Tonight’s duel was a big surprise for me as the Swedish people made sure that Andreas Wijk and Kodjo Akolor remained on the stairs. It was a disaster. According to my scores, it should have been Charlotte Kalla and Renaida Braun who should have fought to stay. Honestly, I never cease to be amazed at the stupidity that viewers fall for. My judgments rooted in forty years of elite level dancing experience showed the way as to which two dancers should have stood in the duel. But despite my clarity, the people chose to save two people who for various reasons ended up in the bottom for me tonight and sent two capable gentlemen to the duel. “Incredibly disappointed to lose Kodjo” I was incredibly disappointed to lose Kodjo who has systematically developed his skills and qualities in relation to the level we are at in the season’s competitions. Now we are left with two people who, for me, have performed in poorer qualities. One started out as Bambi on slippery ice and has worked his way up to being as good in program four as everyone else was in program two. And the other one has actually been one of those that I thought would dominate the season but happened to have a bad night tonight. Now that we have made double demands on both technical and artistic skills, we clearly see that the competitive aspect makes higher demands than just physical movements to music. With dance as a sport, you have to achieve all the physical demands, combine this with a sporting strategy and then add the artistic aspect which makes dance much more complex than, for example, skiing. In dance, when we move as two, we must respond to each other’s touch with sympathy and empathy, while authentically developing our feelings into an artistic expression. Charlotte and Renaida must show radical development In tonight’s program Andreas and Kodjo had succeeded in achieving what I am looking for. Despite this, Kodjo went out. Both Charlotte and Renaida, who both avoided ending up in the duel due to the kindness of the viewers, now need to show a radical development next week to show that they deserve the place that the Swedish people have given them. Otherwise, for my sake, they might as well end up on the rubbish heap. My advice to the audience is: Take a second look at the competition and make sure you call in and vote for the one who danced best and not the one you feel sorry for. No matter how emotionally attached you are to any of our participants, turn off your emotional response and watch their performance. So, as chairman of the jury, I would like to say: Get ready for next week! And stop passing the crap on. May the best dancer win!
t4-general
“I never cease to be amazed at the stupid things that viewers fall for”
