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Dancing With the Stars: Season 6


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Miliosr Report - Week Two

General Thoughts

Two hours of performances on Monday night was a loooooong time, especially since things didn't really get going until the midpoint when Shannon/Derek (quickstep) and Jason/Edyta (mambo) got things kicking. Sadly, the performances died off again until the end when there was an upturn due to Kristi/Mark (mambo) and Mario/Karina (quickstep). Hopefully, as the herd gets culled, the boredom factor (for me, anyway) will diminish.

The Bottom Two - Men and Women

The bottom two for the women consisted of Monica/Jonathan and Marissa/Tony, with Monica and Jonathan going. The bottom two for the men consisted of Penn/Kym and Cristian/Cheryl, with Penn and Kym going.

My prediction about Monica's departure proved correct as her low scores from the judges proved to be an insurmountable hurdle for her preexisting fan base (if any) and any new fans she picked up over the course of two performances. This was a very fair boot as she was clearly the worst of the women and her survival over any of the others would have been a travesty.

On the men's side, my prediction that Cristian would leave proved incorrect, although he and Cheryl wound up under the red light of doom along side Penn and Kym. As with Monica, Penn's ouster was the correct one, as his clomping around like Godzilla was never going to improve with age.

As for Cristian, I'm convinced that he polled dead last in the audience vote and only the judges' scores saved him. We will see if he can gain a toe hold with the audience next week. My suspicion is that he is like Albert from Season 5 -- easy on the eyes and possessed of much potential but no fan base.

See you next week!

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As for Cristian, I'm convinced that he polled dead last in the audience vote and only the judges' scores saved him. We will see if he can gain a toe hold with the audience next week. My suspicion is that he is like Albert from Season 5 -- easy on the eyes and possessed of much potential but no fan base.

I'm not convinced of that at all. Like all soap fans, telenovela fans are quite passionate and it's a growing market in the U.S. I'm pretty sure he's coming in with some fanbase, it's just a question of how much and whether he can grow it. He also has Cheryl, who is a good popular in her own right and should be able to help him with some of his deficiencies. I don't think he's terrible, he's just not very good. I have him around the middle of the pack.

Albert had the same problem all modeling celebs have, a total lack of fanbase. He also was a lousy dancer and Anna is a poor coach and choreographer.

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Actual mambo content is rather low during most of the "mambos," although it's never pointed out because I don't think any of the judges can recognize it either.

He,he...when i see some of this dances being called "mambo" or "cha-cha-cha" is like if they were trying to convince me while watching Tharp's "In the upper room" that is "Giselle" what's being presented... :flowers:

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I missed Marlee and Fabian's performance. Does anyone know what their score was so I can run the percentages?

Attention Alvin Ailey fans -- Tom Bergeron announced on tonight's show that the Alvin Ailey troupe will be performing on tomorrow night's results show. All this and Kylie Minogue too!

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I missed Marlee and Fabian's performance. Does anyone know what their score was so I can run the percentages?

Attention Alvin Ailey fans -- Tom Bergeron announced on tonight's show that the Alvin Ailey troupe will be performing on tomorrow night's results show. All this and Kylie Minogue too!

Miliosr, Marlee and Fabian recieved a total of 21 for thier jive.

Ouch! I thought the judges were way too harsh on Marissa.

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Thanks perky!

I ran the percentages:

01 Kristi/Mark (tango) = 27pts = 11.8%

02 Priscilla/Louis (tango) = 26pts = 11.4%

03 Cristian/Cheryl (jive) = 25pts = 11.0%

04 Shannon/Derek (jive) = 24pts = 10.5%

05 Jason/Edyta (jive) = 23pts = 10.1%

06 Marlee/Fabian (jive) = 21pts = 9.2%

06 Steve/Anna (tango) = 21pts = 9.2%

06 Mario/Karina (tango) = 21pts = 9.2%

06 Adam/Julianne (tango) = 21pts = 9.2%

10 Marissa/Tony (jive) = 19pts = 8.3%

Lots of bunching on the scoreboard. It will be a battle of the fan bases . . .

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Miliosr Report - Week Three

General Thoughts

I liked Louis and Priscilla's tango the best. Maybe it wasn't as clean as the tango of Kristi and Mark but the drama was better. As an added bonus, Priscilla looked good:

Flattering costume + pulled back hair + absence of usual deathly pallor + marginally more mobile face = a winning look

None of the jives really got me this week. (I missed Marlee and Fabian so I can't comment on their performance.)

I liked the excerpt of Revelations well enough on Tuesday night but I suspect it works a lot better on stage than it does in a studio.

I'm a fan of Kylie Minogue's (mostly her 90s CDs Kylie Minogue and Impossible Princess). The first song -- from her new CD/download X -- did her no favors and she was flat on both songs.

The Non-Bottom Two Bottom Two

Steve/Anna and Mario/Karina were the two couples left standing under the red lights of doom with Steve and Anna leaving the competition. However, Tom Bergeron made a point of telling the audience that Mario and Karina weren't necessarily in the Bottom Two. So, it's a bit unclear at this point what's going on with the fan bases.

As for Steve and Anna, it was a fair elimination. Len was correct in saying that Steve truly embraced the spirit of the show. But, he had improved about as much as he was going to this season so it was his time to go.

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Why, oh why couldn't the bootee have been Adam, who seems not to understand the "live" part of Live TV. His obnoxious interjections are so annoying! Are there thousands of high school boys calling in votes for him? I can't imagine.

