Strictly Is Back!

It doesn’t seem all that long ago that Louis Smith and Flavia Cacace were showdancing their way to lifting the oh so shiny glitterball, but its that time of year again, Strictly Come Dancing, is back!

Just under 3 weeks ago our appetites were wet with the launch show, and what a launch show it was…

The show began with the song “I’m So Excited” where the pros danced their way on to the red carpet and the fireworks exploded at the top of the stairs revealing this years batch of Celebs. Then BAM! As if by magic we were transported to the new studio (its looks awfully familiar) where the new professional dancers; Kevin, Alijaz, Anya, Janette and Iveta, were introduced in a stunning performance to ‘Walk This Way’. Tess Daly and Siry Bruce Forsyth entered the stage in their usual style, complete with thigh grab and added acrobatics from ‘Bruce’. Amongst the couple reveals (we’ll get to that in a paragraph or two) the ever-so brilliant Rod Stewart (some of our blogging team considered this a highlight, some of us used these few minutes to boil the kettle, stare at a wall, etc) sang with the 4 pro dancers: Kevin & Karen and Robin & Kristina. Its great to see them again after their 4-month breathtaking performance on Burn The Floor held at the Shaftesbury Theatre and also fantastic to see Kevin & Karen together on Strictly for the first time. Jessie J also performed, she may have been great, she may not have… we were too busy laughing at Jessie J based mocking tweets to notice. The show drew to a close with the first group dance, something which is alwas a highlight of the launch show as it gives you the opportunity to instantly see who’s likely to wow and who’s likely to be taking an early exit. This years group dance was surprisingly quite good, (almost) everyone appeared to have potential, very promising.

Now those couple reveals we mentioned…

Sophie and Brendan

Natalie and Artem

Deborah and Robin

Rachel and Pasha

Patrick and Anya

Ashley and Ola

Julien and Janette

Ben and Kristina

Tony and Aliona

Vanessa and James

Fiona and Anton

Abbey and Alijaz

Susanna and Kevin

Mark and Iveta

Dave and Karen

As each couple were announced we found ourselves nodding along in agreement, for once the powers that be seemed to have created a selection of dynamic duos that we’re happy with, we didn’t even utter the sentence ‘aww I wish her with the elbows was with him with the feet’. The pro’s looked just as delighted as the celebs as their fate was revealed, everyone except Aliona that is… she really didn’t look glitteringly enthralled in the whole event.

Sophie and Brendan will no doubt have a VT dedicated to that pun we shall never tire of ‘Murder on the Dance Floor’ (insert head tilt and side glance to the camera here). Artem mentioned he felt like he’d won the jackpot with Natalie and we have a feeling he could be heading for a spot in the final. We can’t see Robin choreographing routines that rely on humour this year with Deborah, the ‘Dragon Den’ star will hopefully over come the fear and have some fun though. Another dream pairing for Pasha with early favourite Rachel, lucky boy. In a VT we saw all the female pro’s mention how they’d love to be paired with Ashley, Ola got all the luck here, she’ll be on our screens a fair bit longer this year than she was last. Aliona looked delighted to be paired with Tony, she just forgot to tell her face that. Pairing James with Vanessa with both predictable and brilliant, the perfect match, god help Craig though if he says anything less than complimentary, neither James nor Vanessa are known for their reserved vocalisation. A slight change for Karen this year going from Nicky to Dave but she seemed delighted and from their tweets they’re getting on like a house on fire (never understood why that saying was to be used in a positive form).

After a few weeks of training the celebs and their pros will be raring to go, apart from maybe Deborah who told us the fear had began to out-weight the training fun and Ashley will be hoping his wife doesn’t go into labour!

Tonight is the night they go live! Steps learnt (they hope) sequins sewn and shoes shined. Here’s what we can look forward to…

Abbey and Aljaz will be Waltzing to ‘Kissing You’ by Des'ree.

Ashley and Ola perform the Cha Cha to global hit ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ by One Direction.

Ben and Kristina will Cha Cha to John Newman’s Northern Soul influenced track, ‘Love Me Again’.

Dave and Karen are also dancing Cha Cha. Their song is the hit single ‘Moves Like Jagger’ by Maroon 5.

Deborah and Robin are going to Tango to Abba’s ‘Money Money Money’.

Fiona and Anton will Tango to Duran Duran’s James Bond theme ‘View To A Kill’.

Julien and Janette are performing Cha Cha to Madonna’s dance hit ‘Vogue’.

Mark and Iveta will dance to Tango classic ‘Hernando's Hideaway’ by Alma Cogan.

Natalie and Artem Cha Cha to disco hit ‘Rasputin’ by Boney M.

Patrick and Anya will Jive to Bruno Mars’ ‘Runaway Baby’.

Rachel and Pasha Waltz to Luther Vandross’ version of ‘When I Need You’.

Susannah and Kevin are performing the Jive to ‘Shake Your Tailfeather’ by Blues Brothers.

Sophie and Brendan are Waltzing to ‘Moon River’ by Audrey Hepburn.

Tony and Aliona Waltz to ‘What'll I Do’ by Alison Krauss.

Vanessa and James will Cha Cha to Shania Twain’s hit single ‘That Don't Impress Me Much’.

We cannot wait for the couples to take to the floor!