Episode 23 Strictly - It Takes Two

VOICEOVER: From London, this is Strictly Come Dancing.

Please welcome your host, Zoe Ball.

It may be the final of The Great British Bake Off tonight,

but Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood aren't the only ones

with some showstoppers ready to come out the oven.

Here to tickle your fondant fancy, it's Judge and Oksana!

Is CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

And hoping to rise to the top after a dramatic week,

Joining them, a man who never sugar coats his dance critique,

Which of our pros will be transporting us to Spain

But first, their high energy jive had everyone jumping out their seats

Frankly, I was exhausted just watching it!

You weren't just dancing, you were erupting. You dance with tempestious

aband done. How of, for me, it was a little flat-footed. Your enthusiasm

takes over and gets a little carried away. But I loved it!

I never know if I'm doing the right hand. Well done on Saturday. Opening

the show. It's so joyous to watch you. The enthusiasm, energy. Tempest

ewous abandon? He meant joyious abandon. I I know you adored this

dance? Loved it. It was so much fun. That's the thing, honestly, when

you're dancing to the music and enjoying it, it's like nothing else.

That's why I thanked Oksana at the end of it. I got an opportunity for

a minute-and-a-half to have so much fun. It was exactly that. It was an

in twingely eruption. My favourite kind! All the people watching at

home adored it as well. Especially Louise from Belfast. She wrote in

saying she wants to go out for a night out with Judge Rinder. She

says you've kipper hips. I'm assuming that's a good thing? I

don't know. Anyway, she loves you. We know how fit you are. Last week

you impressed us with your pressups. We've seen the torso and energy.

Then you pull out the one-handed cartwheel. I know. Have you done it

before? I've been paying for it afterwards. I've been walking around

like John Wayne as a result this week. When did he tell you he could

do that? He likes to surprise me. Pleasantly surprised. Plus, putting

that in the routine straight away. I can't wait to see what else you'll

pull out of the bag. Congratulations, finally you break

the curse of 27. You got 29 points. You looked a little bit, you know,

were you pleased with that or a little disappointed? We'd like to

have broken the 30 barrier. And in my life! I know, I can't wait to be

30! I don't think he could find the right badle. So much going on. I

thought that was a little low scoring of Craig. I thought we'd

improved that week. I thought it was a bit unfair. We wanted to break 30.

What do you think about Craig. He's giving you 6 all the time. I think

it's out of place. We had our best week emotionally and quality of our

dancing. I'm so proud of the way he danced that jive. He knows how to

count it. He's improved in my eyes so much. Exactly. Also, listen to

Len. He gave you an 8. He said it was like the history of the jive.

How much fun did you have putting it together, Oksana? I know he loved

that song so I really tried to do a good job. I can see it in his eyes

he enjoyed it a lot. That means a lot to get a comment like that from

Len. The reason he is who he ises he's such a breadth of knowledge.

Our teachers and dance partners also choreograph the numbers as well.

Yeah. She loves the jive, Oksana but knows so much about it. You don't

just learn how to dance but a history of where it comes from and

why. That's why this is amazing enriching and fantastic. Ian was

trying to teach me a little move earlier on. I was shattered. I

needed oxygen at the end of it. That was one move. The adrenalin gets you

through. We'd done it a few times in rehearsal. I was gasping for breath.

When we did the Flint stone bong owes, I could barely walk for an

hour. Bring those back. Not sure they'd work in a rumba. But after

this, I could run around the block 50 times. I was so energised by the

fun. That's very infectious when you're watching it. Paso doble this

week. Matador or what's the matter you, hey, why you looking so sad?

Are you loving this? Go with me! Are you loving the paso doble or is it

being your friend? It's a challenging one. You have to be so

specific. Look at us! The hands really do matter. I think my facial

expressions, which emerge completely organically, I can't control them,

are perfect for this dance. We'll see. Yes. I think, I'm definitely

going to channel my inner bull fighting butch. OK. He's bringing

the butch. I can't wait for this. It's Halloween. We have a theme.

