So, the pairings have been announced:
Former NFL player Lawrence Taylor with Edyta Sliwinska;
Sex & City actor Gilles Marini with Cheryl Burke;
Rapper Lil’ Kim with Derek Hough;
Actress Denise Richards with Maksim Chmerkovskiy;
Pop star Belinda Carlisle with Jonathan Roberts (aw, that’ll be sweet);
By posing questions like, “how old am I?” And, “who am I?”
Regarding the first: apparently 10 years old, as I just became ridiculously giddy on Facebook’s pronouncement: “Tonya is now friends with Karina Smirnoff.” My longtime Latin ballroom IDOL 🙂
Regarding second question: one of my new FB friends asked me, “Hey, what’s up with all this Miami City Ballet stuff? Are you a dance critic?” (My status updates lately have been about going to see Miami City Ballet, where I spent the past two days).
So, hmmm. I honestly don’t know. Do bloggers = amateur (or in some cases pro) critics in this new media world? I guess it depends on the blogger and how s/he defines him/herself. I guess I want to be taken seriously as someone who gives her honest opinions and assessments of things and certainly don’t want to be seen as a lackey to any dance company, but I also try to make my connection with dance personal in a way that a newspaper critic really can’t. Ie: writing in a bit of a persona, calling dancers I really like by their first names, etc. Makes it more interesting albeit less “objective” I think.
I also want to try to avoid being too hard on an artist. I have been and it’s really upset a couple of them. As someone who’s really trying to segue from a career in law to a career as a writer — and especially a writer of fiction — I can relate to and have a deep respect for how difficult the artistic process is and how much you are really putting yourself out there when you subject yourself to public scrutiny. But then again, we all need to have thick skin if we are doing that. And writers do have to keep in mind that our readers are relying on us for our honest opinions; we’re not writing for the artists but for other dance-goers. I do make a distinction between creators who it seems are primarily interested in entertaining and maximizing profit above all else. That’s why I don’t feel badly about being harsh on the TV show producers 🙂
Oscar Wilde says a critic is a kind of artist.
So, I basically didn’t answer my the second question at all… Anyway, any other thoughts on the roles of blogger vs. critic in the age of new media, or on critic as artist?
People are going to hate me for this…
Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.
T-Mobile
On a scale of one to ten, Hanna is a ten, Slavik a 20000. In other words, no match. No match at all. I’m seriously depressed.
Update:Â Now that I’m home, I’m re-thinking this. I just think my expectations were so high for a Slavik and Hanna Karttunen partnership because I’ve found her so mesmerizing in her exhibitions. I just felt like her Latin wasn’t all there. Maybe she just had a bad night. Maybe she wasn’t feeling well. Or maybe good women just tend to suffocate under the weight of great male partners. But why? I think when a woman is dancing with a great man — one who’s both uber-charismatic and technically excellent with mind-boggling speed and precision of movement — she really needs to find herself, to bring out her artistry. We’re never going to be as good as the men in the athletic department, so we need to excel in other ways. I think I remember Melia saying something like that during her and Sergey’s Blackpool Congress lecture — she had to work hard to find her own “voice” to keep from getting lost under Sergey’s strength.
I just felt like even though she has great flexibility and has lovely extensions, etc., Hanna was really just all but invisible tonight.
On the other hand, Slavik! Slavik had people screaming. This girl next to me moaned loudly in ecstasy when he started to play with his suspenders, and she got so embarrassed her head practically ended up in my lap, but how much could I relate 😀 I realized this is actually the first time I’ve ever actually seen him perform live. I’ve only ever seen him compete before. He is a performer beyond any other I’ve ever seen — and I mean any — ballet (Marcelo Gomes, Angel Corella), modern, flamenco (Joaquin Cortes) — I mean everyone and every kind of dance included. It’s quite impossible to exaggerate the man’s performance ability.
And, among other things, I really don’t see how it’s humanly possible for anyone’s pelvis to move as fast as that man’s does…
And then, at one point he took the microphone and gave a little speech. Said he lived and worked in New York for a few years, back when he was competing for the United States (with Karina Smirnoff) — everyone cheered like nuts — and that New York and the U.S. in general occupied a special place in his heart, it’s “part of my soul.” A bunch of people went “ooooooh, aaaaawww,” and he looked out and smiled and said something that made people nearly fling themselves to the floor. I wish I could have heard what he said — his Russian accent is pretty strong.
