First week of competition and we say goodbye to Paige Smith who performed a Jazz routine with Gian-Luca. It’s not a big surprise that Paige was knocked out, the routine was messy and all over the place, the judges even said she was clumsy throughout the performance. It was not just down to her though, the choreography was rubbish; it didn’t show the dancers strengths, it was just running around, jumping and more of a stage show not a dance routine.

The other contestant now out of the show is Ryan Jenkins who performed with Stephanie in a Commercial routine; a fusion of jazz and street dance to show pop culture. It was the first performance of the night and it was not the best routine at all, especially for the song choice. The routine lacked the same energy and liveliness of the song. When dancing together it looked good, apart from that, the choreography was not in time with music and it had no life to it. Stephanie also looked untrusting of her partner for the lifts.

The first live show is meant to let everyone see the talent and the weaknesses of the dancers; however, it hardly did that. The majority of the routines were too focused on a story or the characters; there was not enough actual dancing in them.

Alice and Charlie performed a contemporary routine which was not that good; the story was there but technique was not, mainly for Charlie. Alice was much better for this routine. The Samba routine by Danielle and Luke not a good performance. Danielle had no hips, dead legs, and killed the routine compared to Luke who was full of energy. When they danced together there was no chemistry, it looked boring.

By contrast, a routine that was really beautiful to watch was that of Charlotte and Matt who performed a Foxtrot. It is a shame that this performance didn’t open the show. Despite not being a typical, technically correct foxtrot, they made it look great; both were so graceful and made it seem effortless.

Another couple the judges took a fancy to were, Kirsty and Lee B. Their Contemporary routine was slow, sweet, intense, relaxing and really beautiful. Definitely one of the better routines of the night. Rithy and Shane also had a good night with their Broadway routine, a style neither are strong in but both adapted really well. Full of energy and lifts which looked too easy for Shane. The same goes for Israel and Bethany-Rose who did a disco routine. Both adapted to the style and it was a good performance, Israel just needs to tone down his facial expressions.

Two hip hop routines were performed; one by Lee C and Katy which was great from the beginning, the story was cute and funny. However, Lee received heavy criticism from the judges about his technique, they dubbed Katy the star of that routine. The other was by Tom and Katrina, again, such a fun story and very entertaining but there was too much hand choreography which was not in sync, it needed more dancing.

However, the last number performed by all the contestants was amazing; nothing went wrong, they were all in sync, a beautifully done canon technique was done midway through the routine, too bad the whole show was not as good. Overall, it was not the best way to start the season; the choreography for the night was poor and did not show the dancers abilities at all.

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