For the Ballroomers, here’s a nice, rather long interview with Yulia Zagoruychenko and Riccardo Cocchi, current world Latin champs. They talk about dance versus sport (Riccardo was going to be a footballer on the Roma team — who knew?), art versus sport, their personal lives, how they started dancing, the politics of dancesport, what dance means to them, how they found each other after long prior partnerships, why children should learn dance, etc. Good interview.
If you’re in NY, or are heading in over the holidays to see the show, here’s the latest list of casting updates. A few DWTS pros (Maks Chmerkovskiy & Kym Johnson, then Edyta Sliwinska & Alec Mazo) are taking over Pasha and Anya’s roles, then P&A return in mid-January to finish out the show, which now ends mid-Feb.
According to Dance Beat magazine, US and World Standard finalists Anna Mikhed and Victor Fung have broken up. Though not technically the best in the world, I’ve often found this couple just oozing with charm and charisma, as have others — they’re kind of America’s Sweethearts. They placed third in the world this year and they’ve long been second in the US Nationals. I don’t get it — first Mirko Gozzoli and Alessia Betti — well, and before them, Karina Smirnoff and Slavik Kryklyvyy– these couples break up when they’re on top.
Anna tells DB she’s “thoroughly enjoyed these last 6 years of dancing with Victor,” saying they’ve grown individually and as a partnership. “There was no incident that took place, just a recognition, perhaps mostly by myself, that our paths in partnership and in dancing were going in different directions.”
She tells fans to watch for each individually, and DB says Victor has begun looking for a new partner. Still, I’ll miss seeing them together.
Here they are Viennese Waltzing in Hong Kong earlier this year:
(photo from PBS.org)
I’ve been so busy with Fall For Dance and American Ballet Theater that I haven’t gotten a chance to watch any of this season’s SYTYCD. I was very happy to hear that current 10-dance champion Iveta Lukosiute made it to Vegas. (Ten-dance means she competes in all five Latin and all five Standard ballroom dances — since most couples compete in either Latin or Standard there’s a special category for those who compete in both.) I’m sure she’ll end up as a contestant on the show — she’s an excellent ballroom dancer, obviously. Above, dancing a Standard showcase with her longtime partner Gherman Mustuc.
I don’t have much time to write about this week’s Dancing With the Stars, but quickly, I was pretty disappointed overall, as I guess I usually am with the Samba and Rumba. They seem often to put the two on the same night for some reason. I think Latin is generally harder than Standard and I think these are the two hardest Latin dances, so it’s no wonder they don’t come out so well.
But, honestly — it’s partly because I think the dancers aren’t really teaching the celebrities how to ground their hip movement properly, so that it comes from the movement in the shoulders and lats (back muscles). One of my co-students once told me, when I was first learning Rumba, that the dance originated with the slaves. Rumba walks — the basis of the dance, and the basis of all Latin ballroom dances really — are supposed to stem from the way that slave women would carry heavy loads atop their shoulders. As the woman took a step, the weight coming from her shoulder would push down on that lat muscle, which would eventually bear down on the hip, causing it to settle into the hip socket. When the weight fully settled, she’d start the next step with the other foot, shifting her weight. Those changes in weight are what account for that now sexy-looking shifting of the hips.
But if you’re not taught how to shift the weight properly, how to make it originate from the shoulders — and I think it helps to be given the above visual — then you end up trying to produce that hip shifting only using the hips. And then you get that un-grounded, feathery, hip swaying look which doesn’t look right at all — it looks like the person is just shaking his or her butt. It looks goofy.
I thought basically everyone, with the exception of Mya, had that problem last night. I thought somehow some looked a bit better than others — Natalie, Melissa, and Joanna all somehow managed to look cute even if too light and airy (even for samba, though there’s a bounce, it’s still weighted — it’s not supposed to look like you’re dancing on your toes, like ballet), and Louie looked okay as well (though that might have been because he was partnering Chelsie so well — being such a sturdy support for her and making her look good). And I hate to say it, but Tom was pretty decent too. He has a sense of rhythm I didn’t expect him to have. Even that body roll — I would never in a bizillion years have thought that guy could do a full-body spiraling samba shake like that! But, still, no one but Mya had any semblance of proper grounding, and with the others, it just wasn’t there at all.
Still, everyone tried hard and everyone had the proper character of the dance; everyone had fun. It just shows you how blasted hard Latin actually is.