Anyway, more thoughts on this later. It’s been a long day and I’m tired…
Yesterday I went to see a play about choreographer George Balanchine (which I’ll post about as soon as I have time; I have about 10,000 things to write about and that’s really not much of an exaggeration). My ballroom friend, Mika, came with me, which was wonderful because I hadn’t seen her in a while and needed to get caught up on all the ballroom gossip 🙂 She’s just returned from Internationals, held at Royal Albert Hall in London — so jealous; I really wanted to go to that this year. Anyway, we were chatting about the Latin results and she noted that Slavik Kryklyvyy (one of my two favorite Latin dancers; the other, Sergey Surkov, was unfortunately injured and couldn’t compete), was there watching but still didn’t compete with his newish partner, Hanna Karttunen. Word had it that he got cold feet; didn’t feel up to it. He did the same in May at Blackpool, though. He wandered through the crowd, watching, with a forlorn expression that nearly made me cry, live competitions and videos vendors were showing of past competitions that included him and Karina Smirnoff. Funny, my friend even saw him stretching at one point, before competitors were called onto the floor. As if he were competing. People kept coming up to him and asking for photos, asking him if he would be dancing, and he just kept repeating, “Not this year, sorry,” sounding sadder each time.
Last year when he and Elena Khvorova (who’s now dancing with Andrej Skufca — the couple placed third at Albert Hall — for people who are interested) were a new couple, he did the same thing. But that year, they came to US Nationals and tried out their new partnership in the open to the world category. So, I thought he and Hanna might do the same this year, but they didn’t.
I hope he gets up the nerve to compete soon because people, for one thing, MISS HIM (unless google analytics is lying to me, he’s consistently been the way most new readers have found this blog. And, to my knowledge he’s never been on any of the TV shows, so his fame comes just from his spectacular work on the ballroom floor) and, for another, are getting worried judges are going to start being dismissive, forgetting about him, making a comeback harder. And real-life ballroom judges, lord knows, unlike their TV counterparts, are completely immune from public opinion.
Anyway, happily, he doesn’t seem to have an issue with showdancing. Here‘s a video of him and Hanna — video quality is not the best, but if you know ballroom, and if you know him, you can tell they look in great form. Also, commenter Shim alerted me that they are to dance at Columbia University’s Big Apple Dancesport Challenge, on December 6th! I just hope that’s not restricted to Columbia students…
Here’s a little thing I wrote for HuffPo on this week’s DWTS. It’s not really what I wrote here though, a run-down of the show, but is more focused on how food and dance just don’t go together, sadly…
Grrrr. So mad. Cristian should not have been the first to go; it should have been Jason. Injury or not, Cristian was all-around better, had greater improvement throughout the season, and had a more fun dance persona. Football players have so many fans… As much as I like Jason personality-wise, I feel like there’s no real competition now; Kristi has it hands down.
Am I weird for not having heard of Usher before?
Steve Guttenberg is such a little cutie.
I’m glad Priscilla and Louis did their Tango — that was my favorite dance of theirs.
Shannon was pretty good, but of course she did Standard. Wow, I can’t believe how out of breath she was!
And now that I’m watching Mario and Karina I’m reminded of what some TV commentator whose name I can’t now remember said, “this isn’t a pure dance competition or it would be on PBS; this is in large part a popularity contest.” If it was a pure competition, of course, he’d be in the finals. I still can’t believe he was kicked off so early.
The Rocky music is cracking me up.
Very very very cool of Jason to say, “I hope dancing makes me a better football player.”
Carrie Ann’s right — that was his best performance of the season.
Oh but then he kind of ruins it by saying, “well, I’m still a tough football player,” to all the “oh you’re so elegant” remarks.
Len says to Jason, “Kristi may be the judges’ winner, but you’re the People’s winner.” What does that mean? Who’s it going to be???
I’m honestly really nervous… and I don’t even care who wins.
So, it is Kristi! She breaks the curse!
I did say at the beginning of the season I thought she was the best contestant EVER on the show, so it’s right that she won. Still doesn’t mean I’m in love with Mark Ballas though… maybe he’ll grow on me in coming seasons…
Aw, it’s not on again until September??
I don’t have a lot of time to write since I have a bizillion and a half things to do before Blackpool (which I leave for in two days!), so I’ll be brief. I thought DWTS’s season finale was the best ever. The remaining three are all really good, far better than prior contestants, and they have their own cute strengths.
