Am I the only one who watched Joey and Ashly this morning with Regis and Kelly? Ashly was smokin'. Sigh...to be 25 again.

Dancescape.com has a podcast with Louis (pre-elimination) and Charlotte. I just got done listening to Louis and I guess he had a few problems with Trista. He wanted to practice the "performance" and Trista kept saying "I'll do it on Wednesday night, I don't want to practice it", and she and Louis were getting into fights over it. Sure enough, Louis said that Trista didn't do half the stuff they had rehearsed and she was ticked off about it when she watched the tape.

He said that Trista's cheerleading experience was not an advantage because she had a lot of bad habits that he had to break, and that Rachel's 11 years of ballet training was a huge advantage because of her arm movement and body position. It also sounded like he has a small crush on Rachel because he kept going on about how beautiful she is even without a stitch of makeup.

He also has a huge beef with Carrie Ann because she got "personal" with her comments and I guess the judges weren't supposed to do that. He didn't like the "throwing her around" comment she made.

I will give him a ton of credit for thinking Evander deserves all the respect in the world for going out and even trying to dance.

This is slightly off topic, about cross-pollination with other TV shows, but I'm curious if anyone out there who TiVo's Dancing with the Stars had their TiVo automatically record for them the PBS show Operatunity, about an operatic "star search" in the UK. I'm new to TiVo and trying to read its little plastic mind, but I'm amazed that after one day of TiVo ownership it could pick something like Operatunity out that was that quirky and that specifically perfect for me, and DwtS is the only link I can think of.

Of course, it recorded an episode of Just Shoot Me for me this morning, so maybe it just got lucky.

Also: Go Rachel!

Hawkwild [OT] I saw Operatunity and it was fascinating! Opera isn't my thing, but it always amazes me.[/OT]

Is it Wednesday night, yet?

Louis' Dancescape interview was pretty interesting, sounded like a very candid sort of guy. I agree with him that the interviewers should also address questions to the pro dancers, not just the celebs. The dancers are top in their own field, too--they aren't nonentities.

Charlotte's interview had one interesting tidbit--that John's wife told her he couldn't even dance at their wedding! (a year ago). So he's actually doing much better than I thought.

Thanks for the insight Tango Lady. I look forward to more comments like these after Wednesday's broadcast. I know I will be watching Ashly's moving torso and Charlotte's top lines a lot more closely now thanks to you (and Tivo, of course).

Someone pointed to this site in a previous post, but this guy's blog has all the dances from all the shows thus far if you are interested in more critique. Not the best quality, but still nice if you want to see them again.

Kelly Monaco's fanpage has had a couple of Q&A's with Alec and one with Edyta. They are on the forums. This is a Kelly fansite, so be prepared for a large amount of Kelly fawning.

Some people I know snark at the "Stars" part of the show, saying why don't they get "real" stars...but the way I look at it, DWtS has done wonders for Kelly's career.

Well, that is a fascinating insight! And probably explains Simon Cowell and Ann Robinson (? is that her name--from Weakest Link).

For many years now, at least 15, ballroom has been offered at a local community college near me. Also, in Chicago, there's a place called Dance Connection that offers tons of adult classes too, through the Discovery Center. I think ballroom has already been a huge part of the masses, it's just that people don't go around throwing it in other people's faces. You mostly notice it quietly, when there's one or two couples at a wedding reception or New Year's Eve party who really command the floor.

I am tring to catch up with this thread, but I wanted to comment that I loved these couple in the following order: John & Charlotte, Rachel & Jonathan, Joey & Ashly. I really loved John & Charlotte over the last two dances I was able to catch... I like that he tries to "perform" as well as dance. Very entertaining and it looks like they are having fun; that is why I enjoy them the most (three mentioned). I enjoy the fact Kelly is trying but I really wish they would do more with her hair (or she would allow them to).

Trista seemed like she was an ass and I appreciate Evander's enthusiam.

I wish I was able to see more professional dancing programs. Between them and Ice Dancing, I would be in heaven because these people are very talented and the dancing is fabulous... makes me wish I was coordinated enough to take lessons. *lam*

Wow. That pretty much sums it up nicely.

The only problem with DWTW is that, latin costumes aside, it presents an Ozzie and Harriet version of competitive ballroom, which is a world actually more like Desperate Housewives.

