Tag: Dancing With the Stars

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DWTS Week 4: A Balance-Less Viennese Waltz?

Well, perfect Paso Doble from Mark and Kristi — not only technically marvelous, but splendidly dramatic with some real creative spins as well. Good choreo for Mark. But why why why WHY can’t anyone dance to real Paso Doble music? Does anyone who doesn’t have background in ballroom understand this dance? I bet not. How can you when you don’t hear the real music? It’s a bullfight song. Has anyone heard of “Espana Cani” “Paso Royale”? I mean, come on, you guys. I’m starting to get really annoyed at the producers. At least these two had authentic costumes… Oh, I just realized there were no flamenco taps. I like those and I missed them.

Aw, pretty routine from Louis and Priscilla. Except, for some reason I couldn’t take my eyes off Louis, which is very weird, looking at the man, in Viennese Waltz, right??? I loved her use of her skirt. I do think she looked a bit stiff, didn’t flow as well as a waltz is supposed to. The footwork was right, but it looked like she was concentrating hard, like it wasn’t natural. Especially those turns in shadow position (where the guy is behind the lady, “shadowing” her; that’s where she was playing up the skirt). Viennese Waltz is fast and if you don’t have the footwork completely down, if you’re worried you’re going to trample your partner, it’s going to register on your face. I liked the swooning end, though.

I liked the flavor of Adam and Julianne’s Paso better than Mark and Kristi’s. I liked the fire in the background; I liked the costumes. And hello, real music!!!! The unicycle was corny. But the Zorro thing with the mask was pretty funny and worked well for him. Adam’s a pretty decent dancer. I thought at one point, he was going to stomp on her feet, but he didn’t do any wrong footwork, and there was a point where he had a couple of turns to do, and he looked like he spotted well and there were no balance problems at all. And his tour jete (jump and turn all in one) was cute. Not at all a ballet dancer’s, but of course that’s not to be expected. It’s fun when non pro-dancers try them 🙂

Viennese Waltz can be a killer if you have any balance problems whatsoever. You can’t spot, for one thing, at least not normally, because your head has to stay with the rest of your body; it all has to flow. That’s the beauty of it. So, you have to spot only with your eyes, by focusing on one object as it whooshes past you, then another, then another, and do it rapidly — quickly change focus and objects just gush by. It’s damn hard. You can’t whip your head around all at once, like in ballet. Marlee said she thought her problems were due to her hearing. Interesting, because I know I have balance problems because of serious eardrum problems I once had. But I didn’t know they would also be a problem for someone who’s completely deaf. Well, regardless, I thought their VW was lovely. Marlee did look stiff — and that odd head-hold Len talked about is typical of someone who’s trying hard not to lose their balance. Her shoulders were tensed up a bit too — probably something only I noticed since it’s something I do a lot — especially when nervous about balance! Well, she definitely overcame. She’s obviously a great actress too, and that helped with this very actable routine.

I thought Mario’s Paso was good — at least step-wise, albeit a bit boring choreo-wise. Ending fun trick though, with Cheryl’s flip over his head. I didn’t like the modern song, regardless of how much Spanish flavor it had. I just like Paso to be traditional Paso; danced to a modern song, the dance just doesn’t make sense. And where are my flamenco taps, anyone, anyone?…

Oooh, sexy VW for Jason and Edyta! I liked it! I liked the close romantic hold that would sexily open up when she swung her head around, I loved that seductive deep dip. They did screw up on a pivot, right? But whatever. It was gorgeous. His lines are a bit weird — especially his hands when he extends an arm out — but I think it’s just because of his size. I noticed this with Marcelo Gomes, my favorite ballet dancer. I used to criticize him for off lines and thought it was some kind of mistake he was making, then saw another dancer make the same exact line with his arm and hand and it looked totally different. So, it’s just plain and simply size.

Cristian is shyly flamboyant. Such a contradiction in terms. I couldn’t help but laugh at his grunts. I like him, but I thought the routine was plastic, if that makes sense? I thought the choreo and costumes were a caricature of PD. It’s not Cristian’s fault though. His footwork and technique were good and he gave it all the dramatic flourishes he was apparently told to.

Shannon and Derek’s VW was gorgeous. That was like a fairytale. I can’t believe how she just became a real dancer after the first week. Lovely arched-back spin. And her lines are beautiful; like a pro dancer’s. She’s really impressing me, especially after the first week.

Yay, Marissa and Tony. I got my little flamenco-y stylistics at the beginning 🙂 And my traditional music! And she had some great moves — great kicks, great ronde en l’air, very swift, very passionate and very clean technique. Oh yes, and beautiful wrist expression at the beginning, Marissa! The judges are being really nice now, which they should be. I still don’t think this one was any different from last week. My only qualm is her costume — that French maid sexpot thing… hmmm. And her arms need some work, she just kind of throws them out a bit too harshly. She needs more control and styling there. But overall excellent dancing, and that’s what matters.

Who do you guys think is going to go this week? I have no idea… Very tricky how they’re not telling us who’s next to bottom each week.

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Oh No, Farewell Mr. Funnyman Steve

I’m so sad that Steve Guttenberg’s now gone. He made me laugh. I really did like him; he added so much personality and humor to the show. I really didn’t think it was going to be him. So, Adam’s still there and Steve’s gone. I do wonder if audiences are voting for pro dancers too — they love sweet Julianne, and maybe Anna not so much?

I am glad, though, that the judges didn’t have an effect on audience votes for Marissa. They made me so mad last night. I was blogging as the show was happening and I began typing about how it was the perfect routine for her, and had to stop and stare for a minute at the screen when the judges’ remarks began. I couldn’t believe how opposite they felt from me. Anyway, she was so happy tonight, and that was fun.

