Strictly: Anton Du Beke 'disappointed' with Vito Coppola
Craig Revel Horwood clashed with Vito Coppola following his Foxtrot with Lacey Turner on Strictly Come Dancing. During Saturday (November 14) night's show, the celebrities and their professional partners pulled out all the stops in the hopes of winning a place in next week's Blackpool special. Taking to the dancefloor, Lacey and Vito performed a Foxtrot to 'Have You Met Miss Jones?' by Robbie Williams. However, Craig was critical of the dance, particularly Vito's choreography, as he claimed it looked more like an American Smooth.
"It wasn't a Foxtrot so I don't know how we're meant to judge that," he said. "Foxtrot is not an open dance. You could have saved this for an American Smooth."
Vito was quick to challenge the judge, saying: "Rules say 70 per cent should be Foxtrot, 30 per cent is open, so I literally did not break the rules."
However, Craig argued that "it was not equal".
Vito insisted that he respects Craig's opinion before taking responsibility for the critique, highlighting that it was his choreography.
Turning to the EastEnders actress, Vito stated: "You have nothing to worry about because you have been amazing, you're beautiful, and I'm so proud of you."
Before Craig's comments, Anton Du Beke also agreed that the dance looked more like an American Smooth.
"As a dance, that was a thing of beauty," he began. "You were very free, very open. Theatrically it was gorgeous. I liked the performance enormously. But I looked down and it said Foxtrot and I went 'oh', because that looked like an American Smooth to me."
He added: "I looked at the Foxtrot bit and it wasn't bad. But there was a lot of gapping and your frame was breaking down a little bit too much. I'm sort of torn between a rock and a hard place here because the performance was lovely and I enjoyed it enormously, but the Foxtrot bit was the weakest part of the dance."
When speaking to presenter Johannes Radebe upstairs, Vito defended himself, saying he tried to choreograph a dance using the advice he received from the judges.
He added: "We as pros respect and love the judges so much. But I feel like I didn't break any rules."
The pair were awarded 27 out of 40 points, leaving them joint bottom of the leaderboard with Graeme Hall and Lauren Oakley and Will Best and Dianne Buswell.
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