Each dance tells a tale. What's your tale? Are we allowed to tell? We can

tell you. I'll be a butterfly. He'll be a moth. A male version of the

butterfly. A male version of the butterfly. I think they might be

slightly different. It's not that. I told her that earlier. But never

mind! Yes, yes, I don't think that. That's not true. If we get too near

the lights, it won't end well. That's the only thing. It could be

horrific. You've been working on the face. We can see from training. Have

we? My paso face is sort of like this. I'm serious. Then this? You're

confused. You look confused. I have a solution. We'll put a full mask on

your face! CHEERING Funny. Not. That was a

couple of days ago. Can you give us the paso face now. Give us the

butch? I try to do smouldering but it turns out to be angry. Angry's

matador. Angry works. Hold on! Is that working for people? It's

working for Paul, our floor manager. That's good. I love it. As mar rye

ya said, spread your wings and prepare to fly. You have become a

butterfly. Good luck this weekend with your moth and butterfly

routine. Judge Rinder and Oksana. I love that face.

Now Mr Rinder here might be in charge in the courtroom,

but when it comes to the training room there is only one person

The Waite is over - it's time for Waite's Warm-up.

Thank goodness we can breathe out and relax.

So we're gearing up for Halloween at the weekend.

Are you going be nice about our couples this week?

Another dramatic weekend. Lesley went out. Were you sad about that?

Yeah, I was sad about that. I thought Lesley brought a great

enrichness to the show. She gave it sprightliness. Those really

difficult steps. I thought she was great. Such a shame she went. OK.

Onwards we go. We'll start with Greg and Natalie. The judges said cha-cha

wasn't his dance. Not his favourite. He's doing a rumba this week. He

likes this dance. Do you? I like this song very much. There are good

and bad parts. He does good lines, which is great. He does very good

partnering. When he's lifting Natalie, it's fantastic. But, there

are places where from A to B he forgets to dance. He'll do the lines

good. From A to B doesn't keep it moving. That continual movement

rumba. It has to be continual movement. He needs to keep those

feet turned out. There's a couple of places. Hold on a sec! It's out.

Wondered where that was. A couple of places, here, he does two heel

leads. No heel leads in rumba. Stroke the floor? You have to keep

the the toe on the flow when you do the steps. Daisy and Aljaz, shocker,

bottom two. They Sir pride. -- survived. Paso doble for them? You

can see she's using her skirt, only about 10 seconds of footage. Like a

flamenco dancer, I would like to see her... Going into the death drop.

Love that. I would like her elbows up and more resistance in the arms.

It is about resisting in the arms. Like you're pushing through quick

sand, basically. Quite strong and powerful. You keep the arms curved

as well with those spiky fingers on the end. I'm liking where their

atraining. Maybe it's her living room or something. Let's hope so.

Louise and Kevin. The judges say they want the wow factor. It's

Halloween and they've got the charleston. This looks ace. It looks

so good. Lots of side-by-side stuff. I think this suits her. She looks

really comfortable. All these moves looks like she's been doing it

forever. I think she's coming from a bit of a hip-hop background. Hip-hop

background? Like street jazz sort of stuff. It suits that charleston. I

noticed with her, this is the first time we've really seen her engage

with her face. Lovely, happy face. She's naturally quite shy. I think

it takes a while to bring that out on the dance floor? We're week five

or six. It's starting to come out of her. I think this will be their best

dance and top of the leaderboard. He's just saying that. Putting

myself out there. Danny and Oti, Len described him as being consistently

excellent. Can he maintain his high standards with this foxtrot this

week? Dancing to hoar's Take Me To The Church. It goes in and out. The

hold's all over the place. His footwork's inconsistent. He does

some lovely steps. See that, look at the way he uses his feet there.

Beautiful foxtrot. That should have been a heel. Misses that. Then goes

into pivots here if you watch. Pivots! He should do a heel lead

there. It is like two heels he's missed there. You know, it's

foxtrot. It's very precise with the footwork. When you do a heel, you

should do a heel not a toe. There are places where he's missing that.

His frame is all over the place. I'm sure... We've torn him apart now...

He likes a challenge, though. It's great to see this. When you see him

on Saturday, I'm sure Oti will have got that brilliantly. Anastacia and

her highest score with her quickstep with Gorka. She's back in the

training room with Brendan. She does appear to have a new vigour, I feel,

in her dancing. Wouldn't we all if we could swap our partner for one

week. Really light on her feet. Nice bounce with a good energy. I think

she's, this will suit her, this dance. She's a new-found energy. I

did notice she gets a little wide in the leg action when she's doing a

chassis. It starts to look a little Country and Western. Like a ho down?