So, what did you guys think of Alvin Ailey??? I’m dying to know! Unbelievably, there was a tornado warning in New Jersey and they interrupted the show here right as they were on, to tell everyone how to batten down the hatches, so I only saw about half of the Ailey! I couldn’t believe it — ugh what timing! Who cares about New Jersey!!! Just kidding 🙂 But that was the end of “Revelations”, and they even changed some of it to fit it all into the small amount of time they had, so I’m not sure how much sense it made to people who’ve never seen it before…

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Dancing With the Stars Week 3: "I Don't Come Back With Anything; I Just Keep My Mouth Shut."

Ooh dear, poor Julianne…

I am absolutely stunned by Marlee Matlin’s Jive. I can’t believe it. Fabian must have taught her some kind of counting method to keep them in sync because at the beginning he wasn’t leading her; she was dancing around him, and she still ended perfectly on beat. Perfectly. He simply jutted out his hip and she began. Well, her counting skills are excellent, that’s all I can say. Her kicks weren’t that high, but it’s hard when you’re starting dance as an adult, to have that kind of flexibility. Anyway, awesome.

Strange thing, though: I recently finished reading “Schuyler’s Monster,” (which I wrote a bit about here) about a little girl with a brain abnormality that prevents her from being able to speak. Because the same disorder prevents her from having fine motor skills, such as are needed to make some of the more intricate sign language hand formations, Schuyler learns to “talk” through a computer-type device, where she types words and a voice speaks them. Rob Rummel-Hudson, Schuyler’s father, remarked in the beginning that the voice in her first computer — a male one, just didn’t “look” like a little girl. With her next, more sophisticated computer, he made sure the sound of the voice could be controlled, so they’d have different choices. They finally got a “little girl sounding” little girl. It just reminds me of that when I hear Marlee’s translator speaking! I keep thinking, wait, who’s that, she doesn’t sound like that!

Steve and Anna’s tango: eh. I’m not a Standard dancer, but Tango is getting boring; there’s only so much you can do with it. It’s a dance that really inherently lacks creativity, I think. But I’m not a Standard person. Anyway, this was pretty basic – that little sequence where he rattled her shoulders about was cute — the rest typical. But, now that I’m listening to the judges, yeah, he did well with it, he really did. I guess if I’m bored it means there was nothing noticeably out of line in the dance. Gimmicky though to have Jonathan practicing with Steve in Anna’s sickness-induced absense. The supposed funniness of two big guys dancing a sexy dance together, oh no that’s never been done before… Still all my problems are either with the producers’ or the tango itself; Steve’s still adorable.

Wow, Cristian just blew me away with his jive. Those jive kicks — and Cheryl put in a lot — are damn hard, especially for a beginner. He did them nearly perfectly. And he got some good height on those side kicks. Cute routine; a bit too many sliding through the legs tricks though. Also, I hated that little Sea World excursion. This is what I dislike about shows like this — the phoniness. He needs to learn how to relax and let loose, so she takes him to visit her “friend,” a sea lion. Through the ocean creature, he learns to let loose and have fun with dance, as the lion flaps about on the wet cement, and, miraculously, Cristian does well.

Oh gawd with that Karina / Mario tango. Actually, I felt the opposite as I did of Anna / Steve’s tango. This was weirdly kind of cool because it was so bizarre, and I disagree with Len and his “bitter disappointment.” I always like the Argentine hooks / ganchos. I really couldn’t take my eyes of Karina with that getup though, and kept wondering what she was thinking until I realized she’s supposed to be a prostitute and he her savior. Her dark knight of a savior. But what an odd musical interpretation by the band too, right? Creepy. But I still prefer creepy and weird to typical and boring.

Derek was adorable. Shannon’s jive was okay. She’s tall and skinny and jive is difficult for people with that body type. The judges are eating her up though, so I guess I missed something. I thought it lacked polish, finish on some of the moves. It looked like she was struggling to keep up at points and ended up having to rush some of the steps, which goes along with the height issues. The kick-boxing thing in practice: made more sense than the Sea World and man on man tango. It seemed like a understandable way for her to learn jive kicks.

Oh excellent tango, Julianne!! Bravo! Loved the 50s theme, loved the costumes — his frilly shirt, her dress, her hair — Adam shut up about the gay guys in costumes! Those gay guys — and Julianne — just made your routine! Shut up! I loved the ochos (stylized forward criss-cross steps) over his outstretched leg, the promenade runs, the ending deep dip. This was a classic interpretation of Standard and Argentine and it suited him remarkably well. Julianne is a genius choreographer. Adam needs to stay on because she is the show’s greatest artist. Bruno’s imitation of Len with his “seVEN” was cute. Bruno’s growing on me, which is kind of scary. Wait, what did Adam just say??: “My mom always told me in order to find out about Argentine tango and prostitution and pimps, just go to a Mormon.” No comment.

“Tony’s a fabulous dancer, but he cannot tell a joke,” says Marissa, laughing like the typical sweet girl at the corny but cute guy. Tony is a goof and his jokes are silly. But they’re from the heart, which makes him lovable. Wow, sweet jive. I think this is Marissa’s best performance! I love the ending gaze upward — very Hairspray. Again, I totally disagree with the judges. “It was like a jive on cruise control.” Bruno DOES come up with his lines beforehand. He does! The turns were really good — some of the best American spins I’ve seen; she knows how to spot. Understandably, Marissa sounds like she’s about to cry though upon hearing the judges’ remarks. I don’t get their nastiness either, Marissa! I thought she was really cute.

