Good news for Jay.
Long time readers will now I love a good stat. Actually so will medium-time readers, short-time readers, and those of you who drive-by looking for pictures of Erin Boag’s feet to wank over (*waves*) to be honest. The spreadsheets are legend for a reason. And after poring over them in-depth this series I’ve noticed a Killer Stat that I’ve decided to expand out to a full entry (also some annual polls that I can’t remember having done this year). And here it is :
Of the nine completed series in which it has been danced so far, the eventual winner has been the dancer with the highest salsa score seven times. The last time the winner of the whole series wasn’t the person with the best salsa score was Chris Hollins, way back in Series 7. And he didn’t really have the best score for anything other than Charleston. This strike-rate (78%) is even more impressive when you look at it in comparison to the rates for other dances :
Salsa – 78%
Charleston/Samba – 50%
Argentine Tango – 44%
Showdance – 43%
Foxtrot/Paso Doble – 42%
Cha Cha/Quickstep/Waltz – 33%
Viennese Waltz – 30%
Jive/Rumba – 25%
American Smooth – 20%
Tango – 17%
Good news for Jay then, as he currently sits pretty on top of the salsa leaderboard with a healthy 36 points. Only Anita, or someone else on a customary random grand finals “Judges Shut Their Eyes And Point” pick, can stop him from being this series Salsa King, and potentially bumping that % up to 80%. Although even if he loses or gets toppled as Salsa Boss it’s still 70% so that’s still great, yeah?
Of course Jay also has the best score for the tango so…swings and roundabouts really isn’t it?
Have those polls then.
The mighty mighty Monk Seal 
Is it just me who still can’t think of any clear differences in cha cha cha/salsa/samba? Anyway I don’t usually like them, unless it’s Pasha, so thanks for the poll. It says a lot about this year’s series that I need polls to give me a chance to vent my annoyance about Strictly.
I know what you mean. I can’t usually tell the difference either so this is what I look out for: cha cha – anything reminiscent of Alesha Dixon’s cha cha to Crazy In Love; samba – samba rolls; salsa – an absence of either of those two things. Very technical, me. Unfortunately hardly anyone seems to attempt a samba roll these days so I’m normally in the dark.
You can spot the salsa because that’s the one they’re allowed to do lifts in. *knowing face*
Salsa has a figure 8 hip action and is performed with smooth gliding footwork – it also allows lifts.
Samba has a back and forth hip action and “double bounce” which is basically the same as rise and fall in a Waltz.
Cha Cha has a figure 8 hip action and is performed with sharp staccato footwork and a very straight leg.
Of course all of that is irrelevant on Strictly.
You can tell a samba because the lady normally has feathers and / or bog roll stuck to her bum.
I voted the cha cha over the samba as my least favourite dance because when the samba is done well, it looks amazing (see Pixie’s), whereas a cha cha always looks like a cha cha – stilted and boring. Salsa is superior to both because you can do lifts.
My other least favourite dance is the foxtrot. Dullsville.
Foxtrot is boring – but it’s also the best dance to use as a basis for the American Smooth. I always seem to prefer AS based on the Foxtrot.
What other dances can be used as AS bases? Quickstep? Viennese Waltz? Can it be any ballroom dance? Has anyone ever used tango as an AS base? What are the rules? I’ve always wondered that.
For Catherinehirst, Wikipedia (so… Take with a pinch of Wikipedia) says it can be foxtrot, vw, quickstep or tango. Strictly seems to veer towards the first three though. An as tango sounds awesome but I am not sure if anyone/many people have.done one on scd
Nobody’s ever done one to a tango and I’ll bet good moneyy that nobody ever will.
How can people hate rumba so much?!
Granted it is a dance that lends itself to rutting, has been done to some *truly* tragic music (I’m looking at you all conquering Judd – don’t think I’ve forgotten that fucking Bryan Adams shit), and its vaguely embarrassing in a way that always makes me reach for the gin of a Saturday evening but Anton and Katie did us a perfectly marvellous Bassey space rumba to make up for past horrors this series so why so much hate?!
Especially when the effing cha-cha still exists to make any younger contestant look fun and feisty whilst anyone over the age of 40 looks arthritic.
People are set in their rumba-hating ways I guess
We’re bloody lucky we managed to eliminate the Andre before he got to Salsa then, because no way was that not getting some tens.
Well for that and all the other reasons.
Brilliant stat!
I will be in the minority with the favourite poll because I love a good VW. I can’t tell the difference between the Samba and Salsa either most of the time on the show – unless I see something obvious like Samba rolls!
Monkseal, have you ever given us your list of personal music choices for each dance? I mean if in a parallel universe you were to be contestant on Strictly and perhaps be paired up with an AMOYZING partner who could do any dance genre, what music would you choose for each dance?
Oooh. Good question Gusty. That might be the best Monkseal post of all time. Wonder if he’d dare to pick any that have already been knocked for 6 by the likes of Alesha or Kara or if he’d opt for new material. If you do a list Monky, then make sure you include appropriate theme weeks too. 😉
“This Year’s Love” would be a beautiful “get 10s first time, 40 in the Finals” Viennese Waltz for Monkseal. 😀
Easy to choose a favourite style, much harder to choose the least favourite style!
Agree about difference between Salsa and Samba, but that’s just about Strictly. It used to be easier before all this flash stuff was allowed. Now it spoils the dance a bit because you’re so busy watching for recognisable content, you forget to enjoy the dance!
Grumpy old woman syndrome kicks in for some dances!
Oh it’d just be a list of miserable American indie for the ballroom and poppers o clock gay anthems for the latin, nobody needs to read that.
I picked Foxtrot over Rumba because, when done right, a Rumba can be beautiful. When done right, the Foxtrot is still dull as hell. Or maybe *especially* when done right.
Unless it involves Helen George as Mazza Monroe.
Ooh I like this post – not cos I am a Jay fan either, I like him but don’t mind who wins really (tho I would have loved Jeremy to win till the producers pushed Komedy Kontestant too much. If he had won the ,meltdowns would have been epic).
Salsamcha got my vote for least favourite, mainly dos i can’t tell them apart as done on Strictly. I just picked any 2 of 3 lol
Very interesting statistics. 🙂 I often can’t tell several of the dances apart either.
When Anita & Gleb are dancing, I have very little idea which genre of dahhhnnnce is on display!
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