Post by PeterB on Nov 19, 2005 0:24:56 GMT -4
I watched the grand final of "Strictly Dancing" on ABC TV last night. For those outside Australia and New Zealand, this is a weekly show in which three couples compete in a range of ballroom, latin and street dances. The winners go on to group finals, and the winners of those group finals go into the grand final. The grand final was on last night.
The show was actually recorded a couple of months ago, and my wife and I were part of the studio audience, along with about 20 other students at the dance studio we attend. The reason for our interest was that two of our teachers were one of the couples competing in the grand final.
As it happened, our teachers came third, and on any dispassionate judgement it was probably a reasonable result - the other two couples were extremely good.
But it was intriguing to hear a couple of things said about the winning couple. 1: Each show featured three judges, from a pool of six. However, five of the six judges came from the same studio that the winning couple attended. 2: All three couples were on the floor together for the first four dances. But for the fifth dance, each couple performed solo. The winning couple performed a paso flamenco, a dance requiring some paso doble moves and some flamenco moves. But apparently the winning couple's entire performance was flamenco, with no paso steps. Now this should have cost them marks big-time, but didn't...
So one might be tempted to ask if this couple was always going to win? Well, the conspiracy theorists could easily point to the interview at the end of the show. The show's compere asked: "Did you have any doubts about winning?" And the response from the male partner: "No..." [conspiracy theorist]I say that gave it away right there.[/conspiracy theorist]
Of course, as I said at the start, they *did* dance very well, but still... :-)
The show was actually recorded a couple of months ago, and my wife and I were part of the studio audience, along with about 20 other students at the dance studio we attend. The reason for our interest was that two of our teachers were one of the couples competing in the grand final.
As it happened, our teachers came third, and on any dispassionate judgement it was probably a reasonable result - the other two couples were extremely good.
But it was intriguing to hear a couple of things said about the winning couple. 1: Each show featured three judges, from a pool of six. However, five of the six judges came from the same studio that the winning couple attended. 2: All three couples were on the floor together for the first four dances. But for the fifth dance, each couple performed solo. The winning couple performed a paso flamenco, a dance requiring some paso doble moves and some flamenco moves. But apparently the winning couple's entire performance was flamenco, with no paso steps. Now this should have cost them marks big-time, but didn't...
So one might be tempted to ask if this couple was always going to win? Well, the conspiracy theorists could easily point to the interview at the end of the show. The show's compere asked: "Did you have any doubts about winning?" And the response from the male partner: "No..." [conspiracy theorist]I say that gave it away right there.[/conspiracy theorist]
Of course, as I said at the start, they *did* dance very well, but still... :-)