Wow, another great classic from Louis for Priscilla. This Tango was almost entirely Argentine. I loved the handhold, I loved the forward ochos, I loved how they both developped up their legs, his slightly higher than hers, and how he then snaked it around hers into tricky sexy gancho. She’s dancing beautifully. She kind of reminds me of Jackie Kennedy; royalty. And he treats her with such respect. He and Julianna are the show’s two genius choreographers.

“One thing I’ve learned in football: when you don’t know something, you should keep your mouth shut and your ears open.” I love Jason. Edyta slowed down his jive substantially — it was a very slow, almost west coast swingy jive, which was smart because he seemed to be having some problems with the intricate footwork and keeping up with the kicks. He’s very large — again, it’s a hard dance for someone so tall. Interestingly, he did well with the toe / heel swivels though. But the routine had flavor and personality and charm and bits of cute choreography — like the shadow swivels — and he tries hard and is really respectful of her.

Hehe, how funny was that when the announcer developed a sudden case of laryngitis!? Is that bad of me to laugh? I’m sure it’s not serious…

Did they just say Alvin Ailey was going to be on tomorrow night? I’d heard they were going to be on the show at some time in the near future, but didn’t know it was so soon?! You guys, I’m so excited — now everyone can see my favorite dance company, not just NYers!! Woo hoo!

See, Tom Bergeron’s talking again; it wasn’t serious.

Okay, well in contrast to most of the other Tangos we saw tonight, Kristi and Mark’s was a real Standard ballroom tango, as opposed to Argentine. I prefer Argentine, but this was a pretty perfect Standard, at least technique-wise. Very precise. I do agree with the judges on this one: while it was technically excellent, the emotion was one-dimensional. It bored me, though I love Kristi. That’s a real ballroom hairdo too.

So, who do you guys think it’s going to be tomorrow night? I’m afraid it might be Marissa, though I think she’s a blast.

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Pretty Much As I Expected…

So, Monica and Penn are the first to go. Pretty much as I expected, though I’d thought Adam might be first, but also suspected people might vote for Julianne Hough, which it appears may well be what happened. Unless you guys think Adam managed to redeem himself after the Carrie Ann cursing incident? Well, I’d definitely be happy if people were starting vote for great pro dancers instead of only the celebs!!

Also, hehe, this appears to be a picture taken by none other than dumbass moi of Fabian Sanchez at the U.S. National championships two years ago when he and his partner won the Mambo championship. I call myself a dumbass because Sharon had written me when this season’s “Dancing With the Stars” pro dancers were first announced asking if I’d heard of him and I said, “Hmmm, Fabian Sanchez, no, no, never heard the name…,” when in fact I’ve actually seen the man dance, and had written his name right on my photo page… And thanks to Mig for reminding me 🙂 Haha, that’s the year I’d so wanted my teacher Luis Grijalva and his partner Anya Fuchs to win, or, barring that, Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine and his then partner Joanna Zacharewicz. So even though Fabian was excellent and he and his partner were tremendous fun, I was probably honestly just too sad at that point to think much of the winners.

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DWTS:Whoa Shannon, 2000 Percent Improvement!!

How cute is Anna’s mom?! So sweet! And how much of a little cutie is Steve? He’d better not get kicked off yet — he’s too adorable! He was so funny when he got all excited for himself and gave himself a little hand when he got that trick right (rapidly alternating knee lunges). And charming routine she created for him, with a cute story. She knows his strengths are in his acting and performance skills and she’s making routines heavy on that. I do think Latin is not his strongest style, but, there’s room for improvement — that’s what the show’s about, right? I think the judges were too harsh. Oh and was Steve’s “I thank you and I respect you” comment to the judges a riff on Adam Carolla’s cursing at Carrie Ann last week?

Cristian was really good at ballroom. He was the quintessential “quickstepper” if that’s a word… Very energetic, perfectly upright ballroom posture, very sharp and clean footwork, swift, and fast for a beginner. What I didn’t like was Cheryl. I felt she was too Latin. The way she shook and wiggled; it just didn’t look like Quickstep. Interestingly, he stayed with more traditional movement, not making it Latin-y as well. I think he’s a very good dancer and I has a charming personality that makes you care about him; I think he can do well.

Well, Monica tried. She was actually better this week than last, I think. Her feet are too pigeon-toed; Jonathan needs to work on that. I said this last week about just about everyone — pigeon toed feet really destroy the line, and the camera focused on her feet this time during some swivels and they were way turned in and very unprofessional-looking. Jonathan gave her a disco-y mambo, which is probably better for her than a more Latin-y one since she has this tendency to jump and hop a bit which completely destroys the rhythm and hip action of Latin. I think she has a way to go, and she has a good body. I sure do sympathize with her feelings of discomfort on first-time performing 🙂

Penn wasn’t so bad. The quickstep worked pretty good for him. I agree with Len; he was a “convincing” quickstepper. He does need to work on footwork; it was proper but not sharp and I kept thinking he would trip himself or Kym. But it’s hard for someone of his size — especially with his large feet — to dance so sharply. I liked the little jump. I want to know how does those magic tricks though — both the upstanding tie and the sawing Kym in half… And, he has cool glasses.