By bringing home the World Standard trophy from Tokyo this weekend. First time a U.S. couple has ever won the World Standard championship. Now if we could only return to the MGM era, we would have a new Fred and Ginger and the whole world could enjoy them as much as we ballroom fans do.
Also at the championship, Jonathan Wilkins and Hazel Newberry announced their retirement. No no NO, it can’t be Mr. Wilkins!!! Whatever are we going to do without our Ralph Fiennes of the ballroom 🙁
Reigning champs Mirko Gozzoli and Alessia Betti of Italy didn’t seem to compete, though Dance Beat doesn’t say why.
Photos by Andrew Miller, taken from Dance Beat.
Haha! Okay, well after spending much of my evening at the melodramatic (but riveting) Tosca (it was the Metropolitan’s Opera’s opening night gala, with the premiere of a new production of Puccini’s Tosca, by Met newcomer Luc Bondy), it was nice to come home to this rather goofy corny fun – -which is what social dancing mainly is after all! I don’t want to speak too soon, but, to be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to this season since the last few have been rather blah, but I think with last night’s show, we’re back on track. Lots of characters, some riotously funny, some endearingly sweet, some good dancers, others not so good but serious and hard-working.
For me, the top two (last night was only the men; women compete tonight) were Donny Osmond and, unbelievably, Tom DeLay. I thought DeLay was a natural with the Cha Cha, UNBELIEVABLY! He really nailed it — that slide on the knees, all the faux guitar playing, those awesome New Yorkers, all that hip swaying! The only thing that wasn’t really there were the pelvic rolls. I also thought he was very elegant and polished with the Viennese Waltz and was surprised the judges were hard on him — particularly since none of the guys were that good with VW (except for Aaron). Partner Cheryl seemed annoyed with him in practice though. Well, just so she knows, a lot of people who don’t normally watch this show are watching because of him, so if I were her, I’d snap out of it. She’s been rather short-tempered with her partners lately…
Donny was a total natural – -he nailed both the Foxtrot and the Salsa, which is rare — doing well in both styles of dance I mean. Yeah, I know he has dance training (he “danced as an embryo” I think he said), but still. It’s gonna be a lot o fun watching him dance the season away. And whoa, how much better is he than his sister?!
I also liked Mark (pictured above, with Lacey), the Iron Chef, the martial arts guy. (Sorry, I don’t have all of their last names down yet; too much going on right now in my life; will know them by next week!) I thought his Cha Cha was very good — far from perfect (and he’s doing the dreaded pigeon toes) but he has a natural rhythm and sufficiently loose hips and he clearly knows how to have fun out there and put on a show. But what was he on about with the “man —“? Len accused him of being too martial artsy but having good hips and then he remarked that he’s hiding parts of his body right now, or parts of his dancing, and intends to bring on the “man –” I really thought he said “man moves,” but then Lacey had a rather bemused look on her face and then everyone who quoted him afterward seemed to be saying “man boobs.” Why did he say he was bringing out his “man boobs”? Anyway, quite the character, that one — obviously. I didn’t think his Viennese Waltz was as great — that flexed-footed ronde en l’air almost made me spit out my wine. No flexed feet in rondes en l’air Mark unless you’re trying to be the doll in the Nutcracker.
Okay, I know he’s not popular with the judges, but I totally liked Ashley Hamilton. I think I liked him so because, hello, he was actually a gentleman! I expected a skanky lascivious womanizing perve like his father but no! A total dapper, polished gent! How does a womanizing skank not raise another man to be a womanizing skank? Maybe it’s rebellion — rebellion against one’s parents can take different forms. Hmm. Anyway, I also thought he really looked like Sebastien Marcovici (who we know is not a womanizing skank because Janie would never have any such crap).
Anyway, yeah, Hamilton’s not a natural mover and he has his work cut out for him but I like his personality. I find him endearing and he has a good dance body and I think he can do it if he tries hard. I want him to stay on the show for a while.
Oh poor Chuck, the boxer. Can you say “stiff”? He was seriously nervous during both dances but especially during his first, the Foxtrot. I think he was concentrating very hard, but he needs to loosen up and kind of not think so much.
I thought Aaron (singer, actor) looked stiff as well during his Cha Cha. But he was much better in the Viennese Waltz. Much more polished and very surprisingly smooth. Only thing that wasn’t quite right was it looked like he was literally running at points — particularly during a continuous turn in close handhold. He needs to make it look more like he’s gliding not literally running around in a circle. He didn’t score any points with me when we first met him and he said he was happy Karina’s his teacher because she’s pretty and he wants that. Yeah, that’s definitely what’s important in an instructor.
