Strictly Come Dancing Rankdown (WINNER REVEALED)

[taylorkat]

Cut Pamela Stephenson

Save Mark Ramprakash

[taylorkat]

Pamela Stephenson

 

Pamela Stephenson is a comedienne and psychologist that started her career on stage working with the Sydney Theater Company before moving to the UK.  She was on Not the Nine O'Clock News and Saturday Night Live.  She had a role in the film Superman III. She has a best selling book, a biography of her husband, comedian Billy Connolly. Pamela was on the eighth series of Strictly Come Dancing and her partner was James Jordan.  She received three perfect scores during her run.  They danced a Waltz (31), Salsa (32),  Rumba (35), Tango (34), Jive (27), Foxtrot (33), Cha-Cha (32), American Smooth (37), Charleston (38), Viennese Waltz (40), Paso Doble (35), Quickstep (40), Viennese Waltz (40), and finally, a Showdance (37).  She ended the show in third place.

 

Save Mark Ramprakash

[*Lily]

Save Jade

Cut Greg

 

[*Lily]

Greg Rutherford

 

As I save one long jumper, I'll cut another. I really like Greg and I was glad to see him make it this far in the game, however objectively speaking he is a fair cut at this stage. Series 14 was a really strong cast of contestants in terms of name recognition, personality and on the whole, dance ability. Greg was a good casting for the show this series just coming out of his final Olympic year, as a two-time medallist including a gold in 2012. I was really hoping to see him partnered with Natalie and enjoyed that partnership a lot especially with it being her last one.

 

I thought Greg started pretty decently out of the gate and was excited to see him being a possible contender. Over his time he performed to a consistently alright standard and scored pretty well but was usually kinda middle of the pack, never one of the strongest dancers but also not weaker than the likes of Ed. Although objectively there were dancers I would have liked to have seen last a little longer than he did, such as Daisy and Laura, I don't think he robbed them by any means. He did beat Daisy in the dance-off prior to his elimination which was a shame as Daisy was one of my favorites in this season, but unfortunately she was already struggling a lot with the public vote at that time. I think general likeability, popularity and decent performing probably helped get Greg as far as he did, but I wasn't mad at it as I enjoyed following his journey. However at this time, I feel he is the fairest option to cut.

 

Saving Jade Johnson 

[taylorkat]

Greg

[*Wallace]

Matt Dawson

Making the decision to cut and save between Matt and Gethin was a fairly easy choice to make. Gethin was one of my favorites from Series 5, and that was a season I loved so it was an easy choice to save him, While I do like Matt but he was likely to be one of my targets during the next cycle so I have no choice but to eliminate him right now. Matt Dawson is a retired international Rugby Union player, who most notably was apart of the team who won the World Cup in 2003, competed on the 4th series of Strictly Come Dancing and was partnered with Lilia Kopylova. Matt & Lilia lasted all 12 weeks, finishing 2nd place. Here is a recap of his run:

 

Week 1: Cha Cha to "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" - 19
Week 3: Tango to "Stand By Me" - 30
Week 4: Paso Doble to "I Would Do Anything for Love" - 28
Week 5: Salsa to "Perfect Love" - 25
Week 6: American Smooth to "You Make Me Feel So Young" - 34
Week 7: Waltz to "What a Wonderful World" - 37
Week 8: Jive to "I Feel Good" - 28
Week 9: Quickstep to "Walking On Sunshine" - 34
Week 9: Rumba to "The Blower's Daughter" - 27
Week 10: Viennese Waltz to "Crazy" - 29
Week 10: Samba to "Faith" - 32
Week 11: Foxtrot to "Moondance" - 35
Week 11: Argentine Tango to "I've Seen That Face Before" - 30
Week 12: Waltz reprise to "What a Wonderful World" - 38
Week 12: Samba reprise to "Faith" - 31
Week 12: Quickstep to "(You ur Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher and Higher" - 36

 

While Matt wasn't the best dancer, he was certainly a journey contestant and he had a fascinating journey to watch. Matt started off his run getting a 2 from Craig, and then would grow ending up earning 8's, 9's and a few 10's. Matt was also my 4th favorite of the series behind Mark, Emma and Louisa. I would have preferred Emma and Louisa to have outlast Matt...but we all know that the voting public usually gears towards a male sports star learning to dance over female ringers. So it's not a surprise Matt managed to make it to 2nd. But Matt was a likable underdog type and had a really good partnership with Lilia. This is also my favorite partnership of Lilia's too. Of his routines, his Waltz stands out as my favorite dance from him. He struggled with the Latin through his run but shockingly delivered a solid Samba. The ballroom styles were where he shone most with dances such as the American Smooth, Waltz (my favorite of his), both Quicksteps and Foxtrot. Very well done to Matt getting this far! I will post a few of my favorite dances of his below.

