Episode 57 Strictly - It Takes Two

Hello and welcome to It Takes Two. It's our last Tuesday show and we

have the finalists in the house. Yes, they found themselves in the

dance-off on Sunday night but the judges saved them and they are here

to tell all. Natalie and Artem. Oh, what a lovely picture. Here to give

us her opinions on the weekend's choreography, for one last time,

Karen Hardy and her giant bauble. Don't show that little one.

Finally they smoothed their way into the final. I will be talking to

Abbey and Aljaz later. From London, this is Strictly, It

Takes Two. Welcome your host, Zoe Ball.

APPLAUSE Hello and welcome to It Takes Two.

On Sunday night - thank you - Natalie and Artem survived the

dreaded dance-off and made it through to the grand final. Before

we speak to them, let's remind ourselves of what happened. I'm a

little bit upset, actually. Because I could the find much wrong with it,

to be honest. The dance content was amazing. Fabulous performance. You

have just the right amount of rhythm and fluidity. Wonderful.

10. 10. 10. 10. Who points. I couldn't be happier, really.

It was the precision, the placement. The lines. It was almost like

watching a surgical operation. I'm telling you, you sizzled out there,

girl. 9. 9. 10. 10.

It's not bad, eh? Hopefully that's enough. We'll find out who has has

won the last place in the Strictly come dancing final. Natalie and

Artem. Natalie and Artem. Natalie and Artem.

Please welcome Natalie and Artem. APPLAUSE

Congratulations. You have made it through to the final, it is

unbelievable. You must be so excited. Oh, absolutely. Show dance,

the last celebration. Made it to the end - by the skin of our teeth but

we made it to the end. Oh incredible performances on

Saturday. How shocked were you to be in the bottom two? I don't know

about shocked. Five couples and two will be in the bottom two. So a high

chance of being there. We were kind of dreading that moment for a few

weeks now, I think, secretly. Yes. Did it take away from the fact that

you got full marks from the salsa or will no-one ever take that away from

you? No, not at all, I don't think so. Just because you score well on

the night, doesn't give you an assumption you are going to go

through. The two are completely separate. You are not going to get

through, without the public support. So, it was a really lovely moment

that we enjoyed but then you kind of go straight to - right, have to get

in the Argentine tango mode and forget about that all quite quickly.

We are completely reliant on votes. I still can't stop smiling at your

little face, Artem, when you got four 10s, it is the first time you

have ever got four 10s, as you said to Tess. People were asking - you

have never got four 10s before? I was like - no. How has that

happened? In four years, my first 40. Pretty exciting. Thank you.

Well-deserved. Amazing. Your Argentine tango was an incredible

moment. Len said you sizzled out there on the dancefloor, how did you

find it? I'm not really a sizzler kind of gal. I loved it. It was a

stunning dance to do and I had a little error at the beginning which

frightened me a little bit. So it took me a while to get back into...

What happened? I didn't spot that. I don't know. I got nervous because I

heard the judges' VT beforehand when they were talking about what we

needed to do. I was watching that thinking - I hope she's not

listening to this while waiting. So the nerves kicked in big time, which

is why we chose it for the dance-off, because I wanted to enjoy

it. The second time around. And awesome. Craig felt that Natalie was

leading you at times on the dancefloor. Was that the way for

you? Story of the series. Not quite sure. No, it didn't really feel that

way. It might look that way. It didn't feel like that. The tango is

based on lead and follow. Originally Argentine tango was more of a social

dance. People dance on the streets with people they might not know. It

is all based on lead and follow. It didn't quite look like that. I

didn't feel T it might look like that from outside. I didn't feel it.

-- I didn't feel it. Being a tall girl, like when you were younger,

you always have to be the boy, so you naturally lead. That happened to

me. Now it might be sweetness and light

on the sofa but that's not always it's case in the training room. Look

at this. Ohhhhh! What do you think? Oh, I can't do this any more!

Chocolate. Do you know what I need, chocolate. Vegetable, chocolate.

Sorry, I just got a bit of food in my teeth. That's so awful. I'm a bit

lazy. I wish to be a girl sometimes, I'm not going to lie. Can you feel

that? I don't think there's any room for you. I love you two. Such a

lovely relationship. Three dances, the judges' choice, your cha-cha-cha

from week 11. Did you remember it, still? No. Are you pleased they've

chosen that? I have surprised actually. Because it seems such a

long time ago. What is really nice is that it is kind of this feeling

of coming full circle. We tried to step through it the other day,

didn't we, for the first time? We were kind of - oh, remember when we

did this? And remember back in week... So it was nostalgic. It has

given me a chance to show how far I've come. Some people don't see me

as having this journey that other people have had, but I think,

hopefully that will show that. You have chosen to do your American

Smooth, Dream Girls. Len was saying there was a lot of swooshing and he

wanted more in hold. I liked the swooshing. We all loved it. It was

only Len. Are you adapting it or as originally choreographed? I think it

is a bit unfair really to do something different. I think what

people will have seen and liked about the dance is you don't want to

change and take away from it. Plus, it was Natalie's choice. She wanted

to dotted American smooth. I'm a big believer that it should be your

celebrity's favourite dance. It is their journey at the end of the day.

