After eight gruelling weeks learning and performing the dark art of ballroom dancing, rapper
HHP and his professional dance partner
Hayley Bennet beat presenter
Candice Moodley and partner
Quintus Jansen to be crowned 2007
Strictly Come Dancing champions.
With a headstart from the judges and audience votes HHP and Hayley captured the attention of the audience as well and walked off with the trophy of the show’s
third season and R20,000 each.
"I'm absolutely thrilled that the dancer that sat in my cast meeting and tried to cry off with nerves and commitments has cleaned up," said Kee-Leen Irvine, executive producer of the show, in obvious reference to HHP.
"Hayley and HHP have rocked as a team and delivered the goods each week with something different and exciting."
Celebrities who attended the finale included
Cindy Nell,
Danny K (is there any event he's
not at?),
Michael Mol,
Penny Lebyane,
Pabi Moloi and previous participants like
Patricia Lewis and past season contender,
Michelle Garforth, not to mention TVSA's own Brown Shuga (
Lelo Boyana).
In the last week of training Candice asked, “do we have to?” but then she got to Wish Upon a Star when she and Quintus took to the floor for the Fox Trot.
Lillian proclaimed they had found the pot of gold while
Tyrone sappily said Candice had changed from a non-dancer to someone who could dance to the end of the rainbow.
HHP and Hayley who were hot with the judges last week thrilled the audience and judges alike with a jive to the music of Grease Lightning.
Judges enthused with comments like "you were like grease lightning" in
Dave’s rather unoriginal opinion, and Lillian going one better by calling them "white lightning", an uncharacteristically obscure reference.
At the end of the first round the scores were 33 each, which set the scene for one of the couples to dazzle with a dose of competitive drama.
Both couples were challenged to create an interpretive dance sequence to a piece of music chosen by the judges, entitled “You’ll never find.”
In a training session, Quintus parodied, “you’ll never find a nine in this competition” and unfortunately it foretold the judges’ scoring for that round, in which the highest was an 8 from Salome.
Tyrone said he was not moved and David agreed that he found the Latin lacking.
Dancing to the same song, HHP and Hayley waltzed off the floor with remarks like “best ever” from
Salome, with Lillian praising Candice or her technique and raising the bar.
Dave, heaping cheese upon praise, said they told a story in each dance and added "awesome" to his babble. The first 10 of the evening was offered by Lillian in that round, with all other judges throwing in their 9s.
This brought the second round score to a 70/63 lead for HHP and Hayley, a more than subtle hint that they were favoured by the judges.
In the final dance, which was freestyle, the couples chose their own music and Quintus found the 9 he was looking for from Dave, who commented that Candice “threw off the chains of inhibition.”
Manning up slightly, he added that the performance was "wicked".
Salome remarked that Candice “outdid” herself, Lillian described her lift as “magnificent” and even Tyrone warmed up to some favourable form, adding “precision", "elegant" and "quality" to his list of adjectives.
In his closing comments Quintus said, “Even though we are not the winners we have still won”. Uh, sorry to break it to ya buddy, but no - you didn't win. HHP did. We appreciate your sentiment nonetheless.
For HHP and Hayley the Freestyle section lent itself to their almost faultless form. For the three judges Lillian, Salome and Dave a 10 was the obvious score, but Tyrone, although he described their performance as “fabulous”, only managed an Inconsistent Eight (save us - we're turning into Barry Ronge!).
At the end of round three the scoreboard was showing a tally of 108 for HHP and Hayley and 95 for Candice and Quintus out of a total 120, making the hot, hip-hop and happening performer and Hayley the clear favourite of the judges.
The evening was rounded off with a performance by all the season's contestants, followed by one from Craig Smith and Nathalie Woolf, who recently won the ballroom dancing championships in Blackpool in the UK.
And that's it for another year - considering the
decent ratings of the show, we imagine it will be back next year.
Until then: congratulations HHP and Hayley, commiserations Candice and Quintus, and bugger off
Ian and
Sandy. It's enough now. Come on.
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SCD Recap Blog: inTOXICated