Priscilla was adorable. She was really good; there was a lot of fun, sassiness to those steps. Len’s right — Mambo is about having fun, not precision. And the way she lifted and bent her knees (I tend to straighten too much, like in International Latin, and it looks stupid, too ‘arty’ and not loose enough for Mambo), and that little crawling on the floor like a tiger at the end, perfect fun. Of course a lot of this is thanks to Louis — good choreography. He’s giving her lots of classics. Remember when he got reprimanded for that disco-y samba he did for Lisa Rinna? I think learned his lesson — at least with these judges. They want classic. And Priscilla just screams classic anyway. Oh and excellent dress for her. And earrings! Oh and, Barbara, I caught the tail end of some story on one of those tabloid TV shows about how her cosmetic surgeon ended up being a phony and screwed up her surgery. I guess she’s trying to have it re-done…

Okay, Shannon’s not going home this week. Omg — whoa, 2000% improvement. I couldn’t believe it. She looked like a real dancer out there. Very difficult routine, very fast, lots of hard footwork that could easily have tripped her up, hard jump at the end. It’s not as easy to get height on those back kicks as it looks. Only thing, very very nitpicky thing — at one point she extended her leg out and her knee was slightly bent. It just threw the line off a bit and resulted in lack of polish. But teensy tiny problem in overall awesome routine. She was simply gorgeous.

Jason had turnout, Jason had turnout, turnout!!! Makes me very happy 😀 Yay Edyta! The routine was a bit slow (I tend to like faster mambos), but he was fun, and he has such a charming smile. Makes me jealous of her that she gets to dance with him… They look so good together. At first I was worried the judges were going to give Edyta all hell on that “lift” — because I think both of her feet came off the ground every so briefly at the beginning of that swing. But fortunately they didn’t harp, as they have in prior seasons, and said nothing.

Marissa was a huge improvement too. Quickstep suited her well. I’m not sure if ballroom in general is going to be better for her than Latin, but Quickstep is fast and fun and “bubbly”, as Len says, and that’s very her. You can tell why she’s such a Broadway star. She has the best personality, with contagious buoyancy. I felt so badly for her when, prior to dancing, she was crying about not being able to do high extensions and certain athletic tricks. But her personality, which shines through in her movement, is what is so lovable about her.

Julianne looked kinda uncomfortable with Adam, particularly in that little tango promenade thing. He is pretty funny out there. He was bouncing too much, which, as I’ve said before, is a problem many beginning Latin dancers have. Cute choreography from Julianne though, and I love how she bopped him in the face with her … By the way, what did he say about her pelvis, in practice? When she said, try to roll your pelvis, like this… “That’s not your pelvis, baby?” Is that what he said? Yick.

Another very good performance from Marlee. It was a mambo / quickstep though 🙂 but that’s Fabian’s doing. I think she missed a jump and their connection at times wasn’t so good (you’re always supposed to be connected at the pelvis, making a martini-glass shape where waist down is the stem, waist up is the upside-down triangular cup), but that’s the hardest thing for beginning dancers to get about standard ballroom. Wow. I’m so impressed by her. I don’t mean to keep focusing on the deafness, but I can’t believe she can’t hear. I can’t!

Okay, Kristi was just as good as last week. Which is perfect. She’s a natural at all forms of ballroom. She has it in the bag. I hate to make predictions this early, but if she doesn’t win, she should. I wish I had skating background 🙁 Although something tells me she just turns everything she touches into gold. Only thing off was the costume — too much going on. Those gloves kind of took it over the top.

Mario’s so cute! Perfect as well. Funny, I was just thinking how he didn’t fit the “stereotype” of the ballroom dancer, though the footwork and charm and even the frame were right on, and then when I heard the judges’ comments, I realized it was the muscles! Ballroom men are usually not so muscly — and of course you can’t see those biceps because they wear full, long-sleeved tux jackets. So, it was the costume, combined with the physique. But different is definitely good. He and Kristi are my favorites thus far.

And that’s it for “Dancing With the Stars” week 2. I predict tomorrow night it’s going to be Monica and Adam who leave. Unless, people vote to keep Adam on because of Julianne, which I could see happening.

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Maks Chmerkovskiy’s DWTS Thoughts, and Blackpool!!!

 

Since my two posts for the weekend were quite sobering (and long — that’s what 8 hours’ worth of testimony looks like, folks), I figured I’d end the Easter weekend with something a bit more upbeat.

So here it is.

Thanks to Sharon for this. It’s former “Dancing With the Stars” pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy‘s thoughts thus far on the show, most of which I agree with:

“Hey ‘KIDS’! Very Happy

Just wanted to check in and say that I am proud of you watching the show and not doing the whole…..boycote…thing, because I’m not on it.

I will be back to share with you what I thought about the dancers/couples in couple of weeks. Simply because I need more time to evaluate everything and give you my opinion.
To give you a taste:
Kristy was AWESOME!!! (as expected). Let’s see if she would be able to pull off a latin dance with hip-action and everything (after all gliding in Foxtrot and gliding in skating may not be so different)
Jason Taylor was very good. He is the new Emmit Smith, but younger and (in my heterosexual opinion) sexier (sorry Emmit Very Happy )
Christian DeLa….whatever WILL be better! I think that Cheryl is pacing herself and just letting Christian turn into the dancer that he should be instead of forcing him to become something unnatural.
Mario …..Not enough given his natural talent and ability. Will be the front runner later in the season.
Marlee…..GREAT! Fabian (not because he is my friend) did an amazing job catering to her needs and supporting her in every way while highlighting her strong points.
Marisa….HILARIOUS!!!, but that’s all for now
On the other hand…..
Shannon Elizabeth……… NOT what I expected and I’m hoping that Derek can get her to be what she is looked at as: Stacy Kibler of season 6, because for now she is not!

That’s all for now!

