Here are my thoughts on this week’s Dancing with the Stars.
I was going to post a video of Tiler Peck for all the Huffington Post readers who’ve never heard of her, since she was seen so little on last week’s results show, but sadly — shamefully really — except for a couple of rehearsal videos from last year’s Vail Dance Festival, there are virtually no videos of her on YouTube other than last week’s DWTS.
According to the New York Times, Tiler Peck will appear in next Tuesday’s Dancing With the Stars elimination show in a dance choreographed by Travis Wall. The performance is part of the show’s Macy’s Stars of Dance series; she’ll appear along with 12 others.
I didn’t write about this week’s show. Just couldn’t get into it. Did love how Ochocinco shows us how he talks to himself though 🙂 Just overall, the show is getting boring to me again… Hopefully it’ll spice up soon. I think part of my boredom this week had to with the fact that I just don’t like Paso, or, rather, hate how it’s performed on these shows (loved it in Strictly Ballroom though). And, then, last night I ended up watching most of the Yankees v. Red Sox game instead. I know Buzz got kicked off. Too bad!
Above photo of Peck by Paul Kolnik.
So, if you haven’t heard, there are big changes afoot for next season’s So You Think You Can Dance (which begins May 27th). Apparently, there are only going to be 10 dancers who advance from the final Vegas round instead of the regular 20, and those 10 will be partnered with a SYTYCD finalist “celeb” from the past instead of with each other. Only one person, instead of two, will be going home each week.
Hmmm, what do we think of this new set-up? Go here for one pov.
My thoughts are posted here.
Dancing with the Stars: Controversial Stars Steal Show – More free videos are here
Hahaha, I sound like a total dumbass! Seriously, I don’t watch reality TV (other than the dance competition shows, if you want to call them that), so I’m a total blank slate when it comes to many of the celebs on DWTS every season (remember when I didn’t know who Kim Kardashian was…). Well, apparently Kate Gosselin has a bad reputation for something. But I’m basically seeing her for the first time now, and her “Oh my god, what have I gotten myself into,” combined with that look of utter horror on her face really resonated with me, having signed up to do my first big comp before I saw myself on video. And that fear that she really kind of had to force herself to turn into determination… I do think she seemed sweet on Monday’s show!
Ha, it’s just funny hearing someone else say your words! She pronounced my first name right though (many people say Tone-ya).
Tomorrow night, Wednesday, March 24th, at 8:00, the new film made by New York City Ballet dancers Ellen Bar and Sean Suozzi, along with directors Henry Joost and Jody Lee Lipes, will air nationally on PBS.
I was sent a preview tape but I’d rather wait until everyone has a chance to see it to discuss. It’s about an hour long. The first 45 minutes is a movie of current New York City Ballet dancers dancing the original choreography of Jerome Robbins’s 1958 dance New York Export: Opus Jazz. The dance is really like an abstract version of Robbins’ more popular West Side Story suite — same jazzy rhythms, same jazzy movement, but without a clear linear narrative. The dance made its first televised appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show to popular acclaim. But it’s since kind of fallen out of the repertoire, with Robbins’ other ballets being more often performed. Critics have said this piece doesn’t really have the timelessness or genius of his other work, like West Side Story.
Anyway, the NYCB dancers have done something very cool: instead of just filming the dance in a studio, as it originally appeared on Ed Sullivan, they’ve filmed the same dance sequences at various locations around New York City – and not touristy ones, but “real” locales. It’s fun!
I’m interested to know what people think not just of the filming (which I find very clever) but of the choreography itself and the extent to which it’s dated. I think it’s interesting how you can kind of see the origins of hip hop. And I love the music, by Robert Prince. My favorite scene is still the balletic pas de deux between Craig Hall and Rachel Rutherford on the pre-redeveloped Highline. But yours may be different.
The second part of the program is a series of interviews with some of the people involved in this production as well as those who knew Robbins, and there are some clips of the original Ed Sullivan Show performance. Definitely worth watching. Go here for more info on the movie, and go here for your local schedule.
I wrote about last night’s show here.
So You Think You Can Dance alumni Danny Tidwell and Jakob Karr have joined Rasta Thomas’s Bad Boys of Dance and will be touring with that company this summer. I’m very glad to hear this for Bad Boys’ sake since all I could keep thinking the last time I saw them perform at the Joyce was how much better it would be if all of the dancers were at Rasta’s level. All of the dancers he had were good, but he was just … Rasta! Now he’s got more star power up there with him.
In other SYTYCD news, Alex Wong will be competing in the next season, along with Billy Bell (which we already knew). I mean, for now they made it to Vegas, but, you know, if they don’t make the top 20 I think SYTYCD may have some problems!
Above photo of Danny Tidwell from Flickr.
The contestants are:
Pamela Anderson/Damian Whitewood
Chad Ochocinco/Cheryl Burke
Aiden Turner/Edyta Sliwinska
Erin Andrews/Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Shannen Doherty/Mark Ballas
Buzz Aldrin/Ashly Costa
Niecy Nash/Louis Van Amstel
Nicole Scherzinger/Derek Hough
Evan Lysacek/Anna Trebunskaya
Kate Gosselin/Tony Dovolani
Jake Pavelka/Chelsie Hightower
My thoughts:
Buzz Aldrin — wow! Evan Lysacek – wow!
I wonder when Julianne Hough is returning?
Above photo taken from EW.com.
Hehe, here’s a new book I just saw up on Amazon. It’s by Colin M. Jarman and is a collection of humorous quotes from TV dance shows — mainly Dancing With the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance. Apparently I’m quoted somewhere inside (from my Huffington Post column). There’s a little quiz you can take to win a copy of the book on the book’s website.
The esteemed Guardian critic Judith Mackrell tackles the British version of SYTYCD. And damn, their show looks so much better than ours!:
“Who knew we’d be seeing choreography by Henri Oguike, Rafael Bonachela and Mark Baldwin on prime-time Saturday TV, or hearing serious discussion of brisés volés? So You Think You Can Dance may have some of the naffest production values on the box, but it’s actually done the job of getting dance – other than ballroom – into the mainstream. And so far, I’m hooked.”
MSNBC (via People.com) reports that Samantha Harris is leaving her position as Dancing With the Stars co-host in order to focus on her work on The Insider and Entertainment Tonight. She calls DWTS a “dream job” and says she’s sad to leave. Host Tom Bergeron is reportedly hoping to have her on sometime as a contestant (which could be fun). Season 10 begins March 22nd.
Photo: Kelsey McNeil / ABC
