Show No.1

iPlayer repeat available until 9.59pm on Thursday 25th March 2010.

I know 9pm is the ‘Watershed’ for programming in the UK but I still think they should have bleeped or edited the majority of the swearing from this program. The day after the show first aired I mentioned it to one of my students and he complained how he’d been watching it with his 11yr old daughter, expecting a Strictly-esque show, to be confronted by a barrage of expletives that forced him to quickly change channel.

But I’m not here to discuss the broadcasting decisions, just the dancing, so let’s begin!

The premise of the show is based around the fact that the UK has never really taken wheelchair dancing as seriously as some of the other major nations, and therefore has never had an entrant in the Wheelchair Dance Sport European Championships. This show hopes to change that by pitting 6 couples (one able-bodied and one wheelchair-bound) against each other over the series to determine who should represent the UK in the Championships.

Brian Fortuna is the main face of the show and I didn’t feel he came across in the best light in many places, not sure if you’ll agree but I thought he seemed a bit of a shit for the vast majority of the program and didn’t seem to care about the feelings/opinions of the contestants. Granted I can understand the pressure of trying to train a number of couples to have individual routines in a short space of time – I’ve done it myself and it is stressful – and there are times when you just want to say to someone “get on with it and do what you’re told” but then sometimes they’re feedback can inspire the creative process outside of what you might original envisage.

Rant over though and on to the actual dancing itself.

Before I start I think it’s important to understand what could be expected of routines in this genre, and so I did some Youtube research and was really impressed with some of the possibilities:

However I don’t expect anyone to come out of the blocks dancing like that just yet, but I would like to see the potential there from them.

Up first, James O’Shea & Caroline Flack – Cha Cha Cha

So James and Brian had the biggest swearing exchange broadcast, all regarding the lack of innovation and challenge in the routine, but did James have a point or was he just disrespecting Brian’s expertise?

Not so sure on the choice of beard design, and just like Strictly I wish we could see more of the dance and less fancy camera angles and switching back to the ‘green room’.

I’m trying to decide how I feel about this, I would’ve liked to have seen what James’ input into the routine could have produced – given his dance abilities shown in the intro video. For me the whole routine seemed to lack a bit of content but that could be down to the fact that the celebs are also learning at the same time – I’d have liked to have seen the Pro’s partnering the wheelchair users.

Overall though not a bad performance, how it’ll compare to the rest remains to be seen.

Carolyne Underwood & Martin Offiah – Tango

Possibly the competitor with the hardest job, due to being paralysed from the chest down, Carolyne has had to be literally strapped to the chair to help her to generate upper body strength to maintain her frame.

How it’ll affect the dance remains to be seen.

A promising start, if a little lacking in staccato movements but I did find the routine a little boring and falling short in content.

Harry Maule & Michelle Gayle – Cha Cha

Always humorous when you can see someone looking scared and counting as if their life depended on it. Harry could sit up a little straighter in his chair and I’d have liked to have seen a bit of body movement in the initial clapping.

Michelle needs to be a bit tighter with her footwork, and try to skip less.

Harry needs to smile more and could have been a bit quicker in places, especially the New Yorks.

Diana Morgan-Hill & Mark Foster – Tango

Let’s hope Diana’s chair doesn’t come apart in the performance like it did in training, though they would be given the opportunity to either restart or be marked up to that point if it did happen.

Interesting that Brian has picked the same track that he and Ali used in Strictly.

Nice dramatism to start and good use of the wheelchair when Mark kicks it round on the spot. There is no comparison in this routine to the one produced by Carolyne and Martin unfortunately.

A very good routine and showing promise of what a wheelchair user can actually accomplish on the dance floor. So far vastly superior to any other performance.

Paul Jacob & Heather Small – Cha Cha

Brian had these two perform in a London train station to try and get over Heather’s nerves, but i’m hoping the performance has improved since then as it wasn’t the best.

Unfortunately Heather seems to have gone out of time with the music, and seems to be forcing her hips rather than letting them flow through the feet.

Paul seemed a little uncomfortable and didn’t really show any personality or style in his performance.

Simone Milani & Kevin Sacre – Tango

Although Kevin hasn’t been on Strictly he is engaged to last year’s winner Camilla Dallerup, so i’m guessing he probably has been near a dance floor with her in their time together.

Straight away that’s very definitely evident – Kevin’s a surprisingly good dancer and they’re definitely making a better use of the wheelchair than the majority of the other competitors. This does lead me to wish that they had paired them with real professionals though.

Ultimately the best dance of the night and strong contenders to win the whole competition, though it’ll be interesting to see how Simone copes when she has to dance Latin on her own.

Overview

For me the bottom two this week would have to be Paul & Heather and Carolyne & Martin. Out of those two I think Paul & Heather possibly have more potential.

Interesting to hear the comments from Ade Adepitan regarding Carolyne’s control of the wheelchair as this is something that I, as an able-bodied person, wouldn’t have understood.

Dance-off and Result

Watching Carolyne & Martin’s performance second time around, it still lacks dynamism for me but you can see that Carolyn is definitely controlling the movement of the chair.

Good to see Heather managing to stay in time this time round and I think they gave the better performance and so will still stay in.

Voting then:

Ade – Paul & Heather
Ola – Carolyne & Martin
James – Paul & Heather

So 2-1 sends Carolyne & Martin home and breaks their pact of ‘not going home in the first week’.

Has anyone else been watching the show, what do you think? Is it a good advertisement for wheelchair dancing and is there anything you’d change about the program?

Let us know on the comments link below.