Behave you all,

ME!!! Very Happy

Also, on a Maks-related note, I ordered my tickets this weekend to the Blackpool Dance Festival, the largest, most prestigious ballroom festival in the world! I’m so excited. This will mark my third year at the festival. And, it’s Maks-related because I always see him there 🙂 If not in the actual comp, then in the Italian restaurant across the street from the entrance to the Winter Gardens, where the festival is held. Above, in fact, is a surreptitiously-taken paparazzi photo, by moi, of him watching Valentin compete in amateur Latin two years ago. (Thankfully I now have a better camera…)
I’m so excited! Can it be the end of May now please!!

Here are a couple more pics from my first year at the festival:

Down the street from the entrance to the Winter Garden, where the comp is held.

At the lovely boardwalk. Unfortunately late May is still way too cold there to go in the water.

Inside the Garden.

A crowded street near the WG, where my trusty internet cafe is! It was like 40 degrees Fahrenheit outside on that day, by the way. English people are nuts!

Goddess Karina Smirnoff and her old partner Dmitri Tibouken.

Riccardo Cocchi, dancing for his homeland of Italy, with his old partner. This year he’ll be dancing for the U.S. with our wonderful Yulia Zagoruychenko, pictured below with her old partner, Max Kozhevnikov.

They performed this routine at America’s Ballroom Challenge this year as well, if you remember.

T

The brilliant, longtime Latin champs, Bryan Watson and Carmen, retired last year, leaving the Latin championship wide open. So, that’ll mean new champs. Extremely exciting!

As will be … the fact that my good friend, Mika, is finally competing in the amateur championships!

I’m so excited for her. I wish I was competing, but oh well. It’s far less stressful (and expensive) to watch anyway 🙂

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DWTS: I Wanted to Be Kristi Yamaguchi, Olympic Goddess, When I Was Young, and Now I Want to Be Her Again…

So, first two women were admitted tomboys. Which is fun. But doesn’t make for the most graceful ballroom dancing. First on was Shannon Elizabeth, whose tomboyishness I completely didn’t expect, the way she looks, and since she’s a supposed bombshell and all. But she was way too manly on the floor; she stomped straight through that Cha Cha. All the judges were completely right about her legs: she needs to straighten those knees, point those toes. I say she’s a definite candidate for the ballet lessons Marie Osmond took last season. Oh but I loved how she said she never wears high-heeled shoes, and those were the biggest challenge for her upfront. How much can I relate to that!! I love that she wore them 24/7 to get used to them. Sadly, I admit trying that too. Don’t know how well it worked with me though…

It was cute how they introduced Monica Seles by showing her on a tennis court swinging that racket but in ballroom attire. I hate to say, but that’s kinda how her Foxtrot looked too. But I really appreciated Jonathan Roberts’ routine for her. It had a sweet story: boy trying to win girl over, girl a bit sad, boy presents her with a flower, girl brightens a bit. She did a sweet acting job. But she definitely needs to get that sweeping ballroom action down. She was jumping a bit to compensate, and that doesn’t work; it needs to be a fluid, feathery sweep. And her pelvis lost contact with Jonathan’s at noticeable points, losing that oh so important martini-glass shape. But I think she can learn and I agree with whoever it was — Carrie Ann I think — who said that moving across the tennis court is not all that different than moving across the ballroom floor. Movement is movement, and she needs to not stress out so much over being a sports girl trying to ballroom dance.

I loved Marissa Jaret Winokur — so much fun that one! And I love Tony’s hip hoppish, ‘look at me, I rock and screw you if you think my body’s not perfect,’ attitude music for her. What I don’t love is that Tony is about ten feet taller than she though. Couldn’t they have found someone a bit more matched height-wise? But I do think Tony’s going to have fun with her. Maybe that’s why they paired them: their personalities mesh. I liked their little Cha Cha / hip hop, and she nailed all those lightening-fast bump ‘n grinding body shake things — things I could never do. But I agree with the judges that there wasn’t enough Latin ballroom. And so odd that she missed a step because she seemed the one with the greatest confidence and ease going into it. Sometimes that can backfire though.

I love so much that Louis Van Amstel is back. He such a fantastic dancer, he just makes me smile. Now, after Barbara told me Priscilla Presley can’t smile because of the cosmetic surgery — her mouth is all I can focus on! She did grin a little bit though. And, wow, I thought they did really rather well. She really acted the dance well; it was an ideal foxtrot, very basic, very classy, charmingly sexy with a few nice, non-fancy tricks thrown in. (I hate it when the routine’s all about the tricks). Speaking of which, congrats to her on that perfectly-done death spiral! She has a really sweet personality. I didn’t know what to expect from her, but I like her. She’s sincere and I believe this is challenging and difficult for her in a way unlike other things in her life.

Okay, Kristi Yamaguchi was gorgeous. Hands down, no competition. She is simply the best of the men and women. I think the best ever on this show. I can’t believe she hasn’t been dancing ballroom her whole life. Wow. That was Foxtrot; we’ll see how she does next week with Latin, but something tells me she’s going to nail it as well. She just knows movement. It surprised me though, because on the rehearsal tapes she was struggling a bit. But not on the dance floor. For once I agree with Bruno: this is the best first-show performance in the history of this series. Oh, I so wanted to be Kristi when I was little and she was a figure skating champ, and I so wanna be her now…

And finally, Marlee. Wow! She did so well! I don’t mean to focus on a “disability” (I don’t think I ever did with Heather Mills), but I just think it would be the hardest thing in the world to dance without music. I mean, have you ever tried to dance a rhythmic dance — like Cha Cha — with silence? It would be impossible. And there was almost nothing wrong here. She missed no beats. She was a bit pigeon-toed in cross-overs, but other than that, she was perfect. She said she’s “profoundly deaf” and relies entirely on Fabian, follows him completely. Which is what you should do, if you’re the “follower” anyway. Well, Fabian, goofy as he seemed during practice, must be an excellent lead.