Competitive dancing is in reality a vicious, snarky, highly political world full of backstabbing and bedhopping. Where the heck is THAT in this show?

After all, ballroom dance competitions are a small world of people who travel together and co-exist and compete. The fact that it is both a competitive world and an artistic one makes it all the more bitchy and interesting (that artistic sensibility can be so nasty).

The fact that men and women do this together makes it even more interesting. Couples generally wind up getting together for the right reasons (they dance well together), then sleeping together for the wrong reasons (I'm traveling, I'm horney, my partner looks hot tonight). Usually they find out they have nothing in common except the dancing, which is when the fun starts--bedhopping, partner swapping, gender bending and all. Man, you don't EVER get the sense of that world from DWTS.

Add to that the fact that this is a subjectively judged sport (unlike, say, track and field, where if you have the best time you win, simply). So most couples never really feel they lost, just that the winning couple was more politically connected than the rest. Hence the resentment and political manuevering.

This is why most competitive dancers know that Strictly Ballroom, for all of its outrageousness, got pretty close to the truth.

Maybe the next reality show should take six or so couples, lock them in a hotel for a few months and force them to live and train together and compete against each other in close quarters. Maybe add in an old bitter judge or two who never had much of a career and now uses his power and resentment to destroy someone else's career. That would be a witch's brew. Turn the cameras and then wait for the bedhopping, backstabbing and general bedlam ensue. That would be reality TV.

In the meantime, I'll keeping rooting for John. And I wouldn't worry about Charlotte. She's just naturally the touchy-feely type.

Please post only the link to the article, not the article itself. That's against the rules. Thanks!

But, standard dancer, personally, I'm watching DWtS for the dancing. If I wanted to watch backstabbing and personal draaaa-maaa, I'd watch Big Brother. Or The Cut. Or Hell's Kitchen. Which, I don't. I want to see them dance.

Hey, I totally understand, but you can have both in my reality show. Fact is that when pro dancing competitions have been on TV, with far better dancers taking part, they never generated nearly the kind of ratings this show has....In general the TV public has been apathetic about all kinds of dance on TV....until the reality show format was added to the mix.

I'm watching mainly because of the "celebrities". They're not trying to show the backstabbing etc. They're trying to show how "celebrities" are learning to dance and competing against each other for charity.

Frankly, I'm tuning in only because of Rachel Hunter. And maybe Kelly. Once those two are gone, I'm out. I wouldn't care to watch a show that was simply a competitive ballroom dancing show, and I'm betting much of the viewing audience would probably feel the same. Of course, they could have a reality show, with regular reality wannabes paired up with professionals, and make it like The Apprentice or I Wanna be a Hilton. But I probably wouldn't watch. I'm a reality junkie, but I don't care about fashion design, so i didn't watch that Project Runway show with Heidi Klum and I'm not watching Tommy Hilfiger.

I'm watching because of the "celebrities". I understand that if you are actively involved in ballroom dancing and are getting annoyed that it's not the ballroom dancing you know, but keep in mind that probably 95% of the viewing population has never seen this before.

I agree with blackwing. I'm here for the attractive celebrity cheese factor. Frankly, this could be a professional eating competition for all I care, as long as the pretty people are still here, competing, and have a chance of embarassing themselves. (And no, I didn't think about Rachel and Kelly stuffing hot dogs into their mouths before I came up with that example, but I just did, and now I'm a little bit ashamed. Not enough to delete it, however.)

I agree, I'm here for the fluffy entertainment and have little to no interest in what goes on behind the scenes in real life ballroom competitions. Most of us are well aware of how egotistical and competitive people can be, we see it at work and with our family and friends often enough. If this show were some sort of documentary on ballroom dancers and their bad behaviour, I doubt I would watch. I don't doubt there's lots of intrigue there, but I don't have any big need to see it, especially since I have no idea who these people are in the first place, they're not famous anywhere but in the very tiny world of competitive dance. I must say, though, this show has made me want to see a pro competition or two and I'll be looking for them on TV, particularly ones where the dancers from this show are competing.