Cristian has definitely improved the most, of these three and of any contestant ever, I think. He’s 1000% improved from the way he was dancing at the beginning of the season and that is what this show is about — a normal person / non-dancer learning to dance well. At the beginning of the show I remember his limbs looking like spaghetti, totally out of control, no shaping or definition to his upper body, and he was dancing Latin too far up on his toes, had no grounding, and it just didn’t look right. Now all that is nearly gone. His hips are now near perfect, he’s much more weighted, his arms are not flailing out of control, and he has much better definition throughout his body. He’s still not a pro male dancer, but he’s just about the closest thing to a pro without being one, especially for someone who started out so poorly. I’m just so proud of him 😀 I feel like HE won the opening number, not Kristi. And I don’t care if his freestyle lifts were not as fancy as Jason’s; not only did he do extremely well with them, but they were lovely and complemented the choreography and music. Why does he need to raise her above his head just for the sake of showing he can? An overhead lift wouldn’t have added anything to their routine; it would have been out of place in fact since the music was kind of fluid and fast. I just can’t stop smiling whenever Cristian is on the floor.
And, regarding his injury: I know, people say it’s wrong that he’s still dancing, but, honestly, right or wrong, I know many professionals who dance with an injury so they can finish out the season, then have their surgery. And many pro ballroom dancers will dance with an injury if they’ve made a commitment to their student, to do a competition or a student showcase. I’m not saying it’s right, but I feel like in a way his problem is pretty typical and shows what a lot of dancers go through and the risks they take.
I love Jason, but as much as I love his personality both on the dance floor and in the practice segments, he doesn’t do equally well at Standard and Latin the way Cristian does. That’s another huge plus for Cristian — it’s very hard to do well at both. I really liked his freestyle though. Edyta choreographed something perfect for him. Like Carrie Ann said, who knew Jason could be funky like that! It was like a downplayed hip hop and it looked perfect on him.
And, hehehe, he is a ballerino! Those breathtaking overhead lifts were something right out of Petipa! I love it! Soon he’ll be as obsessed with ballet as he is with ballroom! But I think, not being a man and never lifting someone over my head like that, the lifts he did were actually harder than ballet lifts where the danseur carries the ballerina across the floor, because Edyta had him turning in place repeatedly at the same time. That’s damn hard because not only are you lifting, you’re making yourself sickly dizzy by spinning. I know as the girl getting myself into a lift, maintaining a position in the air and then getting spun around like that, you just want to throw up when you land; they’re incredibly hard. So, major kudos to him.
I love Kristi and she was once my idol. I don’t know, I feel like I’m not as impressed with her as I was at the beginning of the show. She’s nearly flawless, but she is not without flaws, and now for some reason I just want to compare her to someone like Karina Smirnoff, and she comes up lacking. It’s well-known by now that she knows how to dance and I think I’m probably just being too hard on her because I want perfection. Her legs don’t come together perfectly in Cha Cha, her lines in her upside-down split lifts were not as perfect as Juliana’s, and she doesn’t have the polish and the perfect technique the pro dancers do and that seems to be all I can focus on. Maybe it’s that Mark is such a show-off and he’s outdancing her. When I heard him talking about trying to do a back flip during practice sessions, I thought, WHY, WHY do you have to go and do something like that! But when I saw it, it wasn’t so bad since he lifted her so many times and made her look great and she had a lot of tricks herself. So, it was even, not like it was all about him. She is the best; it’s just that I relate more to the other two because they’re normal people like me who learned throughout the show to dance ballroom wonderfully…
On a very related note, the Dance Times Square showcase last night was so much fun, I can’t even begin to describe. It’s like seeing a DWTS show live, except with far more student performers of all ages, of all shapes and sizes, of all levels of dance ability, all doing their best. And those are combined with all pro showcases of course. They’re the best studio for putting on these kinds of things for their students.
It was really packed this time. In addition to all the regulars, and the students’ friends and family, there were many many more — either who came to see Pasha & Anya or who were from media outlets. I know there were people from Entertainment Tonight there and Tony mentioned a couple of other news shows too that I can’t remember. There were also talent agents there.
