Craig Revel Horwood clashed with professional dancer Vito Coppola during Saturday night's Strictly Come Dancing after criticising the choreography of his Foxtrot with Lacey Turner.
The couple performed to 'Have You Met Miss Jones?' by Robbie Williams in hopes of securing a place in next week's Blackpool special. However, Craig was critical of the dance, claiming it resembled an American Smooth rather than a Foxtrot.
Judge's Criticism and Vito's Response
"It wasn't a Foxtrot so I don't know how we're meant to judge that," Craig said. "Foxtrot is not an open dance. You could have saved this for an American Smooth."
Vito quickly challenged the judge, saying: "Rules say 70 per cent should be Foxtrot, 30 per cent is open, so I literally did not break the rules." Craig argued that "it was not equal".
Vito insisted he respects Craig's opinion before taking responsibility for the critique, highlighting that it was his choreography. Turning to the EastEnders actress, Vito stated: "You have nothing to worry about because you have been amazing, you're beautiful, and I'm so proud of you."
Anton Du Beke's Agreement
Before Craig's comments, Anton Du Beke also agreed that the dance looked more like an American Smooth. "As a dance, that was a thing of beauty," he began. "You were very free, very open. Theatrically it was gorgeous. I liked the performance enormously. But I looked down and it said Foxtrot and I went 'oh', because that looked like an American Smooth to me."
He added: "I looked at the Foxtrot bit and it wasn't bad. But there was a lot of gapping and your frame was breaking down a little bit too much. I'm sort of torn between a rock and a hard place here because the performance was lovely and I enjoyed it enormously, but the Foxtrot bit was the weakest part of the dance."
Speaking to presenter Johannes Radebe upstairs, Vito defended himself, saying he tried to choreograph a dance using the advice he received from the judges. He added: "We as pros respect and love the judges so much. But I feel like I didn't break any rules."
The pair were awarded 27 out of 40 points, leaving them joint bottom of the leaderboard with Graeme Hall and Lauren Oakley and Will Best and Dianne Buswell.