 

 

 

 

Saving: Gethin Jones

[*Amanda]

@*Chris is finishing off the cycle. You cannot nominate:

Matt Baker

Mark Ramprakash

Jade Johnson

Gethin Jones

[*Chris]

Scott Maslen

Ashley Taylor Dawson

Mark Wright

Anita Rani

Helen George

Daisy Lowe

Gemma Atkinson

Karim Zeroual

 

Order: 

Gigi @taylorkat

Diana @*Diana

Lily @*Lily

Wally @*Wallace

 

I also just realized that Gigi is the only who doesn’t have a * and her name as her username in this rankdown  

Edited August 25, 2021 by *Chris

[*Wallace]

Oh dear, going last this time may not work in my favor like last time. As I'm sure I'm bound to lose some favorites here.  But we'll see.

[taylorkat]

Cut Mark Wright

Save Daisy Lowe

[*Diana]

Scott Maslen



This is a fairly easy cut and a difficult choice to save Hellen because I am sealing Gemma's fate but she is a fair cut at this point so I'll let her go. As for my cut I'll go with Scott. It's a easy target for me because I have nominated him a few times so I'll just cut him here. He danced with Natalie Lowe in her 2nd season as a pro during season 8. Honestly I felt the good majority of their dances were over scored ridiculously in particular his Jive and Paso Doble. The only dance I think deserved it's high ranks was their Viennese Waltz. Although he benefited from a season where out of Kara and Matt everyone truly sucked. They were eliminated in 4th place.

Saving: Helen George

Edited August 25, 2021 by *Diana

[taylorkat]

Mark Wright

 

Mark Wright is a radio and television presenter that was born in Essex in 1987.  He is known for the shows The Only Way Is Essex, Take Me Out: The Gossip, Party Wright Around the World, and Club Classics. He was runner-up on the television show I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! Mark was on the twelfth series of Strictly Come Dancing and his dance partner was Karen Hauer.  They danced several dances, including a Cha-Cha (24), American Smooth (27), Paso Doble (35), Quickstep (29), Samba (33), Jive (35), Waltz (31), Charleston (36), Tango (32), Salsa (32), Foxtrot (35), Viennese Waltz (33), Rumba (33), Cha-Cha (35), and a Showdance (35).  He received quite a few individual scores of 8 and 9 during his run, but never any 10s.  He finished in fourth place.

 

Save Daisy Lowe

[taylorkat]

5 hours ago, *Chris said:

I also just realized that Gigi is the only who doesn’t have a * and her name as her username in this rankdown  

Yeah, I kept my original name that I have had since I signed up here.

[*Wallace]

Good/fair spot for Mark. I really liked him on the show. He also ranks as Karen Bauer's highest ranked partner.

 

Aww sad to see Scott, as I just saved him a few rounds ago. But he was likely gonna go here, as I had bigger faves up I would have saved over him. Happy he made it this far. Although Scott & Pamela didn't suck on S8 and the Top 4 were all really good, Miss Diana.

 

Gah nervous for the rest of my faves fates. :shiver:

[*Lily]

Aww Scott.

 

Damn this is hard.  Know who I'm saving but torn on who to cut.

[*Wallace]

3 minutes ago, *Lily said:

Aww Scott.

 

Damn this is hard.  Know who I'm saving but torn on who to cut.

I'm in the same mindset. This is all so tough to figure out, although I'll have a better idea after you decide.

[*Lily]

Gemma Atkinson

 

Hmm I kinda went back and forth between two people on this choice, but decided to go for the person who I think was perhaps the slightly weaker dancer. And on this occasion it's Gemma. I thought Gemma was a really fun contestant and addition to the show, however with the remaining options, she was probably objectively the contestant who I found to be less memorable/strong a dancer.

 

Gemma is best known for being an actress on soaps such as Hollyoaks and Emmerdale, as well as a former model. She was paired with Aljaz in Series 15, and I thought this was a great partnership where they really brought out the fun in each other. I think she was someone who had a good growth and definitely improved a lot over the season, going on to have some really nice routines, one in particular being her American Smooth in Blackpool week. However I feel like she struggled with some of the faster/Latin dances over the season and this held her back a little bit. I was happy to see her make the final though, as I enjoyed her and her journey more than some of the dancers at a similar standard to her who lasted as long as she did, such as Mollie and Davood (who I just remembered I cut also ).

 

Gemma did a great job in the final but was up against a tough calibre of dancers in Alexandra, Debbie and Joe. I think she could have even been one of Joe's biggest competitors for the win, it's a shame we never know for sure because of how the winner is revealed in the final. Now I'd probably say Debbie was leaning towards that second place spot, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was Gemma because of how she was pretty well-liked and didn't really get the ringer backlash in the way that Debbie and Alexandra did. Overall a great journey for her though.