You didn't want to change any steps because you liked it the way it is

Stunning. I feel that we should keep that. And, you know, I don't know,

just enjoy it, really. It was perfection. And then, the show

dance. You've got great music. Have a listen.

# Steppin' out with my baby... # Get the Kanes out. Will you be

wearing spats. Not this version. This is very slow. That's Fred

Astaire, the original. Oh, wow. Is yours more jazzed up? We have six

versions crashing together. Quick, quick, quick. Different speeds,

different dances. Will be there gifts? Yeah, yeah. Maybe we'll treat

you. Good luck on Saturday. You have been awesome to watch. We will see

you there. Natalie and Artem. APPLAUSE

So good. In a moment I will be chatting to Karen Hardy about all of

Saturday night's choreography. Before that, time to find out how

Lisa Riley got on when she took a trip up to the sound department.

Zoe I'm back again doing my work experience. It is my last one of the

series. I have had a ball. This week we are trusting me and sending me to

the sound department. Listen, can you hear me? (BEEP) I think it's

broke. Tony, hello. How are you? Well, I've been invited to your

cockpit. For everyone at home, can you tell us what your involvement is

with Strictly? I'm in charge of the sound. For the whole of this

programme, this desk looks after 60-odd radio mikes plus the band.

Nearly 70 mikes. I hope you will be proud of me on your team today,

Tony. Certainly will. The good thing is I'm very loud. Not necessarily a

good thing but nice to know. Before it gets too busy with rehearsals,

the microphones that pick up the live audience must be checked. Hi,

Tony has sent me to check the microphones. This one wasn't

sounding healthy. Are they very powerful? Not powerful. But very

good quality. If you are sat here, they can pick up the laughter,

clapping and applause. Yes, otherwise people at home would think

there was nobody here. I have just heard we need to check the levels

for the band. Pop around and see Rob. This Des somebody for the band

who are a huge responsibility for the department. -- this desk. Press

this button and say - please can we have some kick drum. Hi Darrel, can

we have kick drum. Hi, you have some kick now. Push that fader up. Keep

going, don't be afraid. . We'll have snare drum next. Ask for some snare

Please can we have snare drum? Thank you. Very military. The test is -

can he play them altogeth? Darrel, can we have all at once, please? OK.

I love it. That Bass is too high. Bring it down. Brilliant. As we have

seen in previous weeks, the sound department have to work closely with

costumes to make sure the microphone packs are carefully concealed. We

have to find a place in the dress which would be comfortable for the

dancer. With the ladies down the back, or if it is skfrpy up here in

the boobs. You have to make sure that the aerial is somewhere free so

we can hear it properly and when we hear the mike, it is not covered in

lovely sparkly things. Thank you for having me today. It's been really

good. One thing I need to know, all the years working on Strictly with

these mics, I bet you have heard a few secrets. I tell you what, there

was a time when you and Robin... OK thank you, Zoe. It's my secret. My

secret. I'll have a word with the boys. Time for our last visit of the

series to my favourite corner of the studio. Yes, it's THEE Karen Hardy.

Welcome Karen Hardy. I can't believe it's going to be our

last time together in Choreography Corner this series. What am I going

to do without you? You'll have to come around every Tuesday to have

tea. We have eight dances to get through. Natalie and Artem, their

first full house. Technically she is perfect. Is technique enough to win

the final? Never. You can't win with technique aLen as my teacher once

told me - aLen. I built the technique as a guide. It is there to

help us move across the floor. You need the rhythm and performance

energy and most importantly what we want natedly to do is to fall in

love with the feelings and emotions of the entire dance. -- Natalie to

do. If she does that on final night, wow, what could we have? Through the

roof. Their Argentine tango, an incredible performance. Craig said

her begun chouxes needed to be looser. -- her Ganchos? What did he

mean? It is down to styling. She is so balletic and controlled within

her body. When we saw that movement, it was incredible but some of the

ganchos are loose and free, some are tight. It is down to styling. I

thought it was an incredible number for the semifinal. She just stole

the show with that Argentine tango. I love the fake ending, the little

ending and then not ending and bang. Susanna and Kevin and their foxtrot,

two 10s from Len and Bruno, would you have agreed with them? What they

brought and I love what these two do, is how they move in harmony.

