Strictly Starting Well

Today was Ladies Night on Strictly Come Dancing, with the female celebrities dancing their first competition dances in this series. Just like Men's Night last week they mostly started incredibly well.
Jessie Wallace was the first to go and it wasn't an example of the great dancing to come, she was a bit clumpy but looked like she was enjoying herself, which is as it should be for the Salsa.
Second came Christine Bleakley, who I was expecting to be awful as she seems so introverted, as much as a television presenter can be. But she was beautifully elegant, showed confidence but just didn't finish her lines well enough. Very promising though.
Lisa Snowdon looked incredibly beautiful and elegant too, but didn't look like she was enjoying herself, and the dance was a bit too slow, salsa-wise, for my liking.
Jodie Kidd was graceful, despite her long-limbed disadvantage, but showed no personality in her dance. She managed spectacular high kicks during the dance though.
Heather Small enjoyed her dance, though was unremarkable. The choreography was good though, so I may have to change my mind about Brian her partner.
Gillian Taylforth was not as bad as I expected her to be, she started brilliantly but got worse as the dance went on and seemed to miss some steps and didn't appear to be in time with the music. I hope that she improves as I like her and, although I don't particularly like him, I feel sorry for Anton and the poor partners he has had recently.
Rachel Stevens' dance could almost have been done by 2 professionals it was intricate and fun, fast and sexy.
Cherie Lunghi was up last, and was so elegant and stylish it could also have been professionals only dancing.

The boys did a group marengue dance which didn't really do any of them any favours, except maybe for John Seargent who was charming in his own bumbling way. He looked out of his depth, but was having fun. Mark Foster looked awkward, due to his long limbs again and his lack of performing experience. Austin appeared to miss steps, but he was Arleene's favourite, but she could be biased. Andrew Castle looked lost, like he didn't know what his next step was, during the training clips he always looks to be skiving.
With two first weeks as good as this it leaves me to believe that this will be an amazing series. My guess for the dance off tomorrow would be Jessie and Gillian, battle of the soap queens but I will have to wait to see.