And Sabra and Cameron from So You Think You Can Dance were there! They sat right behind me and Sabra laughed hysterically at Tony and Melanie’s opening jokes and then SCREAMED with applause throughout. She cracked me up. If you’re ever performing you WANT her in the audience!
I sat in the press section toward the front, next to one of the ET crew and he was remarking throughout how amazing he thought this was. And his remarks were genuine. I truly don’t think he’d ever seen anything like it before. You’re sitting down there, the press people are all serious and make you a bundle of nerves even if you are just writing about the event yourself and not performing in it, and then the people up in the balcony (the regulars and friends and family) are up there screaming, wildly cheering on the dancers, calling out their names, making the dancers even laugh at times. And the press people are aghast. “I can’t believe this! This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen!” ET guy said.
When a couple of senior amateurs danced a cute little Mambo (this is rare; it’s almost always one pro dancing with one amateur), and they were cute, but obviously didn’t do any spectuacular tricks or quick-footed dancing, the audience all started clapping along with the music and cheering for them. The audience made their own fun time, in other words, by really getting into it.
And Elaine. Whenever she was onstage, Elaine stole the show. I know her and can tell she was nervous at the beginning of her first routine. She stumbled a bit and nearly tripped Jacob, her partner, and someone shouted from the balcony, “Dont hurt him, Elaine!” She laughed and it really calmed her nerves. Completely cracked ET guy up. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said for the umpteenth time. Elaine’s so cute and she’s a really good dancer for not learning until well into adulthood and then having the limitations of age. Jacob did several lifts with her — ET guy went nuts — and in one routine she did a series of chaine turns (two-footed traveling turns done in a line) practically all the way across the floor. “Unbelievable, simply unbelievable!” ET guy shouted.
(Elaine is on the right, Claire on the left — I’ll talk about her in a minute. This is on our Dance Times Square outing to see the SYTYCD tour).
I don’t have time to go into all of the routines, but my favorites were Susan Washburn (a longtime student there) and Michael Choi’s hilarious “Sex Bomb” (all the routines by the way were medleys — the music consisted of one song but with different musical artists’ interpretations — one slower and more dramatic, one sped up, one hip-hop-y, etc. So, there would be several dance styles within one song — Cha Cha, disco-y Hustle, a slower Rumba or Bolero, etc. — It was really a clever idea for a showcase — Melanie’s of course. At the beginning, Melanie addressed the crowd, explained the theme of the evening, then said, “I know, this is a rather ingenious idea right? I mean, it’s usually me who comes up with the themes of the showcases, but this time I have to say it was … oh, hehe, it was me again,” she said with a faux blush. The crowd was hysterical). Anyway, of the student showcases, I also loved everything David Johnson was in — he’s an older man, and his schtick was to be so taken with his young female pro that he kind of followed her around aimlessly, trying hard to imitate her and be the perfect partner. It was cute and he acted it all so well, the audience was just screaming in applause. I liked a sultry sexy tango cha cha, etc. by Krysta Gonzales, who you can tell has dance background, and Nazarie Salcedo’s infectious smile makes everything she does a delight to watch. I liked so many though, I just don’t have time to go into them!
Claire Gaines (in the picture above) also performed with her teacher, Jacob Jason. She was also in “Gotta Dance” (she is the one with the mike in the second picture here) and she brought her team of NetSationals with her! They did a little swing / hip hop and the crowd ROARED!
Of course Pasha & Anya performed! They did three routines, which made me very happy — I thought they’d only do one at the very end, but they danced throughout. Their first was a gorgeous medley danced to “Indissoluble.” I don’t even know how to describe it. It was by turns sexy, romantic, bone-chillingly intense, passionate, heated. The dance style was based on Rumba and had some Samba (my favorite part was a series of Samba rolls, but with their faces cheek to cheek, so it looked far more sultry and passionate than normal Samba rolls) and even some Tango, but it really was not ballroom. It was more contemporary. It was just beautiful Dance. It was like something I’ve never seen from them and I was really proud of them for pushing themselves and trying something new, outside regular ballroom. It really could have been in a big dance gala, like when you see those tango companies perform in the 21st Century Stars of Ballet galas or something. It made me think ballroom can and will take new directions and become a real performance art.
