Strictly Argentine Tango 2011 - some reviews

28th November 2011

Introduction

As I always do, I've been watching Strictly Come Dancing this year, and I thought I'd share with you some of my comments on the quality of dancing in Argentine Tango by some of the contestants. After they've all done an attempt, I'll do a general conclusion also; and maybe a comparison with previous efforts.

Note: obviously, I'm not expecting them to be professional-level, neither am I expecting the style to be any more than "Show Tango". You have to judge these things on their relative merits.

So, here we go...

(Have a look here for the equivalent reviews of 2010 performances)

Harry and Aliona, 12th November 2011

(Dancing to "Asi se Baila el Tango" by Bandongo)

"She could begin the piece handcuffed to the balcony wearing an Eva Peron mask whilst a shirtless Harry is doing hopscotch on the Tessanine Steps" ~ A prediction on Digital Spy

So, I came to this with mixed feelings. Firstly, Harry is clearly naturally talented. He's young, goodlooking, flexible and - surprisingly - looks very good in hold. He seems to naturally get the "lead and follow" concept, and he applies it well. Under most circumstances, that would definitely give a good feeling for this one.

On the other hand, he's partner is Aliona "Mad Dog" Viliani, a woman who is, shall we say, not known for tasteful and low-key choreography choices. It was entirely possible that, given her previous decisions, she would take the looser restrictions of Argetnine Tango and, well, run with them.

That said, on watching the routine itself, I was pleasantly surprised. The choreography was fine; good, even.

The video

Step-by-step comments

Starts with a walkaround / faffabout, into a dip, then into a nice lunge movement - good lines

Harry then leads his partner into a nice volcada / gancho move around 0:28 - it's a bit artificial, but I suspect that's inevitable in show tango.

They then get off the stage, and Harry gathers Aliona into a lovely smooth drag along the floor at 0:33 - very difficult to do this so well:

This then goes into a spinning lift, and the get into hold at around 0:37 - i.e. about 27 seconds into the routine.

They move into a cadena / sacada sequence. The leg vmovements are not as deep as I'd like, they seem hesitant, and Vincent and Rachel did this far faster and better.

This then goes into another dip, then Aliona does a planeo at around 0:52.

That's nicely-led I think, it's difficult to keep upright with those deep planeos, and Harry does it well.

There's some more solo work, then a nice spin into a lunge from Aliona at around 1:03

Some mirrored ochos, which frankly are not great because both Harry and Aliona keep putting both feet down on the pivot, then a couple of ganchos, then a gorgeous blink-and-you'll-miss-it sequence from 1:10 to 1:14, involving a double planeo from Harry, a lapiz, then a nice parada. All whilst leading a giro.

Some more faffing - ganchos, boleos, the usual - into a spinning lift and dip sequence. Then there's a very very nice volcada at 1:31:

Finishes with a very nice spinning-lift into a lunge

Overall comments

I was pleasantly surprised by Harry's performance, and of course by the not-insane choreography from ALiona.

It was not "brilliant", and we've seen better, but it was definitely good. There was plenty of AT content, the choreography was fine, the movements were led and there were few mistakes - the only real one I noticed was a too-quick gancho right at the end. Harry definitely led the movements, and at some points, he looked quite professional.

Their routine scored 37. A little overmarked, I'd say 33-34, but when you get a night where incompetent routines achieving 31, it seems relatively correct.


Anita and Robin, 12th November 2011

(Dancing to "Cirque de Soleil Tango" from Cirque de Soleil)

Last year, in my review of Robin and Patsy's AT, I called it "the worst AT of the series". Given that Robin's lack of technique was clear, and that Anita's lack of talent was even clearer, I think it's more than safe to say that my hopes for performance one were not high.

When I first saw some training footage, I started to aim my criticism largely at Robin. He looks uncertain, and you simply can't do uncertain as a lead in AT, it Just Won't Work. One of the things I repeat endlessly to beginner leaders is "Be Sure"; simply because if you're not 100% sure what you're doing, your partner won't be either. Robin's embrace is also poor, and he's bouncing along with his steps for some reason.

