momentum (e.g. 0:46), he uses sway and the inside edges of his feet beautifully.

The stamina you need to achieve the consistency and difficulty throughout the dance is not to be underestimated. Those split jumps from 1:13 are right at the end of the routine and they are really, really hard to dance. When Karim and Amy danced a split jump, they danced a single one, then immediately broke out of hold, to make the exit easier. Not only does Harry dance several of these in a row really well, keeping his top line very still, he does them right at the end of a pretty taxing routine (try running on a treadmill with your arms in the ballroom position – elbows at the same height of your shoulders for 2 minutes – it’s tiring, and you’re not even taking into account having to move with another person, combined body heat etc).

Finally, Harry is the only leader on Strictly to get his frame anywhere near a high-level standard ballroom specialist of today. These days, the frame is ultra exaggerated in terms of high wide and straight it is. See Maddie’s dance partner in the pictures – he is beautifully stretched through his spine and his arms are always dead straight from elbow to elbow, his left hand is high and never going flat (he’s actually got one of the best frames of young dancers in the world). Harry’s position is the closest we’ve ever had on Strictly to that, in any dance, for any celeb leader – and he maintains it throughout the entire challenging number.

I could go on forever about this dance and I already have written an essay lol. But it is definitely the best quickstep and a pretty strong contender for best technical dance ever too.

If you take the very basic steps of the paso, they're probably the easiest for a non-dancer to do of the entire 10 dance repertoire. You are stamping and marching, with a few swivels, spins and heel turns here and there.

But the paso is very difficult at an advanced level. The difficulty comes from maintaining the distinct posture while conveying an entire story: timing, emotion and varying levels of intensity through the body, all of which require high levels of dance technique.

Shaping and posture

As with all the ballroom and latin dances, the work is done from the feet upwards. The posture is created from pushing the tailbone down through the feet so that the hip flexors are over the balls of the feet. When you do the action you should feel the pressure through the feet into the ground. Tilt the pelvis forward on its own without this downward pressure through the floor and you're going to get into a lot of trouble when actually trying to move and shape correctly. When extra shaping is required on certain steps to emphasise the choreography or step, this should also be created from the feet and legs, through bending and/or twisting the legs correctly and then continuing the exaggerated line through the body.

Marching with resistance

There is a lot of marching forward in paso. At the lower levels beginners may be taught to just walk these as you would normally walk down the street. This is to avoid bending the knees too much or misunderstanding the posture.

At a more advanced level, you always want to be using your hips and thighs to move the feet. Particularly in slow steps, this will give the correct effect as if moving through resistance. In the march forwards in promenade position, the upper body should stay facing partner. You move forwards by stepping onto the front foot, then pulling the back foot in with the hips and thighs, maintaining the correct posture described above.

Building tension to highlights

The cherry on top in paso is being able to build tension in the way the routine is danced to then hit various highlights. Paso is unique in that in the competitive world it is nearly always danced to the same song: "Espana Cani".

The song starts like a rumble and then builds. Couples will therefore often start the paso with simmering tension between the two of them, and then deliberately and gradually build intensity - through increasing speed, opening up their posture, opening out more to the audience - until they reach the various musical highlights, which will often seem them hit dramatic positions.

Four top couples hit a highlight in paso in different ways

If you have time you could watch a short pro paso number danced in competition, in order to try to understand which Strictly couples get closest to capturing this. It is the most exciting dance to witness. If you search Pro Latin Paso Doble - International Championships 2016 (DSI TV) into youtube then you get one that focuses on a number of different couples - all of whom were world finalists at this point in time. Also, Strictly alum Karen Hardy is the voice introducing them at the start 😄.

On Strictly:

Storytelling through musicality

The following Strictly pasos are a little less notable for authentic technique, but scored highly due to the musicality demonstrated in the way they were danced.

Susannah and Kevin

Great attempt to correctly create shaping which is really hard for someone without dance training. Some really nice moments e.g. nice extension on chasse capes at 0:46. In the actually paso dancing, lacks a little in terms of the feet and legs e.g. twists from 0:33, not quite moving round Kevin enough, gets ever so slightly off kilter by the end. Chasse in chasse cape needs more usage of legs and feet to dance these with impact.

Karen and Carlos

My favourite section of this is from 1:08 to 1:16. She has some really lovely attempts to get the correct posture. Most notably, she dances beautiful slows through the body at the turn commencing 1:10/1:11, and then spins quickly the other way, showing stunning contrast. However, this routine has fewer basics than some of the others listed, and the lack of stability in the top half of the body does impact the smoothness of the movement a little.

