Strictly Come Dancing 2012 – Premiere

Yes yes I know I haven’t blogged about Strictly, or anything for that matter, in 9 months but I thought it about time to get back into it.

The reveal show took place almost two weeks ago and although I watched it at the time, this is the first chance I’ve had to sit down and pencil in my thoughts on the pairings and what I expect from this year’s show.

On first look this seems like quite an exciting line-up with plenty of characters but personality will only get you so far in a dance competition, how they strut their stuff next week determines how far through the ‘journey’ we’ll see them go.

The pairings for Strictly 2012 come out as:
Fern Britton & Artem Chigvintsev
Dani Harmer & Vincent Simone
Victoria Pendleton & Brendan Cole
Sid Owen & Ola Jordan
Nicky Byrne & Karen Hauer
Johnny Ball & Aliona Vilani
Kimberley Walsh & Pasha Kovalev
Jerry Hall & Anton Du Beke
Lisa Riley & Robin Windsor
Denise Van Outen & James Jordan
Michael Vaughan & Natalie Lowe
Louis Smith & Flavia Cacace
Richard Arnold & Erin Boag
Colin Salmon & Kristina Rihanoff

Some interesting pairings there but let’s see how the first look at their dance abilities shapes up.

So what do we learn from the above?

• Dani Harmer, Victoria Pendleton, Jerry Hall & Lisa Riley can click and wave their hands in time to the music.
• Nicky Byrne & Michael Vaughan don’t quite know how to fold their arms for camera but Johnny Ball knows how to choreograph his eyebrows!
• Denise Van Outen is looking good with her arms but Colin Salmon is currently at the ‘flinging’ stages of his career.
• Louis Smith is going to be able to lift Flavia and spin her round probably endlessly.
• Sid Owen really shouldn’t get into a live dance-off!
• Denise & Victoria can bring the attitude (Denise is definitely looking good at this early stage)
• Nicky Byrne knows how to thrust Michael Jackson style but Michael Vaughan mistakes the move for an invitation to jump past and whack one out the park.
• Both Kimberley Walsh & Dani can shake it whilst Jerry Hall is going to rely on a haughty stance.
• Lisa Riley & Richard Arnold are going to bring the comedy personas, as will Johnny Ball, but it’ll be interesting to see what Fern Britton’s experience from Strictly Christmas 2010 will bring to the table.
• If you were wondering why Louis was wearing dance sneakers rather than shoes you find out near the end (bet you didn’t even notice he wasn’t wearing dance shoes!)

Now that’s out of the way who are my early picks?

Nicky Byrne & Karen Hauer
Westlife fanbase could give Nicky an edge, but new girl Karen will have to get the British audience on her side after (I thought) going a bit OTT on the launch show

Kimberley Walsh & Pasha Kovalev
Pasha settled in nicely last year with Chelsee Healey and Kimberley looks to have a nice movement to her.

Denise Van Outen & James Jordan
My front runners I think they could be the couple to beat this year, but it’s early days at the moment.

So that’s my thoughts, there’s already some training footage available so I will analyse the progress so far over the next few days.

I’ve tipped Denise & James to do well but do you agree?  Who are your forerunners, or who are you looking forward to seeing on the dance floor?

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