Strictly’s Clara Amfo tops the leaderboard with ‘perfect’ Charleston
Clara #Clara
Strictly’s Clara Amfo burst into tears after she and dance partner Aljaz Skorjanec topped the leaderboard when her Charleston earned her an impressive 29 points.
The radio presenter, 36, performed the upbeat dance to Baby Face by Julie Andrews, and was praised as ‘perfect’ by the judges.
In a night of high scores, HRVY earned the first ten of the series when they took on the Salsa and danced to Dynamite by BTS, and they were awarded with 27 points.
Gushing about Clara’s performance, Craig Revel Horwood sung her praises as he said: ‘I don’t want to see it again actually until the final darling.’
While Shirley Ballas was delighted with the marked improvement from Clara, saying: ‘Oh my goodness.
‘I mean I haven’t been your highest scorer, just looking at my scores here, and I look at you the transformation, the lovely shoulder line, the swivels, the storyline, those legs of death, I mean you were absolutely brilliant today.’
Anton du Beke, who is standing in for Motsi Mabuse who is isolating for 14 days, after rushing home to Germany due to her dance school being ‘targeted’, said Clara was ‘perfect.’
He explained: ‘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.’
While she couldn’t be in the studio, Motsi did call in from her home to discuss the show and said she was ‘so emotional’ about Clara’s performance.
She gushed: ‘I am so emotional right now Clara, I don’t want to cry. I’m so happy this happened for you because I’ve been saying you’ve got the power.
‘You look beautiful. Everything was on top and you just have to keep it up now because we know you can.’
Last week YouTuber HRVY, 21, was disappointed when he slipped down the leaderboard after his Gnomeo and Juliet performance.
But he came back with a bang on Saturday night as he was awarded the first ten of the series by judge Shirley, who cheekily said his dance made her feel ‘hot’.
Alongside his pro partner Janette, 36, he opened Saturday’s show by dancing the salsa to BTS’s song Dynamite and received an overall score of 27 out of 30.
HRVY was desperate to do Janette ‘proud’ in this week’s salsa performance as it is her favourite dance and one that means a lot to her and her Cuban family.
And the judges were stunned by HRVY’s incredible dancing talents, describing his numerous lifts in the complex routine as ‘unbelievable’.
As the pair came off the dance floor, Tess Daly reminded fans that HRVY was in fact ‘nervous about lifts’ at the beginning of the show, despite his success.
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She commented: ‘I remember you were nervous about lifts at the start of the show. Look at you now!’
Shirley, who gave the duo a standing ovation, gushed over HRVY’s incredible performance cheekily saying that it made her ‘hot, hot, hot’.
She continued: ‘He’s made me hot, hot, hot, hot! It was powerful, it was musical. You had amazing leading skills.
‘It’s not easy to get this wonderful dancer, up round, in, let’s throw her over here, catch her – and be on time and musical. I’m lost for words, I couldn’t do it justice.’
Anton described the dance as ‘amazing’ and ‘fantastic’, as he praised the duo and said: ‘As you were dancing, all I’m doing is WOW, yes, yes! I’ve written stuff down – Fluidity, amazing. Lifts, unbelievable. Timing, fantastic.’
But Anton, 54, did not end his praise there and went on to describe HRVY as a ‘dream for a partner’ as he refused to utter a negative word about the performance.
He added: ‘You’re a dream for a partner. She’s going to love you forever if you dance like that.’
But Craig, who is notoriously difficult to please on the judging panel, heaped HRVY with much more critical feedback.
He continued: ‘I thought the footwork could be cleaner and a little bit more precise.
‘And on the counts of fluidity, you need fluidity into transitions – I.e. getting in and out of lifts. They’re still very stilted. That has to come out of nowhere and take you by surprise.’
But the dancing expert, 55, went on to agree with his fellow judges and praise HRVY for his ‘absolutely fantastic’ lifts in the complex salsa performance.
He said: ‘I have to agree with Anton, the lifts were absolutely fantastic. Timing, absolutely brilliant. And like Shirley said darling, hot, hot, hot.’
HRVY and Janette were over the moon as they headed up the famous stairs to receive their scores, as Janette was heard exclaiming ‘yes we did it, we did it’.
Much to their delight, Shirley awarded the pair the first ten of the series, followed by Anton’s generous score of nine and Craig’s eight – giving them 27 out of 30.
Clara and HRVY were not the only two to receive a ten on the series, as Bill Bailey and Oti Mabuse’s Couples Choice to Rapper’s Delight also lead them to get 27, thanks to Shirley giving them 10.
They left Shirley ‘flabbergasted’ with their performance, while Craig claimed they were ‘unbelievable’ together on the dance floor.
Craig began: ‘Bill Bailey the king of pop and lock, I’m not surprised you are younger than me darling, by nine days to be exact. I absolutely loved the amount of detail in that, you hit every single line, unbelievable.’
While Shirley went on: ‘Well I’m flabbergasted actually, the details come with hours and hours of work, I don’t know your schedule but I would hazard a guess that…’
Bill cut in to say it was ‘rigorous’, as Shirley continued: ‘Because you want it to be I would say, so I applaud you for that. You are genuine, you are the real deal.
‘I’m in shock there’s young people who can’t do that. You’re over 50 if I may say, and you look ever so much like that young hip hop get up, any men at home get up out of that arm chair and move like this man! I am in awe you’re amazing, well done.’
While Anton added: ‘Well let me tell you when I heard that you were going to be doing Couple’s Choice and hip hop I thought hello could be a midlife crisis.
‘You were unbelievable there was so much content there and you could have gone over it at any time, what I loved about it the most was you didn’t do it with any sense of irony, you completely enveloped the role and you committed to it fully and it was just brilliant. Well done you.’
After getting their score of 27 points, Bill and Oti hugged each other in delight and then showed off their comedic chops as they collapsed to the floor dramatically.
Claudia Winkleman was forced to step back when Bill fell over near her due to social distancing measures, and she was left scrambling to stay upright as she stepped back into the glitterball decorations backstage.
‘Holding on just getting back 2 metres, never mind me,’ Claudia joked, before she told the audience there was ‘no problem, this is absolutely fine’ and righted herself.
