DWTS Week 6- Tribute to the Ballroom Greats

Honoring the great in Ballroom Dancing this week with guest judge the one, the only, Donnie Burns! And with Luca Baricchi and Shirley Ballas coaching the stars, it’s going to get crazy!!!

The first team of Romeo, Ralph and Chelsie, danced to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”. I mostly loved it with some rough spots due to lack of synconization. But very past paced and energized! They score a 30 for their Cha Cha formation.

Team Hines a.k.a “Shakin’ Your Butts Club” did a great job doing so. Dancing to a Ke$ha song, they did a good job bringing a club like energy to the floor. But they actauly tied with a 30 as well.

What an amazing surprise to have Yulia and Ricardo dance the fastest Jive I’ve ever seen!!! I’ve always loved her!!!
US and World Champions dancing a Tango was the %*&#!@ sickest thing I have ever seen! The stacatto action was beyond anything I ever knew and I had to rewind my DVR again and again and could not get enough of it!

Romeo & Chelsie: SAMBA score 29
I hated it, another hot mess. He was squating the whole time with his knees as if he was dancing a Tango. There was no bounce action and too much booty shakin’ could not cover the fact that he lacked all the skills to pull off this Samba.

Ralph & Karina: QUICKSTEP score 36
Super cute! Loved the story and speak easy theme. His footwork was surprising good for such a fast dance. Not much to say but he’ll be back next week.

Hines & Kym: TANGO score 36
All I can say is WOW! The best of the night for me. Some parts were a little too light on the feet during the run arounds and at times a little off balance, but all forgiveable.

Now the ladies….

Kendra & Louis: TANGO score 31
Luca was their coach for the Tango, and really like what he said, “A great dancer is not a dancer that doesn’t make mistakes. I make mistakes, Luis makes lots of mistakes when we dance, but we deal with them.” Well, I did not see any mistakes from this most improved dancer. And I give it up to her for surviving the pivot to promenade walks transitition which was super hard!

Chelsie & Mark: PASO DOBLE score 34
Loved her costume and the fact that the lace was a rhinestoned body suit…HOT!!! But the dance was Ok, nothing too special. And I hate it when Mark gets all bent out of shape and starts to, once again, name drop all the names of patterns. I’m soooo over him.

Kirstie & Maksim: JIVE score 30
I called it out America! I told you she was going to have a breakdown this week, ha! Now her dancing…..hot freakin’ mess! The side by side work was like she just ran out of steam and barely was able to lift her feet off the ground which is a must in this dance. And when your teacher is Maks, you know he does not hold back.

Well for the most part, it was not a good week for anyone. I think Romeo and Kirstie will be under the red light to see who will go home. If were up to me, I’d say it would be Kirstie going home. I think her fame is not enough to overcome the abundance of bad dancing this week. Then again, America may give in to the weight loss goal empathy voting and allow her one more week for redemption before ultimately ousting her from her dreams of a mirror ball trophy. But, you never know.
See you in 24 hours with my thoughts about the results.

DWTS Week 5- Diva’s Dish on the Red, White and Beautiful

It’s American Week at DWTS, so bust out your Red, White and Blue!

Chris & Cheryl: VIENNESE WALTZ score 26

Love this one! Great natural turns in closed and shadow position.  I agree with Len on Chris being a little flat footed. But for a guy, he had fluid movement with his arms.  That impressed me. His last run around was frantic and I hated his costume, so unflattering. But once again, watch out for this one, I pick him to remain top ranked for the rest of the season.

Romeo & Chelsie: FOXTROT score 26

Dancing to “New York, New York”, Romeo did not let me down! Wow, see what happens when you get over that attitude about not looking cool? He really got into his character and added his own flavor to it. That’s why I love the Fox Trot!  It’s the perfect blend of elegant ballroom with a splash of sassiness.  Great job Chelsie! Just watch Romeo’s left arm that it does not extend too high in closed position during rotations.  Timing was mostly danced correctly, had to give him credit for that.  It’s challenging for any dancer to really control the “slow”. Overall, I’m a sucker for anything Old Hollywood.

Ralph & Karina: SAMBA score 22

What happened here? Started off weird and I had no idea what was up with his facial expressions? This seemed out of control and looked like he tried too hard. With his scrunched shoulders and bad attempt at a Shadow Samba Roll (as one of our students, Rachel would say, “They’re a priviledge, not a right”).  Sorry to say, Ralph was no Urban Cowboy tonight.

