Ian Waite shares advice for Strictly's Rhys Stephenson following dance off with Ugo Monye

Here, Waite shares his thoughts on Week Five, and provides advice for Rhys Stephenson, who found himself in the dance off with Ugo.

Ian on Saturday's show

Week Five, and we had 11 couples left in the competition. Sadly, Judi Love was not able to dance this week due to COVID, but hopefully she'll be well again next week and all precautions are being made to make sure all the couples stay in their own bubbles to prevent anyone catching it from other couples which is keeping the show going!

How did the Strictly couples do this week?

• Dan Walker and Nadiya Bychkova - They opened the show with a Viennese Waltz which is always a difficult dance to master due to the constant rotation. More lowering in the standing foot would help to create a greater movement across the floor, but always elegant and charming.
• Adam Peaty and Katya Jones - They started the routine by gyrating to George Michael's Faith, and I was totally sold. Although there are times when Adam's technique can look slightly awkward, I just enjoy watching him so much, and I'm always impressed by his commitment.
• Sara Davies and Aljaz Skorjanec - Very nice foot articulation, nut this needs to continue through and into the hips. It was, however, a very romantic interpretation of how a Rumba should be characterised.
• Tom Fletcher and Amy Dowden - I really like this interpretation of the salsa, with lots of Tom-isms throughout, so lots of jumps and splits. It was slightly different to a normal salsa, but sometimes the body stopped moving in the set and the body should be continuous. The lifts were very effortless though and he looked very dynamic.
• Tilly Ramsay and Nikita Kuzmin - Their Foxtrot flowed across the Strictly dance floor like a Rolls Royce. Beautiful poise and elegance. Continue like this, and they will have a chance of making the final.
• AJ Odudu and Kai Widdrinton - Tess said she had a soft spot for the Argentine Tango, and I'm sure a lot of us have. This was such a dramatic and powerful performance with legs for days!
• Ugo Monye and Oti Mabuse - With Rumba being the most difficult dance for a male celebrity, I felt that Ugo partnered Oti really well, but forgot about his own body action. The spine needed to be elongated. Rumba is particularly difficult for male dancers, because of the slowness of it, and the alternation of doing the slow rotation of the hips and the figure eight. Also having sharps sort of straight legs - that with the hip action and and the soft arms is very difficult.
• John Whaite and Johannes Radebe - This dance was executed with so much precision and synchronicity. The swivel was perfect, and John has become such an accomplished dancer. The choreography was absolutely brilliant. So much fun!
• Rose Ayling-Ellis and Giovanni Pernice - A masterclass in how to act at the beginning of the number. The storyline was brilliantly choreographed by Gio. Rose kept fantastic contact in the body throughout and beautiful poise.
• Rhys Stephenson and Nancy Xu - I'm not sure husband would be happy with the fact that they had three stripes on the arms, and four stripes on the shoulders, because I know that, Captain has four stripes, and a senior first officer has three. So there's a bit of a mix of jobs there because my husband's a pilot. Sometimes Rhys turns his feet in and occasionally forgets to finish off his hands in lines, but the movement and lift work were excellent.

"I can understand why Ugo was in the bottom two!"

It's always difficult because it can be just the luck of the draw, which dance do you get each week, because obviously everybody's going to have a strongest dance and everybody's going to have a weakest dance. If you have a weakest dance an obviously this was Ugo's weakest dance, the Rumba, which I mentioned is very difficult for male celebrities, and everybody else had better dances. Obviously, Sara had a Rumba as well, but, unfortunately, Ugo's was nowhere near as good as hers, so I can understand why he went into the bottom two.

Strictly High of The Week

"I'd have to say John and Johannes because I really liked their Charleston. I loved the choreography and I felt like this was a great dance for them. Last week wasn't so good for them, because it was the American Smooth, and they're very strong dancers, so they kind of overpowered the dance. It's the soft dances that they will struggle with. This week, however, John's dancing was just brilliant. Half the battle is for the celebrities, is to match their professional partners in energy and technique, and I really do feel, John is stepping up to the plate and and matching Johannes."

Strictly Low of The Week

"I guess it would be Ugo, but only because everybody else's dances were far better this week, and, unfortunately, Rumba is the most difficult dance for the male celebrities, so he was just unlucky in this week that he had the worst dance, so sadly and I think probably missing a week is difficult for a celebrity because they miss a week's dancing, so they won't look as polished as the others. I think that showed through the dance.

Ian’s Top Tip

"The celebrities need to match the energy of the professionals, rather than the professionals lowering their energy levels for the celebrities!"

Ian answers…

Rhys has previously done really well on Strictly. Did it surprise you that he was in the bottom two?

For me, Rhys is a potential finalist. We've not yet seen, I don't think, his full potential. He's got everything you need to be a brilliant dancer, but for me he always fails with the finishing of the lines, the posture and sometimes he gets too excited. He need control all that energy and and sort of channel it into the technique of the dance I think. It's not always about show. Those judges will be marking the technique as well. For the people at home, they might not know so much about the technique, but definitely the judges won't be marking him really high until he's doing all those lines and the footwork correctly.

What do you think of the judges' critiques this week? Were they harsh on Rhys in comparison to the other contestants?

I think it's difficult because we all have perceptions of couples. Even at the beginning you have perceptions of people being good and bad and if they don't live up to that expectation, then it can be very difficult, whereas if you get somebody you're not expecting to be very good and then they come out and do for them a good dance, then they can get marked higher. It's slightly unfair but, but I think at the same time, it will push them to do better.

Adam did really well at the Samba, which a lot of dancers have struggled with. Do you think he has a good chance at making it to the final?

Adam is our most successful swimmers ever, so for me, he's legendary and I'm sure he has a massive fan base out there. I think we can all see his 100 per cent commitment to every dance, and, and people love that about celebrities when they wholeheartedly give 100 per cent. It doesn't matter if they're getting the technique quite right, you can see that he's laying everything out on the dance floor every week. I wouldn't be surprised if he makes the final, and, and I love watching him every week. It's lovely to see such an athletic body dancing out there and really going for it!

Waite’s Week

"I'm still in Scotland at the moment. We've had a few double shows, Where we do two shows in one day, which has been very tiring, but we've had amazing audiences, standing ovations and five star reviews. Everywhere we've been, it's very exciting. We've got another four weeks in 2021, and then we start again in April for another three or four months in 2022. We're just really enjoying it! It's a fun variety show with lots of gorgeous Ballroom dances and amazing Latin dances, and of course, Vincent's legendary Argentine Tango. It's just a pleasure to be touring with Vincent, and he is a former world, Argentine Tango champion so it's just a privilege!"

Strictly Come Dancing airs every weekend on BBC One. Want something else to watch? Check out our full TV Guide or visit our Entertainment hub for the latest news.

Ian Waite is currently on tour. Visit theballroomboys.com for tickets.