This is what I have chosen. Look at the shaping of the body. She could

still be bolt upright and Kevin could be doing all that beautiful

movement in his body shoe she goes with him. This is what you can only

get over time. They've bonded together, these two and again, gave

us an incredible dance. Foxtrot - very, very difficult, so she was

unlucky to get that dance but delivered it beautifully. Well done,

Susanna. And the judges, when they did their salsa, said it was a

little bit messy. Did it deserve to have the lowest scores of the night?

Do you know what, somebody was going to end up down there. What you have

to be careful in this dance, we know salsa doesn't have the height of

discipline. You can be free. But, where they were so in harmony with

each other in the foxtrot previously, they just didn't quite

move together. Again, get that final night - if they use that harmony of

movement, that's their selling point. They've bonded so well. Gosh,

who knows what we could get out of these two Sophie and Brendan and

their paso doble. I loved this. Craig, said, however, it was lacking

the Spanish line. Tell us more. Spanish line, now in each dance

there is certain elements we are looking for, rumbas, cha-chas,

salsas, hip action, paso doble, the arm shaping. Spanish line, it is

time for my last demo of the year. Come on. Hardy is getting her legs

out for the final time. Lovely legs. Very dimple. We walk into it, we

take a step back, we elevate the arms and we create these very

classical shapes and we have the lovely shaping of the legs which at

my lovely ripe old age, I can still do it. Ripe old age! Perfectly

demonstrated. It's a really strong shape from the arms down to the

feet. Now, if we have a look here - she's got the drama and the passion.

She attempts T she has gone for T they were in there but I think Craig

was after a bit more. -- she attempts it. She has gone for it.

Picky Craig. Leave her alone. She is a dancing dehave a, I never would

have thought would have been in the final but she has proven us wrong.

-- a dancing Diva. And their American smooth. I loved when he

came down the banisters. Craig said there were issues when she was out

of hold. Is he being picky again? Picky again. Let's look at how

gracious. Look at the pivots and head position. She is moving in his

arms. Full speed in a turn. She has to move away from him and be on her

own. Maybe we would have liked her more stable on her feet. Get that

staublt in the final, stand strong, keep the eyes up, wow another great

dance we could have in the final. She has wowed us. Abbey and Aljaz,

let's talk about their samba first. Huge praise from the judges. Len

said she had rhythm, technique and performance. Craig said she needed

more bounce. Was he being typical great? Oh, Craig! Letsds' get picky.

In samba we have three types of movement. Bounce, slight bounce and

no bounce. She is doing heavy bounce throughout this, if she was, it

would be no good but what they have done, I've picked up the promenade

runs with the under-arm turn, in the middle there were quicks and slows

and drama and dynamics. There was so much in this and he picks up that it

needed a little bit more bounce - oh, please, pick up on the great

stuff out there on the night. Brilliant. And their American

smooth, finally, Darcy and Craig spotted again - Craig, come on - a

little problem with her foot. They mentioned a sickle foot. What is it?

You could almost say in simple terms, the finishing. If she was up

on a line and a lift and if the ankle was slightly tilted in, it

doesn't finish the line. You want the body to talk right to the tips.

Sometimes if you break the line, we call it a sickle foot. But what I

saw were those beautiful lifts. Look at this. The relationship between

these two, it's just beautiful. Grown from strength-to-strength,

elegant, light and beautiful. For you, Zoe, I have a hardyism just to

finish. They brought it to me these two - relate, react and you will get

rewards. Oh, we shall take that with us. What

a wonderful time we have had with you. Thank you for all your

critique, Karen, merry Christmas. You two. May all your wishes come

true. I know you are all dying to find out more about our professional

dancers. Between you and me, check this out.

Mm, oh, that's a difficult question. Who is the most thoughtful of them

all? I don't know who is the most thoughtful. Yvette at that. She

always remembers everybody's birthdays. It's Pasha. Kevin and

Pasha. Probably Brendan, actually. Me, me, and me.

Who is always late? I would say Pasha. Pasha. Mm, you wouldn't

necessarily believe it, but it is actually Mr Anton du Beke. I'm

pretty late sometimes, I can't deny it. Mornings weren't for me. James

and Ola are often late. They live far away from me. Kristina has no

excuse. Kristina. The one who comes to mine - Kristina. She comes in

late and says - I'm sorry, guys. Mm, a hard one, isn't it? ! On Saturday

Abbey and Aljaz wowed the judges and glided straight through to the

final. I'll catch up with them in a minute. First a reminder of their

weekend Sex on legs, it was like watching Brigitte Bardot in Women

Created. I'm at boiling point. Technique and performance, this was

hard to achieve. Wonderful touches. It was, really, truly, amazing. 9.

10. Samba went great. American smooth

time. Time to get changed. Time to get changed. Full of

charisma. You really have an enormous amount of style. I adore

watching you do dance. Stunning, you came out there. You are a natural

finalists. Just don't sickle the foot in the lifts, all right.