But is the emphasis on "pretty people" or "embarrasing themselves", because I got to tell you that one of the chief pleasures of competitive ballroom dance is the plethora of hot babes.....all around you all the time.....And they're hotter when they can actually move. Don't need a soap opera chick for that.

Well, I think that it's actually a grand idea, but that's because {a} I'm a ballroom dance nerd who used to watch the competitions, so I actually am familiar with a lot of these folks; {b} I love a good bitchfight. Bitchfight!!!!! {c} I dig behind-the-scenes political chicanery (only on TV - I expect more integrity from actual politicians but so rarely get it, sadly); and {d} some of these folks are so hot that the "bedhopping, partner swapping, gender bending and all" would definitely draw me in. HoYay ahoy!

So if any cable channel wants to pick that idea up, I'm soooo there.

standard dancer, I'd love to watch your documentary. (I really enjoyed the VH1 show about the Vegas showgirls and your idea sounds similar.) But I agree with the other posters. DWtS isn't trying to portray the world of competitive ballroom dance. It's a different thing altogether, a weird glittery mutant cornball that takes elements from different fields, some beautiful and some schlockey, and combines them to create lightweight entertainment. It's not really fair to criticize it for not being something it was never intended to be.

Both is good.

Or maybe we'd like her better.........Believe me, that's not KM.

ITA. I used to watch the PBS shows, but it was the "stars" aspect of this that got me tuning in. The ballroom world should be embracing this as a wonderful opportunity for their sport instead of a bastard child.

There might be room for a show like you are saying now that DWTS has done so well, but before this? I don't think so.

No wonder she moves so well and has such flexibility. She is rather big-boned, but when she moves she looks long and lean. Particularly in her rumba and tango performances (which I watched again thanks to sgtbecktar's link. That link really comes in handy!)
Trista's and Kelly's arms, on the other hand, looked TERRIBLE.
ETAL Should've included link again.

They're doing both. It IS a wonderful opportunity, especially for the studios, which are filling up, making studio owners very happy. But it is a bastard child, too, not very much like the real thing, though I think most TV viewers understand that.

I think they understand that just like Survivor has nothing to do with what would happen if you got shipwrecked.

You have to get people interested before you can show them what you're all about. Maybe that will make DWTS a better show too because people will know more about the dances. It's a win-win.

There are a lot of people in the boxing world that didn't like "The Contender" either, but it brought a certain amount of people back to a sport that was losing its way.

Even though the world of competitive ballroom dancing is small, it is also quite stratified in some ways. You're not going to see the kind of backstabbing and bedhopping that standard dancer mentions on the lower levels -- on the levels where DwtS's stars really are.

I was thinking about this the other night, and DwtS actually does fairly accurately show one small subset of competitive dancing: Pro/Am Solo competition. In a Pro/Am solo competition, a teacher and his or her student pick a piece of music and choreograph a routine to it. They then present the routine to a panel of judges who provide a numerical score (usually on the scale of 1-100) and some written feedback. The numbers are judged on technique, creativity, and entertainment value. The people with the highest scores are declared winners. Except for the crowds, house band, and TV cameras, it's not unlike DwtS.

Tomorrow night when we see the first "group" competition, we'll get a look at something that looks more like the usual competition. In this instance DwtS will be approximating a Pro/Am "Freestyle" competition. In that kind of competition, the couples know what the dance will be but not which piece of music will be played. They get on the floor all at once and dance together all at once. The dancers are ranked against each other (think figure skating ordinals) rather than being given a numerical score. Supposedly the Viennese Waltz tomorrow night will be like that -- although I don't know if the teachers got the V. Waltz music in advance or not.

So anyway, my point here was to show that DwtS actually does fairly closely show a type of real-life competition.

Tomorrow night will be fun! Heck, every night on DwtS has been fun so far!

I think the producers were brutual to the male celebs by forcing them to lead the quickstep in only their second week. Now these poor guys are going to have to practice floorcraft with other couples on the floor!

I hope the audience recognizes the advantage that the male pro/female celeb teams will have in such a situation because of the importance that the man plays in leading on a floor with multiple couples.

I wanted to throw in my opinion as a chick on the "is Kelly hot?" debate. I think she is beautiful and sexy. I know she is short and not considered the ideal like Rachel, but just b/c Rachel is a supermodel doesn't mean I automatically think oh she has to be beautiful. Beauty definitely is in the eye of the beholder.