So three women blew me away: Kristi, Marlee, and Priscilla. I guess this is good: I usually have a strong preference early on and get all upset when that person is booted…

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"The Hip Action Was Like Replacement Hip Action"

Bruno is such a goof. (He said this to Penn Teller). I sometimes think he plans out his lines before the show...

I loved the opening number — loved that they introduced all the pro dancers up front and let them shine. I love that Louis van Amstel danced with Karina Smirnoff 🙂 my two favorites…

How much did Priscilla Presley seem like she didn’t want to be there during intros?!

I thought Penn was cute. He’s an enormous man and the choreography Kym gave him actually worked for him. Her opening splits, where he took her leg up, was a good idea for a tall guy — it elongated her and kind of brought him to her level, and I love how he darted through her legs right after that. With that huge body, he looked like a whale! And the ending, with the flowers he magically pulled out from his sleeve and presented to her — adorable. He jumps too much though — his biggest problem, hopping around to make up for lack of rhythm and speed — common among beginning men. She just needs to teach him that hips produce the rhythm not bopping up and down.

Okay, I just completely fell for Jason. Oh my, oh my! — he is so dapper, so gentlemanly, so smooth, such the consummate ballroom man! Awesome posture — I think that water bottle on the head during practice helped. And so graceful, and for a sports guy??? What was all that crap about not wanting to be girly? My pet peeve. But it seemed only for show, especially with the tutu thing. Funny though how American men think Latin is girly, because he was doing Cha Cha during practice when he said that he was now going to have a rep in the locker room. But then they have no problem with Standard — like they think Standard is more manly than macho Latin. Well, Standard is closer to ballet, so I guess ballet is manly by the same logic 😀 My biggest problem with him is his feet — he did the pigeon-toed thing a couple of times, particularly on a stretch where his back foot was lunged out and it was very noticeable. Edyta should get him to stop it! Another pet peeve…

Okay, now Cristian has stolen my heart as well… Whoa did Cheryl trust him — she threw herself right into his arms! I don’t know what Bruno and Len were on about regarding his shoulders though, it was his feet that bothered me; he wasn’t as pidgeon-toed as Jason, but sometimes on those New Yorkers (cross overs) the back foot was not turned out. I’m sorry, am I ridiculous? It’s just a huge pet peeve, and a common mistake beginning men make. Maybe it’s my ballet background… Anyway, I think Cristian is a lot of fun and I love his complaint that he’s Chilean (known for food and wine) and not Brazilian (dance country), so even though he’s Latino, he’s not so great on his feet — an embarrassment since everyone on his white TV show (Ugly Betty — totally didn’t recognize him from that!!) expects him, as a Latin, to be a natural dancer. Hence his reason for being on the show — to be what he should already be.

Oh so cute that they had Helio on saying how he felt about Julianne Hough’s “being with another man”! I know many people don’t like his politics (which I don’t know about since I never watch syndicated shows), but Adam seemed endearingly self-effacing. He said DWTS seemed pretty humiliating, so thought it was something he should try. Also moaned, “I felt horrible for the kid, ruining her perfect record.” Aw. Cute foxtrot. He was pretty good, except those pidgeon toes happened again, and his butt was sticking out at one point, losing that martini glass pelvis-connecting shape with Julianne so important in Standard. Bruno said he was not Fred Astaire, but Will Ferrell?… I didn’t think he was comical at all. All the judges are being pretty harsh actually. I thought he was pretty good, for it being his first try. His footwork was flawless, which for foxtrot is hard; he didn’t seem to miss a step. And that battemant kick was bent-kneed, but I was surprised at how high up it went. He did look stiff, but who can blame someone’s opening-night nerves?

Okay how smooth is Mario? He said one of the reasons he wanted to do the show was to meet Karina 😀 Methinks he is the next Sabrina though — he has a lot of dance background with that R&B and hip hop. I don’t care if it’s not ballroom; dance is dance. I still love him though. For the first time ever while Karina was on the floor, I watched someone other than Karina! The judges are being nice, with the exception of Len, who pointed out some heel leads that I’d missed — that you never do in Latin. That’s the annoying thing with the judges — they act like dance background is irrelevant. He’s got the highest score so far. Youth is also a big factor in learning to dance well fast. He had some pidgeon toes too though… I think what it is is the Latin shoes with the 3/4 inch Cuban heels. Those heels, short as they are, make a non-turned-out foot look just awful. But with his groove, his natural hip action, it was almost non-noticeable.

Eeee — I love that Anna Trebunskaya took Steven Guttenberg to the Vegas Classic — a real, live, authentic competition — on this show! I even saw some familiar faces — Lucas! I liked their routine; it was cute. I felt like there was a story there though, but I couldn’t figure out what exactly it was. They were playfighting and making up, and flirting with the judges, but it didn’t really all come together as a narrative to me. Still, he was very charismatic, and how excellent was that jump and kick! Carrie Anne’s right — he’s a real charmer. And Len’s right that he enjoyed himself and his smile was infectious. He’s the performer of the group — this season’s Marie Osmond (except a better dancer :)). Sweetly self-deprecating too.

(By the way, did anyone see that movie, “Kissing Jessica Stein”? — has nothing to do with this show, but there’s a line in the beginning of that film, spoken by one of the dweeby guys Jessica goes on a blind date with. Trying to dazzle her with his wit, he tells her he’s “humorously self-defecating.” I couldn’t stop laughing, and now, everytime I go to say self-deprecating, I have a frightening tendency to say defecating.)