9. O 10. 10. -- nchts to get 39 in the semifinal

is just incredible. I can't believe T I'm made up.

Please welcome, Abbey and Aljaz. -- I can't believe it.

Congratulations on making it through. I know. We were talking

last week and you were saying you were worried about not making it

through. How did it feel when Tess called out your name? I couldn't

believe T I went out on Saturday thinking - this could be our last

time dancing together. I wanted to have fun and getting through was

just the icing on the cake. Congratulations. So exciting.

Incredible dancing throughout on Saturday night. Let's talk about

your samba. Len and D'Arcy said Abbey was a natural. Was she a

natural from the beginning in the training room with this dance? Yes.

Be nice. Definitely from the very first second. . I think the Latin

dances give us more trouble. Samba was up there with salsa. She had so

much fun doing it. Not during the rehearsals but definitely on

Saturday. I think everything came together really nicely and she felt

the whole concept, the whole idea and I was really, really happy with

samba. You thought that it was the weakest out of our two dances, but

it turned out to be just as good as the American smooth. It was fun

doing t wasn't it? I think that really helps, when you can sit back

and watch someone doing it, and you can be relaxed, you can tell how

much you were enjoying it. You were looking forward to the American

smooth since week 1. Did it live up to expectation? Definitely. I need

to apologise to Vicky for my dress. I moaned about being put in pink and

it looked fabulous on the night. It was a gorgeous dance. It felt lovely

and dreamy. I love the ballroom, don't I? You do it so well. You have

always been quite surprised by the judges' comments when they are

complimentary. It is cute. You are like - oh my goodness, they liked

that? Are you surprised? Do you think you are going to get

criticised? It feels funny hearing the judges say amazing things about

me dancing. I never thought I would be in the competition this long, let

alone the final. Whenever you were greating such praise, it is like -

wow, it feels great. Joint top of the leaderboard with Natalie and

Artem. How confident were you feeling in getting through to the

final? Well, it is great being close to the top, on top but you never

know with the voting. We never get to know how much votes we actually

get through the weeks. So it was, for me, definitely the most pet

triifying results show, ever. I can believe that, you want it so much at

this point. That last step. You are in there, you have been

concentrating on working hard in the training room. Some footage has

given us food for thought on what your main focus might have been. Are

you hungry? Starving. Let's do a few Michael Portillo rounds. All right,

then. My tummy is rumbling, can you hear it? Starving. We can go for

some lunch. I haven't eaten today, have you? Go for lunch, stuff your

face. I was dreaming about eating an orange last night. I've been eating

chocolate for breakfast. Shall we have lunch? Come on, let's go and

get our lunch? Last walk, and then you go for... Lunch. Oh. I haven't

stopped eating today, have I? What are we going to eat? I'm hungry for

knowledge? Is that what you are hungry for? No, just starving.

Everybody all over the country right now will be thinking - how can you

eat so much and look so sweat. All the dancing.

-- so svelt. Talk about your three dances this

weekend in the final. The judges' choice, your waltz from week 1. If

you think back. I remember it being awesome the first time around. Do

you think you will be able to improve on the scores from week 11

after all the training? Well, I'm quite excited to do the week 1 dance

again, the waltz and see how much we've improved and apply what I know

now. I didn't know anything at the start. I'm desperate to go back and

point my toe. Because on that dance my toe is like that and it bugs me.

Is that a sickle toe, when they said that at the weekend, when you point

your toe? Point another toe. That was a different one. Shut it, Ball.

You have chosen your quickstep which is your couple couple's choice. Why

did you choose that? Blackpool was such an amazing experience. It was

magical to go out and threat three 10s. It is an amazing song. The song

title describes my journey, Walking on Sunshine. Craig was the only one

not to give you a ten, will he on Saturday? That's why we are doing

it. And your show dance. This is the music, what you wanted to know, what

you are doing it two. # Sweet child O Mine... #

I'm thinking tango, paso doble, drama. You've got it. Rumba. I've

got it wrong. It is going to be very strong because we are doing waltz as

our first dance and quickstep as hopefully our third dance, so I was

thinking feeling something strong and powerful in between and I think

that swap sweet Child O Mine will work great for that. It'll be

amazing. You did incredible lifts at the weekend. The judges loved them,

surely there will be epic lifts in the show dance? How are they going?

We haven't started yet, so... Everything that there is left in

terms of lifts will be thrown in that routine. I can't wait to do it.

I can't. Good luck in the final. You will be incredible. Ab and Aljaz,

everybody. Too exciting. That's it foretoday. Thank you to all my

guests. Tomorrow night I will be chatting to Sophie and Brendan, plus

Ian Waite will be back for his final Wednesday Warm Up. See you tomorrow,

good night. APPLAUSE