Tom Fletcher and Amy

The section 0:43-0:55 - particularly the contrast in the spins - demonstrates lovely musicality. The first spin is soft, the second one is much more attacking but still in an elegant way. This is hard to do. The arms are really nicely timed to the music, feet are nice at 0:50 (although the posture goes a bit) and then achieves a good position at 0:54 - chest is open correctly to allow the shaping. Overall, the routine isn't danced enough into the ground, it's a bit too "balletic", and he is definitely walking those marching steps rather than using resistance with the thighs.

George and Alexis

Some absolutely lovely contrast in slows and quicks shown through the feet and legs. Nice attempt at the posture; could open the chest a tad more. Overall needs more resistance through the thighs (although there are places where he achieves this!) and lifts the ankle far too high on the appels (the stamping step).

Austin and Erin, to Espana Cani!

Like with most of Austin’s dances, great timing and really smooth movement across the floor. Shows incredible balance at 1:34! Lovely twists at 1:39. Could do more to create the paso posture and there isn’t much basic paso in the choreo.

Beautiful basics

Ellie and Vito

I feel this dance revolutionised how pasos are choreographed on the show for contenders and it's thanks both to the choreography and the way Ellie danced the number. Prior to this, there’d be a few basics thrown in here and there, but it felt like a lot of the focus was on flamenco steps and cape work, with the odd chasse cape or twist included. [For the better dancers anyway; John Sergeant’s paso is a very fun watch for anyone who’s missed it and is packed with basics!]

This routine is almost all basic choreography so there’s no absolutely no room for hiding. Had Ellie danced it badly, it could have been dull as dishwater (remember how we said the basic moves are essentially walking?) She performs a spectacular twist turn at 1:03 (video from the final) with incredible shaping, then open telemark - footwork spot on - then chasse cape danced very well.

Loses a little in the quality from the fregolina (from 1:11) onwards. Footwork remains clean but loses posture, shaping and the advanced way of marching - starts to get a bit walky (Vito meanwhile is still shaping very dramatically). Furthermore, could accentuate certain moments, such as when they are back to back and she reaches the farthest points of their arms on each side (see Lauren in JB’s routine from 0:25 as something to aspire towards). Stays at a similar level for the rest of the number.

Still a very special routine - both of them are absolutely iconic for producing this basic paso ad dancing it so spectacularly.

Sarah and Vito

Vito does another gorgeous basic routine with Sarah. This only scored 32! It is just brilliant - the speed and timing - the way she waits for him to turn, then turns herself from the beginning of the chasse cape (1:10) to the separation (1:15). Separation step is also danced very well. The spins at 1:22!! In order to improve further, could have more resistance with the legs, particularly during the slow section at the beginning. You can see Vito absolutely do this himself - look at the way he pulls his leg in slowly at 0:37 and then the subsequent marching steps he does - he’s not walking them, he’s using the hip to pull his feet in the manner described above. Sarah could also have a little more emphasis in the paso posture and in holding the beat during the slows to accentuate quickness which follows.

Annabel and Johannes

This is danced to Espana Cani!

Another routine packed with basic choreography, in the best way. This lady has the most beautiful feet in dancing. She also demonstrates some amazing flexibility e.g. 0:43. The chasse capes which follow are danced to perfection - there’s no becoming heavy on Johannes - everything is done through the feet. I love the extended leg she does to highlight the music at 0:54 - it’s this kind of attention to detail that is actually quite difficult to teach a beginner and shows impeccable musicality and balance on Annabel’s part. In order to properly build properly with the music, needs to show a little more contrast and resistance through the body. I feel she does an excellent job at this in the slow motion section right at the beginning, but the second time they dance a slow section at 1:04 you can see the difference in resistance and emphasis of slows and quicks in Johannes when compared to Annabel. Johannes then attacks much more from 1:22 onwards in comparison to Annabel.

Amber and Nikita

Amber was notable for her beautiful foot placements in the latin dances and for producing clean and elegant routines. The spins at 0:42 are incredible. Lovely attempts (better than the previous ones mentioned) to build gradually until the ending, which she attacks. Also a much better attempt at creating resistance through the body and legs during the slows. Could use the legs and feet to propel herself into and out of lines with a bit more power and - most notably - out of Nikita’s way more in the steps in hold where they are rotating around each other e.g. the twists at 1:09 onwards, where they tend to get more and more closed in spacing towards the end of the series.