Anyway, I like all the guys. Every single one of them. And I have about four favorites. Now what? The women ensure us they’re superior to the men. Marlee Matlin said it’s not about her deafness but her great hips. Then why, of course, did she bring the former up in the first place?? Marissa Winokur got a lot of cheers. Good for her — I’m really excited to see her. And I love Kristi Yamaguchi!

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Sascha Radetsky in Newsweek

Sascha Radetsky is the author of this week’s My Turn column in Newsweek. In it he makes the case for male ballet dancers, or, rather rails against the male-dancer-bashers. Thanks to Danciti for finding it. I wish I could say it’s passe given all the male dancers on TV these days, but can I? I definitely think “Dancing With the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance” have significantly decreased the stigma against male dancers in general, and I feel like that has to affect the world of ballet. Danny Tidwell may have somewhat downplayed his ballet background on SYTYCD, but has anyone watched Lifetime’s new show, “Your Mama Don’t Dance”? Last Friday showcased the male contestants dancing with their mothers. All of them (the male dancers that is) had ballet background, and they proudly announced this, thanking their mums for taking them to classes when they were little, encouraging them, etc. Host Ian Ziering, who’d complained of looking “girly” when learning Latin on DWTS, went nuts over the first guy to dance — Jonathan Silver — whose ballet training in his “contemporary” number was obvious. No one talked one iota about stigmas they faced when they chose a life of dance, then or now. That’s gotta say something…

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MTV's "Virtual Dance Off" et al

Taking off from its popular show “America’s Best Dance Crew,” MTV, along with Metacafe, is launching a “Virtual Dance Off.” According to the press release, the contest “will allow fans to create their own user-generated dance moves. Users can choreograph their moves, try out new dances and use machinima tools to film and edit their video, before uploading them to Metacafe. The top 20 videos will be featured on a “Virtual Dance Off” micro site, and in MTV’s Virtual Worlds. The community will vote and choose the Grand Prize winner on March 31, 2008.” I haven’t participated in vtmv before. Has anyone else? It sounds cool! Go here to check it out.

Speaking of “America’s Best Dance Crew“: how happy was I that Status Quo was finally NOT in the bottom three!!! Yes! I loved all that flipping they did last night. I’m always afraid someone’s going to get hurt, but they just always make me smile, and I need that after a full week of this trial. Not to wax too cheesy about these boys from the ‘hood I find so endearing, but this disturbing trial (not to mention having spent many years as a public defender) makes me think what dance can do for people — taking them out of their circumstances, giving them opportunities, allowing them to take out aggression in a positive way… Dance is important!

Anyway, I was rather shocked that the judges knocked off Living Color last night. That was pretty risky of them since audiences have voted Fysh ‘N Chicks in the bottom two for, what, three weeks, and this was Living Color’s first time being forced into the dance-off. I was sad; I really liked them — they were a fast, fun, supercharged group and I really thought they’d be in the finals. I was annoyed by Shane Sparks’s, “that’s a female, y’all” remark regarding Fysh ‘N Chicks. Has the man ever seen a gymnastics competition? For the record, yes, Shane, women can climb fences and do flips too.

Finally, a reminder that tonight is Lifetime’s new show, “Your Mama Don’t Dance,” hosted by former “Dancing With the Stars” contestant Ian Ziering. It’s on at 9 p.m. Eastern.

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Vaidotas and Jurga Take Second With Splendidly Evocative 70s Style Showdance :)

 

Sorry it’s taken me so long to get this Ballroom Challenge post up!!!

I loved Vaidotas Skimelis and Jurga Pupelyte’s retro hustle-y disco-y Cha Cha / Samba! He moved so well; I’ve never seen his hips move like that! The routine had a great sense of humor and charm. I loved his bouncing around on one leg, the other extended out, their excellent lift sequence, the 70s-style costumes, and that great, very disco-y death spiral they ended with. All so Studio 54; all such fun!

 

Funny because Anna Trebunskaya and Pavlo Barsuk did a retro routine as well; theirs more jive-y and from the 50s-60s, although I felt theirs didn’t have as much spark and fun period flavor as Vaidotas and Jurga’s. At Blackpool last year there was a very popular lecture on the history of Latin dance, where the speaker used several currently competing dancers to demonstrate the looks and moves of the past, tracing them to the present. It was so interesting to see how the dances have changed over the years, becoming faster, the footwork more intricate and the movement much sharper. And with each decade you could see outside popular cultural influences; the 70s period replete with hilarious Saturday Night Fever moves. Of course we laugh now, but back then it was brilliant the way contemporary dance meshed with classical ballroom. It made me wonder what period we’re in right now? Hip hop? The movements are so sharp, so staccato, I wonder if Hip Hop (the club dance of our day) and break dancing have had something to do with it?? Hmm. Anyway, I just thought I’d include a couple of my pictures from that lecture here:

 

Here is the 50s style. How adorable is that dress! The couples danced so slowly compared to today, they danced much farther apart from each other (it being the 50s and all) and everything was very “cutesy,” meaning, the hips were less connected to the lats (back muscles), so it looked like the butt was kind of shaking cutely on its own instead of the hips being compelled to move by the shoulder blade forcing the lats down and compressing the lower back into the hip socket. (Remember the perfect Rhumba walks exhibited by Yulia Zagoruychenko in the opening exhibition? The hips are more connected to the rest of the body now; whereas back then it was more like the dancers were walking toward their toes, lightly, and, with their hips uncontrolled by the upper body, it made for a rather dainty booty-swaying action).

Here’s the cute 60s style Cha Cha, the couples still barely touching each other to maintain “a safe distance.” See how her entire body sways to one side though?

Here’ the 70s couple with their hilarious costumes and John Travolta arms.

