Ultimate Strictly

QUICKSTEP

History

Originating from the Foxtrot, as during the 1920's, band starting playing faster and faster music to the dance, making it harder for couples to keep up. So with Charleston elements incorporated into the foxtrot, the Quickstep was born.

The dance

The Quickstep should be fast (50 bars to the minute compared to 30 bars to the minute of the Waltz), and therefore full of energy and should travel at speed across the floor. Expect to see the classic gliding movement with lots of skips and chasses, and some very fancy footwork including locksteps and Charleston flicks and kicks. Because of the speed of the dance, most of the routine will be up on the toes and on the balls of the feet, and to move above the dancefloor, appearing to barely touch it.

Classic ballroom costumes, but the ladies dresses are likely to include floating panels and a layered skirt to create movement around the dancers legs to emphasise the speed of the dancers movement.

The best of Strictly

Lisa & Brendan were the first couple to score the perfect 40 for their Quickstep in normal competition, when they danced to "Dancing In The Dark" in the semi final of series six, while Ricky & Natalie scored 50 with all the judges in the final of series seven awarding them 10s. Unsurprisingly, some of the best routines in Strictly have been from the sports stars, with both Darren & Lilia in the Series 3 Christmas special and Colin & Erin in the Series 4 Christmas special also receiving the perfect score for their routines. Denise & Ian also impressed the judges with their performance in the Series 2 final being awarded 38 points with 10's from both Arlene and Bruno.

The worst of Strictly

You have to be fit to really perform a Quickstep, so injured Kate Garraway was never going to be a shining star of the ballroom with her routine in Series 5 along with her dancing partner Anton. With so much of their choreography having to be changed so that Kate could even dance on the programme, and Kate barely able to walk without crutches, let alone dance, their Quickstep was pretty bad, and scoring 15 points, you had to wonder how many of those were for sympathy!

In series 2, Diarmuid & Nicole's Quickstep received only 12 points, with one of the slowest Quicksteps we've seen, resulting in Len saying that the Quickstep should be light like a souffle, but Diarmuid's dance was like a spotted dick!

Scores for all Quickstep performances:

*Arlene Phillips judged series one to six, while Alesha Dixon judged series 7 onwards.
**Len Goodman did not judge Series 9 Week 6 and actress Jennifer Grey took his place.