25 November 2023 , 20:40
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Strictly's Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin made their feelings known towards judge Craig Revel Horwood.
They returned to Saturday night's show to dance the American Smooth. However, during their performance the duo clearly decided to reference last week's show. During the Blackpool performance, they wowed the judges and divided audiences when they performed their pole-based couple's choice routine to Christina Aguilera's Ain't No Other Man.
The judges were obsessed with the duo's creativity as they received a whopping 39 points. Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke all scored 10 points. However, Craig Revel Horwood gave the pair a 9 and told Layton: "This is a little bit of a dilemma for me because I loved it, number one, but it wasn’t entirely in sync. That being said, you are one of the most incredible dancers that I have seen on this show over the 20 years I’ve been doing it."
Layton and Nikita made a cheeky dig to judge Criag (BBC)Layton and Nikita made their thoughts over Craig's comments very obvious at the end of their dance this week. As they came to the end of their performance, the pair cheekily ran over to Craig's judging desk and put their hands to their mouths in a shh'ing motion. After their dance, host Tess Daily said: "Craig I think you were just shh'd then. You are very brave shh'ing Craig." They scored 34 points from the judges.
During Strictly spin-off It Takes Two earlier this week former dancing star Kevin Clifton made a dig about Craig Revel Horwood's voting technique. Host Fleur East asked Kevin his thoughts on Layton and Nikita's dance. She said: "Split opinions on whether Layton and Nikita were in sync, but Motsi loved the timing. What are your thoughts on this dance?"
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Kevin quipped: "When you say split opinions, I think it was Craig versus everyone else in the country. I, like everyone in the country, thought it was sensational. I thought it was amazing. For 99.9% of it they were in sync. I really had to look at the clip to find a place that they weren't."
He then showed a slow clip of the dance and added: "I mean we have had to slow that down just to demonstrate it because this was absolutely phenomenal. For me it was a 10 all day long and like I was saying last week it comes down to subjectivity. You have to decide is that enough to take away from the dance, enough to not give it a 10. For everyone else in existence no, but for Craig apparently yes.”
Following the performance judge Shirley Ballas said: "It takes a lot to impress me but this is really a creative genius, it really is, on every level." However, viewers were left divided over the fact Layton and Nikita danced around a pole. The duo spun around it several times and used it as support after attempting a split. It was the first time a couple pole danced in the show's history.