Strictly Come Dancing, semi-final - the body language: do Anton and Emma have the chemistry to win?

Strictly Come Dingle

Stand-out sight of the Strictly semis? It wasn't watching former Emmerdale star Kelvin Fletcher adopt a self-protective fig-leaf pose, complete with some self-attack finger-picking as he sat next to dance partner Oti Mabuse watching fan clips on-screen, nor the way that Emma Barton seems to be morphing into Anita Harris, placing a very poised hand onto her chest after her slow, stately waltz like an old-time diva at the end of an aria.

The "rewind-and-watch" moment for me this week was the sight of Cain Dingle - AKA actor Jeff Hordley - sitting in the front row of the audience with his dead step-daughter Holly (Sophie Powles). I thought Emmerdale’s perma-scowling bad boy appeared to be smiling, but maybe it was just wind. Holly looked great too, considering she popped her clogs several years ago.

Ballet "Whoos"

Did Cain join in what I can only describe as the series of low, desultory whoops that have become a staple of the audience’s reaction to anything that moves out there on the dancefloor? The audience even hooted a series of loud but low-pitched "whooos" when the sublime former Royal Ballet star Carlos Acosta danced his routine at the start of the show. Carlos must be praying this is one trend that doesn’t catch on in the world of ballet, or the death scene in Swan Lake will take on a very different feel. The hooting noise can be described as a non-verbal response and it currently sounds like a flotilla of small boats lost out to sea in the fog. 

Oddly, when the camera pans the audience none of them appear to be doing "hooting" body language so maybe it’s all on a pre-recorded tape they keep hidden somewhere. Either way it’s become annoying.

Chris Ramsey rattled off

It was so unsurprising that Chris should be the one being shown the door this week that he nearly had his coat on for the dance-off. Poor pro-partner Karen Hauer’s body language wore an undisguised air of relieved defeat, staccato-nodding at every criticism in the kind of metronomic ritual that suggested she wanted to speed the inevitable and even blowing kisses of farewell to the audience before the judges’ scores came through. Chris’s sad face during the Rhumba looked more like acid reflux and his first dance entailed the kind of steps you’d normally see when a dad dances with his young toddler at a wedding. Karen fell to slapping Chris a lot after his first dance like a trainer sending its horse back to the stable.

Karim channels Kelly

With his chest puffed out in a sign of machismo while his feet performed some ridiculously brilliant toe-point shapes on the floor, Karim really did appear to be channelling Gene Kelly for his American Smooth. Unfortunately, it was the layers of pink chiffon that were his undoing as he nearly came a cropper trying to lift Amy Dowden onto his shoulders. Karim and Amy form a very loveable couple with what she called their "Little brother/big sister" dynamic but in terms of complimentary choreography I still feel that Karim would have been series winner with a shorter, possibly bossier partner. You could see him bracing himself for the lifts on Saturday night and they disrupted the flow of his routine. 

Karim’s best dances seem to be the ones where Amy floats away and he lets rip by himself. Of all the dancers on the show Karim is the only one I have seen appear to get genuinely lost in the music and the role he is playing. It’s the level beyond just remembering the steps and trying to get everything right and it’s when the muscle memory takes over and the conscious thought becomes subconscious as a dancer becomes the routine with every fibre of their body. Unfortunately for Karim though the competitive, speed-dance nature of Strictly means he can’t remain in that state for more than a few moments because the celebs barely have time to ingest their routines, especially now it’s up to two a week.

Anton channels utter joy

Emma Barton is still referring to partner Anton Du Beke rather oddly as "this one", but she should take a look at the man’s body language as they currently dance their routines. With that Glitterball trophy within his reach for the very first time on the show his dancing has become a total delight, even by his own normal standards. 

It’s probably the first time Anton has been able to showcase his own talent properly, without having to throw elderly politicians etc around the floor like piles of dust cloths. How he kept his smile in place during the judges’ panning of Emma’s wobbly Cha Cha I have no idea, and listening to Emma say she just wanted to have fun out there must have caused a moment of grief for a technical dance expert. 

Anton led Emma through their very stately slow waltz like a tug towing a liner out to sea and his caution paid off, prompting tears from Anton. Judge Shirley Ballas praised the couple’s "chemistry" but I’m still not seeing it. Anton kisses Emma on the cheek and she ignores it and then she hugs him and he fails to respond. No matter though if they win next week. With the votes likely to be based on audience sensation rather than technical detail only the hardest of hearts would fail to want to see Anton have his best Christmas ever after so many years in the Strictly wilderness. Watching Anton win will be like watching Peggy finally get her promotion from chalet cleaner to Yellowcoat in Hi-De-Hi!  Hankies at the ready, please, just in case.

Shirley channels her inner psychic

After watching Kelvin and Oti’s Quickstep, judge Shirley weirdly adopted the body language of a medium conducting a séance, raising vertically from her seat with both arms held out in front of her torso, while a long, blood-curdling scream emitted from her mouth. It seems she was admiring Kelvin’s ‘Woodpecker’ and the flimsy double-entendre was not lost on judge Bruno, who fell off his chair laughing and snorting. 

Kelvin appeared for the Paso with his back arched like Mr Tumnus. He wobbled right at the end after what the judges seemed to think was a volley of small mistakes but, like Anton, the sensation effect should win over detail last week as viewers base their votes on how a dancer makes them feel rather than just how good they were technically. 

Celebrity pitches

As a body language analyst I find two things about Strictly almost totally unbearable to watch; first, the Simon Cowell-style back-story VTs where the celebs are expected to weep about their Nans or their siblings or the verrucas they suffered from as a child, and the second is the pro-dancer pitches that they are forced to perform close to the final. Claudia Winkleman now sits cosily close, prompting obscene levels of gush from the dancers as they are forced to claim their pro partner are ‘"like family", "friends for life" or  "the best human being on this planet since Mother Theresa". The poor things use body language that is so over-congruent they never really convince and I am just waiting for the day one of them erupts with the truth, as in: "they have been a total nightmare, and if I never see them again it will be a day too soon".

With the Strictly final just around the corner, whose body language was the most convincing this week? Share your verdict in the comments section below.