They also did a gorgeous Paso that took my breath away. Pasha and his cape 😀 And they ended with a beautiful Rumba in which Anya wore her black Blackpool dress from the year they placed second in Rising Star. My favorite dress of hers, EVER… (middle and right pictures here)
Maybe it was just the lights, but she seems to be wearing her hair lighter now, which I like. Now, it’s a light brown. I think dirty blonde is her natural color (and my favorite for her); she’d dyed it for SYTYCD. She also seems to have got a light, wavy perm. Pasha looks the same 🙂
It’s always beyond wonderful to see them again, but I always get so sad, and I left the theater feeling like I was going to cry. I don’t know why.
Oh one more thing, Karen and Matt Hauer, another pro couple who compete in the American Rhythm section at national competitions, performed a few numbers. Karen completely blew me away. She has grown by leaps and bounds in the past couple of years since I first saw her dance. Her movement is so fierce, so fluid, so amazing. Her upper body isolations, which you can really see in the slower dances, the way she rounds her shoulders, contracts her rib cage, you can trace the muscular ripple from her shoulders all the way down to her hips centimeter by centimeter. And she’s dancing with such passion, such intensity. She honestly reminded me of Karina Smirnoff. I was just enthralled.
Here are a couple of pictures I took of them at earlier competitions:
Okay, I have talked too long. I’m never going to be ready for Blackpool!
I really liked Marissa this week. I agree with Len that her opening Tango was her best dance yet. She had fantastic, sharp lines, perfect frame, never lost connection, lovely Argentine hooks, and great character — it was passionate with, as Bruno said, “a hint of disdain.” Carrie Ann said she’s what this competition is all about and I agree with her — she’s improved greatly, she’s working hard, pushing her own boundaries, testing her limits, really getting into it and making it her own while remaining true to the dance style. As for her rumba: I love the song “Cuando Cuando Cuando” 🙂 It wasn’t as good as her tango; she didn’t do hips, but at this point, I’m no longer expecting them — from anyone. Even though her technique was far from perfect and the moves were mostly basic, I thought she gave her routine great character — there was a lovely romance to it and it was sexy in parts. I love the ending full dip, especially when she dropped her head down all the way to the floor. Dramatic but beautiful!
Poor Cristian. I hope he’s okay. I could tell something was off though from the beginning of his Samba. He seemed confused throughout; I thought he might have forgotten his steps, but as it turns out, he’d hurt himself. I wonder how. He must have caught her weird or had too firm a hand-hold, because it’s more common to pull a leg muscle in a dance like that. Anyway, his Viennese Waltz was nice, but I agree with the judges that it was a little too lacking in control. But I thought it was pretty and romantic. I loved the ending where he spun her around, then let her go, then returned to her. I wonder if that’s where he hurt his arm, in that trick…
I didn’t like Kristi’s use of the umbrella in the opening of her Viennese Waltz. Too gimmicky and it detracted from the dancing. It was too much about that umbrella. Funny, but I thought her continuous chaine turns were gorgeous. I thought it was supposed to look out of control at the end, that she was supposed to kind of swoon, falling into his arms. I thought it was intentional! But the judges thought the chaines were messy and the “falling” into the dip was a mistake. And then, unlike the judges, I didn’t like her Cha Cha. It was cute, but I felt like it wasn’t enough about the legs, like Cha Chas usually are. She looked like she was trying too hard with the hips, shaking her butt, shaking her shoulders. I thought it lacked control and precision. But the judges felt completely the opposite, so it’s probably just me…
Mario’s Mambo was excellent, his Foxtrot not so much so, although it was fine. As Len said (I find myself agreeing with Len a lot), he’s not the most “elegant” dancer and the ballroom needs more definition and muscle control, but he’s still so much fun and he gives it everything he has and he really tries. It looked like they missed a hand-catch at one point, but they fixed it pretty quickly, so very professional. You could tell the pressure was on from being in the bottom two last week. His mambo will probably be enough to keep him from getting the boot this week. He really connected with the music, his flicks were good, his basic was perfect, great hip action — he’s got that down. What did Bruno say — “the devil was in your hips”? Only thing, he’s too turned in at points with his feet, which, for balletomane in me takes away substantially from the line — sorry I can’t help it! — but I’m trying hard to get over it 🙂 Another great Karina costume.