Tasha and Aljaz

Those spins at 0:55 are grace personified! She has immense control over her legs and feet, allowing her to dance those quick moments at 0:32 without looking remotely unsmooth. She also does a better job at 0:46 of propelling herself out of Aljaz's way with her legs than Amber during the series of twists. Could have more of the paso posture and more grounding into the floor.

Danny and Oti

One of the best attempts of the leaders to create and maintain the correct posture throughout. When they are in hold, his arms are in the right position - they are nice and compact and high. Like in his samba, the power he can generate from his legs is unmatched. The leap at 0:58! Needs more control through the legs in this through resistance to make it look calmly powerful and intense; gets a little bumpy when dancing quick movements.

Jay and Aliona

Doesn't achieve the authentic paso posture, but I really love the attack into the ground with the legs. In the other dances of Jay's I've watched so far he has been too light above the floor. This, meanwhile, is perhaps the most grounded of any of the pasos so far. Some really good attempts to march with resistance (e.g. 0:48). Lovely slow twist at 1:06 - danced with tons of resistance - followed by quick twists.

The best pasos

Molly and Carlos

Best attempt of the followers so far to stay grounded and into the floor. Her footwork, as always, is second to none. This is a routine that properly builds, both in the choreo and the way it is danced. The beginning fast section where they are going around the floor is intense - both of their chins are slightly down to highlight this - and there's amazing attention to detail in how they look first at the audience, then at each other at 0:38. Then they gradually open the posture as the routine continues. The section at 1:16 is out of this world - if you just watched the video from this point you'd think it was slow motion. Without resistance and control, you would not get that effect. And the core strength she needs to do that drop slowly is insane. Her spins are incredible.

John and Johannes

This is so impressive. Of the leaders, he is by the far the most consistent with both posture and quality. The posture is really good, particularly in the way he keeps his chest very open throughout. He's very grounded into the floor and his footwork is very clean. He also looks like he understands what's required in leading - see the moment at 0:47 where he provides Johannes with the perfect amount of opposition in his body - not sure many if any of the other leaders quite achieve this. And he does a bit of following too and dances that very nicely. My one tiny critique is that his hold it is too open. Paso hold is notorious for being compact and high and John's is too wide. But it's a tiny flaw in an otherwise powerful and smooth number.

JB and Lauren

I feel this guy is so underrated. In a competition, he'd probably fare worse than John in the paso, because he isn't able to keep the quality of the posture and dancing throughout as well, but there are moments when he demonstrates power and musicality that are just unmatched by anyone else. The section from 0:38 to 0:58 is incredible. You can see the posture throughout, created from the floor. The musicality and the way he dances the accents in the little section from 0:41 blows me away. Lovely shaping at 0:56, combined with a wonderful attempt to move the feet using the legs.

Layton and Nikita

When you understand the elements of the paso - control over the legs and feet, beautiful lines, strength through posture, and above all, the ability to convey emotion through technique - it's no surprise that Layton triumphs. To those that say "this isn't a traditional paso", there are a fair few basic pasos moves in here which he dances so well. The chasse capes from 0:41 are danced correctly and the best ladies in the world will dance them with the kind of extension he does at 0:43 (although there aren't a huge number, even top professionals, with that much flexibility in the back!!). The open telemarks he dances from 0:49 are difficult and again danced nicely. There is always resistance when he's moving his legs.

Then at 1:08, he ramps up, maintaining sensuality before properly attacking towards the end of the routine. I love the section from 1:08 so much - the backing dancers are all there with him but Layton’s still dancing directly to Nikita (rather than the audience), who's just watching. The jump spin at 1:26 afterwards and the spins that follow are unbelievably difficult...who else is going to be capable of that?!

He makes everything look so effortless, while delivering a really good attempt at proper paso technique and taking you on a ride of different emotions in a way that no other celeb can quite achieve.

Hello all. I briefly got picked up in Reddit's automated spam filter for my posts containing too many links. Lost my account for a day - everything was wiped, had to appeal. Lovely Strictly mods weren't sure what had happened either. Appeal was successful and now things are restored.

Continuing with this series with no links and each post will be less frequent than before; happy to answer comments in the meantime!

The ballroom misfit

Tango is the weird sister of the ballroom family and it's what makes her so special and exciting. The technique is different from the other ballroom numbers: you don't need to keep your feet on the ground at all times - in fact you are supposed to pick them up and place them as you march across the floor taking large steps.

