Dancing With the Stars

dlkksk8fan said:

: Didn't they tell you that is what ballroom dancing is about!?

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Sorry, I forgot.

I'm still upset. I think Alec was a great dancer but Kelly was not graceful at all. :disapp: She put to much sexiness into the dance. Whereas Charlotte did too but was so graceful and beautiful.

Shall we at GS declare John and Charlotte winners??? What do you think? :thumbsup:

Dee

What bothered me about Kelly winning other than there wasn't one dance which I appreciated that she did, and being the cynic that I am, was that I strongly suspect she studied dancing (toe tap and ballet) as a young girl and her whole demeanor was an ABC put on to do the 'comeback kid' and win our hearts. She's not a convincing actress either, imo.

Sorry - I didn't buy it.

It was Trista, of all people, who danced the best that night. She suddenly blossomed.

Joe

Well Joe she didn't win my heart and her dancing or lack of it just didn't do it for me.

Had Kelly Monaco studied ballet as a child, she would have been at a disadvantage for Latin. You don't get that articulation from the waist and freedom in the hips from ballet. Rachel Hunter was the one with extensive ballet training, and she looked it when she danced Latin.

Nah! Half the dancers in ABT are Latinos and at parties, they mambo up a storm.

What got me with Kelly was the back bend. One needs to work at that from childhood. Maybe she went into acrobatic dancing.

Joe

I think Kelly got the soap votes and the votes for most improved. I'm not surprised she won. I didn't vote at all in this show, but I might have voted her way. She impressed a lot of people with her improvements from the 1st weeks. The others didn't seem to grow as much. It's a lot harder to improve when you start out better.

According to the websites Ms Monaco is from an Italian-Catholic Pennsylvania family. There's no mention of her in dance, only theater. She was a self-admitted "soccer brat" So I can see where the Mediterranean smolder comes from. I can also see where her soccer training would help her foot co-ordination in learning the intricate steps for the various dances. She was certainly the most improved in my book for all the contestants.

A couple of thoughts. We love to root for underdogs, so I think there was more than just her soap base voting for her. She really is a lovely girl who is also down to earth and really likeable.

As for John, IMHO, he came on the show strong and left it the same way. Since there wasn't a HUGE improvement from week to week that may have hurt him in the voiting. I also believe that Mr. O'Hurly is such the last of a dying breed, Cary Grant kinda classy guy full of suave sophistication and good natured humor, that people may have expected him to be naturally as good as he was. Long way round of saying it looked like Kelly was working harder at it even though I HIGHLY doubt that was the case.

Whatever the outcome, I sure don't feel cheated. It was a really enjoyable show. I think ABC is being really smart about the next phase of competition. There's a lot of money to be made if they don't overexpose it like WWTBAM. I believe you may see these the month before sweeps concluding in sweeps month. That would give three good 8 week arcs per year which is slightly more episodes than the average weekly television show and still probably a ratings boost when they do envoke it. Here's to more Dancing With The Stars

call me uneducated and uncultured... but I thought team John was overrated...

I was totally for team Kelly

Toni........I agree. I was pulling for Kelly too. Although I liked John and his partner, Kelly sparkled. Anyway.........I'm up for more "Dancing With The Stars" next season............. 42

I was absolutely rooting for John. Also, I think it's interesting that everyone keep saying that Kelly was great at "Latin" dances; I'd say she was good at Cuban dances. Tango is also a latin dance, but that was one where John was miles ahead (then again Argentinian tango clubs are the one place where it's actually an honor to be asked to dance by someone older). And of course John's Paso Doble was just incredible.

OTOH, I must admit being impartial to Alec, perhaps in part because not only is he from Russia, but he left it at the almost exactly the same time and age as I did.

On a side note.....ABC can't even co-ordinate 2 of their own shows. Their description [on the Dancing with the Stars site] of Kelly's storyline on GH is several months old - that storyline was over months ago, long before Dancing with the Stars was started.

Ptichka said:

I was absolutely rooting for John. Also, I think it's interesting that everyone keep saying that Kelly was great at "Latin" dances; I'd say she was good at Cuban dances. Tango is also a latin dance, but that was one where John was miles ahead (then again Argentinian tango clubs are the one place where it's actually an honor to be asked to dance by someone older). And of course John's Paso Doble was just incredible.

