A word on the judging, as a result of spending a little time on Twitter. I’ve had an important epiphany about the notes as the judges deliver them on the show:
You know how I’m often saying, “What dance were they watching?” because listening to their notes, it seems like I saw an entirely different performance than they did? Well, it turns out I may not be altogether wrong. What I’ve never really realized before this season is that the judges all sit through the dress rehearsal a few hours before showtime. You’ve heard Nigel say at least once this season (last week’s comment to Melanie & Marko about their tango, for one) that the performance was a complete turnaround from the dress rehearsal. Well, what I suspect is happening is that the judges, probably fearing they’ll miss or forget something important or run out of time when the “real” performance comes along, are making notes during the dress rehearsal that they then include in their critiques on the show. Many times, that’s probably useful, because it would allow them to watch at least one of the performances completely without missing a few steps while they’re making notes. And it’s no problem – as long as the performances are either very similar (such that we wouldn’t notice any discrepancy between our own perception and their notes), or radically different (such that they acknowledge the change, as Nigel did last week). But I suspect that there are quite a few other times where there are differences between the two performances, and while they may be subtle differences to the judges, it’s just enough that the performance we see doesn’t leave quite the same impression with us as the one they critiqued. I could be wrong, but I’m really convinced this explains at least some of what can’t be explained by camera angles or the difference between their vast dance experience and my armchair evaluation. And with that, we return to our regularly-scheduled programming…
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