Episode 53 Strictly - It Takes Two

Welcome to another Wednesday edition of It Takes Two. Hold onto your

hats, because coming your way tonight - they went in for the kill

and ended up the king and Queen of the swingers to boot, Natalie and

Artem join us. Plus, Chigvintsev will be taking on

Du Beke in the Pro Challenge. Here to give us a little peek at the

two dances our couples will perform this weekend, it's the gorgeous Ian

Waite. This is Strictly It Takes Two.

Hello! Welcome to It Takes Two. It's Wednesday and this week spells

double trouble for our couples as they tackle not one, but two dances

in the semifinal. After a couple of cracking performances at the

weekend, Natalie and Artem are primed and raring to go. They join

me next after a quick recap of their performances. It was clean. It was

precise. It's almost too slick. I know that sounds bizarre, but that

was just too much. They looked the essence of classic Spain. It was

fantastic. It really was. The flamenco shaping was superb with the

arms and the body. Beautiful work. I like the intensity. I loved the

passion. I loved the focus of the whole thing. It was too much faffing

about at the beginning. Nine. Nine. Eight. Nine. It was good. I thought

it was good. I really enjoyed it. They didn't sound too sure. Welcome

the flamenco goddess Natalie and her bull fighter Artem! We're all doing

it. Congratulations on making it through to the semifinals. What a

weekend it was. I know. They left you right till the last in the

Results Show. How much due think you were going home? We were ready. We

were ready to dance again for sure. I was convinced. I was like get your

paso face ready, here we go. When they read your names out and you

knew that you weren't in the dance-off and you had gone through,

you looked sombre at that point. What was going through your mind?

Really upset for Patrick, I think, at that point. It's funny, it's like

you don't - even the last two couples who stand there and if one

of the people are called for the dance-off, I don't think the other

couple is happy, because it's not a great moment. Because someone is in

the dance-off and has to do their dance. I think it was just a mixture

of feelings of me thinking that's it, we're doing another paso. And

then our names were called and Patrick, it's just a mixture of so

many feelings. You don't know how to take it. It's intense. Bless you.

It's intense watching as well. Let's talk about the performance. You went

down the traditional route. A lot out of hold. Did you know, Artem,

that Len might have a little moan about that? All right, I mean, Len

always says things about hold in the ballroom style, let's say like

waltz, foxtrot, quickstep, I didn't quite knew it would have to be in

hold for 40% in the paso doble. I was never told that. I didn't have a

clue. Obviously, if I knew, I would do it. Because that's the last thing

I want to have is upset Len and the panel. He's been quite upset for

quite a few weeks now. We really tried to go traditional - costumes

and music, what he likes. Lots of people online and I mean lots of

people disagreed with Len. Susan said, "This dance had all the right

ingredients, the nature of the paso is to create an atmosphere, to

illustrate a situation between the two. They did a grand job." Thank

you Susan. Thank you. Were you disappointed by the judges'

reactions? I think we were slightly winded by Len. But that's what we're

there for to be judged by them, to get their feed back. I think

ultimately, when people are hard on you, it's because they care and they

can see what you could be and so, that's what they have been hard on

us. It was just a moment to take stock and go, right, what do we need

to do next? It's all a lot to take in. But it made us come out and

fight stronger in the swing-a-thon as well. Very brave. Let's talk

about that. Len then said, "You'll have to buck your ideas up in the

swing-a-thon. And you did because you won. Well deserved. How much fun

did you have out there? This is really horrible. Why is it horrible?

The last time it was like... I'm not surprised, it was 28 minutes into

the dance at that point. We know you're pretty competitive you two.

Not really. There's no skirting around that issue. Look at this:

Who's got the better skirt now? You know those pictures in the magazine,

who wear better - clearly it's me. My cape is prettier than yours. No.

It is. Mine is more feminine. Yours is a bit droopy. Look how long mine,

yours is short. I don't know why women's complaints, it's the best

thing ever. Mine is better than yours. No, I'd rather have mine.

Look how pretty that is. Mine is like a superwoman cape. Yeah, right.

Yours is like a big girl's skirt. So much to play with. What guys play

with? Nothing. We don't want to know what guys play with. I just love

those little incites into your world. It's wonderful. Looks good on

you, Artem. Two routines... Thank you, I thought it looked better. You

can have that, you win. Two routines this weekend, Argentine tango first

of all, tell me about that, are you enjoying it? Very much so. It's all

a bit twister as Artem said when we were rehearsing. It's left foot

green, right foot red. Oh, the game Twister! Perfect way to describe it.