And let's face it, if the professional is unsure, what hope is there for the celebrity?

The video

Step-by-step comments

It starts out with Anita sitting on a chair and caressing, crossing and uncrossing her legs. For over 10 seconds. Yes. She has legs. Errr... lots of people do... I'm not entirely sure why 1/8th of the routine was devoted to this fact. Robin then leaps up to Anita and, I dunno, worships her legs or something?

(And I'm trying very hard not to turn this review into a very substandard Monkseal article, but with this start, it's very difficult to take the thing seriously)

After nearly 20 seconds, Anita then actually gets out of her chair and into hold - well, into a lift, technically. Finally in hold, they then do some of the wussiest lapizes I've seen in a long time:

(Ive screenshotted this simply to highlight Robin's poor posture and uncertain lead.)

Some walking turns, in offset open embrace, along the floor, taking up another 10 seconds. Anita then does some extremely strange and completely unled leg-flick type movements at 00:40 - which frankly look like a nervous tick rather than anything else. I've literally no idea what these movements are supposed to be. Possibly really bad golpes, maybe?

They then make a real production of a giro at 00:44, (with Robin bounding up and down as he's leading it, for some utterly unknown reason), then a parada and a lunge with enganche:

(and yes, again, this is very definitely How Not To Do It...)

Anita slaps Robin's face for some reason, then lifts her own leg up (none of this lead-and-follow nonsense, oh no) around Robin into a piemazo, as the start of what is actually not a horrible calesita movement at 00:50 (in fact, ignoring the horrible entrance, it's an interesting move, I may even nick it).

By this point, they've done about (by my calculations) 22 seconds of Tango content, so it's clearly time for a break. They then open out, wrap in, and do a Kele-patented "lift-and-spin" of the sort we've seen soooo many times before. Into another open out.

There's a set of - well, I guess technically they're forward ochos, but done side-by-side and hand-in-hand. So, um, swivels? That takes us to about 1:03, and then, for some reason, Robin decides to re-worship Anita's feet:

And, no, I've no idea what's going on here either.

Finally, they get back into hold, for about 3 seconds - an Americano, walking turn, then Robin decides he's the star of the show and takes centre-stage for some spinning and whatnot. Clearly, and typically in these situations, Robin's over-dancing throughout this routine is because he realises Anita isn't, ummm, very good...

There's some more unled-piemazo leg-wrapping nonsense, and wrapping in and out again. They then get into an Americano, then a very pedestrian DragAlongTheFloorTM movement:

(Technically, this is called a "Friccion" movement)

Robin finishes by lifting Anita up, spinning her round, then plonking her back in the chair. To be honest, she should have stayed there.

Overall comments

Overall, there's an astonishing lack of any Tango content. Most of the dance is difficult to describe in tango terms because, basically, it's not tango.

On review, I genuinely think this is the worst AT I've seen in the whole time this has been a dance in SCD. It's far worse than I thought it was on first viewing. Which, if nothing else, is a compliment to Robin's ability to dazzle us with, ummm, showmanship.

Their routine scored 33. Which is possibly the most egregious overmarking of an AT in SCD history. 24 from me, and that's being generous.


Chelsee and Pasha, 26th November 2011

(Dancing to "Una Musica Brutal" by Gotan Project.)

So, Chelsee has been progressing quite nicely so far; she's shown some flashes of real talent, and some good chemistry with her partner Pasha.

The unique problem she faced this week (compared to Harry and Anita) is that the contestants this week have to learn two dances - their own dance and the group "swing" elimination dance. So Chelsee only has half the time to learn her dance as Harry or Anita did.

The video

Step-by-step comments

It starts off with a bit of (technical term) Faffin Abaht; which, for me, is totally spoilt by this expression:

Argh, for God's sakes, woman, please take it seriously.

After that ... moment... there's some more messing around - Pasha does some solo footwork, which seems a little odd as he's not showcasing Chelsee here, and there's no real connection between them. They then do a dramatic pull-away-wrap-in number, followed by a lift-and-spin, neither of which does anything for me. In fact, at this point, I'm distinctly unimpressed with the routine so far...