 

And this couple — my love Sergey Surkov and his Melia 🙂 — demonstrated the contemporary Rhumba. See how, in contrast to the 60s couple above, her body is straight, only the hip slightly beginning to settle to one side? Now, the active parts of the body move one at a time, first the foot takes a step, then the shoulder pushes down on the lat muscle, pushing down on the lower back, which compels the hip to settle. It’s much more stylized, more controlled, and more subtle than the hip-swaying / entire-body-swaying movement of yore. And much harder!

Anyway, back to America’s Ballroom Challenge.

 

I loved Delyan Terziev and Boriana Deltcheva’s “Money Money Money” routine from Cabaret. And I love that they used the newer, Alan Cumming version of the song! I loved the way Delyan moved his back, the way he curved his shoulders up and over so he was hunching intentionally awkwardly at times. He kind of inhabited the decadence of Weimar, the corruption of money, in his body, the way Cumming’s Emcee did in the play. And her dress and bob were cute and she did the seductive Sally Bowles well too. I thought this was one of their better routines and I was sorry the judges didn’t rank them higher.

 

I also noticed, both in group and solo routines Andre Paramonov and Natalie like I never have before. Maybe they come across better on camera than in person since they’re a bit smaller than the others?… I don’t know, but he dances with a lot of character and charm, shows a lot of expression on his face, and she has beautiful extensions and ballet-based technique. Some of those lunges and the dip she’s doing in the picture above were breathtaking.

 

And I just want to say something about Ilya Ifraimov and Nadia Golina, who did this robotic thing that reminded me a bit of Gary and Rita Gekhman’s techno Standard showdance from a couple of years ago. It wasn’t my thing as I’m thinking it wasn’t for a lot of people, but the judges placed them first because in the showdances they seem to value creativity and uniqueness over all else. This, I think is where Jonathan Roberts was coming from with that rather odd-looking routine he created for Marie Osmond on Dancing With the Stars last season that he received so much public scrunity over. These competition judges go wild for these kind of odd-looking routines, sometimes the more out of the ordinary the better.

 

And finally, the winners, Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kryuchkova. I find their showdances to be rather bland, actually. Andrei used to teach at my old studio, so he’d perform in the showcases first with his students in the student section, then with Elena in the pro portion. Pasha and Anya though were always the main draw, their showdances having loads more flavor, cool tricks, and just overall pizzazz, though they were never ranked as high as Andrei and Elena in the comps. I think Andrei and Elena have excellent Latin technique and a quiet, subtle charm, but, while understated works in group dances, it doesn’t for showdances. I do think they deserved to win the overall.

 

It’s very weird, but I feel that Andrei on his own is one of the most amazing dancers I’ve ever seen. And on his own he seems to have a decent amount of charisma. But together they’re lacking in that department, and that’s extremely nonsensical given how in love they are and how much attention he showers on her, both during dance and outside the ballroom (I’ve seen them together a lot and they’re always all over each other!) Ballroom dance is all about partnership, though, so they have to learn how to have appeal as a couple. How do you teach that: how to have charisma when dancing together? All I know is, they need to take it up several notches if they ever want to achieve real popularity with the crowd. If that’s what they want.

Going over my notes, as far as the group numbers: I love that the camera guy focused so on Vaidotas and Jurga. Thanks camera guy! I guess others find them charismatic as well… I liked Anna and Pavlo’s close, cheek-to-cheek Argentine tango handhold at the beginning of their Cha Cha. It was different. Anna also had some great moves, some beautiful ronde de jambes en l’air (one leg circling the air), particularly coming out of a deep lunge. I liked Natalie’s beautiful Rhumba splits, which she did several times, making good use of her long legs and flexibility. I loved Delyan and Boriana’s costumes, the cherry red making them stand out brightly. They’ve moved up a notch, by the way, regularly surpassing Ilya and Nadia in the standings now, very unusual in Latin.

That’s another thing: Ron Montez kept saying he had high expectations for Anna and Pavlo, thinking they’d be at the top and possibly even winners, since they’re a new couple who’s shot up the charts recently. He should know though, unless something has changed since his day as a champ, that precisely because they’re a couple new to the finals, they would place at the bottom. Those are the ironclad rules of ballroom dancing that make these competitions so frustrating. Pavlo and Anna placed in the finals because Max and Yulia didn’t compete (Yulia, by the way, is not retired, as Montez said; only Max Kozhevnikov, her old partner with whom she danced in the exhibition, retired. She is now dancing with Italian dancer Riccardo Cocchi, but wasn’t yet ready to compete with him when this competition was filmed); last year Pasha Kovalev and Anya Garnis’s departure from competition allowed Vaidotas and Jurga into the finals. It was a given therefore that Vaidotas and Jurga would place fifth, Pavlo and Anna sixth, being the second-newest and newest respectively. That’s just the way things work. I could have told you the finalist positions before the comp happened, as could anyone who regularly attends these things.

One last thing. For anyone who tuned in a bit early and saw the end of the McNeil Lehrer Newshour where Mr. Lehrer was talking about the New York Times article arguing PBS was no longer necessary, here is that article. Regarding this show in particular, the writer, Charles McGrath, argues that PBS is now, in an attempt to get audiences, copying the networks by putting on a dance competition of their own. Mr. McGrath obviously didn’t know that this was a real competition, not a reality show of the kind seen on the networks. He also wasn’t aware that these PBS ballroom competitions have been around now for well over a decade. It’s true that they went off the air for a couple of years due to lack of funding. But they have long been a mainstay of public television. Dancing With the Stars has been around for, what, two years now? I don’t think America’s Ballroom Challenge is doing any “copying.”