But I think we're going to enjoy it. It's very different to everything

else we've done. It's just a bit of a new challenge because you can't

apply any of the ballroom or Latin rules to it. It's a whole new ball

game. Throw it all out, start again. You've got graet music. Listen to

this. Think about your A frame. It's good! You've got that dance. And

also, you have the opposite end of the spectrum, the salsa, the party

dance. Here's your music. Come on. Wanna Be Starting Something

You're a vegetable. You're a vegetable. Until today I thought

that was the lyrics. Didn't find it funny at all. Was upsetting. Is it?

It's coming. It came along well today, let's put it this way. Good

luck. It's a long journey. We're getting there. I'm sure you

will be glorious if you get through this weekend, you're in the final.

It's not far. Good luck, Natalie and Artem! We love you.

Two dances means twice the amount of pressure. With that in mind, there's

only one man who can show us how our celebrities are getting on.

Welcome Ian Waite! I love that little charleston. I can't do that.

My ankles aren't loose enough. That's an interesting condition.

Let's have a look at what they're doing this week. All the couples

doing two dances. Very exciting. The first dance, do us a favour - get

your wand out. OK. Something's gone wrong. It's broken. Any way, let's

look at Abbey and Aljaz. They are doing a samba. She got top marks for

a salsa, 40 out of 40. Does this stand her in good stead? Not

particularly because samba has such a different action. It has that

bounce action. Salsa doesn't really have that. Salsa is all in the hips.

With samba you have the bounce action. What I wanted to point out

that she's got the bend in the knee, but you obviously have to have the

straightening as well. She has to go up, in these botafogos she has to

have an up position. It straightens again. You go a one, a two.

Straighten the knees. I bet she's got that. Sophie and Brendan are

doing a paso doble. Darcey was saying she loved Sophie's attack in

the tango. Is she bringing it to the paso? Her frame is very good.

There's a lot of paso doble steps, so a lot of content. I think she is

going through the steps. It's a bit soft, lied like -- I'd like to see

more attack. The Graham frame -- the frame is great. She's producing

amazing lines. Look how long her leg is. Her legs almost look as long as

hers. Can go down further than me. Old. Steady on. Susanna and Kevin

are doing a salsa. She struggled a bit with some of her Latin dances.

They've always been brilliant, though. Is this salsa looking like

it could be a stand-out performance? She's looking really natural. That's

not a word I would throw around in salsa, normally, you're saying, this

is a bit awkward looking or unnatural. It's a difficult dance to

do. What I love about these two is that they give it 100% all the time.

You watch clips of them and they never mark anything. They are going

for it 100%, which is amazing. It's fantastic. I want you to see there,

I wanted to stop it there, see how far she's gone with her flexibility.

In the beginning she wasn't that flexible. Now this whole backbend

stuff. I want to put peanuts into Kevin's mouth there. Looking good.

Patrick and Anya with a paso doble this weekend. The judges said his

rumba was too intense. But that is key with the paso. I think that's a

bit of a ridiculous thing to say. . Think you can have an intense rumba

as well. If the music suggests it and also, this paso doble, depending

on the music, should be intense, strong, dramatic. Here, he's doing

his lovely heel leads. Good boy. He needs to get this in when he's

taking a heel lead, very strong, straight legs, strong walks, get the

bottom underneath, the first thing that comes over the foot, what

happens is his body will be straight there and he will shape like that.

Just three or four inches further forward. Natalie and Artem also with

a salsa. How much salsa content is Artem throwing in there? We're

seeing lots of content of salsa. It looks a great dance. I think Artem

has had a lot of criticism about doing separate choreography, away

from each other and shaping away from each other, but that's a

conscious decision from Artem. He's an amazing choreographer. He's done

that because of their height difference. She's slightly taller

than him. I show you how we do it. If I do this, an upright. You just

stand there. Good at that. I can shape and look smaller than you.

Then we don't see the height difference so much. Every home

should have an Ian Waite. You carry on, love. We'll come back to talk

about the second lot of dances later. Give it up for oon, please.

-- Ian, please. APPLAUSE

as we know, Natalie Lowe has been helping our soon to be newly-weds

prepare for their first big dance on the big day. You're scaring me now.

With their wedding a matter of days away, it's time to see how much of a

crowd easer their performance will be.

