The first week of Strictly's live shows felt like it was going to be the real test - of the dancers, of their new partnerships, and of course, of the new presenting trio.

Present and correct

The good news is that any sign of nerves was gone, the cringing competition-winner vibes of the launch show firmly in the past. Although the presenting team have denied they would fall into defined roles, it seemed to happen naturally here. Emma Willis and Josh Widdicombe presented the couples and helped them talk to the judges. This worked well, having two to go against the judges, and with Josh's ability to think quickly and deal with heckles.

Meanwhile, Johannes was left to fend for himself in the clauditorium, where comparisons are inevitable. He was done a raw deal, if you ask me, with audio issues and a rowdy excited crowd of contestants. But he also hasn't yet developed the skill that gets those extra nuggets out of the couples outside of what's written on his question cards. It'll come, I hope he's given time to work on it.

Dance revolution

Two dances told the story of the night. John and Katya performed a traditional foxtrot, with smart suit, sweeping silver dress, and the soaring Ordinary by Alex Warren guiding them round the floor. It was gorgeous. In the launch post I thought Katya would be able to work miracles with John, and we're already seeing it. This is Strictly in a nutshell: a surprising performance, ballroom dancing made accessible instead of stuffy, and the promise of potential to come.

However, it wasn't all about traditional dancing. Cach & Maddie's updated version of a quickstep split the judges and, I'm sure, the audience as well. There were the correct steps in there but they were overshadowed by the modern interpretation and street dance moves that Cach can perform in his sleep. I ended up agreeing with all the judges, even though they didn't agree with each other. He is there to learn something new not repeat what he can do. He should learn the rules and then be able to break them. It probably would have been better if the street dance just topped and tailed the routine, not be littered throughout.

This, again, is Strictly in a nutshell: modernising dance whilst keeping the fundamentals of ballroom dancing alive. Splitting opinions where there is no right answer because art is subjective. Strictly is many different things to many different people and we're already seeing evidence of that in just this first episode.

First dance follow up

Early predictions are pretty useless until you've seen the couples hit the dancefloor in earnest, and now the first dance is done, we've got a better idea of how things could go. The journey is long and there are many twists and turns to come, but I'm sticking with Irish ATC John as a potential finalist. Dani Dyer could definitely still make it, and I'm adding Tabby and Delta in there too. Tabby put in a strong first week jive, and Delta blew the walls down with an incredibly powerful samba to finish the evening.

I had called Lawrence as a dark horse winner in my launch post. Having seen his Paso Doble, there's still a possibility, but I think there's a lot of work to be done for that to come through. He doesn't feature in my finalists list this time, but he's not banned forever!

The Vito Report

I enjoyed the VT intro for Vito and Lacey's Cha Cha Cha featuring everyone's favourite Italian rocking up on the farm in a checked shirt. Also when he said "Nut the crack" instead of the reverse. But the most gorgeous moment was him kissing Delta's hand and high-fiving Kai in congratulations, right at the end of the show when the credits rolled.

The Yellow Card

Maddie was wearing a pale yellow dress which wasn't that offensive to the eye, but I wasn't happy with the clash between her outfit and her partner Cach's suit. It was a hue of blue and red that didn't match her dress at all. There were a couple of outfits that didn't seem to blend together very well this evening, a pet peeve of mine.

Musical Crime of the Week

I was disappointed not to know too many of the songs this week, part of the fun is always guessing what track is coming up next. But one of the few I did know, Hound Dog by the inimitable Elvis Presley, was reworked into a jazz number for Graeme and Lauren. Horrendous.

Roll call

• Will and Dianne: Samba - no nerves, great hips, but quite stop/start. Lots of potential.
• Tabby and Mark: Jive - great character, strong kicks and two cartwheels!
• Sarah and Julian: Quickstep - quite a few mistakes, complicated footwork though. Can see the competitiveness.
• Lawrence and Jowita: Paso Doble - very dramatic and they worked well together despite the height difference.
• Shaun and Alexis: Cha Cha Cha - doubtful Shaun is going to be a pro at this point, all the steps right but all quite limp.
• Bethany and Nancy: Quickstep - strong, confident, not flawless. I could have watched it for twice as long.
• Lacey and Vito: Cha Cha Cha - uplifting song and bright pink colours, not technically perfect but made to look very easy.
• Chris and Amy: Tango - I do find Amy terrifying these days and the tango doesn't help. Bit stompy but a good start.
• Melanie and Aljaž: Cha Cha Cha - Bit too much faff at the start and not really enough straight leg. She looked more comfortable in hold.
• Cach and Maddie: Quickstep - a lot of old-school Strictly fans are going to hate it but it was fast and furious and fun!
• Graeme and Lauren: Cha Cha Cha - he was giving it his all and really enjoying himself which is the main thing.
• Jaime and Carlos: Tango - I feel like this wasn't very good technically, but I enjoyed it despite the 70s skull cap and flares.
• Dani and Nikita: Samba - she's obviously still thrilled to be back, potentially getting a bit over-excited and ahead of the beat.
• John and Katya: Foxtrot - you can see how much he's worked on trying to be smooth. I don't usually enjoyed a foxtrot but this was great.
• Delta and Kai: Samba - absolutely incredible, intense and sharp, a barnstormer to close the show on.

At one point Shirley said: "We seem to have a lot of great performers in this." And she's exactly right. The specific skills varied across the board but only a couple of contestants actually seemed nervous, and everyone was engaging in their own way. So it's all on the technique now, who can start improving quickly and get ahead of the rest.

For the first time ever, they're bringing a theme week forward so that all fifteen dancers can take part. It's movie week next week! My initial feeling is annoyance, it always felt too soon for a theme when it was week three, so week two is just exacerbating that. But I've been wrong about everything I think I'm going to hate in this new series so far, so I trust them, and I'm sure it's going to be brilliant.