Former Strictly Come Dancing professional James Jordan has criticised head judge Shirley Ballas and BBC bosses following the dramatic three-way dance-off twist that saw Emmerdale star Lawrence Robb eliminated from the competition.
Last weekend, the Strictly ballroom underwent a spooky Halloween makeover, with couples performing routines to some of the most-loved Halloween songs and films in pop culture. However, this week introduced a new twist on the dancefloor as three couples danced for their place in the show.
After a spell-binding performance, Lawrence Robb and his professional dance partner Jowita Przystal found themselves in the dance-off against actress Jamie Winstone and Carlos Gu, and House of the Dragon star Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu. The three couples faced elimination after receiving the lowest combined scores from the judges and the public.
Format Change Sparks Controversy
A change to the format meant that the judges were tasked with voting to eliminate one couple from the competition rather than choosing which couple to save. After taking to the dancefloor one last time, it was the Scottish soap star who became the fifth couple to leave the competition after judges Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke, and Craig Revel Horwood all voted to eliminate them.
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, on behalf of WhichBingo, the 48-year-old dancer shared his disappointment with the head judge and the change in format. Reflecting on her previous criticisms of the former Strictly champion's choreography, he said: "Yes, for some of the pros on the show, maybe the choreography is a little bit questionable, but it also depends on what celebrity you have in front of you."
He added: "They determine what choreography you can do unless you're someone like Katya [Jones], who, no matter who she gets, just seems to knock it out of the park every week when it comes to choreography. Being a great dancer doesn't mean you're a great choreographer, but if you get a celebrity partner that's not able to do certain things, you can't choreograph brilliant things."
Choreography Concerns and Song Choices
Jordan, who performed on the show for 10 years before leaving in 2013, suggested that the choreography criticism aimed at Jowita Przystal was unfair. He said: "With Jowita, for example, it was a bit of a stitch-up in my opinion. They had the s****est song you could probably give someone, Ghostbusters. Everyone else has got brilliant dramatic songs, and she gets f***ing Ghostbusters. What was the poor girl supposed to do?"
The former pro dancer also revealed how much time dancers have to choreograph a routine each week. He explained: "Back in my day, you used to find out the weekend that you were performing what song and dance you were doing next week. They'd come to you and say, 'Right, this week you're going to do a Samba or whatever'. When I first joined, they used to ask you what you wanted to do, and none of us wanted to do the Samba, but then they changed it."
He continued: "Now, slowly but surely, all that power is taken away from the professional dancer, and they tell you what dance routine and what music you're using. And there were many occasions where I'd say, 'Well, I'm not using that piece of music,' because sometimes they cherry-pick all the good songs for certain couples on the show and then other couples they're not as bothered about, and they give them Ghostbusters."
Questions Over the Three-Way Twist
Reflecting on the decision behind the three-way dance-off, Jordan suggested the sudden change in format was not done by accident. Taking aim at BBC bosses meddling with the show format, he said: "I'm not for or against. I didn't think it added much, like you don't go, 'Oh my god, that was so amazing because it was a three-way dance-off'. But it also didn't bother me being three. I'm not saying it's a bad thing."
He added: "The only thing I think is, why did they do it? Are they doing a three-way dance-off next week? Are they going to keep doing that? This is the way I look at it: They know who's getting what votes, right? They know who's voting for who. They know roughly where people are going to be on the leaderboard. So why did they do a three-way dance-off? Would Lawrence have been in the bottom two had it been a two-person dance-off? I don't think so."
Jordan questioned whether the change was designed to keep another couple in the competition longer, noting that Lawrence had not been in the dance-off before. He said: "I personally think he wouldn't have been in the bottom two if the show was using the usual two-couple dance-off format, but I'm not saying I'm right. I just think to change it halfway through the week to suddenly decide, 'Oh, you know what, we're going to do a three-way dance-off this week'. Well, if you're going to change it throughout the whole format of the show, do it every single week, and then everyone knows what the rules are. But to suddenly stick it in, it's like, well, why are you doing that? It's almost like you're trying to produce something."
Fans will have to stay tuned to see what this will mean for couples returning to the stage this weekend. Strictly Come Dancing airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Saturday (November 7) from 6.30pm.