The knees are extremely bent throughout this entire dance. There is pretty much no rise and fall (there are certain steps where you do change level but overall it's a flat dance). A tell with a beginner as to whether they are attempting tango properly is whether they are low enough to the ground.

Everything is much sharper - the arms are in a slightly different position (follower hooks their left hand in/near leader's armpit) to give more sharpness in the frame. Head snaps about in select moments.

Contrast

That said, tango is a dance of contrasts - it's not all sharpness and attack. You've got moments of fluidity and also moments of pause, in order to make the sharpness stand out more.

While the feet and head are often really going for it, the upper body must stay relatively still! This is massively important and one of the ways in which contrast is shown.

Have a look at Strictly's own Jo Clifton dancing the tango. I don't want to risk linking to the video but if you search for Paolo Bosco - Joanne Clifton | Tango | Stars Duet into youtube then a wonderful tango show they do should come up.

Elegantly holding in a wee: the promenade position

Joanne Clifton and partner Paolo Bosco in the promenade position

Above, you can see Jo and her partner in a great promenade position. There's a lot of stopping in this position in tango. You can see how bent the knees are into each other, and the feet are pressing in with the inside edges, waiting to peel off and attack the next bar.

As one ballroom teacher described it, the follower looks like she's (very elegantly!) holding in a wee at this moment - the thigh and knee are very tucked into her body, leg kind of squatting at this funny angle, foot nicely resting on the inside edge. Your feet in tango often turn in when you move, so ballet dances may struggle with this element.

A common error with beginners in promenade position is that they open the lower half far too much so that it all faces us, with the knees not into partner but facing forwards, and the hips doing the same. It's important to try to attempt getting the right position because if you don't have it, you're going to block yourself, both in terms of your movement, and your flexibility in extending.

Timing

In the timing, we don't want a tango that just runs about. Paolo and Joanne dance lots of slows, as well as quicks. They have lots of staccato, where the beats are fast and sharp, and they have lots of rubato, where they hold on to the beat and then dance an accented quick movement at the end.

Unlike in the other ballroom dances, you have moments in tango where the movement stops completely. You need fantastic foot control to achieve this effectively.

Lead and follow

This is the cherry on top to make the tango look effective. While in tango the follower is sometimes allowed to turn the head independently of the leader's positioning for effect, if the leader is giving a quick change of direction with his body, the follower needs to respond with that action. You can absolutely see it in the video - Joanne's not just dancing a memorised routine, she's responding to Paolo's lead, and this is what makes it look so dynamic. This is difficult for the celebs to properly learn how to do, but those that can achieve it in certain moments look absolutely spectacular.

Let's look at the best Strictly tangos.

Fabulous show-style tangos

There are some tangos that are not quite ballroom tango in the style that they were danced (rather than in the choreo). But the dancers are so good you almost don't care. They would make excellent show tangos on stage.

Kimberly Walsh

This is an exquisite dance. The movement is absolutely beautiful. The lines she achieves are gorgeous! But for competitive tango, the posture is not quite right. There are moments she slouches away from Pasha, with her top half peeling away and her head poking forward. It's most clear at 0:50 they dance a series of steps that accent the instrumental section. She's also too much to his left by this point - they're barely connected, more like side by side - and quite clearly dancing independently of him for much of the routine. But she has such impeccable musicality that it doesn’t look distracting.

Jay McGuinness

What makes Jay so special? You never see the effort when he dances, and some of the things he dances are very, very difficult. Look at the telespin type move at 0:23 - he spins them both round with no effort, blink and you'd almost miss it. His posture though is not right for competitive tango - he's not bending his knees in towards Aliona in the promenades at 0:38 and he's leaning over her with his chest as a result. He's so good at moving that it doesn't particularly hinder his movement but the movement does not look as much like a comp tango number as some of the others.

Kara Tointon

In my view does a better job with keeping the posture authentic than the two above. That said, she is far too high in the legs - not bending her knees enough - so they don't quite drive around the floor as you would in a competitive tango.

BUT please watch the section at 0:55 for lead and follow if you've ever wondered what that should look like on Strictly (the video I'm citing is from youtube account fschnell). It's astoundingly good. She looks like she's following his lead to perfection and that's what makes this look so impactful. She's not moving at the same time as Artem, she's moving just after him in a manner that is totally correct - he gives the impulse first with his body and then she follows it by extending dramatically.

