Ultimate Strictly

CHARLESTON

The Dance

Synonymous with the 1920s, the Charleston became a popular dance craze, made famous by Josephine Baker who performed it as a solo at the Folies Bergère, Paris, in 1926, and is associated with flappers - the most daring of young women who cut their hair into bobs, cut the skirts short and listened to jazz music! Horrifying the establishment with its daring move and exuberance, it was even banned in some dance halls.

The dance should be full of bounce, and expect lots of flicks, kicks and shaking of hips! It requires the dancers to show bags of character, with a rebellious nature and unexpected steps. Expect to see lots of crossing motions, scissor steps with the legs and swivels in the ankles.

The judges will be looking for good arm and leg co-ordination, great choreography, and a fun, entertaining performance.

The girls will be in 1920s inspired flapper dresses, with plenty of fringing and possibly drop waisted, while the boys will probably be wearing spats on their feet and either a sharp suit or a shirt and waistcoat.

The best of Strictly

The Charleston was introduced to Strictly in series seven, and the first two performances of the dance were two of the best so far. Chris & Ola gave us a hugely entertaining routine, full of fun, which Bruno said was a concoction of slapstick and dancing, while Ali & Brian gave us a fantastic period routine, with Craig thinking it worthy of challenging Josephine Baker, and Alesha awarding it the first ever 10 for a Charleston and when they reprised the dance in the final, Chris & Ola were awarded a perfect score of 50 points from the five judge panel.

In series 8, Pamela & James brought us a fantastically comedic and entertaining routine to a great Cole Porter song, "Let's Misbehave", which seemed like a perfect fit for them, and earned them two 10s from the judges and a total of 38 points.

The worst of Strictly

In series 8, the first Charleston's were performed in week 4, so with only a little dance experience under his belt, Peter Shilton struggled his way through a routine with poor timing, no real Charleston feel and the white gloves of the costume emphasising the problems, prompting Craig to say he couldn't wait for it to finish and it scored a total of 17 points. Two weeks later, Ann & Anton routine contained even less dance content than usual from Ann, and also suffered from poor timing and very few recognisable Charleston steps and scored the same low mark of 17 points.

Scores for all Charleston performances:

*Len Goodman did not judge Series 9 Week 6 and actress Jennifer Grey took his place.