Lights, camera, action! This year’s movie week is about to begin; so cancel your Netflix subscription and save yourself seven pounds on a bag of chocolate buttons and settle in.
This week, the Walk of Fame has moved to Elm Street, from Marvel stars street dancing to Muppets quickstepping. Even chuck in a cheeky Samba from Shrek and Fiona.
Before we start, the actual Oscar-worthy performers are the choreographer, Jason Gilchrist and pro dancers Cameron Lombard, Kai Warrington and fan-favourite Johannes Radebe.
The Saturday show’s opening number was a beautiful interpretation of a period drama through a modern lens. Gilchrist perfectly highlighted the effortless flair of the Viennese waltz and the passion of Radebe and new dancer, Warrington. Coupled with a fantastic opening number on the results show, paying homage to the new summer blockbuster, In the Heights. The street dance showcased another new professional dancer, Lombard, who unfortunately does not have a partner this year but believe me when I say his talents are not unnoticed among the audience.
Rose’s heart will go on
Rose left the audience and the judges in tears with her first ballroom dance; as she channelled her inner Kate Winslet in a Titanic inspired foxtrot. The judges praised Rose for her progress and highlighted Giovanni’s beautifully simplistic choreography that highlighted Rose’s natural abilities. This dance was made even more impressive due to the frame in the foxtrot, which requires the two dancers to look away from each other when in hold. For Rose, this is increasingly challenging as she is the first deaf celebrity on the show; this means she couldn’t lipread Giovanni to help her stay on track. Despite this, she smashed the dance, even gaining a famous ‘A-MAY-ZING’ from Craig; climbing up the leaderboard with an impressive 36.
Fletcher’s Back with a vengeance
Returning to the ballroom after a week off due to testing positive for Covid, Tom and Amy are back with a vengeance. Tom unleashes his inner child as he performs a Jive inspired by Back to the future. This was made more special as Tom’s band ‘Mcfly‘ took their namesake from the main character, Marty Mcfly. The jive is notoriously a make or break dance. You either kill it, or it’s just a bit flat and looks like you’re trying to shake something off your shoe; But Great Scott, he nailed it.
The judges celebrated him for his synchronised side-by-side kicks and flicks, capturing the dance’s era and essence. He showed off his showman ability keeping the audience in the palm of his hand as well as demonstrating his talent as a leading man. Tom and Amy were awarded their highest score, 32. If my calculations are right, when this dancer gets an 8 8 8 8 on the leaderboard, you’re gonna see some serious s***.
Rhys Spiderman show dance confirmed him as leading man material.
We got to experience Rhys and Nancy’s unique superhero show dance this week, and with that, we got to learn more about his life. He shared his love for his adorable family, his biggest support system and his background of Christianity with the audience. He expressed that his faith and community have been his one constant throughout his life and encouraged him to do the show.
Rhys showed his bubbly and infectious personality through this powerhouse of a dance. In my opinion, the performance was filled with jumps and tricks and wouldn’t be out of place in a Diversity tour; he had the place up on their feet. Craig praised his technique ” You lived up to a professional standard” Motis was out of breath, complementing his swag and performance ability. Even his task-master partner Nancy was emotional after a stellar performance awarding him the first ten of the series.
John and Johannes are Pirates of the Ballroom
Bookies Favourite to win John and Johannes spell bounded the judges with their phenomenal Paso Dubel to the theme tune of Pirates of the Caribbean. John noted that this movie is a firm favourite in his house, especially with his dad, who was in the audience; he wants to make him proud.
Johannes expressed that he wanted to push John, so he filed the routine with all the Paso fundamentals to show his improvement and wow the judges. That they did – Anton said “it was the best thing they have seen all night; the jumping the shaping was exquisite”. Shirley couldn’t sit down, praising the magnetic energy and covering the floor so powerfully.
They brought the drama, and the scores reflected that with three tens and a nine from Craig, awarding them the highest scores of the series. The scores left John and Johannes in tears leading the charge at the top of the scoreboards.
The dreaded dance-off: Chicago vs Cruella
It was a great week at the box office for these dancers, but unfortunately, some pictures just missed the mark. Sadly this was the case of Judi and Graziano, who performed a sassy charleston inspired by Chicago. So it was a real shock to see them in the bottom two.
However, Judi had a great attitude and was excited to dance again. They were up against repeated offenders Katie and Gorka, who are no strangers to the dance-off. Their Cruella inspired American smooth, which was not a shock as their performance did land them at the lower end of the scoreboards. Sadly we waved goodbye to Katie and Gorka after a good fight; it was clear that their counterparts were the superior.
After a nail-biting movie week, we hope to see you again next time for another unpredictable weekend of dancing.
Featured Image Credit: Independent
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