Hines & Kym: RUMBA score 27

Here’s where I like to see the clips of practice.  Dropping partners, head butts and punching them in the ribs are not so romantic.  Thank goodness none of that came out during their performance. Now, I’m not going to lie, I had to rewind my DVR to see the routine again, due to how hot Kym looked in her costume.  I could not take my eyes off of her. Now when I finally paid attention to Hines, I noticed too many heel leads and toe releases on most basic components.  He usually has strong lines and ankles, but seemed weak this week.  His costume and shoulders distracted me and I felt it hindered his movement.  I do disagree with Len.  True it was not his best dance, but for sure not horrible.  As well as Carrie Ann, he had better hip motion in his Samba. I mean come on, he can carry me (or any woman) off the floor anytime he wants to.  Btw, that’s an open invitation should he read this article.

Now the ladies….

Kendra & Louis: FOXTROT score 22

Ok, how more cheesy can you get?  What producer picked that horrible song and purposely gave it to poor Kendra?  I mean, it was cute for a 6 year old to dance to at a Little Miss Beauty Pagent, but really?  I guess you can say that the performance as a whole embraced the theme for the week perfectly.  At least her pivots were spot on. Either America will love it or end her time for sure this week.

Chelsea & Mark: SAMBA score 26

Don’t let booty shaking fool you for correct hip motion. I’m surprised that she is not flexible in twisting her hips more. It was fun and cute, like all things Disney, but she had a little rough spot on the Promenade Runs that were forgivible.

Petra & Dmitry: QUICKSTEP score 22

I love all things Vegas, but not this routine.  All I can remember is her hidious left shoulder popping up like the Hunchback of Notre Dame (harsh, I know).  It made it impossible for poor Dmitry to establish any connection with her to create a true lead and follow.  As a result, his frame was a mess and looked like she was clinging on for dear life. On the flip side, her feet were much better than last week and finally took that much needed heel lead on forward steps!

Kirstie & Maksim: FOXTROT score 23

Well…..um…..where do I begin with this one? After wiping up the drool from my chin due to a shirtless Maks, I had to once again rewind my DVR to take a second look at his bodacious body and then again for the dancing.  Now don’t start hating me, but that girl in that semi 2 piece outfit was not OK!  And if you are going to flip your hair around, commit to it.  Her dancing was lifeless and flat, not to mention she moved her feet as if they weighed 20 pounds each. Her sassy attitude was a great match for the song, but not enough to pull off this dance number.  Carrie Ann and Bruno are way off their rocker with their praises for this last number of the night.

My guess is that Petra or Kendra will get voted off today,  Petra was a gawky mess and Kendra had way too much cheese this week.  Then again, I guess we’ll have to see.

See you in 24 hours with my thoughts about the results.

Dancing With The Stars Season 12- Ladies Night

Alright!  You got the scoop on how the men will do.  Here’s the scoop on the ladies.  By now you’ve probably already seen everyone dance.  I created this before watching them so we’ll see what happens tonight on the results show.  Here we go!

Can Kirstie be able to "Cheers" her way to the final?

Kirstie Alley is up first for the actress category.  She’s done great just staying in the media with her many wight loss plans.  I’m excited for her because according to my sources, they’ve approached her for every show and she finally agreed.  Even more so she’ll finally find a weight loss program that will work for good in Dancing.  I’m sure, much like Marie Osmond, she’ll start to lose the pounds and people will give her the “hey you’re doing a good job finding your figure again” sympathy vote.  I’m sure that will add to pro dancer Maxim Chmerkovsky’s “I like to take my shirt off” votes from the 13-16  year old girls that run the voting.  Going to restaurants wearing clothes like the rest of the world must have be hard.

Disney has a fine list of dancers. Does she have what it takes?

Disney girl Chelsea Kane seems to fit the “Hey let’s get someone young to get the young vote” card.  Disney viewers will be watching to show their support.  Chelsea better known for her work on Disney channel’s Bratz: The Movie, should be able to pull off the dance moves since Disney usually gets the talented all around singer/actor/dancer kids (just see Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears before she went Brtney Spears on everyone).  I would imagine that she would get a great vote not just from her fan base, but from Mark Ballas’ fan base as well.  He’s the young guy who’s the hot ticket on the show.

She can talk the talk, but can she Dance the Dance?