 

Strictly was clearly a rewarding journey for Gemma in many ways though, as she went on to date, and is now engaged to, pro dancer Gorka.  They also have a daughter together, and they seem a really lovely pairing. It was fun to see Gemma get to come back for the Christmas special too where she performed with Gorka. So it's lovely to see how things played out from her experience on the show. I think this is a great and fair spot for her, it was a difficult choice but I feel at this stage it's the right choice.

 

Saving Karim Zeroual

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2021 by *Lily

[*Diana]

@*Lilythank you for giving her such a good write up

[*Lily]

52 minutes ago, *Diana said:

@*Lilythank you for giving her such a good write up

 

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it Wanted to give her a good write-up as I felt bad to have to cut her!

[*Amanda]

@*Wallace has Anita Rani vs. Ashley Taylor Dawson 

[*Wallace]

Really great write-up on Gemma there, Lily.  Her American Smooth was definitely her highlight. And I love how Strictly brought her & Gorka together where they now have a daughter and aew engaged!

 

Anywho, my write-up will be coming soon. I have a lot to say on this contestant and just want to get all my thoughts right.

[*Wallace]

Anita Rani

 

Gah this was (probably) the toughest cut I had to make between Anita and Ashley. Both were amongst my faves of their respective seasons where I was invested and interested in their journeys. I was a little more invested on Ashley's run and think he's the more consistent & better dancer of the two hence why I saved him here. That means Anita gets my cut....and it was not an easy decision.

 

Anita Rani is a TV news presenter, who competed on the 13th series of Strictly Come Dancing, where she was partnered with one time Strictly pro, Gleb Savchenko. Anita & Gleb lasted 12 weeks making all the way to 5th place. I never heard of Anita before her series but she quickly won me over as a fan with her early dances. Anita was up against A LOT of tough competition. She had to compete against singers and actors with past dance or stage experience such as Jay, Georgia, Kellie, Helen, Peter and Jamelia - all of which who were either early favorites or actual contenders throughout the series. Anita was never the best or most technical dancer, but I thought she really held her own amongst these strong dancers and performers. Anita just had this engaging spark to her, where she lit up the stage as a performer. She has this joy and really gave it her all each week. May I also say I loved her partnership with Gleb too? I thought he gave Anita some more of his best and most inspired choreography on these DWTS type shows. And comparing his time with Anita to his time on DWTS, I would honestly say this was NY 2nd favorite partnership of his ever, after Jana Kramer. Here is a breakdown of her run:

 

Week 1: Cha cha to "Rather Be" - 27

Week 2: Charleston to "Pencil Full Of Lead" - 27

Week 3: American Smooth to "Unchained Melody" - 29

Week 4: Samba to "Hips Don't Lie" - 27

Week 5: Tango to "Sweet Disposition" - 32

Week 6: Waltz to "Once Upon A Dream" - 29

Week 7: Jive to "The Boy Does Nothing" - 34

Week 8: Quickstep to "Don't Get Me Wrong" - 32

Week 9: Paso Doble to "Malaguena" - 37

Week 10: Rumba to "Read All About It" - 31

Week 11: Argentine Tango to "Cell Block Tango" - 31

Week 12: Foxtrot to "New York, New York" - 32

Week 12: Salsa to "Feel This Moment" - 32

 

As I said, I loved Anita as a contestant as she was out of her comfort zone, and really embraced the Strictly experience. I will say the main issue with her was that her technique and footwork wasn't really up to par as some of the other contestants. The judges commented on thus a lot. I didn't really mind this but know it was noticeable in some dances. I do think that was on Gleb as he focused on more flashy choreography rather than helping Anita on the basics and improving her technique.

 

I was happy she made it all the way to the semi finals, but I was ticked she lost out to Katie & Anton, because of the push to get Anton to the final.  UGH. Anita should have been in the finals over Katie. But then again, Helen should have been in the finals over both of them. So I guess 5th was the right spot for Anita to leave at. This cut also ensures a Jay/Georgia/Kellie/Helen Top 4, which I think would have been a strong final.

 

Wow, I said a lot! But of Anita's dances, my favorite was her Paso Doble at Blackpool. GIRL SLAYED and was SO fierce in that dance!  I enjoyed a lot of her other dances such as her: American Smooth, Samba, Tango, Waltz, Jive and Rumba. In fact, I really loved her Maleficent Waltz and would say that was maybe my 2nd fave from her. I'll close this out with a few of her dances below.

 

 

 

Saving: Ashley Taylor Dawson

 

[*Amanda]

23

[*Amanda]

24

[*Amanda]

25