Zoe Ball

Stunning choreo. Does the same thing as Kimberly but more pronounced - slouches away from Ian from the stomach. Not always following, but dances with huge elegance and moves across the floor well in steps like the pivots.

Denise Van Outen

Beautiful kicks and divine pivots. Moves very gracefully across the floor. Far too upright in the posture, both in the extension from the back and - particularly - in the knee department.

Jason Donovon

Oh Jason. I'm going to put you in here because you scored so highly, which meant I watched your video for this, and there may be folk wondering about you. A lovely fun routine, performed with great energy. He does dance a nice reverse turn. The rest of it is a little perplexing. His legs are incredibly straight, akin to going for a gentle meander, and he's totally open in the promenade positions when he should be towards Kristina in the way that Joanne's partner is above.

Great attempts at competitive authenticity

Debbie and Giovanni

Lovely choreography from Giovanni. Debbie has lovely feet but she opens far too much in the promenades with the bottom half - she's not in that "I need a wee" position, losing her posture and hampering her movement. She also dances accents independent of Giovanni's lead - sometimes too early and sometimes too late - can look "rattly" as a result.

Rose and Giovanni

Absolutely beautiful, clean dancing. Lacks movement across the floor and choreo is a little lower on difficulty than some of the others.

Faye and Giovanni

My favourite of Gio's' tangos that I watched. Much cleaner than Debbie; moves more than Rose. Dances a lovely reverse turn - lovely rubato from both of them at 1:08. You can see how they're both accentuating the slowness in the step, holding onto it, before finishing the step. Needs a bit more drive across the floor.

Kellie and Kevin

Beautiful, clean dancing. Kellie's core is incredible - that's why she's able to maintain that posture throughout. Occasionally gets a bit stiff in the back. Ballet feet rather than them being turned in when they need to be.

Layton and Nikita

Makes a very good attempt with the low knees and to move across the floor correctly with his feet. It's difficult to go from following to leading like this and he makes it looks smooth. Needs more drive across the floor.

Karim and Amy

Lovely attempt to maintain lowness in the knees and drive across the floor. I really like the section from 0:51 where he accents the beat beautifully with his feet. His own posture is beautiful. I find that he's holding Amy too high up and too far round the back - his hand is crossing well over her spine - and this makes them look too squished together at the top, as well as hampering their movement.

Best leader attempts

It is really hard for the leaders to get all the elements of the tango in 3-4 days without someone providing frame for you, which the followers get with their own leader.

Austin and Erin

Totally remarkable for the smoothness and volume of movement across the floor. From 0:13 they are dancing a series of reverse figures. These are the kinds of steps where less accomplished leaders will end up spinning in on themselves but Austin correctly extends his legs backwards to avoid this and the movement is absolutely wonderful.

Some fantastic attempts at authentically leading through feet and body movement - see 0:25. Really, really difficult to do and done well - he's leading, Erin's then following with her own accent slightly later.

Austin's main flaw is in the posture - he does get a bit too open in his promenades and when he moves off from them - opening the whole body a bit too much rather than keeping knees to Erin. His head as a result can tip backwards and he can lose it a bit in the arms.

[A moment for Erin Boag by the way. This is what the taller ballroom girls might want to aspire to in the tango - she keeps long in the sides but her knees are very bent - always towards Austin. She's never aggressive, dances everything extremely elegantly but then has moments of accented staccato to highlight certain beats].

Lewis and Katya

I think this dance was undermarked. It's remarkable to me in the amount they attempt to drive across the floor, successfully for the most part.

He achieves an absolutely wonderful promenade position at moments like 0:24, even after all the quick actions he's just done before, and again at 0:39 (with the latter attempt I love how he holds the beat slightly before going into it). Look at how the knees are very bent and into Katya, his body is facing Katya, he's on the inside edge of his feet. He dances a lovely reverse turn at 0:28, with the same rubato that Faye and Giovanni had earlier.

The pivots are danced correctly at 1:12 - he is dancing them tango style with some staccato rather than as you would in the swing dances. A nice attempt with the fallaway whisks from 1:20.

He sometimes loses the lowness in the knees and foot control, particularly on certain quick accented beats, hence them sometimes looking bumpy and like they're popping up. He is also sometimes pushing more with the moving leg than the standing one in attempting to get around the floor, making his movement less smooth than Austin's. Finally, his frame isn't the cleanest - his arms aren't in quite the right position which I think Anton highlighted in his comments, and he could be more extended from the sternum through the head.