And thankfully, it has done absolutely nothing for Trista's "career." Hopefully, this has show her that, really, no one likes her and she should go to an island all by her and Ryan's lonesome. Well, Ryan can make an appearance, but it'll have to be quick.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow night's All Dance. The wheat will definitely be separated from the chaff when the couples are ranked against each other and we can see the positives and negatives in their dancing. When you see each couple dance separately to different music and often different tempos/dances it's hard to tell except when someone's really bad or really good.

I wonder if they'll start out with a profile of each couple and then go into the dance for 10-15 minutes. Will there be another dance besides the Viennese Waltz?

They'll also be doing the Samba individually.

The Australian version also featured the quicksteps on week 2. Although this is from the finale, his quickstep from episode 2, although less refined, was just as good as this clip

quickstep.

The Aussie version is much more enjoyable to watch. More on this when the US version ends.

Okay. So who is the Aussie celeb? He's got a great standard guy's shape, tall and thin with a nice long neckline, and his topline is way too good in quickstep for someone who's new at this.

Mint Tea and sgtbeckar, thanks for providing that link. But is there some trick to getting the videos to play? The "stream" doesn't seem to work, and after I "download" it, I still can't get any clip to play.

I'm really looking forward to watching Rachel do the samba.

Tom Williams, presenter (host) of the traveling show "The Great Outdoors".

From the finale (week 11):
The jive:
http://seven.com.au/seven/mov_dwts_3_tom_broad2

The freedance:
http://seven.com.au/seven/mov_dwts_3_tom_broad3


These are from week 8:
Rumba:
http://seven.com.au/seven/mov_dwts_4_tom_broad

Even the female danced better:
http://seven.com.au/seven/mov_dwts_4_holly_broad

And for bad dancer:
http://seven.com.au/seven/mov_dwts_4_ian_broad

.

I always enjoy your analysis, and I'm sure it's true that it's closer to showing Pro/Am Solo competition than I've been crediting it for. But....



To me this is a huge difference. I hate the music they're assigned and from reading comments from some of the pros, they're not liking it either. I think it would make such a qualitative difference for them to choose their own music--and the choreography would flow better if they could do that, too.



Yes, but the public (i.e. half the judging) isn't probably weighing either technique or creativity very much. And Louis said that the judges aren't scoring based on technique/including specific dance elements either.

I'd like it if the judges did real Pro/Am style judging--worth 2/3s of the total, evaluating technique and creativity--and the public vote counted for 1/3, for the rest (i.e. mostly entertainment/misc. value).

But...the scoring doesn't bother me nearly as much as the music--and that the dancers can't choose it for themselves.[/end curmudgeon mode]

I agree that tomorrow night should be great fun with the individual sambas and the (perhaps beautiful, perhaps funny) group Viennese Waltz

This can be a complicated question to answer. They both work for me and presumably others, so it probably a local problem with your computer. The "Stream" might not work if you are behind any type of firewall on your computer (i.e. Norton or McAffee) or a router with firewall capabilities built in (you have more than one computer in the house sharing a connection to the internet). Download would work better then.

So download and look at the files you downloaded. They should be about 5 to 9 MB in size, pretty small but not miniscule. Now look to see if they have the blue "Real" icon associated with them. If not, when you double click on the files Windows will ask what application you want to use to open it- this is bad. Go here and navigate to get the "Free" player, not the Superpass one. Install that and see if that works. You should be at least to RealPlayer version 10 or higher by now.

Other than that, I would need more info to troubleshoot your problem.

On topic - The 'stars' are the attraction that got people to watch in the first place, and since they aren't on the dance tour, a show about the backstabbing and bedhopping wouldn't really work with them. But now that ballroom dancing is on the map, a documentary of the real professional ballroom world TODAY would probably be very successful and interesting to a whole new DWTS audience. So I say leave DWTS as is, and have FOX air the dirty documentary "Under the Tights - Ballroom's Bawdy Behavior" as soon as they can put it together as a seperate entity.

But...we.don't.wear.tights! (seriously, I lurve this idea and can't wait for it.)

The current edition of USA Today has a fun article on John O'Hurley and Dancing With The Stars.

