Kevin Clifton has surprised some of his fans by sending some defiant tweets in response to some criticism to his jive routine with Stacey Dooley on Saturday night – after fan podcast Keep Dancing suggested that the dance was more about "outrageous theming" in a series of tweets. After the account wrote: "No lessons learned. I think Stacey's a good enough dancer to not need outrageous theming," Kevin responded: "You don’t understand. It has zero to do with 'needing' to do it. It’s a performance. It was also packed with jive content so there was no hiding. Props, costumes etc. are to do with character and narrative, nothing to do with ability."
Kevin defended his Minions-themed jive routine
Another tweet from the podcast read: "I won't prejudge, don't worry. There's a place for dances that are breathtaking and beautiful as well as ones for dressing up and being silly. I like to see the full spectrum." The professional dancer replied: "It was a costume. The content, technique and ability shown from a non dancer in this dance was unreal but you will dismiss this as dressing up being silly. The positive response to this performance is one of the biggest I have experienced & all 4 judges agreed."
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The discussion was kept friendly, of course, with Kevin later asking if he could be involved in a future episode to chat further. "Twitter convos are difficult. The only silliness was the fact we were minions. The rest was badass jive, I purposely didn't go down the comedy route. We should do a whole discussion on the podcast if you fancy 'cos this is interesting?" he said with a smiley face.
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Plenty of Strictly fans were enjoying the discussion, too, with one writing, "I'm loving feisty Kevin," and another adding: "In all my years of watching Strictly, there are few dances that I have seen bring so much joy to so many, of all ages - from toddlers up to Grannies (yes, me !) You & Stacey pulled off a routine that will go down as a favourite for many!"