OK. What she needs to do is make sure those legs veer in towards each

other. You have this feeling of veering in with the knees. You never

get that wide, I'm gonna jump on my horse! Good work from Anastacia. Or

aand Joanne are doing a charleston to I Want Candy by bow wow wow. They

are doing a bouncy, kicky charleston. It is very similar to

the jive. I think it will suit him down to the ground. He did jive two

weeks ago. He was brilliant at it. I see that step where they do this.

Like a lindy hop step. OK. As you can see on the ends there, they're

sort of doing a flexed foot. I think that's a decision they've made to do

a flexed foot. I thought we should try it. Can you do it in those

boots? We can give it a shot. Kick down, in, out, kick out, up down.

Fast Faster, faster. Oh, my Lord. I'm going to have an attack. Ian

waits! I till you what, that's hard workful

Because it is almost Halloween, we get to dress at the inn. Are you

excited to find out what you're going to be wearing? Ago Breivik

cited! You voted for it, people, you will be dressed up for your delight

tomorrow. My goodness. Our couples are gearing up for this

week's Strictly Spooky Spectacular. But are they finding

training horrifying? Let's see how Greg and Natalie

and Daisy and Aljaz I am actually loving the rumba. I

have never got this far through a dance on a first session. I am not

saying it looks good yet, but I am really enjoying it.

Might challenge this week for Greg is to make sure that he is on great

form. Push with the right footwork and some lovely hip action. He could

do really, really well. I need to wake the legs of properly and get

them ready for what will hopefully be a happy rumba.

Paso doble is very strong, as I knew, but in practice it is a lot

stronger. Daisy is learning the steps very quickly. Lots of elbow is

up, it is really sore. The strength in your arms and having resistance

against them is the most important in this particular dance. Going

through the motions is quite easy, doing them with intention and

resistance is really hard. That was perfect! Perfect.

Now, I don't know about you, but watching all that dancing

has put me in the mood for a bit of a boogie.

Let's find out who's on my dance card tonight.

Please welcome the one and only Pasha Kovalev! Hello, my darling.

Welcome back. What have you been doing, we have missed you. I missed

you, but I have been practising hard for Children in Need. With Helen

Glover. Good luck with that. You will be my first dance card, you

will tell me about a particular dance, one of your favourites. It is

Pasha... I mean paso doble. Why do you love it so much? It is so strong

and masculine, always you have to be in character, that is what I love,

being in character. What are the origins of the paso doble? Lots of

people will be surprised but it originated in France. They used

Spanish music, but it was a social dance where people would march to

the Spanish music that they would use in the bull fight. Eventually it

spread out around the world, now you see it in every country on Strictly

Come Dancing. All over the world. A nice Strictly statistic, Pasha holds

the record for being the only professional to score a perfect 40

with a paso doble, that was in 2011 with a gorgeous Chelsee Healey. I

remember that outfit. Good evening, Chelsee, we miss you. What makes the

perfect paso doble? Strength, character and a good partner in

front of you. Shall we take to the floor? If you are at home, take to

the floor and you can join in. Basic steps, what do we need? It is all

about marching. Start marching with your right vote. Look at those arms.

Ian was talking about strong arms. Hands coming down. I assume I am

just walking around. I look silly. I hope you are doing this at home!

Oh, hello! I like that! What do I need to wire, as the lady?

I am glad you asked. Just in case, I have a little skirt for you that you

can swish around. Can you please put it on? Yellow is so my collar, I

think you will agree. I usually don't do it on Wednesday, but just

for you. Pasha is in a skirt! Teach us what we need to do. You could do

this with a tablecloth at home or a tea towel. This gate is very heavy.

You want to open its wide and make sure that you swish it with as much

energy as you can. You have to be swishing it and be proud at the same

time. You are proud, you are swishing. What about the fan? Do we

need a fan? Of course. Every self-respecting Spanish lady has a

fan. How did you do that? CHEERING

Nice, very well done. You hide behind that. When you don't want any

extra attention. And then put it away when you are ready. I am ready!

That is the lady, what about the gentleman? I am getting excited! I

need to get into character. The matador, he does it so well. Marion

has just passed out watching this. You need your cake? Absolutely. I

will clear an area, you get quite carried away. Oh, my! Look at that!

That is something! Wow! If we are going to put this all

together, shall we do a little dance and join in at home, if you don't

have a partner, use the dog. How do we start? Here is the music. Paso

doble face, paso doble a strange position. Then we started walking

around. We do not trust or know one another yet. And switch. OK. What do

I do now? You'd walking around you and keep looking at you? Keep going,

keep going. Oh! Is that it?! Is that the paso doble?! That is how it is

done. Excellent! CHEERING

Pasha, you are adorable, thank you so much.