O'Hurley Dances His Way to New Fame

More on DWTS from today's New York Times.

Celebrities Working Hard to Seem Light on Their Feet

All together now: "More John, More John!" [/chant]

This guy's awesome!

Wasn't that the title of Charlie Sheen's book of "poetry"? (Shut up. I saw it on Entertainment Tonight.) Something like that anyway. Oh hey! How about Charlie Sheen for next season?

Did Kelly really say during her practice session "I'm gonna get me some ballet."?

Wait a minute... Charlie Sheen poetry?! Bwah! I'm sorry, but what's in it, like "Ode to a Panty?!"

I call bullllllllshiiiiit! While I don't think that Joey and Ashly stank up the room the way the judges said they did, they certainly deserved to go before Rachel and Jonathan. (As did Kelly and Jonathan. They were only considered good tonight because they used to su-diddly-uck.)

Yeah, she always looked like she was about to hurl during the interviews, but she was the best amateur of the bunch. That was absolutely ridiculous!!!!

I'm glad Kelly got another week. She was really good tonight, more on the group number than the samba, but even on the samba she was vastly improved. I thought she was better than John (not as good as Joey) on the samba. She really does seem to get better and better every week. Was that Charlotte who was so happy in the background when Kelly and Alec got high scores? I think the improvement in her scores shows she's staying because of more than just GH. I know a lot of people who don't watch GH but vote for her. She has so much determination.

Why was Alec dressed like Jolly Green Giant?

I think Rachel stayed as long as was warranted (she was always in the middle of the pack, and she did so much posing and being carried around) but I felt sorry for her at the end; it seemed to mear so much to her. And her partner was SO beautiful. His wife is a very lucky woman.

Wednesday night is now this: leave work at 8, go to Second Cup, get myself a chillate, come home and watch this. And it's over in two weeks? Wah!

Samba:

Joey: First it was the footwork, then it was the posture. Now it's...something else. I liked their routine overall, but he made Ashly cry! Boo Joey! (Though as a Blockhead, who else was thrilled to see his dad again on TV?)

Rachel: it was a fun routine and it showed off more of her athelic skills. Plus, she's a pretty bird. That said, I do agree with Carrie that it did drag at times and there was some miscues on footwork.

John: I agree with Carrie and Bruno on this one. I wouldn't call it messy but it seemed that John stomped around a bit too much and not enough butt wiggling. (Shallow I know.)

Kelly: First what the hell happened to her partner? Two weeks he was effin HOT. Last week, a cleaner version of Fedeline. Now he's Aquaman. Yeesh.

The dance was pretty good and that was a good risk with the split. But Kelly has finally learned her lesson on her barely there costume: I was chanting "MALFUNCTION!" 3/4 of the way through.

Vienese Waltz: Uh....uh...I can't pick! In fact, still not sure what I'm supposed to be looking for.


Aw, Rachel leaves! Too bad because their tango rocked. (America, what are ye smoking?!) Dear Rachel, don't doubt your skills. I'm going to miss her "I can't do this!" goober moments only to see that she always proves herself wrong. And dammit, I would KILL for that body. Hell I teared up when she did.


I simply can't get enough of this show. And I'm way too emotionally involved now.

What the hell?!?! Rachel and Johnathan before Joey and Ashly!! That's bullshit!! Dammmitt!!!

Ugh. Not Rachel. She was so cute tonight, esp. when she slipped about messing up. How Kelly is still in this thing and she isnt is beyond me. Damn those GH fans.

Also, I don't see why they (ie. Glen) is so hard on Joey and Ashley. I thought it was great. The footing was even on time this time around. John kind of got old to me already.

Aww shucks. I really liked Rachel. Plus, her partner brought the pretty, more than Joey ever did. I *heart* Jonathan.

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved me some Rachel! She was so beautiful and elegant, and her samba was divine. Joey and Ashly suck the big wazoo. I can't understand how they are still here.

I wish the judges would tell Peterman that this is not a comedy. That "oh my, who's this pretty lady" face at the beginning of the samba was not funny.

I honestly don't know if I will watch next week. Rachel was robbed!

BTW, Lisa Canning sucks. To Rachel and Jonathan, she asks "how important is it to get good judges scores?" Well, how about because it is HALF your score? What an inane question.