Strictly Come Dancing contestant Clara Amfo looked over the moon on Saturday night after her Charleston performance with dance partner Aljaž Škorjanec when she scored the first 2 10s of the series.
The radio presenter had been finishing middle of the leaderboard prior to this weekend but she scored the highest marks of the night after performing a classic Charleston routine to the 1920s track ‘Baby Face’ from the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Stand-in judge Anton du Beke commented: "What can I say?! When you rehearse a dance all week you want it, on Saturday night, to go like that. I've had a wonderful night and you've topped it off. Thank you very much indeed...perfect."
Even Strictly’s Charleston connoisseur Craig Revel-Horwood was delighted, telling Clara: "Well I don't want to see it again actually, until the final darling!”
Do you agree that the routine deserved an almost perfect score and what made it so good?
The routine opens with some scene setting where a couple meet in a shop. After a few bars of music they break into a Messaround, Charleston, Hook Charleston, Heel Flicks, Flapper Walks, Single Leg Flicks with rotating arms, Little Runs and a Lift. This smoothly moves into a section in hold followed by poses into another set of Charlestons, Trucking and Charlestons variations in hold.
At 1:14min after the Step Crosses and Lock Turn they are back in hold for a walking sequence, Stroll steps, Squat Charlestons, Flicks and a final lift before Aljaž lifts her into the final position.
The choreographer was Jenny Thomas with her assistant Sean Moon and it’s sublime! Her choreography includes all the iconic steps and Clara dances them with great attack. The routine also is dynamic as it includes a great mix of solo steps, partner work and trick moves. As the dance floor is quite big, it would have been nice to see them travel across the space a bit more but overall it was a brilliant classic 1920s routine.
The mise en scène also compliments routine perfectly and by having a 1920s song it allowed the viewer to see how the dance should be performed with the correct tempo.
The only thing that slightly broke the illusion was the ending when Clara poked her dance partner in the eye in the final position, but these things can happen! The step I think they could work on is the Squat Charleston as it usually has more bend in the upper body. It was a tad upright for a Squat but it was a fantastic dance!
Scores:
Crag - 9
Shirley -10
Anton -10
MyCharleston - 9