Ultimate Strictly

FOXTROT

History

On the American vaudeville stage in the early 20th century, Harry Fox created a dance with a slow-slow-quick-quick rhythm. In the nightclub above the theatre where he performed, couples started enjoying their own version of 'Fox's Trot' and after Vernon and Irene Castle included it in their act, the ballroom Foxtrot was born.

The dance

The Foxtrot combines Hollywood glamour with ballroom discipline and produces an elegant dance which should glide gracefully across the dancefloor. Even though it is probably the most technically complex of the ballroom dances, it is often cited as the professional ballroom dancers favourite dance.

The classic ballroom hold should be maintained throughout the routine, allowing the man to lead the lady around the floor. The choreography is built around turns and lines, often with alternating slow and fast timing. Expect to see walks and chasses, feather steps and heel turns, along with oversways, hover crosses and fallaways.

The costumes require the couple to look like the definition of elegance just like the Hollywood stars who epitomise the dance.

The judges in Strictly Come Dancing will be looking for good posture and hold with a beautiful topline, along with clean footwork, not forgetting those all important heel leads on the slow steps.

The best of Strictly

In the tenth week of series six, Rachel & Vincent impressed the judges with their romantic, smooth Foxtrot, which earned them four 10's and became the first Foxtrot to achieve the perfect score. The very next week, Lisa & Brendan performed a beautiful, elegant routine, which scored an impressive 39 points, which was matched by Tom & Camilla's dance just one week later. All three couples reprised their foxtrot routines in the final of series six, with both Rachel & Vincent and Lisa & Brendan scoring a perfect 40 points.

Apart from those, all the best routines have come from Christmas specials. Zoe & Ian scored 38 for their routine in the series 3 Christmas special, while James & Camilla scored 37 in the same show. Then in the series 5 Christmas special, Letitia & Darren scored a well deserved 36 for their Foxtrot to 'Silver Bells'.

The worst of Strictly

It's difficult to know what to say about Vincent & Edwina's foxtrot in series 9 as it contained so little foxtrot. A cafe table with two chairs and a Dean Martin song led to lots of sitting down with only 25 seconds of in hold foxtrot, and a lukewarm reception from the judged made it the lowest scoring foxtrot in Strictly history earning just 19 points.

Even though it was their personal best, Ann & Anton's Foxtrot in series 8 was definitely the worst we've seen on Strictly.

Scores for all Foxtrot performances:

*Arlene Phillips judged series one to six, while Alesha Dixon judged series 7 onwards.