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8th Week - Dancing with the Stars
- Author:
- Phillip Stephens (philtex44@aol.com)
- Date Published:
- May 8, 2007
Is Dancing With The Stars becoming a Joke???
Week 8 – Dancing with the Stars
The "parade" at the beginning is one of my favorite parts of the show because I like to the see hair styles, who is clean-shaven (or not), who is in a nice outfit (or not) and who does/doesn't look uptight about the upcoming performance. All of the performers looked rather nice for the 5/7/07 show and I was pleased to see that Billy Ray's hair was somewhat "tamed" for this performance. Particularly appealing were Laila and Kym, who both looked as if "extra special" care had been given to their appearances.
I was most upset by some of the judges' comments and their lack of consistency. After praising some aspects of his Foxtrot, they awarded Billy Ray 18 points; after tearing into him for that dreadful Mambo and even saying that his Smooth dance was better, they awarded him 20 points. For what? The nerve of getting out there? Because he "broke" on every beat possible and in between some of those?
Tom B said that someone would get the shock of their life during the 5/8/07 Result Show by being sent home. My feeling is that Ian Z will be sent packing and that Billy Ray's fans will keep him on the show. It was unfortunate that Bruno made such a rude comment about BR’s dancing with the "crap" terminology in his exuberance to explain his views to Len and Cari Ann. But I also think Cyrus used that comment as a stepping stone to get sympathy votes for "poor little him". This season is going downhill in my opinion and, if not for Joey, Apolo and Laila, I think quite a few people would probably stop watching at this point.
Right – let’s get to some comments on the dancing:
Ian Z - Foxtrot: Who picked that song? "Baby It's Cold Outside" for springtime - nearly SUMMER - performance? The music also seemed a bit fast for what Len called the American Smooth Foxtrot. That was a very “beginning Bronze” tempo and may have contributed to some of the faults in the dancing. Ian struggled to perform advanced and rather challenging actions at a speed for which he simply lacks the control needed to accomplish the task. The choreography was good, though I was surprised at how unpolished Ian looked and I think Cheryl is either not focusing on the right aspects of his dancing or is giving him moves he can’t master. His dancing just doesn't get better from week to week. Cheryl danced down to his level by bouncing and jumping around like a carbon copy of his rather "new student" performance. His score of 22 was fairly accurate in my books. Rumba: With all the 4&1 syncopations, I wondered if they were confused and thought they were to actually do a slow Cha-cha. After watching a bit more, I decided that this may have been Cheryl's way of covering up Ian's lack of control over timing. This was a very bland performance with no real passion. Ian did not deserve 25 points for this one and even the choreography seemed under par to me.
Note: I was stunned by the fact that Ian's vanilla Rumba drew so little fire from the judges regarding the "passion" aspect of the dance after they went for the kill over Apolo's Tango, which, in my view, had loads of passion. Again, this sort of thing just highlights the lack of consistency in the judging.
Joey F - Waltz: Unlike Bruno and Cari Ann, I sided with Len in being quite pleased with this performance. More razzle-dazzle could have disguise Joey's lack of solid waltz technique, but they decided to tackle that technique and present it in its best light. Personally, I think Joey danced at quite a high technical level for the length of time he's been dancing. I don't think he was given nearly enough credit by Bruno and Cari Ann for his efforts, though I do think his score of 26 was about right. Mambo: Finally - a Mambo danced on the "2" beat! It’s a shame that the only other Mambo on "2" this whole season was danced by Heather Mills. So, a Brit and an Aussie can dance Mambo on "2" but these teachers who regularly compete in the International style where Rumba breaks on "2" could not do this? Go figure that one! Joey did a lot of nice arm moves and some very clever tricks and did them quite well; he deserved the 29 points received for this nice routine, though I would have liked a bit more articulation in his feet and legs.
Billy Ray C - Foxtrot???: I'm sorry, but "Stand By Your Man" sounded more like a C&W 2-step to me. I do have to say that he did seem to try harder in the 5/7/07 performances, and that, at least in the ... ahem ... "Foxtrot" there was some content that was recognizable as Foxtrot material. Stiff, awkward, jerky, uncoordinated, technically challenged ... there is little to be found that's positive to say about this performance and I feel that 15 points would have been too high and that the 18 he got was WAY over the top! Mambo: OK, so it didn't sound Country. This was more uncoordinated crap. He was on the "2" beat 1 time by accident. The fact that this routine - at 20 - got 2 more points than the Foxtrot makes me wonder if the judges were watching a video of someone else's routine! How Cari Ann can say that Billy Ray's dancing "makes people think they can do this" too is just beyond me. That comment reminds me of the song about how alcohol has convinced white men that they can dance. I’m with Len on this one in that BR’s performance was berserk but I draw the line at it being “entertaining” other than through some sense of fascination with the macabre.
Laila A - Waltz: I do feel she danced rather well, but also feel that Maks used too much "filler" once again. I know this is his first time to make it far enough that he must choreograph and teach two routines each week in such a short time, but he needs to get with the program. The others are doing it, and he and Laila can, too! Laila's left arm and weak upper body was quite evident in closed position, but she did a lot of the technical aspects of Waltz rather well. I would have preferred to see a pointed toe in her turning pose line, but it was still a good solid tornillo. Jive: The entrance was too long - more "filler" - but the routine was good. She had nice control over the hops, skips and kicks, and also did a solid job of expressing the fast chasse actions of the dance. I do think Maks "out danced" her a bit in this one, but that may just have been exuberance on his part. I felt that the scores were wrong in that I'd have given her 27 or 28 for the Jive and only 25 or 26 for the Waltz.
Note: I am not sure of the best way to put this, but will be blunt. To me, it is grand-standing to use your daughter, father, mother, etc, as a means of getting a few extra votes in this type of show. Of course you want to dance well for that person. Of course you want that person to be proud of you. With Laila’s father, I couldn’t help but wonder if he even knew where he was and what was going on. I know it was special to her to dance well for him, but – really! – to use him in such a way to gain audience sympathy votes?
Apolo - Tango: This was a crisp routine performed with good posture, nice synchronization between the partners and with the music, and with quite strong - and good! - shapes. I was totally unprepared for Len Goodman's comments that this routine lacked passion and that it was too hectic. The music was hectic - even frenetic! - and I just cannot for the life of me understand Len's angle for those comments. This was a very solid dance and Len robbed Apolo of the perfect score he deserved. Paso Doble: Wasn’t that "My Darling Clementine"? As a PASO DOBLE???? Did Billy Ray pick their music for this one? That piece sounded more like a Heel-billie Samba than a Paso Doble, and I think Apolo and Julianne deserve extra points for such solid choreography and such a strong performance that you could still envision the bull fight. They nailed virtually every move after that slight bobble with the first trick and did an excellent job to a fast song that had no Paso Doble “feeling”. I'm glad the judges gave them the 30 points they so evidently deserved.
I'm sure Billy Ray's ploy about the rudeness and ungentlemanly behavior of the judges will fire up his fans to the point where they'll use every possible phone and computer to vote for their darling. Be prepared to become somewhat enraged yourself as yet another better dancer than Billy Ray gets sent home because their fan base is weaker. Not much we can do about it, but I do think we should try to contact the producers and let them know how we feel about this type of reverse reward. What is the point of this show if there isn't SOME qualification that the couples must actually dance and that the celeb must get quantifiably better at the technique of dancing each week? Well, we'll see how things turn out, won't we?
Happy Dancing
and remember
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