I've just arrived at Mel and Gordon's work. They've never

performed in front of an audience. So I thought I'd give them a taster

session of what it's like to dance in front a crowd before their big

day. Hello! Everybody was excited to see Natalie coming in today. We've

been the centre of attention here for the last couple of weeks and she

stole our thunder ape bit today. Yeah. I want to put you through a

little test. I'm sorry to do this to you but we've never performed in

front of a crowd. How do you feel about doing it here, at work, in

front of your colleagues. That sounds terrifying. I thought we

would shake off the nerves. That way on the night, we can enjoy the

moment. Why not. We'll give it a show. Love you guys. Get your shoes

on and I will chat with your work mates. I want to know is Gordon

getting a lot of stick from all the work and football colleagues? He's

been getting a lot of stick, but we've been disappointed because he's

been so good. They don't appear to be faking it any more. They're

really into it. They look like they're professional stars. I might

be out of a job soon. You never know. I might have to work for you.

We'd give you a job. You start at the bottom, getting me coffee, is

that OK sthnchts white and two? That will do. Nervous? Like, incredibly.

So, guys, are you ready to see a sneak preview of their wedding

dance? Yay. Come with me! Ready to go. No. Let's do it. Let's do it.

Don't be nervous. They won't bite. The first few steps, it hit us a bit

that everybody was watching. I think pretty quickly, we relaxed into it,

which was good. It encourages us for the day.

With the wedding so close now, it helps to do it in front of an

audience to face those nerves and realise your legs still function,

when you're feeling like that, it's a relief to know. Hopefully, on the

day, now, it will be a cinch. APPLAUSE

For all of us who see them every day, it is so exciting to see a

little taster what have they have to offer. Everybody at work has been so

supportive, from the very beginning, to give them ape taste of it here,

is nice to have them part of the whole experience.

Looking good. Just two sleeps till the big day. Good luck on Friday.

We'll be thinking of you. Over the past week, we've been testing our

pros on their drunken sailors, time to see if our next contender's

efforts are more ship shape than shipwreck. Pleas welcome back --

please welcome back Artem Chigvintsev!

APPLAUSE The terminator returns. That was

enough. In 2011, if we remind ourselves you were the botafogo

champion. You have the world certificate. You missed last year

because of a knee operation. You're back to prove that you can be the

top? I don't know. That's why I'm here for, to find out. Come on,

we're going to find out. You have one world record certificate, which

you keep next to the television, so you can see it. Where would you put

the other if you won it? The one of them is on the right side of the TV.

If I win it and if I win it, it would be on the left side. Just to

balance it out. Brilliant. Let's check out the leaderboard:

I'm very proud of Anton. Proud of you. I like that. We all are. Do you

think you can beat Du Beke? No. Let's have a look.

I think the secret to winning this challenge is to go as fast as you

can. There is a balance between doing it right and doing it fast.

You need to find the perfect middle, that you still do a nice step, still

go fast. Hello, welcome. Hello. Thank you. Glad to see you've

dressed up for us. Tried my best. What can I say. You're a previous

record holder. Who do you think is your biggest competition? I think

everybody is considered to be competition. Brilliant. Please take

to the floor. You're a world record holder, good

luck. For the record, three, two, one... Go!

Well done. How was that? All right. It was not bad. I gave my best. They

were very clean and there was a slight sprint to the finish line at

the end. You held your trousers up. You did a good job. I think I did

not bad. I don't think it was fast by any means. But I gave my best. I

know, a lot of people disappointed that he held his trousers up. How

many do you think you managed in the 30 seconds? How many Pasha did? 37.

I think 36. After each of the professionals made their attempt the

footage was watched back to verify every single one to make sure they

were accurate. Fortunately, for you, you had no disqualifications. Now

the moment of truth. I can reveal that you scored... Oh, no.

I can't deal with this. Let's do it already. You scored 48!

So proud. One more. You beat Pasha. You have to face two more. Who is

your money on? Janette. Thank you so much for taking part. Good luck this

weekend. You're welcome. Thank you. Artem! I guess they're going to have

to shift my certificate to the middle. To balance it out. There's

always next year. Last week, our It Takes Two works experience inturn

Lisa had her hands dirty with the props department. This week, we

thought we would give her something more glamorous. Let's see how she

got on with the hair and make up team.

I'm back doing my work experience. I have a feeling that this week it's

going to be my favourite. I'm going to mare hand make up. Explain to

everyone at home what you do and what's your title. I'm hair and make

up designer on Strictly come dancing, it's up to me to put

everyone's look together for their concept dance and the group numbers.

How many bottles of foundation do you go through? Hundreds. I mean we

all carry kits this big with us. There's 115 brushes in this roll

alone. What's your favourite make up this series snnchs I loved my tango

make up. The big, black eyes, I love dark eye make up. Can I put oil on

Artem? All right, then. You'll have to fight me for that first. I'm

oiling Artem. See you. Oh, gosh, hours and hours, you need a lot more

rubbing in. This could take at least an hour. It needs a lot more

rubbing. A great job! I did it. Lisa made me a sparkle. This is what we

call a bardot piece. We use them when we want to add a lot of hair

into something and we can't keep tonging and back combing people's

own hair. We are going to tong this in preparation for going into

Abbey's hair. You trust me? I do, implicitly. Give it a spray. Lovely.

