Ian Waite shares advice for Strictly’s Rhys Stephenson following dance off with Ugo Monye

By Grace Henry

Published: Monday, 25 October 2021 at 12:00 am

This weekend, Strictly Come Dancing said goodbye to another contestant, with Ugo Monye becoming the fourth celebrity to be eliminated from the show.

The former rugby player had just returned from a week off, due to an ongoing back injury – something RadioTimes.com columnist and ex Strictly pro, Ian Waite, thinks could have affected his chances on the show, with Ugo essentially being one week behind all the other contestants in the Strictly Come Dancing 2021 line-up.

Here, Waite shares his thoughts on Week Five, and provides advice for Rhys Stephenson, who found himself in the dance off with Ugo.

Ian on Saturday’s show

Week Five, and we had 11 couples left in the competition. Sadly, Judi Love was not able to dance this week due to COVID, but hopefully she’ll be well again next week and all precautions are being made to make sure all the couples stay in their own bubbles to prevent anyone catching it from other couples which is keeping the show going!

How did the Strictly couples do this week?

Dan Walker and Nadiya Bychkova – They opened the show with a Viennese Waltz which is always a difficult dance to master due to the constant rotation. More lowering in the standing foot would help to create a greater movement across the floor, but always elegant and charming.
Adam Peaty and Katya Jones – They started the routine by gyrating to George Michael’s Faith, and I was totally sold. Although there are times when Adam’s technique can look slightly awkward, I just enjoy watching him so much, and I’m always impressed by his commitment.
Sara Davies and Aljaz Skorjanec – Very nice foot articulation, nut this needs to continue through and into the hips. It was, however, a very romantic interpretation of how a Rumba should be characterised.
Tom Fletcher and Amy Dowden – I really like this interpretation of the salsa, with lots of Tom-isms throughout, so lots of jumps and splits. It was slightly different to a normal salsa, but sometimes the body stopped moving in the set and the body should be continuous. The lifts were very effortless though and he looked very dynamic.
Tilly Ramsay and Nikita Kuzmin – Their Foxtrot flowed across the Strictly dance floor like a Rolls Royce. Beautiful poise and elegance. Continue like this, and they will have a chance of making the final.
AJ Odudu and Kai Widdrinton – Tess said she had a soft spot for the Argentine Tango, and I’m sure a lot of us have. This was such a dramatic and powerful performance with legs for days!
Ugo Monye and Oti Mabuse – With Rumba being the most difficult dance for a male celebrity, I felt that Ugo partnered Oti really well, but forgot about his own body action. The spine needed to be elongated. Rumba is particularly difficult for male dancers, because of the slowness of it, and the alternation of doing the slow rotation of the hips and the figure eight. Also having sharps sort of straight legs – that with the hip action and and the soft arms is very difficult.
John Whaite and Johannes Radebe – This dance was executed with so much precision and synchronicity. The swivel was perfect, and John has become such an accomplished dancer. The choreography was absolutely brilliant. So much fun!
Rose Ayling-Ellis and Giovanni Pernice – A masterclass in how to act at the beginning of the number. The storyline was brilliantly choreographed by Gio. Rose kept fantastic contact in the body throughout and beautiful poise.
Rhys Stephenson and Nancy Xu – I’m not sure husband would be happy with the fact that they had three stripes on the arms, and four stripes on the shoulders, because I know that, Captain has four stripes, and a senior first officer has three. So there’s a bit of a mix of jobs there because my husband’s a pilot. Sometimes Rhys turns his feet in and occasionally forgets to finish off his hands in lines, but the movement and lift work were excellent.

“I can understand why Ugo was in the bottom two!”

It’s always difficult because it can be just the luck of the draw, which dance do you get each week, because obviously everybody’s going to have a strongest dance and everybody’s going to have a weakest dance. If you have a weakest dance an obviously this was Ugo’s weakest dance, the Rumba, which I mentioned is very difficult for male celebrities, and everybody else had better dances. Obviously, Sara had a Rumba as well, but, unfortunately, Ugo’s was nowhere near as good as hers, so I can understand why he went into the bottom two.

Strictly High of The Week

“I’d have to say John and Johannes because I really liked their Charleston. I loved the choreography and I felt like this was a great dance for them. Last week wasn’t so good for them, because it was the American Smooth, and they’re very strong dancers, so they kind of overpowered the dance. It’s the soft dances that they will struggle with. This week, however, John’s dancing was just brilliant. Half the battle is for the celebrities, is to match their professional partners in energy and technique, and I really do feel, John is stepping up to the plate and and matching Johannes.”