Talk show host Wendy Williams will be great for the show.  She’s done her fair share of talking trash about everyone else that it’s her turn to get trashed on.  I’m most excited about how she’ll react to the judges as she could bring some much needed banter to keep the contreversy of the show going.  I’m sure she’ll bring some dancing skills to bad boy pro partner Tony Dovolani.  He’ll show her off quite well.  We should also see some good behind the scenes “Fighting” that are always good for ratings.  Look for her to not go far, but be entertaining.

Models have a great walk, but do they have a great Dance?

In the Model category we have Petra Nemcova.  She’s done some work in Sports Illustrated as a Swimsuit model.   I never heard of such a thing.  I guess I’ve been spending too much attention to my wife.  Points for me!  Not a lot on this end about her, just the fact that she will probably have ot stick with moves that show off her assets and not her dancing skills.  I haven’t seen her dance, but it’s a hunch of mine that modeling and coordination don’t go hand in hand.  Ouch!  I know.  But she should provide the pretty flavor ABC is looking for and get some votes from that.

This Playboy bunny looks to heat up the competition.

Next up is Kendra Wilkinson, not known for her acting skills, but better known for her work in Playboy as a Playmate (not that I’ve seen her work or anything either).  She brings the “hot chick on the show” quality of reality T.V.  I’m not sure if she will do much just like Petra, but look for her to get somewhat better on a week to week basis.  Her votes will come from a small reality fan base as well as the “husband vote” from husband Hank Baskett who’s being bounced around in the NFL.  If there was such a category on this show, I predict that she would get the Most Improved Dancer award at the end of this season.  More so because Louis Van Amstel will have to do the brunt of the work (and he knows how to make a star look good right out of the gate).  I just hope he doesn’t go too “I’m a dancing genius” on her and create a routine far beyond her ability.  What am I talking about?  He’s Louis Van Amstel!  You can’t turn off Genius like that with a flip of any switch.

SPOILER ALERT!!

The first to go for the women will be Wendy Williams.  As exciting as her personality is, I’m not sure if she’ll have the dancing to back it up.  However she’ll get the votes from her fan base as well as Tony’s, people won’t respond to the quick quips she has about dance.  Comedians haven’t done well historically in this contest.  The WINNER…Kirsty Alley.  Kirstie gets the same voting like Marie.  Although she doesn’t have the fan base, she’s going to surprise a bunch of people and win them over with her moves and changing physique.  Plus she’s got Maks who’s overdue for a win as one of the favorite Pro dancers on the show.  They’ll win America over with her personality and his non compliance to the “No Shirt, No Shoes” policy.

As for me, I’ll watch from the sidelines checking out the action and do my coaching from my couch.  If you’re asking whether or not I would better, the answer is YES I WOULD!  The only difference would be that I would actually teach someone something and my routines would be more on the basic side because I would go more for the benefit of the student actually gaining some knowledge from their experience like knowing how to dance at the next function they go to.  I probably wouldn’t be the fan favorite as a result, but my case for a good instructor would be made.  And if ABC wants to try a rebel teacher who will forego looks for substance then give me a call.  You can reach me at sjarthurmurray@yahoo.com.

JG

Dancing With The Stars Season 12: Guys First

Dancing With The Stars is a Dance crazed outlet for mediocre celebrities trying to get back the status of what once was.  If that’s the case, then this is a cast that I can live with.  Mainly because these stars are actually people that I remember and others that are actually still relevant.  How exciting!  I think ABC got it right this time by at least getting the good combination of Stars that still have a name regardless of where they came from.

Since the Star studded cast is quite big, this will be my first of two blogs giving a professional take on how the stars will do.  Let’s start with the guys first.

Will Ralph need Mr. Miyagi's hot hands to DANCE?

First up is the Actor category.  When you go into the casting call and find an actor that used to sit next to Mr. Miyagi on the same set of Karate Kid, I mean that’s pretty impressive by itself, but more importantly I think that having Ralph Macchio on the show is quite good.  I’m sure he’ll bring a little bit of old heart throb-ness from the 80’s to stir up some voting for him on this new season.  He’ll have to do a little sand the floor and paint the fence exercises to keep up with the rest, but a long overdue workout needed I’m sure. He should be an early crowd favorite.

Float like a butterfly, think I can SWING?

On the athlete’s side, you have a former boxer who was arguably one of the best in his time.  Mostly I’m worried about how he will do.  I don’t like the fact that they chose Sugar Ray Leonard to be the token old person.  Sugar Ray knocked out Floyd Mayweather!  He was the king of the ring.  He was the man and now you’re going to try to con him into being the old guy?  Sugar Ray don’t take no mess from no one!  You better hope he doesn’t look bad ABC because if he does, he may just sucker punch some innocent victim getting him some water offstage.  On the flip side, he was a great fighter and has the moves and quick feet of a boxer.  Good job ABC with picking him up.  He should surprise a lot of people.  You’re off the hook this time.

