Strictly Come Dancing Week 1 Analysis & Predictions by Ian Waite

Strictly Come Dancing professional Ian Waite spent eight series on the Strictly dance floor and a decade as a regular on spin-off show It Takes Two, so there are few better placed to judge what the launch weekend told us. We asked Ian for his verdict on the first live show: the performances that surprised him, what he makes of the new presenting line-up, and what he would be saying to the four couples sitting at the bottom of the leaderboard.

The Standout Performances from the First Live Show

John Nellis Was the Best of the Night

The standout performance was John Nellis. The producers have thought, “okay, we’re gonna save the best for last.”

I was so shocked, because he looks like quite a big, chunky man, but he was so elegant, and his movement was so good across the floor.

Foxtrot is not an easy dance to do, and it’s not an easy dance to make look flowing. They call it the Rolls-Royce of the ballroom dances, because when you move in foxtrot it just glides across the floor. There’s no rise and fall, really. It’s just like being in a Rolls-Royce.

He had that movement and that elegance across the floor, so smooth. And Katya is a great professional. I think she always produces fantastic choreography, so we kind of expected that.

You never know how somebody is going to dance until you see that first show. Sometimes they can be very good in the ballroom and very bad in the Latin. Some people are like that. But I was pleasantly surprised with John. Coming out in that first week and just the gliding, the arms, the head position. He had a lovely long neck, shoulders down, chin up in the air. He really shocked me and the judges with that first-round performance.

Delta Exceeded Expectations in the Samba

Then there was Delta. I kind of expected Delta’s dance with Kai to be good, but I think it was even better than I expected, because it’s difficult. She looked quite tall as well next to Kai. She would have been perfectly matched with me, because I’m that bit taller.

To do a difficult dance like the samba really well on the first performance, that’s brilliant. I thought she had a great leg action and her posture was really good.

I liked her performing face. I know that sounds ridiculous, but if somebody engages with their face and can connect with the audience, and the audience sees the feeling of that dance come out through their face, then they know the celebrity is really experiencing it properly. Every Strictly winner we’ve ever had has been like that.

Ian Waite’s Verdict on the Live Show Itself

I was pleasantly surprised with the show. It is a bit long. Two hours and forty minutes is a long time, and I struggle to sit through a movie for that long (laughs), but it was a good opener for the proper competition.

I felt the first show, which was pre-recorded, was very bitty, and I wasn’t sure about the presenting team. But I felt much more reassured watching these live performances. The format properly gets into swing. It felt a lot better for me.

I thought Johannes did a great job of interviewing the couples, and of course he’s got it all. It’s so nice to see a professional dancer finally getting some sort of role like that. I did 10 years on It Takes Two, where I had my own slot, but it’s quite rare for a dancer to make that leap and get the opportunity.

Will the New Presenting Trio Settle Down?

Much of the conversation around the launch has been about the new presenting trio of Emma Willis, Johannes Radebe and Josh Widdicombe, some of it a little bit nasty, particularly towards Widdicombe. Ian expects the chemistry to come.

Oh yeah, definitely. It must be so scary to go in on one of the biggest shows on TV and be a presenter when you’re not known to be a presenter either. It’s not his fault he’s been chosen to do it. I do think there’s still time for him to get it right, and he’s only had a couple of shows, following in the footsteps of two legends in Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly.

I think they brought him in to be the funny guy on the show, but as yet we’ve not seen that. Not enough of it, anyway. Hopefully as we go down the line he’ll bring the funny to the show, which is really what he’s there for.

What Ian Would Tell the Four Lowest Scorers

Dame Sarah Storey, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Melanie Walters and Chris Appleton made up the bottom four on the opening leaderboard.

That’s a difficult one, because you want your celebrity to be totally in awe of you and think you are the best pro. You want them to think, “I’ve got the best pro here.” When you’re at the bottom of the leaderboard, it can be a little bit worrying, and you can lose your faith in your pro just by that situation.

They’ve got another week of live performances, and then that score will be added to the others. I’m sure the bottom three or four will change. Definitely. Some people who were good in ballroom might not be so good in Latin, and they’ll mix it up for them. I’m sure it’ll be more evenly balanced next week, and those four will get higher scores and have a better performance.

They are going to feel a bit more comfortable in the second week. They have got nothing to lose if they’re bottom of the leaderboard. All of those reasons are why there’ll be a better performance to come.

Maybe one or two won’t be, and they’ll stay bottom of the leaderboard. Normally the public get behind the people at the bottom of the leaderboard, and the ones that are further in are more at risk. You don’t want to be the ones in the forgotten middle.

You never know what’s going to happen. There have been people on the show who started off not very good at all, like Chris Hollins, the series seven winner, and then go on to win because the public grow to love them. They have one or two good performances and then that’s it, they win.

Who Showed the Most Promise and Who Should Be Worried

Dame Sarah Storey

It’s difficult to come out and do a ballroom dance first, because you are restricted with the frame and everything. It’ll be interesting to see how she does in a Latin dance. I don’t think her pro is a ballroom dancer; he’s more of a Latin dancer, so it will tell us a lot if they come out and do a Latin dance next week.

Shaun Wright-Phillips

I thought he would have a little bit more rhythm, to be honest. He just looked very stiff and ploddy.

Maybe his ballroom will look better, because it might disguise the very flat feet he had. You’ve got to be able to use your feet in Latin dancing. If you’re flat-footed all the time then you’re going to look one-dimensional. There’s no rise and fall. I thought he looked a bit like the Tin Man, so it’ll be interesting to see his ballroom dance. I hope he can step it up. Alexis is a great teacher, so there’s no reason why he can’t be brilliant with her.

Chris Appleton

I struggled with Chris because I felt like he needed to be lower in his legs. Tango is a dance which is very grounded, and it changes direction all the time. Amy Dowden is quite a bit smaller than him, and he’s quite tall. If I had a partner smaller than me, I would always lower my legs as much as possible, just to get down and get into the floor.

The dance lacked energy. It missed some sort of energy about it, and I felt like it was very superficial. Whether he was nervous or not, I don’t know, but he seemed to be like a rabbit in the headlights.

About Ian Waite

Ian Waite is a professional ballroom and Latin dancer who appeared as a Strictly Come Dancing professional across eight series and spent 10 years as a regular contributor on spin-off show It Takes Two, where he had his own slot. He continues to coach, perform and give his verdict on the competition.

With the second week of live shows bringing a switch of styles for most couples and the first elimination to come, Ian’s expectation is that the opening leaderboard will look very different by the end of the weekend.

How to Bet on Strictly Come Dancing

Strictly is one of the biggest non-sport betting markets of the autumn, and most of the best betting sites price it up from launch night through to the final. The outright winner market is the headline, but you will also find prices on the next celebrity to be eliminated, the weekly bottom two, and whether a couple will score a perfect 40 before the series is out.

Betting predictions for Strictly are rarely as simple as reading the leaderboard. Prices move quickly after each live show, and as Ian points out, the public vote regularly rescues the couples sitting at the bottom, which means the shortest-priced elimination candidate on a Saturday night is not always the one who goes. Watching how the market reacts to the Sunday results show is often more useful than the judges’ scores alone.