Strictly 2012

Yes, the dance fusion thing seems a very odd idea. I know I haven't seen it yet, but I prefer the 2 dance stage, and can't understand why it hasn't happened this year. I also think it's a shame that Blackpool was dropped in favour of Wembley. But perhaps I'm just a grumpy old woman..... Bah, Humbug!

Not grumpy at all. Blackpool is glorious and just right. Drop Wembley I cry (along with a trillion others) Okay Wembley is a 'huge' experience for the contestants... but as a dance space it just doesn't work.

Dance fusion sounds a bit barmy - and will be hard to judge.

It sounds plain daft.

brooks - that sounds about right.

As soon as they announced the dance fusion I thought "what, like Louis and Flavia did at Wembley?"  I remember Flavia and Vincent's tango waltz a few years ago, if we could have something like that from one of the couples on Saturday it would be amazing. What do you bet it will an OTT cheese-fest instead?

I would like them to save the dance fusion for the final and get rid of the freestyle which always ending up being totally naff and full of what Darcey would call "tacky tricks".

Has anyone been watching Dancing With The Allstars? A few of the couples have done Bollywood and Bhangra which has been really fun!

This weekend I thought Louis was fairly marked, but I didn't think he had made a massive leap from previous week's performance when I think he was undermarked in order to create a story arc. I liked his charleston very much though, it was nice to see a charleston that looked clean and competent instead of all gurning faces and slapstick.

The judges seem to be back on track now that they aren't undermining themselves trying to create the drama.

Denise and James took a step back, I thought it looked quite stiff and awkward in places and I wasn't keen on all the gusset-flashing skirt wafting that Denise was doing.

Dani and Vincent were adorable, I really liked it! I think Vincent is being very clever with his choreography for Dani, keeping it quite young and sweet without being saccharine.

Nicky and Karen surprised me, I didn't have high hopes for his AT at all but he did a really good job of it. He was much better than Colin and Michael, actually doing the tricky footwork instead of just flinging his partner around! - have we seen any other male celebs tackle the AT this series? Since other people have mentioned it, Nicky's lack of recognition of the work that poor Karen has done really grates on me. He is coming across as quite arrogant and I'd be happy to see him go next week.

Kimberley and Pasha were good. I wasn't totally convinced that she was in sync  all the way through but Len and Bruno were raving about it so maybe I'm wrong! 

Lisa and Robin were ok - lucky that they had another fast and furious dance though. I think they'll be in the bottom two next week. Lisa is looking fantastic though, a lot of the female celebs have lost weight but I noticed it especially with Lisa on Saturday.

Michael and Natalie were clearly the weakest and it was the right time to go, but how much more confident and comfortable did Michael look with the Latin? Natalie is obviously a wonderful teacher and it was very emotional when they were doing their last dance. Clearly a popular couple with the other contestants too.

I hope we start having two dances from next weekend - not much time left at all! I wonder if the fusion dance routines will be longer than the normal ones? Will it be a double elimination this week?! Get rid of Nicky and Lisa and let the remaining 4 couples show us what they can do!

Flavia and Louis are doing a rumba / tango fusion ... should be good as includes Flavia's signature dance

I don't know, I only picked that up from Louis' Twitter  

I reckon the pros are choosing them with final approval from producers. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the pros don't use it as a way to get rid of/ jazz up the unpopular and less crowd pleasing dances that are still on their to do list (like rumba).

Like most others I don't like the idea of "fusion" dances and I'd much rather see 2 dances a week at this stage. There are only 3 weeks to go and people are going to have done fewer dances than in previous years.

I suspect most of them are going to be a dog's dinner

At least if the pros can choose we shouldn't have any styles that really don't go together. I was worried that the producers might have everyone doing different ones and that someone would end up having to put 2 dreadful styles to a piece of music that doesn't fit.

It was the right time for Michael to go and he took it with good grace, I'll miss him and Nat. Nice to see Louis at the top even if I did find his Charleston a bit odd. I thought Denise was lucky to get 32 for her dance. It wasn't that well danced even without the bit that went wrong. And such an ugly end pose - ewwww!  It was interesting to see Nicky improve his AT in the dance-off, he'd obviously listened to the comments. There were still a couple of dodgy lifts in it though. Didn't think Lisa's dance was as good as the judges thought as I even I picked up on some obvious mistakes. Kimberley was pretty good but the between the legs stuff just didn't go smoothly enough. Dani and Vincent were charming apart from her skirt showing her knickers every time she span

I've been watching the SCD Live from the O2 DVD, and seeing contestants from previous years has made me realise that I've been missing the wow factor this year. Cherie Lunghi and Rachel Stevens Rumbas, for instance, send shivers down my spine. I know it's a difficult dance for the majority of celebrities, but those two are a master class on how it should be done.

Oh god, that horrible end pose Nemo - I almost forgot about it *shudder*

Kudos to James for admitting the mistake was down to him, he just blanked. I've always thought him a bit too arrogant.

I guess the rumbas that James dance with Ola are quite 'earthy'  if you get my drift  With Cherie it was more classy I think.  With Artem it was more hilarious!!  (If you haven't seen it, google it, you'll be crying with laughter!)

Downloaded all this weeks ITT's onto my ipad for the flight home tonight  So way behind on the gossip!

Squawk, I agree with you entirely, I think that's what I said a couple of weeks ago, no 'wow' dances yet

4 person final!?!

I smell a conspiracy...

Oh and I agree about no wow dances yet this year

I seem to recall they had a couple of years with a two person final because someone dropped out - Jimmy Tarbuck and someone else I can't remember.  Maybe they "budgetted" on that happening again by allowing someone extra, so if anyone drops out they still have a three person final.  Trouble is that still leaves four if no-one drops out - unless they have a double vote off?

I thought that was why in the last couple of years they've had 5 people in the semi-final and a double elimination, so they had insurance against a two person final.

Now it sounds as though they're only going to lose one person. It feels as though they want to get someone into the final so they're going to rig it. But maybe there's a good reason behind it.

Ah I see I missed that - just heard there were two more weeks on ITT - but I was trying to do something else at the same time.