I thought Louie was so cute! (“I’m small — I’m 5’5, 5’6 on a good day…”) I agree with Len that it’s clear he has no dance training but that he took it very seriously and respected the dance form, trying hard to do all the footwork properly (and nearly succeeding) and be a proper partner. He and Chelsie Hightower looked good together.
And, finally Michael, the footballer who used to be with the Dallas Cowboys, and is Jerry Rice’s former teammate. Cute how he’s all into play competing with Jerry, telling us he just wants to get better scores than Jerry in each of his dances. And he remembers exactly what Jerry got from his first Cha Cha. But it’s clearly all in fun. He’s another one with an endearing personality who I like and want to stay on for a while. He’s not a natural dancer — he’s lacking in grace and polish and form, but he’s got an innate sense of rhythm and he’s used to moving and I think he has the ability to do well. He had some good triple chas in that Cha Cha which I think shows when he really gets going, when he really gets into a groove, he can make it work.
Len annoyed me, for the first time ever I think, or one of the first times. He kept harping on everyone for not doing standard ballroom — Donny’s Foxtrot was too “razz-ma-tazz,” Mark’s was too kung-fu, etc. Well, we know, but it’s only the first week — let the dancers have a first dance that’s not totally out of their territory. And that was totally out of line for him to criticize Louie’s shaggy haircut as not being “ballroom enough.” One’s personal hair style has nothing to do with one’s dance ability and Len should know that. It seemed like he really wanted to put everyone into a box and make them conform to his own non-dance standards. Dance is about freedom of expression. I know he was sort of kidding, but he came across as an old fuddy duddy.
I think of the men Chuck, Ashley and Michael are going to be in the bottom. What do you guys think?
Here’s the big dance number on tonight’s Emmys, choreographed by So You Think You Can Dance’s Tabitha and Napoleon, performed in part by Maks Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff from Dancing With the Stars. Nice to integrate the two main TV dance shows in this way. But, ah, where have I seen that costume before, Karina?…
Medarethinks Yulia moved that fringe a bit better. Although of course she had more time to dance. I do sometimes wonder if Karina were still competing today whether she’d beat Yulia.
I haven’t been watching SYTYCD this season (I don’t watch the auditions anymore), but my friend and former Latin ballroom teacher, Jacob Jason, just posted this on Facebook!!!!!
Argh, I knew I should have gone to the U.S. National Championships this year. My favorite male Latin dancer, Slavik Kryklyvyy, and his new partner, Anna Melnikova, just competed in the Open to the World category in Florida. They placed second, behind Yulia Zagoruychenko and Riccardo Cocchi. I can imagine what an exciting comp that must have been though. Here’s a short video of Slavik and Anna’s Cha Cha round. Go here to see more competition videos of the champs in each category.
The Vail International Dance Festival website has finally posted a video of the festival’s ballroom night, Ballroom’s Best. I’d been waiting for this. There are interviews with the spectacular International exhibition champions Hanna Karttunen and Victor DaSilva (from South Africa; you might remember DaSilva from that TV show Superstars of Dance) and the sweet American Smooth champs J.T. Thomas and Tomas Mielnicki. For those of you who follow ballroom, there’s a bit of footage of American Rhythm champs Jose DeCamps and Joanna Zacharewicz in there too.
Sir Alastair did not so much like this show when he saw it.
I know, this is starting to seem like the Pasha & Anya blog… but I just wanted to let people know that they are dancing in the Broadway on Broadway festival on Sunday, September 13th. Broadway on Broadway takes place every year and is basically a day-long series of free outdoor performances meant to highlight the various Broadway shows of the upcoming season. This year’s event is hosted by Michael McKean, who’s starring in the upcoming Superior Donuts, and will include performances by stars of Shrek the Musical, Next to Normal, Chicago, Memphis (Danny Tidwell is not performing though), Mamma Mia, Hair, Finian’s Rainbow, Ragtime, Billy Elliot the Musical, The Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, South Pacific, etc. etc. — basically practically everything that’s on Broadway right now. Pasha and Anya are dancing a number from Burn the Floor, obviously.
Performances begin at 11:30 a.m. and take place from 43rd to 47th Streets.
