The elephant in the room (another one) – the case of previous dance experience….

Every series brings a tide of tittle-tattle in the tabloids and forums about previous “dance experience” and speculation is rife about how much of an unfair advantage this is. Usually the “s’not fair” sniping is directed at a female contestant, but this year perhaps Ricky Whittle should be breathing a sigh of relief that the recent race row has diverted attention from too much gossip about his alleged previous experience.

The slings and arrows have rained down on past contestants, such that all female celebs must now surely dread anyone coming forward to say that they once got first prize in a hokey cokey contest at somebody’s fifth birthday party! One of the more ridiculous rumours I heard last year accused Lisa Snowdon of having worked as a professional ballet dancer! Darcy Bussell made waves as an unusually tall ballerina at 5 foot 7 – so I hardly think that a model reaching the lofty heights of 5 foot 10 would have had much of a career in the famously petite ballet world.

The fact of the matter is that all contestants bring something to the table, be they singers, sportspeople, actors or presenters (and if they don’t, maybe the celeb should think of firing their agent!)

Singers such as Aled and Lesley had a huge advantage because they not only had natural rhythm, but an in-depth understanding of music, which enabled them to dance with so much added musicality. They were also used to performing with live musicians in front of large audiences. They may not have been as physically fit as some of the competition, but I bet the breath control they learnt as professional singers stood them in pretty good stead to perform a 90 second dance on Strictly.

Everyone talks about the advantages that sportspeople have in terms of physical fitness, but I think that their mental fitness has just as much to do with their success. Not only the will to win, but the ability to come back fighting after a setback. There is also the fact that they are used to being physically coached (and by that I mean being directed on which muscles to use, how much control to use, how much energy is appropriate etc). I think one of the key advantages is that they are mentally prepared to practice and practice and practice – even when they are not in the mood, or when they are not expecting a great breakthrough, or when it just feels plain boring – but they know that the endless practice is the only way to achieve the end goal of improvement.

Actors are used to assuming a character and making the public believe in that character. An intimate rumba or a passionate tango should present no problems for anyone who has ever done a love scene in front of a studio full of colleagues. I would also imagine that if you have the mental agility to learn lines and lines of dialogue, then retaining a choreography in your mind isn’t too big a leap (would it be too churlish to name Matt di Angelo and Zoe Lucker as counter to this argument?).

Well known TV presenters, mainly of the GMTV ilk – well they bring with them large fan bases with trigger happy dialling fingers….

Strictly never has been a level playing field and was probably never intended to be. The celebs need to come from a variety of fields in order to satisfy the biggest possible viewing audiences. Otherwise why would the producers choose such a range of ages and such a variety of physical fitness levels? 17 year old Louisa Lytton against 66 year old Jimmy Tarbuck? Out of condition John Barnes up against action man Gethin Jones?

In addition to that the Beeb really needs celebs with a range of abilities to sustain a 14 week series. They need the no-hopers to provoke groans and votes in equal measure, the journey men and women (if only to justify the existence of the weekly spin-off show), the truly talented to make it seem like a real competition, and the cannon fodder, those who can be sacrificed to early dance-offs and shock exits. To get this mix, it seems wise that the cast should include a few people whose popularity could be predicted to outweigh their talent, a brace of sportspeople, and a sprinkling of ex-stage school and pop singers. A series full of no-hopers would not keep people tuning in every week; just as a series comprising only accomplished performers, with no journey story, would not keep the votes rolling in.

I also wouldn’t mind betting that the presence of a few “good from the get go” stage schoolers act as a kind of starting whistle for the ultra-competitive sportspeople, firing up their determination, giving them a real target to beat, and making for a more unpredictable and closely fought series as a whole.

I do get rather fed up with the oft-repeated mantra of “it’s all right for them, they have previous dance experience” though. It seems that all too often the criticism has been dished out without understanding a) what kind of dance experience did the contestant actually have b) how long ago was this their training c) how long the dance training lasted and d) was the contestant actually even any good? You are hard put to find any woman (celeb or non celeb) who did not do any ballet/disco/street for a few years as a child; but it doesn’t necessarily follow that they are going to be any good at learning ballroom and latin in a time pressured environment as an adult.

One of my real bugbears about the “dance experience” bandwagon, is that so many people lump all dance under one umbrella term, believing, wrongly, that dance is just “dance”. If there were a pro am telly series teaching celebs to play tennis, would we have all of this fuss because a male celeb had played a bit of school football in their youth? Would anybody really say “well, it’s all sport isn’t it, of course it makes it easier?”

The reality is that they are some transferable skills between dance disciplines – posture, use of arms and legs to finish lines, timing and musicality – but not every dancer is able to succeed in every discipline. And claiming that it is easier for a dancer to master a completely new discipline, just because of past experience, takes away from the hard work and dedication involved.

I recently took up tap, after several years on and off attending flamenco classes, thinking that this experience would stand me in good stead for picking up complicated patterns of footwork. How wrong could I be! Flamenco relies on driving down into the ground, whilst tap is about making the energy from the feet bounce back upwards, and requires agility and lightness in my feet that I just have never experienced before. I am still struggling, and there is no way that my previous dance experience is making it any easier for me. Sometimes there are just no short cuts.

And this is the nub of the problem – exposure to one form of dance technique can mean that that particular style of dance is so rooted in your muscle memory that unlearning it and learning a new style can prove just as hard as learning from scratch is for a novice. Those who have done ballet in the past have a real disadvantage with learning latin, for example, because their whole core is conditioned to be all “zipped up”, so loosening up the hips, torso and arms is a real problem.

Another big problem is actually learning how to dance in hold. There is no other dance form that requires partner work with such a degree of body contact as ballroom, and this is tough for anyone to master. But a woman with previous dance experience can have a really difficult time in learning how to follow their partner’s lead, to dance as a partnership, and to not pre-empt the lead.

And just don’t get me started on the shoes! Latin in particular requires a connection with the floor, to dance into it with foot pressure, using the whole leg to power the hip motion. Easy enough in bare feet, or dance trainers, but a whole different ball game in 3 inch heels, because it alters the whole way your feet feel the floor.

So to end – leave the “dance trained” people alone! They don’t have that great an advantage; they have to run the gauntlet of ill-informed criticism; the public won’t vote for them anyway; they will work hard, produce great routines, and then have a young, handsome male or a cricketer on a journey snatch it all away from them in the final!