Finally (at 00:39), they get into a hold, and it looks quite nice:

It's an unusual embrace, but I like it, and there's clearly a good connection there.

So, after a (frankly) unimpressive start, they then really start to motor along.

They do some nice offset walking, a travelling turn, and then a back ocho, sacada, pasada, gorgeous back gancho from Chelsee, a calesita-type movement with some extremely nifty footwork from Pasha, another blink-and-you-miss-it back gancho, then a soltada into reverse hold. In about 5 seconds.

They then do a travelling cadena-with-sacadas sequence - it's a bit ropey on Chelsee's part, to be honest, Rachel and Vincent did this far better. But it's an impressive movement to attempt.

There's then another soltada, then a wrap-in-and-out into a dip at 1:05:

There's a reasonable calesita movement, then a travelling set of overturned forward ochos with sacadas at 1:15. They're done in a very open embrace, so the sacadas are not as deep as they could be, but it's a reasonable stab at it. They then reverse the direction, with Pasha doing the overturned forward ochos and Chelsee doing the sacadas, until about 1:20.

They then do a sacada-based sequence, with a nice back sacada from Chelsee:

They go into some gancho/bicylcette malarky, then another travelling cadena-with-sacadas sequence at 1:30 - 1:39, which is a bit too "careful" for my liking.

They finish with a lift, some flourishes, then they separate out to return to their respective starting points.

Overall comments

Firstly, I liked the routine; it was a good set of proper, genuine AT content. It wasn't a lift-fest like Vincent and Flavia's professional demonstration number, neither was it a foot-fetish bonanza like Anita and Robin's performance. Pasha led it extremely well he looked like a professional AT dancer, at least in terms of providing a confident lead.

However, Chelsee wasn't that great at it. She looked hesitant, and frankly I think some parts of the routine were beyond her. Her footwork was a bit hesitant in places. I hate to say it, but they may even have been better off with a bit less content and a couple of crowd-pleaser lifts instead. That routine would have been fantastic with (say) Rachel Stevens. With Chelsee, I'm not so sure it worked well.

The judges' crtiques were, I think, misplaced - they were right to identify some gaps, but the "intensity" they wanted comes from relaxation and good technique.

So I think 35 was OK - maybe a bit generous, but in this show, that's a given.


Holly and Artem, 10th December 2011

(Dancing to "Por Una Cabeza" by Itzhak Perlman, John Williams & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.)

I have to say, Por Una Cabeza gets right on my tits, musically. It's not just that it's officially the most overused Tango music in history - although it is. But it's really not a good track to dance AT to. It's too stop-start, too dramatic, a bit savage, and frankly I just don't like dancing to it. I always considered it a great track for ballroom tango, but not for AT. That said, the band make a reasonable version of it, I think.

That's one massive caveat out of the way.

Artem

In terms of dancing, looking at my review last year of Artem's AT with Kara, my overall impression was that Kara was good-but-not-great, and that Artem was, well, not so good. He didn't seem to have presence in his dancing, it seemed hesitant.

And, as Mark Ramprakash showed us, presence is vital to leading the AT. You can get away with a lot if you have enough presence. OK, OK, I know that we're not judging the pro - but really, if the lead isn't good, what hope does the celeb follower have?

Holly

Holly has had an interesting journey. Basically, she seems to not care too much about the entire project; I mean, she learns it, she does the dance, she performs well, and sometimes very well, but she doesn't give the impression of being emotionally invested in it. She doesn't, for example, worry when she's in the bottom two, she just seems amused by the whole thing. It's an interesting contrast with Jason and Kristina, who clearly do care quite a lot about the competition - as witnessed by Kristina's emotional reaction to being in the bottom 2 the previous week.

So with Holly, it could go either way. Especially as she now has two dances to learn. That said, looking at the training footage, it seems that her movements are smooth and fluid - she certainly seems better than Jason.

Anyway, on with the show...

