Strictly Review: Mike Bushell and Katya Jones

After last week’s shock exit, and Will Bayley’s departure due to injury, we saw the nine remaining couples take to the dance floor on Saturday night. TV presenter Mike Bushell and his dancer partner Katya Jones performed the Charleston to Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines by Ron Goodwin Orchestra. Although they ended up in the dance-off, the judges saved the pair. What made it worth the save? It was praised by Craig and Motsi for being "more entertaining" and "more challenging" but do you agree?

The routine is set around the two of them being ‘Hot Air Ballon Pilots’ (If that is the correct terminology?!) and the routine starts with Swivels, Box Step and a Cartwheel style Kick from Katya. At 0:33, there is a nice lift and some stylised movement where they pretend to be aeroplanes. The section is very crisp and put together nicely.

They get into hold at 0:49 with skips around the stage, a handstand from Katya, Heel Rises and Truckin’. They continue with more Charleston content including: Scissor Jumps, Helicopter, Swivel Walks in Hold and a Penguin step whilst turning.

From 1:30 mins they perform the basic Charleston step, Pushes and a final lift until Katya runs back to her hot air ballon for the final pose whilst Mike does some Wings then a end position.

This routine is full of content and compared to Emma and Alijaz’s Charleston routine last week, it’s much more dynamic. The choreographer Jenny Thomas put loads of great steps in including: Truckin’, Helicopter, Pushes and some quirky lifts. In terms of choreography it’s one of the most content rich so far. The music was in keeping with the style and the costumes were very nice too.

Mike has no dance experience and he obviously worked very hard. He put a lot of character into this one and uses his face well. In regards to the dance-off it was a more interesting routine to Emma and Ailjaz. Unfortutetly, the public are a bit ‘Anti-Mike’ due to last weeks dance-off but I do agree it was fair to save him over Emma.

In terms of areas to improve, Mike needs to work on being more relaxed when he dances so the movement flows more. The routine did look a bit like he was plodding through the steps so if he could try and be lighter on his feet it would hopefully make the transitions within the routine more fluid as it come across like they blocked each section but a good try from a complete beginner!

Scores 7+7+8+8

Our score: 6

For a quick comparison, here is Pasha and Kimberley dancing to the same song back in 2012.