Pasha Kovalev, everyone. We will do that again, I hope you enjoyed that,

another dance card. I think I'm going to need

a lie down after that! Hopefully Danny and Oti

and Anastacia and Brendan I love this jacket on you.

Getting started with the foxtrot, it is good fun, it is slow and focused.

Bend your knees, it is not a charger! It is really enjoyable once

you get it, but it is fighting with the routine for the first few days,

so frustrating. Danny is really good at the pivots, I think he enjoys it,

he enjoys the rotating and spinning. I remember that from the waltz. I am

looking forward to it, the Halloween element will be pretty fun.

We are going into the jive this week, which I am so excited about. I

have been seeing a few jibes on the show, it makes me really excited to

want to do one myself. I think I could do the jive onstage a show. A

little bit of it, maybe one kick, then I would be out of breath. It is

go from start to finish. I love the energy, she will be perfect.

Now, on Saturday we saw a very upset Laura announce that due to a bad

ankle, she couldn't perform her jive with Giovanni.

and I'm glad to say she's joining us tonight.

Oh, we missed you! I missed you guys. It was another proper shocker

moment. No one told me! How upset were you? You worked so hard? Even

just watching Anastacia talking about doing the jive, the one we

were really looking forward to doing. You spend a while learning a

dance, you choreograph it and then we really did not know right until

the day whether I could dance or not. A horrible feeling. I feel like

there are no tears left to come out any more. It was not easy. But Joe

was great, thanks to everyone as well. All the other contestants have

given me so much support. All the crew and everyone behind-the-scenes,

if it was up to me I would be on the dance floor. She really wanted to

dance. She was like, I really want to do the jive. I'm totally fine!

You can't walk... I don't need to walk, it is a jive! Was it weird to

be watching at home? My best friend, the biggest Crewe fan from Dublin,

had flown over to sit in the audience to watch, so I had to be

like, how do you feel sitting at home with me, while I will probably

be crying, eating Chinese takeaway? Which I did. Crispy duck makes

everything better. How is the ankle now? We are being extra cautious. We

only just started training again, we are a little bit behind. I am

wearing lovely flat boots. I just passed Rob and he said, I know you

have heard your ankle but there is no excuse for those boots! Thank

you! We are taken care, that is what we aim to do. Giovanni, it is your

favourite. Stop it. How devastated were you? Really upset, because she

was looking forward to learning the jive. We did a little bit in the

beginning and, again, really upset but, for me, my priority is her

health. Maybe it is better like this. If we were in the final,

that'll be our show dance. Really?! That is my thought. I'm just trying

to get through Saturday, to be honest! If not, just do it anyway.

You can do it now, do it in here. Let's move on from the jive to the

tango this week. You have only done a little bit, how has it gone? Yeah,

I mean... I really, really love the tango. Every time I am on the right

leg, you can see me wince. The good thing is, I am trying to think

positive, the tango is quite a stern face, it is Halloween, I can work

with the emotions and use it to my advantage. You have choreographed a

great dance. Thank you. You have. And sometimes we say I wonder if we

could do that on the left leg rather than the right, it is very painful.

It will be painful on Saturday but the doctors have decided that it

will not do any damage. Dance through the pain and use it, like

you say. Have you had to adapt it much, Giovanni? Not much. I know

that she is in pain, it is not an easy routine, it is still a

competition. And we don't want to think about the injury or use it as

an excuse. It is still bad, so we need to make sure... It is making my

uncle heard talking about it. It is Halloween, everybody has characters,

tell me who you will be? Mr and Mrs Death. Of course exhalation not even

better for the painful face. You are dancing to Paint it Black by the

Rolling Stones, does Mick Jagger approve? The dog, not the lead

singer? He does, it is one of his favourite songs. He did the

choreography with me. All the best to you on Saturday. Dance through

the pain. We cannot wait to see do, you must be excited? I was

devastated to miss out, even being back here again, I just missed

hanging out with everyone. It is a family, I know we keep saying that

but it is, just to get back there and seeing your face on TV by

yourself, I was really jealous. Good luck this weekend, Laura and

Giovanni. I'll be back here tomorrow at 6:30pm

with Louise and Kevin Plus Ian Waite is back with part two

of his warm-up, and Vicky Gill will be giving us an exclusive first

look at her creepy creations for this weekend's

Halloween special.