The video

(Starts around 00:10)

Step-by-step comments

So, there's some strange swivel chair thing going on. And on, and on... Now, I will say that this is interesting. There's a swivel-chair planeo, which is actually quite nice:

Holly then gets up from the chair, into a lunge-and-drag sequence. And then she SITS BACK ON THE F&^KING CHAIR.

See?

For Chrissakes woman, we're not asking you to run a marathon, just move around for 90 seconds. You know, whilst standing up?

So, having seen a swivel-chair planeo, we now see a swivel-chair soltada and a couple of swivel-chair barridas. Oh, good.

So, we're 40 seconds into the routine, and so far Holly has, well, sat down nicely.

They then get into hold and, well, it's not horrible.

A bit ballroom-tango-y, but arguably that fits the music.

There's a couple of nicely-decorated Americanos, then a decent giro into a lunge, lift and drop. Which Holly comes out of very nicely with a little mini-spin at 1:04.

Next, there are some ganchos, into another lunge, then a rather nice deep planeo at 1:20, although admittedly this move is far far easier than it looks.

There's a reasonable turning motion, then they get into a parallel hold and perform some, um, stamping motions. Which are weird, but actually work OK to the music.

They finish off with another lunge-and-lift.

Overall comments

Well, it' a bit boring, you know? I mean, there's nothing horrible about it, but neither is there much to it, really. Take the chair and the lifts out, and you only have about 30 seconds of content. It's adequate, but it's not great.

(That said, compared to the monstrosity that was Jason and Kristina's attempt, it's a miracle of grace and skill.)

I did notice that Artem looked much more confident as a lead than last year - possibly he's been taking lessons. So well done him. :)


Jason and Kristina, 10th December 2011

(Dancing to "Assassin's Tango" by John Powell.)

So, instead of the Tango soundtrack from Scent Of A Woman / True Lies (Por Una Cabeza), we have the Tango soundtrack from Mr and Mrs Smith... I thought Movie Week was last week?

Kristina

Now, Kristina has not actually done an AT as part of the main show. She's done it (fnar fnar) with Mark Ramprakash as part of the Strictly 2010 tour - but that's simply reprising Karen's routine and music.

She's also done AT as part of a choreographed group number in 2010. Which was pretty rubbish.

So, up until this performance, we really didn't know whether she was actually any good at the dance. She was an unknown quantity - she could have been great like Pasha / Vincent, or rubbish like Camilla and Darren. Or "mediocre" like Artem. Only time would tell. It was very exciting.

Jason

As for Jason, I quite like him, in some ways. I mean, he's got no actual talent, but he works hard, he takes it seriously as a dance competition, and he clearly has a good work ethic. That said, I think that he has, at this point, reached the stage where "native talent" does make some difference, and he's probably weaker in that sense than Harry, Chelsee or Holly-on-a-good-day.

From looking at the brief training footage available, it didn't look promising - mechanical, hesitantly-led, stop-start, and lots of showstopper lifts thrown in - which is usually a sign that the pro is desperate to cover up the flaws in the basic technique. But I remained hopeful.

The video

Step-by-step comments

Where to start? I mean, it's like trying to review World War 2, you know? There's so much material to cover, and so few screencaps to do it in. Normally I can describe an entire routine with 4-5 screenshots. This... may take more.

But let's start at the start. Ladies and gents, I give you The Sniffing Of The Hair:

(And yes, this is a gratuitous boob-cap. Let's face it, the prospect of Kristina suffering a wardrobe malfunction is the only thing that made watching this... dance... tolerable. ).

Kristina does seem to be, ummm, breathing quite deeply at this point. Ahem. Where was I? Oh yes, dancing. Right.

So, hair sniffing out of the way, they do a bit of Passionate Swaying, then a few (parallel) walks across the stage. I can't provide terminology for these movements, because there

(Well, that's probably not true, AT has labels for everything - any dance form which has a specific term for the chat up lines used by milongueros is bound to have a term for these movements. But I can't be bothered to do any research. A bit like Kristina.)