The best competitive-style tangos

Vicky and Kai

This is probably the most authentic, closest to competition tango routine there has ever been.

Her posture is extremely consistent throughout the dance. She's very still in the top half (not strained or stiff though) where she needs to be, in order to accentuate certain more aggressive movements. She also does very well with following Kai in a similar manner to Kara above. The line figures from 1:30 are exceptional for showing this.

Consistency in promenades positions is the best of any of the followers. She's got her knee and hips pointing into Kai in that "I need a wee" manner. When she moves off from promenades (e.g. 0:41) she's able to maintain this position, without opening her whole body towards the audience like many of the celebs do.

My only criticism is that there are moments where there could be more oomph in the actual moving sections, e.g. 0:51 where they're doing those toe taps and she's very marginally out of position by the end of these - falling a bit with her top half into Kai. If she drove a bit more - properly pushing with her legs and knees, she'd probably avoid this loss of posture.

Maisie and Gorka

Also a very, very authentic competition tango, both in the routine and the way it was danced.

The position she is able to maintain throughout is astounding. The extension from the top of the chest upwards is more pronounced than Vicky and created correctly. Promenade position at 0:55 is perfect - knees are into Gorka, extension with the head is unreal.

They then dance a series of fallaway whisks. These are the kind of step where a less accomplished follower will really struggle to keep position - you are moving and in the middle of moving you have to cross your right leg behind your left one, opening your bottom half slightly but keeping your top half with partner - you need good rotation. You also don't want to open your bottom half too much because then you loose it entirely and you also need to accent the beat with your feet. Maisie is superb.

Follows Gorka's lead absolutely brilliant in places like 1:08 - like with Kara, she's waiting for him, he does the body action first and then she responds.

As a couple they move a bit less than Vicky and Kai across the floor; and there is less dynamism than the two other followers I've mentioned in this section.

Rachel and Vincent

The most special number. It's emotional and wistful and just incredibly beautiful. This is still authentic to competition tango, but a very different style to how Vicky danced. It's a lot less powerful and much more focused on smoothness of movement across the floor and intricate footwork (this is also a style Aljaz favours in all his tangos - he never goes for aggressive choreography). The level of difficulty is higher.

There is plenty of contrast - when they travel, they properly travel about the floor. See from 0:47 when they go into a series of moving figures and she does those lovely kick highlights throughout (incredibly difficult by the way, you're moving and then quickly stopping to kick very high - needs impeccable balance and core). You can see that by 0:55 they're all away back across the other side of the floor. They've moved loads and she's done all that intricate footwork along the way.

Rachel gets a little more upright as the routine goes on (understandable because it's so difficult) and there are a couple of moments right at the end which I think may be small errors - she's kicking where Vincent doesn't seem to be leading (usually when he leads the kicks he straightens his knees slightly, which is correct). Still the most beautiful tango.

Frankie and Kevin

Yet another style and another really beautiful, emotional routine. You may be wondering why this isn't in the "show tango" category and it is because the way it is danced stays authentic to competitive style, while having a few moments where they accent the song in a showy way. It's a much more a quick, "running" style of tango (again this is a style that is danced in competition), but they do also dance slows for contrast. The way she is able to keep her legs bent and her posture correct and her feet supple throughout all that travelling across the floor is massively impressive.

The section that particularly blows me away is the long side from 0:35. Beautiful fallaway whisks - does not open away from Kevin too much with the top half and just enough with the bottom half, pivots into the most beautiful extension at 0:40, unbelievable stalks from from 0:43. Then at 0:47: she does a high kick, runs at pace and then is able to use her feet beautifully to stop the movement and quickly change direction into a quick throwaway oversway with kick, then the most beautiful same foot lunge at 0:51. Same foot lunge is often a moment where beginners will struggle to maintain the core - they'll often drop, cling on to their partner and/or extend their rears in a way that is not correct. She's perfect here and she even has the correct feet to match.

The only thing hampering her is occasional postural issues - she opens the bottom half too much in the promenade section from 0:33 and gets a bit locked in the back during the incredibly difficult section at 1:03.

Verdict

I'm going to sit on the fence a bit here and say that if you combined the drive, speed of movement and elegance of Frankie's with the beauty and intricacy of Rachel's and the cleanness of Vicky's or Maisie's, you'd get the perfect tango.

I certainly was - for posting dance technique analysis with too many links in a single post (almost all links to the Strictly official YouTube page but still). Lesson learned! 🙈