Ian Waite gives warning to Sara Davies as Strictly star tops leaderboard

By Grace Henry

Published: Monday, 04 October 2021 at 12:00 am

The BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing continued this week with Nina Wadia becoming the first celeb to leave Strictly.

Wadia had scored quite low on the Strictly Come Dancing leaderboard and ended up in the dance off with Katie McGlynn and her partner Gorka Marquez.

But the Strictly Come Dancing judges decided to save McGlynn instead, putting an end to the former EastEnders’ stars journey.

Here, RadioTimes.com columnist Ian Waite tells us what he thinks of Nina’s exit, and whether she was the right person to go home, as he unpacks events from the second live show.

From top tips, to his Strictly highs and lows of the week, Ian is sharing all in this week’s column.

Read on for his expert commentary.

Ian on Saturday’s show

“Saturday was very interesting. The second show always is because it always sort of sorts out the really good couples from the mediocre couples, because what it does is when you have the first show, they’ve probably practised for two or three weeks on that dance, and then the second show they probably only had a week, so they don’t get so much time on that dance. So, they’re a little bit more exposed – you normally see the other genres, so if they did, if they dance Latin one week, they’ll dance, Ballroom the next.

“So some do better in the Ballroom, and then some do better in the Latin, as we saw with the lovely Sara Davies this week. And so you can never really judge on one performance. You have to kind of look at a few performances before you can actually decide whether they’ve got a chance for the final or whether they’re going to do well in the competition.”

A warning for Sara

“Sara Davies and Aljaz Skorjanec really stood out this week. She was bottom of the table last week and and I felt that this week, it was just complete role reversal. I did say last week in my column that I thought that she could be a really good ballroom dancer, and I wasn’t wrong. It was simple, but simply beautiful, great poise and foot work. She was the most improved from last week.”

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Strictly Come Dancing’s Sara Davies
BBC

“It does happen quite often that you start off with sort of your weakest dance, and then you gradually get better. And then some weeks, if you’re doing Ballroom one week and Latin the next, and if they are weaker in one style – let’s say they’re much stronger in the Ballroom and they’re weaker in the Latin like Sara,  you can have ups and downs all the way through. It was very much like that when I danced with Jodie Kidd back in the day. She would have one great week, and then not so good.

“I’m hoping that Sara will have some good Latin dances, and I think she will improve over the next few weeks. She has Samba next week apparently, which is the dance all the pros have named “The Dance of Death” because people go out of the competition on Samba, so it is a scary dance, but if you get it right like somebody like Danny Mac did with Oti, then it can be fantastic and and Nina proved that last week with the amazing Samba she did with Neil.”

AJ is the one to beat

“AJ Odudu and Kai Widdrington would have to be the most surprising for me. Following her most incredible jive last week, this Foxtrot was so classy and with beautiful poise and elegance. On the whole, the footwork was very good, releasing toes, and completing heel turns. These two are definitely the ones to beat.”

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Strictly Come Dancing’s AJ Odudu
BBC

Nina’s exit

“I really liked Nina Wadia‘s dance. What I love about her is her commitment. She always gives 100 per cent, and you can see a brilliant acting skills shine through. Unfortunately, it looked a little uncoordinated and lacked clean lines and shapes –  I think that was her downfall in the end. It’s very difficult as well to compare a Jive to a Tango, because certain aspects of Jive are more entertaining, you can be more exposed in Jive, or the Tango can have more of a character, so it’s easier to portray that character. So, you know it’s really difficult to compare the two and I think that’s why it was very close with the judges.”

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Nina Wadia was in the dance off with Katie McGlynn
BBC

“I think having looked at everybody over the two weeks because obviously we have to look at the two weeks, I think it was probably the right two in the bottom two. And it’s always difficult in the first elimination, because there’s so many couples that unless you have really standout performances, you can get lost in amongst those couples.”

Strictly High of The Week

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Strictly Come Dancing contestant Judi Love
BBC

“I have to say my highlight of the week was Judi Love. Let’s forget about the footwork and the leg action, this was my favourite performance by far of the night. Shaking that body as if her body depended on it. Love, love, love Judi Love!”

Strictly Low of The Week

“I was slightly disappointed with Adam Peaty and Katya Jones. I mean it was very choreographically challenging. Considering it was only Week Two, she really gave him a difficult routine, and I think Adam copes really well with the challenge. I feel that he was so competitive and so energetic, it kind of ran  away with him and he needed to have a softer approach, especially in the future in the Ballroom dances. If he can give the Ballroom dances a softer approach, it would give them a more distinguished look rather than an attacking look.”

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Strictly Come Dancing 2021 contestant Adam Peaty
BBC

Ian’s Top Tip

“I mean one of the things that was said before with Adam – Anton said it to him about his hold – is that he can hold his elbows too far back, and then the girl has nowhere to go because basically the men are pulling them on top of them. So, I would say for the male celebrities, keep your elbows forward so that you feel as though you’re embracing your partner rather than pulling her on to you.”

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Strictly Come Dancing 2021 contestant Robert Webb
BBC

“I also noticed a lot in promenade positions that sometimes celebrities can get a kinky head. I found that with Robert Webb that when he was in promenade during his Tango,  he ad a bit of a kink to his head. I think you have to make sure that’s shaped and away from your partner, and  so chin up all the time. So, basically cuddling the partner, keeping your elbows forward, and if you’re in promenade position as a male or a female celebrity, you should make sure the spine, neck and the head are in continuation and that there’s no break in that shape.”

Ian Answers…

Judi scored one less point than Rose and some fans have argued that their performances don’t compare. Craig also said Judi’s dance was a “technical disaster” but still gave her a 6 – would you say there’s some favouritism amongst the judges?

No, listen, if it was on showmanship and body rhythm, Judi would have got a 10! So if you’re putting that in amongst the technique, then maybe she would have got a four for the technique, but then putting it all together, you would give her a six, so I understand where the judges are coming from. Sometimes the showmanship of performance can take over the bad foot work. Somebody could do a really good technical performance, but it’d be completely flat and have no showmanship at all. I think maybe the showmanship gave her those extra points.

Tom Fletcher returns this week. Do you think it’s fair for the show to do this when others have been sent home like Nina?

I mean it’s happened many many times before and we we’ve had this situation where people have been injured, or for one reason or another, they’ve had to miss the show and we bring them back the week after. It gets more difficult later in the show, but I think now it’s sort of fine because it’s so early on. Obviously they’re a big part of the competition, so we don’t want to lose them, so I think it’s a fair situation. It’s only for one week.

Waite’s Week

“This weekend, I’ve been in Blackburn –  I believe that’s where AJ is from. So, on Saturday I was in Chesterfield and then Blackburn on Sunday with my show, The Ballroom Boys ACT 2, with  Vincent Simone, and he actually came back with me so last night we were watching the show and I was making my notes on everybody and he was also giving me his comments, so some of these are his comments.

“This week, I’m off for four days which is lovely. We have a little break in the tour and then we’re back on Friday. On my days off, I’ll be walking the dogs, going for brunch with my mum, and getting to washing done, because while you’re away you end up with so much, so I’m trying to get that all done. It’s not really a holiday when I have four days off, but it’ll be a nice, little break.”

"Ian
Ian Waite on The Ballroom Boys ACT 2 Tour
Instagram/@ianjwaite

Strictly Come Dancing airs on Saturdays on BBC One. Want something else to watch? Check out our full TV Guide or visit our Entertainment hub for the latest news. 

Ian Waite is currently on tour. Visit theballroomboys.com for tickets.