So far Chris has been the runaway favorite to win this series, and rightly so (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)
Chris McCausland is the best thing that could happen Come strictly dance.
Admittedly, before the first live show of the series, it wasn’t on my radar to watch, which in retrospect is a pretty embarrassing failure.
Chris is the first ever blind contestant in Strictly’s 20-year history, but no one could have anticipated how magical it would be to watch the comedian effortlessly twirl his partner around. Danna Buswell around the dance floor, performing tricks that few of us with our vision intact would ever dare to attempt.
I love him, and so does the audience. So far, he’s been the most anticipated contestant every week, knowing he’s guaranteed to bring a tear to my eye or leave me full of sobs in my Deliveroo.
But after Icons Week I’m worried he’s losing his grip on the Glitterball trophy and for the first time in this series there’s another entrant I’m more looking forward to.
Sarah Hadland delivered perhaps one of my favorite Strictly Come Dancing performances of all time last Saturday with her Cha Cha to Like A Prayer.
Granted, she was dressed as Madonna which is basically catnip for gay people like me, so I was sold before she even took her first step, but from the moment she jumped off a five-foot platform into Vito Coppola’s arms with total carefree abandon, I was mesmerized.
It is the first performance in the series that I have watched again and again, each time being impressed by something new. Vito tossed Sarah around like a defunct rag doll with perfect posture, her feet moving at lightning speed and it was by far the most electric and – I say this as someone with no expertise whatsoever – certainly the hardest routine of the series so far. It was so good that I barely saw Vito in latex pants, which is quite something.
Sarah Hadland delivered one of my favorite Strictly performances of all time (Picture: BBC/Guy Levy)
The jury agreed and awarded Sarah three nines and a ten, which still feels like a criminal underscore.
Tonight she dances for the Miranda fans and performs an American Smooth to Heather Small’s Proud, the anthem that her character Stevie would spontaneously sing during the series.
I’m not a Miranda fan, but it was hard to escape the excitement from fans who clearly found Stevie’s live laugh-love humor much funnier than I did on social media.
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But you don’t have to be a Miranda fan to be completely impressed by Sarah. If anything, my internalized Mirandaphobia has kept me from giving Sarah the attention she deserved these past few weeks, but I admit I’m the fool who missed out.
The best winners are always those who have experienced the greatest journey, those who started no better than well. You might meet them at a wedding and joke “keep those moves a secret,” but you wouldn’t force them to sign up for a ballroom dancing competition.
Granted, Sarah started out stronger than a tipsy wedding guest, but she’s now almost an unrecognizable dancer as she performed the Quickstep to 9 to 5 in week one. Even though she was fun, she had buckets of energy and clearly had the potential to be someone to watch.
But her Cha Cha last week was full of sass, skill and sex appeal. I’m not sure Sarah even knew that seven weeks ago. There is now a confidence that, as long as it is not broken, Sarah could improve tenfold week on week and sail through to the final to take home the Glitterball trophy.
So far, Chris has been the runaway favorite to win this series, and rightly so. In one week of Strictly, he achieved more than most contestants could ever imagine, completely transforming the perception of what the blind community in one Cha Cha is capable of.
Chris will always be the heart of Strictly this year for so many reasons (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)
The following week Chris brought me and many others to tears with his Foxtrot, because watching Chris dance felt like I was watching a miracle – and I’m aware of how extreme this sounds. I still can’t fathom how he manages to be one of the strongest dancers every week, regardless of eyesight, and his collaboration with Dianne Buswell feels like the material for a ’90s buddy movie.
Chris will always be the heart of this year’s Strictly for so many reasons, but his competition is closing in and actually Sarah is suddenly emerging as the worthy winner.
Tasha Ghouri is clearly the most talented dancer and I’m not in the camp that likes to whine about ‘previous dance experience’, but I do want to support an underdog and that’s not Tasha.
Rightly or wrongly, Wynne has fallen out of the running since his weird ‘prank’ involving him touching Katya Jones was apparently misinterpreted and JB Gill danced better when he was on the X Factor.
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In an ideal world, Montell Douglas would reach the final as she deserves alongside Chris and Sarah, but as we’ve seen this week in the United States, more often than not the audience can’t be trusted with a vote. And if reports are to be believed, this series will be Johannes Radebe’s last and he deserves to end up in the final with one of his best partners yet.
Right now I don’t see anyone else breaking through and suddenly coming close to victory, but a week ago I never would have thought anyone other than Chris would lift the Glitterball trophy. Unfortunately, he’s getting closer to the bottom of the leaderboard and while he’s still a complete gift to Strictly, it only makes Sarah a little more of a reason to be excited.
Now I’d go so far as to say that this match is Sarah’s for the taking – and I don’t see anyone standing in her way.
Strictly Come Dancing continues tonight at 6.35pm on BBC One.
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