So You Think I Can DANCE? I'll pile drive you if you don't!

Wrestler Chris Jericho will make everyone think twice about whether or not big buff guys can dance.  He seems to have pretty slick moves in the ring, but I’d be most impressed to see him do a number where he jumps off the top ropes and gives someone a pile drive center stage as a finale.  I already have a routine picked out for him where his hype man from the WWE comes out and calls him out as a wimp and maybe disses his girlfriend, maybe his dance skills.  Chris Jericho comes out to AC/DC with smoke from the top of the stage.  Chants start to raise from each side of the crowd and he walks out in his wrestling attire.  Just his wrestling pants and boots with a bandanna.  He walks up to the guy and they get face to face like all wrestling matches.  The guy gets pissed off and tries to throw a punch.  Chris Jericho knocks him out with his signature move.  Puts a jacket on that he got from off stage and out comes his pro partner and they dance a cha cha.  Not sure how it will go, but I’m just saying.

One way ticket to Redemption City please.

I’m most excited of the athlete group about Hines Ward.  Fresh off a Superbowl loss (sorry Rosalinda and the city of Pittsburgh), I think he’ll bring with him a fire like no other.  He needs some redemption points for the lack of his teammates inabilities to produce a victory at this year’s Superbowl.  Not to say his professional partner won’t do a good job, BUT, I’d hate to see him get shot down because he decided to try to pull an “Emmitt Smith”.  Great for other jock guys to see that dancing could be done by jocks, but here’s my warning to Hines Ward of my image of him as an icon.  “Don’t mess up!  Work your butt off and learn how to do it right!  The city of Pittsburgh is counting on you especially since you lost your last Superbowl!”  Just kidding.   In all seriousness though, don’t mess up.

 

Can LOVELINE cure this Dancer's ailments?

“Psycho” Mike Catherwood is a radio personality on the hit show Loveline with Dr. Drew.  He’s got a good listener base and a great voice for the radio.  I listen toLoveline every so often and get my fix of the pair (whom btw are a great combination).  I have to say Mike, I was a little skeptical about you when you took over for Adam Carolla.  You had some pretty big shoes to fill with his comedic genius, but nonetheless, you did a great job filling in and are coming into your own.  Because of that I think you will do good dancing in front of your home crowd in Los Angeles.  You should get an early fan vote, but I have to wait to see your skills on the dance floor to see whether or not you deserve to be in the top of the scales.  All we know is the voice.  Can the dance back it up?

Rapper/Basketball Scholar/Mogul/DANCER?

Lastly is the Music group featuring Lil’ Romeo (who now wants to be called Romeo).  I guess he grew up and wants to change his name.  You should’ve thought about this when you were 10 and just save yourself the “don’t call me lil’ anymore because I’m not lil’” drama and stick with Percy.  He’s back from last season when he hurt himself and his pops “Master P” had to step in and get sympathy votes.  Like most young rappers, I would imagine he’s got some moves and can dance already.  He should be a good “Dance“ favorite with the judges and maybe a crowd favorite.  But look to see some good dancing come out from this rapper/USC Basketball Scholar/ Mogul.

SPOILER ALERT!!

Here’s my predictions.  First to go from the guys will be “Psycho” Mike Catherwood.  I’m sorry Mike, but it seems the others will probably do some better dancing and your fan base won’t be able to match with that of the others unfortunately.  I’ll vote for you, but let’s hope it’s not you.The WINNER?  Hines Ward.  Lil’ Romeo will probably take the third spot in the top 3.  Why?  Hines Ward is Hines Ward.  I can’t leave him out of it and neither can the state of Pennsylvania.  Have you seen Pittsburgh fans?  They are crazy people and they will be following him with many votes.  Lil’ Romeo gets the final spot as the guy that can actually dance.  He will be the token “I’m the best dancer but no one votes for the best dancer on the show” Dancer.

If I’m wrong, well then i guess I didn’t do all of my homework.  Maybe this article I wrote on a plane ride from Chicago to San Jose proved to be a stab in the dark as if this was someone’s life to read every article about what will happen with DWTS.  And if you are, join your local Arthur Murray Dance Studio and get out more.  Stop reading and start dancing like a star.

JG