I’m glad Shannon apologized for last week. I feel like the judges were a lot easier on her this week because of it though. Her mambo was cute, and her dress was gorgeous — she really looked beautiful! — but the dance didn’t look right to me at all. It looked like Paulina Poritzkova’s mambo from last season. She was bouncing too much. Her long limbs are a disadvantage for that dance in particular. And the running up and taunting the judges gimmicks at the end of routines are getting tired. Her tango was very nice though. She’s far better at ballroom than Latin — no hips to contend with for one thing, and Standard tends to look better on people who are tall and thin. Her footwork was good and solid, clean swift kicks and hooks, and Derek’s choreography was creative. I like that she slapped him and kept trying to take his hat; I loved the dramatic ending dip. She was like a silent film starlet, as Bruno said.
Jason had probably the two most different dances this week: the light, sprinty Quickstep and the heavy, drama-laden Paso. His legs weren’t straight in his opening splits jumps and it was noticeable and threw off the line to me. I know people like tricks, but dancers need to understand that you have to be careful about the line you’re making; it’s not just about doing something “big”. But the rest of the Quickstep was nice — he was light on his feet, the runs and little jumps were good, his lock-steps were clean and polished, and I liked the little Charleston Edyta put in at the end — cute! It looked like he was having a lot of fun, which is kind of the whole point for amateurs. The football theme — for him at least — of his Paso Doble was fun. I didn’t understand what role she had though — cheerleader? Opposite team member, but female? I just prefer straight Spanish-themed Paso; anytime someone tries to do something more original with it, it just doesn’t seem to work to me. But I love Jason. I love his enthusiasm, his diligence, and, mostly, I love his lack of pompous assery! He said something along the lines of how he can’t believe how ballroom has taken over his life; this is all he does, and he loves it — now he can’t stop! I definitely know the feeling… It does take over your life, it really does.
Oh, I almost forgot: I was alerted to Edyta’s newly revamped website with message board. It can be found here.
After Len said this of Cristian, Carrie Ann said of Mario and Karina, “that was better than good sex!” — this show is getting out of control… and the other judges are stealing Bruno’s one-liners!
My two thoughts up front: Whoa Cristian! And Kristi was born with clubbed feet???
I thought Jason was excellent at Hip Hop — excellent! I thought wow, he’s really improving. But then when it came to the Cha Cha, it was fine and cute but nowhere near as good as that Hip Hop. It just shows you how hard ballroom dancing is — especially Latin with all that hip action. It’s hard! Jason’s so cute with his self-deprecation. That face he made when Len told him he wanted to see him actually dance more. Then, the “I suck.” Aw!
The Shannon and Derek at the beach so she could ‘get in the mood’ was almost as corny as Cristian and Cheryl’s visit to the sea lion shrink. But I thought Shannon did much better this week. The hips were screwed up during the traditional Latin opening out steps, but she has a ballet body — tall and thin and few curves, and if he gives her more balletic moves — like that gorgeous slow ronde de jambe en l’air in the beginning and that beautiful stretch near the end– she’ll do much better and the lack of hip action won’t be so noticeable.
Poor Marlee! I actually didn’t think the whole thing looked forced, only parts. The worst was the pelvic rolls with him standing behind her. They may not have been connected at the start because she seemed off on the rolls at the beginning, and until she caught up with him, she looked uncomfortable. And that can be a really rather funny (in a bad way) move to look uncomfortable with! But I thought the shoulder shakes were much better — she really seemed at ease with those and really let loose. I thought the basic mambo steps were fine; the hip action wasn’t quite there, but I disagree with the judges that they looked stiff. It is really hard not to be able to connect with the music in this most rhythmic, musical of all ballroom dances. I was hoping she’d be able to connect through other means than simply her partner — maybe floor vibrations she could feel through her feet? Maybe she should have been barefoot? Sorry, I’m just remembering Helen Keller’s telling an audience she could hear their applause through the floor… Anyway, I feel for Marlee and I hope she can re-gain momentum for next week. The judges were too harsh. Fabian was most pleasing though, no?!
“You can just call me Frederico Astaire.” Cristian is so cute. He was wonderful this week. I couldn’t believe it. The water actually helped him this time — the swimming was a good idea on Cheryl’s part. The water slowed those crazy, out of control arms way down. He was, as Bruno said, the perfect dashing gentleman, the way he glided over that floor. His footwork was excellent, not a step out of place, even on those fast intricate grapevines in the beginning, his partnering was perfect, his posture and lines were even good. I do agree with Len — he’d better not be in the bottom tomorrow night!