They then get into an embrace, and Jason (for reasons best known to himself) chooses to adopt what can only be described as a Serial Killer Face:

Because, obviously, the prospect of embracing a gorgeous woman fills us all with revulsion.

They then get into a lunge and a couple of forward ganchos at around 00:29. These are at best average (they're a bit shallow and undramatic), but at least it vaguely resembles a dance move which people might plausibly use in a Tango Fantasia routine, so this is an improvement.

They get down off the stage, with a reasonable turning step, then for some reason they decide to do the most boring promenade walk along the floor:

Jason then Dramatically Grabs Kristina's Head (I won't screenshot this, there's only so many times I can stomach closeups).

They then perform a cadena (again, shallow and uncommitted), a walk into a lift, and then a really really bad set of stop-start linear sacadas at 00:51:

The reason these are bad is that you can almost see Jason thinking "Right foot, stop. Left foot, stop. Right foot, stop. left foot..." you get the picture.

It's particularly annoying because these steps could actually be nice movements. The "overturned ochos with sacadas" movement is challenging, but looks great if you can pull it off. But in this case, tt's simply that the execution of the movements is horrible. Laughable, even. They should be smooth and flowing, with the leg movements happening as a natural movement. But they're not.

And the worst bit is, this is the good half of the routine.

So, that out of the way, they do some side-walking with ganchos, then a spin into a position which I cannot adequately describe (at 00:56):

Let's just say, ewww.

Jason then - and I'm not making this up - puts his hands around Kristina's neck and - what, throttles her? I dunno, she does a roll or something, then throws his hands up in the air. OK, fair enough, the story is (presumably) Serial Killer, it sort of makes sense in that context.

Kristina then performs some manic back-and-forward boleos (I say "Kristina then performs" because there's clearly very little imput into these movements from Jason), and then there's a standard lift-and-spin movement at 1:08.

Jason then drops Kristina onto the floor, and then, for the Crowning Moment Of Stupid, decides to engage in Morris Dancing:

And then he does it again - twice!

Now, I've seen a few Tango performances in my time. I can honestly say that, up until now, I've never seen any dancer slap their feet with their hands. Even the language of Tango may not have a word for that. Don't get me wrong, there are dance forms where foot-slapping might work. Juba, Morris dancing, that weird German folk dance, etc. Argentine Tango? Not so much.

He then pulls her up, she jumps into his arms with her legs wrapped around him, they spin around merrily, presumably channelling maypole dancers at this point of our Whirlwind Tour Of World Dances Which Are Not Argentine Tango. They spin, do about a second of walking, throw out, wrap in, and lift and spin again.

(Just to reiterate, between 0:55 and 1:40 - 45 seconds - there is no tango content. None.)

They then finish with a drop thing:

Well, that was 90 seconds of my life I won't be seeing again.

Overall comments

Well...

Ummm...

OK, let's start with the positives. Jason, as always, has a strong - one might even say obsessed - work ethic, he puts his heart into the work, and you have to admire that commitment. It's refreshing to see someone actually focus on the dancing.

It's also a strong performance. There's a real story there, and Jason clearly Acts It Out - if you ignored the actual dance form, then it's dramatic, it's emotional, it's a real show.

And that's the problem. You can't ignore the dance form. Call me crazy, but if someone does an Argentine Tango dance, I expect them to dance Argentine Tango. I don't expect them to turn it into a show dance with occasional (and really rubbish) AT elements in it.

And that's what it was - a show dance. The actual recognisable-tango content was about 10-15 seconds' worth.

So if you judge it as a show dance - if you think of it as a dramatic showdance with a tango base - then it's great. It's dramatic, committed, gymnastic, effective. Both performers put their hearts and souls into it, and it shows.

If, however, you think of it as being an Argentine Tango - which was, you know, the dance title - then it's laughably bad. Abysmal. By far the worst AT I've seen this series, and possibly the worst I've ever seen on Strictly. Certainly, Holly's lazy-but-competent performance of the dance was far better.

The judges gave it a 40. A charitable interpretation of these remarks would be that they were judging purely on performance. Or, you know, just drunk.

~ David Bailey, 13th December 2011

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