She's a natural. You know what I mean? ! She's on the team. So this

is the hair going in. This is a veen yeets waltz -- Viennese waltz. We

want today quite romantic. We want to see the neck line. It's a pet

hate if they can't see the neck line. They can't see if they're

holding their frame or not. A really dramatic glittery red eye here on

Sophie. The glitter drops. So we have this piece of tape and we dab

to remove the excess. What's been your favourite make up of the

series? I loved the samba with the jewels all over my eyes. That was

really nice. You have such striking cheekbones, you can take such

brilliant make up. I love a bit of make up. There's 30 minutes to go

live and I've seen it in here, it's mayhem. Yes. How do you support the

team? I make sure everybody is organised, they know who they're

doing, what time they're doing it and what the dance is. We have to

stick to these schedules. Each make up artist and hairdresser knows who

they have at what time and then they all know that they have to be done

for a live show. It's going to be a great night. Everyone down to the

corridor for final checks. I've had a ball today. I think you need a

touch-up here, I'm coming to get you.

Really? Thanks Lisa. Lovely to see you. Back to the training room. Now

to see how our couples are getting on with their second dances, welcome

back the delightful Ian Waite. Right, let's go back to Abbey and

Aljaz. Their second dance is the American smooth. We know Abbey loves

her ballroom. She's so good at it. Could this dance be a show stopper?

Well it's really difficult to tell at this stage. They're walking

through it, but it looks smoothie, like a proper smoothie. I'm sure it

will be. If her ballroom is the only thing to go by, I'm sure this will

be great. I've stopped it there because I want to zoom in on some of

the detail. Look at that. That lovely point that she's got. Ten

feet! Not really. That's not easy to do and already she's doing that. I

think that's the thing. At this stage in the competition, they need

to be giving those details. What the judges want to see. Nice hands, good

posture. Sophie and Brendan also doing the American smooth. The

judges tend to talk about sowive's top line -- Sophie's top line. I

think she has a great neck line and good shoulders and good tram. --

frame. Here, I mean, what my main criticism is that she needs to show

more expression. I'd love to see her just come alive in the face and I

think that would come through her body. At the moment, they're just

kind of working it out, I think. Working the steps out from this

clip. But it looks intricate. I think Brendan does great foxtrots,

American smooths, I think it will be a great number. Susanna and Kevin

are doing a foxtrot. I think this is much more Susanna's happen yip

place, kind of arena, she loves the ballroom. Do you think she could be

back at her best? Lots of foxtrot content and if you saw me and

Natalie last night, we were talking about the smoothness across the

floor. If you're watching this little bit, it's so smooth across

the floor, what's so great is, the reason she's got that is because a

few things. She's softening into the knees. Perfect. She is over the

right side of Kevin. So she's perfectly in the right place. She's

got - and her head is in the right position. She's looking over his

right-hand side. Just a perfect position. Because of those soft

legs, she's being able to flow across the floor. Glide. Patrick and

Anya are dog a waltz. Up said in the past that pat -- you said in the

past Patrick is stronger out of hold. How is he looking in hold? He

tends to struggle with his hold. I think this dance, if he doesn't get

some of these things right, he might get penalised by the judges. I've

slowed it down so you can see was going on. Now I'm going to point out

a few things that he could try to get right this week. The four things

are his shoulder, right shoulder is up. The second one is hand is slayed

on her back. -- sprayed -- splayed on her back. He needs to look to her

left. The third is that he's opening his left-hand side. He needs to keep

that up to Anya. Apart from that, brilliant! Natalie and Artem are

doing an Argentine tango. Will they be in hold enough with this to keep

Len happy this week? It's all in hold, thankfully. They're doing a

brilliant job. What I love aesthetically, she uses her feet and

ankles and legs lovely. That's great for Argentine tango. If you lock at

these decorations, I will spotlight that. This is the area she looks at

her best. She's using those legs, wrapping around him. Shall we have a

go? We've never done this before. Lunge forward. Just be careful.

Lovely. Wonderful. Good luck to all of them this weekend. Thank you Ian

Waite. That is all for today. Thanks to my guests. Join me tomorrow, I'm

joined by Kevin and Susanna, Vicky will be here to go through the

weekend's frocks and we find out who will be victorious in the Pro

Challenge final with Kevin and Jeanette.

Good