Wow, I get ridiculously dizzy too; I wish my teacher would have sent me to an aerial spinning class like Tony did Marissa. It looks like they helped. Maybe I’ll look into one. Seriously. Marissa looked really good tonight. She did a couple of lovely arabesques and the ending floor sweep was beautiful.
Kristi was perfect, as always. She really is a pro out there — not even like a pro, but a real pro. Mark is so lucky because he can choreograph the exact same kind of routine he’d do for himself and a professional partner; he doesn’t really need to search for specific strengths to highlight and weaknesses to hide. That was I think the first Jive ever on this show to be danced at full speed, and he gave her some really intricate, complicated footwork. She’s really the best, by far, no competition. But a commenter on one of my Huffington Post pieces said the fact that she was so perfect up front, that she had dance background, ruins it for her. If someone you can connect to because they, like you, are not a star from the get-go, and they can, with practice, be made into a dancer, that makes it possible for you to as well. Kristi is already basically a pro, so it’s not fun to watch her try and struggle the same as the average person would. It’s an interesting perspective on the show.
Mario’s routine was near perfect, but I kind of agree with Len that it was a bit too much about the sex and not enough about the dancing. Before Len made that comment, I had thought, hmmm, very sexy rhumba, but he’s not really doing a whole lot of moving. I don’t think I would have used the same words as Len though — strumpet and gigolo? Eeeh.
The group routine: those were the funniest practice lifts I think I’ve ever seen. I’m surprised Derek didn’t get hurt on that rotating cartwheel. I actually took lessons with Christian Perry, the guy who’s teaching these group dances. He taught at my first studio DanceSport, so it’s always so funny to see him on TV. I think I actually preferred the practice sessions to the actual performance though. All the lifts were the same and it seemed there was more unstylized jumping about than actual dance steps; it was more fun watching them all try to learn.
I thought the only good routine on tonight’s Dancing With the Stars was Mario and Karina’s. Ironic because my two favorite dances are rhumba and samba … or, perhaps maybe that’s why I always dislike the weeks devoted to those dances. Somehow Karina was able to teach Mario how to perform the hip and undulating pelvic movements properly, in a way none of the other pros were able to convey to their celebrities. Oh, and, I LOVED the music — “A Tisket a Tasket”! The first time I saw Karina dance (and wanted so badly to be her), she danced a Samba with her former partner, Slavik Kryklyyvy, to that song. Here it is on YouTube.
My second favorite was Marissa, although I wouldn’t really say her movement was Samba; it was more just fun all-out groving. There were no pelvic contractions and expansions at all — the rolling movement that gives the dance that seductively intriguing snaky feel. She said during practice to her Samba was all about shaking your booty, and it’s not. If she saw it that way, then no wonder she looked all wrong. She was cute and her dancing was a lot of sassy fun; it just looked more like something you’d see in a club.
Marlee had the same problem — no pelvic rotations, though she looked cute and gave her routine a lot of pizazz. It just wasn’t Samba.
Priscilla, Jason, and Cristian all tried to move their hips, but didn’t understand that the hips need to be connected to the lats (back muscles). It’s the lats that push down on the hips that make the hips move. If you just move the hip without first moving the lat, it looks like you’re just shaking your butt. It looks superficial and silly. One of my ballroom friends, Juana, once told me that rhumba emanates from the slaves. The quintessential rhumba walks that people now see as being so sexy, actually evolved from the movement one makes while trying to carry a heavy load atop one’s head. Think about it — you’d take a step, then the load would bear down on your shoulder, the weight would ripple down to your hip, the hip would settle into its socket, and you’d move on, taking another step and setting the movement in motion anew. After she told me this, I envisioned myself as such a woman, carrying heavy bottles of water atop her shoulders, and unbelievably it worked so much better than my teacher shouting, “foot, lat, hip, foot lat, hip” over and over again.
Anyway, Kristi and Shannon didn’t even try to move their hips. Shannon complained she had none to move. I used to use the same excuse (see my blog’s tag line), but now that I’ve seen plenty of tall, thin women (Joanna Leunis) do rhumba quite well, I know it’s just that — an excuse. Kristi did a lovely lyrical routine — and she’s definitely a natural and beautiful mover — but I felt that it wasn’t really rhumba without the hips — it was a nice theatrical dance you might see on Broadway, but not Latin ballroom.
Depressed! What did you guys think?
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.
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!