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International Latin competition dances are Rumba, Cha Cha, Samba, Paso Doble, and Jive. That's usually what "Latin" means in competition talk, especially those who were exposed to competition dancing through the PBS specials. Tango isn't included among them.

I'll have to agree to disagree about O'Hurley's Paso Doble. I thought it was a scream as a performance, but as for dancing, by sticking his chin out and sinking towards his partner from the abdomen, he didn't do it for me, and I thought he was about as convincing as most ice dancers.

Joesitz said:

Nah! Half the dancers in ABT are Latinos and at parties, they mambo up a storm.

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Most learned this social dance style before ballet training started, and that's rarely lost. Half of the Danes started as ballroom dancers as children, notable Peter Martins and Ib Andersen, and they looked very natural at it, compared to many members of the NYCB corps who had to learn to do a ballroom waltz in Vienna Waltzes. I've been at those ABT and NYCB parties, and most of the bunheads look, well, surburban, when they try Latin. Lots of shimmying doesn't Latin make.

Joesitz said:

What got me with Kelly was the back bend. One needs to work at that from childhood. Maybe she went into acrobatic dancing.

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That could be gymnastics training just as easily, or no formal training at all. I learned cartwheels and round-offs when I was seven at camp, because that's what the color war cheerleaders did, and I wanted to be one of them. Sadly, the camp directors retired and closed the camp before I could learn splits and backbends. All the camp cheerleaders I talked to learned it there at camp from the older girls, who took pity on some of us young-uns and taught us on the side. There were at least two girls on my high school cheerleading squad who learned them on their own.

More Ballroom coming our way

I was just scanning TiVo and came across Ballroom Boot Camp. It's the general public version of Dancing with the Stars - main difference is no celebrities. It will be airing on TLC this fall. However, there is a preview show on 7/15 at 10p, & 7/16 at 1a, 8p and 11p.

There's also the show "So You Think You Can Dance?" Two-hour première 8 p.m. July 20. Fox TV Stations.

Another Ballroom dance movie is scheduled for release in 2006 which stars Antonio Banderas.

http://movies.about.com/od/banderasantonio/a/banderas020305.htm

I just got around to reading the bio's on the show's website. I was curious to know if the 6 pro's consisted of 3 dance teams. Only 2 of the pro's are partners, 2 are retired, 1 is dancing with someone else and the last is looking for a new partner.

Of all the professionals, only John's Charlotta had championships in Ballroom Dance style - all of the others were champions in Latin Style. I think that made quite a difference in the type of routines that were choreographed. I wonder how they decided on the pairings.

Also for those of you wondering if Joey and Ashley will become an item, I don't think Joey's wife would like it.

Heyang - Charlotta is an incredible ballroom dancer. I would like to see her and her regular partner in competition.

And for the next "Under the Stars", I hope they bring back the same team of professionals. They kind keep the show moving, and yes pair them up better. Kelley was very short for Alec's tall body (easy to do high lifts), and Rachel was too tall for Johnathan. I wonder the outcome if they switched partners.

Joe

Joesitz said:

and yes pair them up better. Kelley was very short for Alec's tall body (easy to do high lifts), and Rachel was too tall for Johnathan. I wonder the outcome if they switched partners.

Joe

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I think they paired Kelly/Alec because they're both obviously Latin dancers, while Rachel was more ballroom. Jonathan Roberts dances both. But height was an issue in that pairing. I just can't see the show-off Alec with the more reserved Rachel.

I think the judges made a mistake in the final round. The audience vote was apparently an episode behind, and I don't disagree with that (the vote itself, not using the vote from the week before), but I do think the John/Charlotte team did their best -- Quick Step -- better and they went out of their comfort zone in the freestyle. Kelly/Alec threw everything they had into the freestyle, but they were a bit awkward. Under 6.0, J/C might have won with a "cleaner" dance, but under CoP, I suspect that K/A had higher difficulty levels that countered the -GOE on the landings.