DANCING W/ STARS S8,W4: VIENNESE WALTZ AND PASO DOBLE

Well, I love Viennese Waltz and I actually like Paso Doble but just hate watching the latter on this show for some reason. Probably because they usually completely destroy the Latin flavor and set it to heavy metal music or something ridic. Anyway, here goes:

Chuck and Julianne’s VW: Aw, sweet! Love how it ended with him on one knee before her 🙂 I guess lifts are now allowed?

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DANCING WITH THE STARS WEEK 3: LINDY HOP AND ARGENTINE TANGO

Okay, at the very beginning you saw a clip of someone (I think it was Denise from last week) doing a crazy Jitterbug aerial (Jitterbug is a form of Lindy, or East Coast Swing). That is how people are fracturing tibia, etc. — not doing straight ballroom! I know Jewel was injured early on, but I’m sure they were practicing everything that was to come just to give the competitors an introduction. I don’t really know how I feel about the inclusion of these dances with rather difficult lifts and tricks in a show like this, where the vast majority of contestants are well into adulthood and have little dance and / or athletic training. We’ll see how this week’s dances go…

Kym Johnson and David Alan Grier Lindy Hop: Cute. That’s all I can really say though.

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Dancing With the Stars, Week Two: Samba and Foxtrot

Maks and Denise’s Samba: Okay that was awful. Sorry but it was. She was hopping and running and skipping and doing just about everything but Samba. It is the hardest of the Latin dances — Len’s right, but still. I agree with Bruno that it wasn’t so hot, but don’t know if I’d call if flat as a “waffle”. And I agree with Carrie Ann– how frightened and stiff did she look?! During those Samba rolls, it looked like he was pulling her on top of him, then pushing himself onto her. Like she was the cat being forced to dance with Pepe le Peu. Interesting choreography from Maks — the one-legged hops, the waving his chest toward hers, flirtatiously. Extremely corny having him come to practice dressed as a Carmen Miranda-esque sambista to get her to stop being so serious. And don’t tell adults to feel and not think, Maks! Can’t be done. You learn by feeling as a child, as an adult you have to think; you’ve lived too much of your life by using your brain by then.

Chuck and Julianne’s Foxtrot: That was pretty good. Fairly suave, though he looked a bit of a goof on those side by sides in the middle. A little too much on his toes, I think was what it was. And it was pigeon-toed at that. He just looked a little Pee Wee Herman-ish. But overall, very sophisticated and he looked fairly comfortable in the close hand-hold. Yeah, Carrie Ann just said on the grapevine it looked like he hunched over a bit — maybe that’s what made it Pee Wee-like to me. He’s better at Standard than Latin.

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DANCING WITH THE STARS, SEASON EIGHT, WEEK TWO

Steve-O’s injured, but they’re going to wait until later to let us know what that means.

Holly Madison and Dmitry Chaplin Quickstep: Well, she’s cute. It looked a lot like he was kind of pulling her around the floor and she was just hopping without really having the steps down pat. But she hasn’t had as much training as the rest, so there’s that to consider. I agree with Len that her frame was part of the problem — she didn’t have a firm center and that’s why it looked like he wasn’t leading, but dragging her. I don’t think she’ll get kicked off first. I think she can improve.

David Allen Grier and Kym Johnson’s Salsa: Uh, it was okay. I mean, it’s so hard to judge amateurs learning to dance in adulthood. He looked uncomfortable — I mean with the dance form, with the rhythm and speed. But he looked like he was having fun, which is part of the battle. Hmmm, he might be first to go tomorrow night, depending on how audiences feel.

Denise Richards and Maks Chmerkovskiy’s Quickstep:

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LIVE BLOGGING DANCING WITH THE STARS SEASON EIGHT PREMIERE

Yay, tonight is here! I’m ridiculously excited, even though I wasn’t in love with last season. So, have decided to live blog. Upstairs Godzilla unfortunately just came home and is whacking her tail all about, crashing into walls, thundering down on my ceiling / her floor. She must be excited about the show too.

Oh well; I’ve turned on the closed-captioning.

Shawn Johnson trips on her way down the stairs during introductions. Doesn’t fall or anything. Kind of funny.

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