Anyway, I recorded this and when I played it back, it got down to the final two, but because of Adam's camera/mic hogging, the recording ended half a second before the names were named. If the judges and the audience both fail to eliminate him in the next round, I hope the producers jump in. :clapping:

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I ran the percentages:

01 Kristi/Mark (paso doble) = 29pts = 12.9%

01 Jason/Edyta (waltz) = 29pts = 12.9%

03 Shannon/Derek (waltz) = 28pts = 12.4%

04 Cristian/Cheryl (paso doble) = 26pts = 11.6%

05 Marissa/Tony (paso doble) = 24pts = 10.7%

05 Marlee/Fabian (waltz) = 24pts = 10.7%

05 Mario/Karina (paso doble) = 24pts = 10.7%

08 Priscilla/Louis (waltz) = 22pts = 9.8%

09 Adam/Julianne (paso doble) = 19pts = 8.4%

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Miliosr Report - Week Four

General Thoughts

Not much grabbed me this week -- my top marks would have gone to the paso doble of Kristi and Mark and to the waltz of Shannon and Derek.

And, against all reason, I did find myself smiling when Adam rode on to the dancefloor on a unicycle and dressed as Zorro!

The Red Lights of Doom

Adam/Julianne and Priscilla/Louis found themselves under the red lights of doom this week with Adam and Julianne leaving the competition.

Adam was entertaining in his way but it was his time to go. Julianne had reached the limit of what she was going to achieve with him so it was better that he be ousted now rather than to hang around in the manner of Master P, Jerry Springer and Billy Ray Cyrus.

No three-peat for Julianne!

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Joan Acocella discusses the show in "Mambo! "Dancing with the Stars" (The New Yorker, April 14).

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/danc...ancing_acocella

What can you learn from “Dancing with the Starsâ€? First, the difference between a dancer and a non-dancer. The people who partner the stars on the show are not just professional ballroom dancers; in their field they are bigger stars than their partners are in their fields. I don’t know why they’re up there, dragging those klutzes aroundâ€â€the pay must be goodâ€â€but when you watch them dancing with non-professionals you will see what makes a person a dancer. Contrary to widespread belief, the main difference is not in the feet but in the upper bodyâ€â€the neck, the shoulders, the arms, which are stiff in the amateur and relaxed and eloquent in the professional. The other giveaway is in “line.†You may think you don’t know what that is, but, as with consonance in music, you do know. It is the carriage of the body in a way that seems harmonious and natural, as opposed to awkward and forced. Poor Monica Seles, with every step she took, ended in a position that no human being has ever willingly assumed. She was eliminated in the first round.

The other matter you can learn about from “Dancing with the Stars†is sex roles. { ... ]

Acocella has aready written about Graham, Robbins, Ashton, Farrell, Baryshnikov, Tharp, and Fosse. Any thoughts about her take on Priscilla Presley, Marie Osmond, and rest of the DWTS gang.?

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I thought Acocella wrote a very sensible article about the show.

As to whether she should have written about Dancing with the Stars in the pages of The New Yorker, I say -- why not? It's not like there are a lot of up-and-coming Grahams and Ashtons to write about these days.

Off to watch The Bachelor: London Calling!

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Miliosr, I wasn't actually asking about whether she should have written the article, but what you all thought about her comments. :clapping:

How about it? Any more responses? For example, what aboutg her generealization comparing the professionals and amateurs in general? Is sit accurate? Any exceptions to the rule?

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bart,

Thanks for posting the article. Not surprising given the source, it was certainly a higher level treatment than most of what has been written about the show. I think she did a particularly good job of looking at the show in a broader context of dance than how it is generally treated.

I found her comments on the underlying role of gender drama on the show interesting and insightful. Of course, the gender drama, whether explicit or implicit, is a characteristic of much of dance. While on some points I felt she became a little condescending (the women dressed in “little more than bits of fringe pasted over secondary sexual characteristics”), it’s easy to see why anyone might think they have become a bit too explicit in the world of performance/competition ballroom. However, many might maintain that a prim dance in tutus and tights is playing out a similar gender drama, just on a more sublimated level.

I thought her overall observations on the differences between the relationships of the male and female professional dancers with their star partners were generally very accurate, particularly with regard to how traditional sex roles and stereotypes, both when they apply and don’t apply, can play out in actually situations in the context of partner dance. I would’ve liked to have heard more on her thoughts regarding how the partners go about establishing the “chemistry” with each other they need in the performances. Perhaps it’s not surprising that the male stars seem to connect much quicker with the female pros than the female stars do with their male pro partners.

Her most interesting comment was the lead to the last paragraph. “In the end, the show is not really about dancing; it is about toil and suffering.” In a broader context, one might say that perhaps this is true of all dance, that it is not really about the dance at all, but instead about the drama of expressing that struggle of transcendence over toil and suffering.

But on the other hand, she ignored the consideration that maybe watching a one-legged person dancing is just more entertaining than anything else on television.

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Percentages - Week Five

01 Kristi/Mark (rumba) = 29pts = 14.8%

02 Jason/Edyta (rumba) = 27pts = 13.8%

02 Mario/Karina (samba) = 27pts = 13.8%

04 Marissa/Tony (samba) = 24pts = 12.2%

05 Shannon/Derek (samba) = 23pts = 11.7%

05 Cristian/Cheryl (rumba) = 23pts = 11.7%

07 Marlee/Fabian (samba) = 22 pts = 11.2%

08 Priscilla/Louis (rumba) = 21pts = 10.7%

Priscilla and Marlee are in the greatest danger but I can envision a scenario where Cristian, Shannon or even Marissa could go tonight. The others should be safe unless they're not drawing any kind of audience vote at all.

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As to whether she should have written about Dancing with the Stars in the pages of The New Yorker, I say -- why not? It's not like there are a lot of up-and-coming Grahams and Ashtons to write about these days.

I'm glad any writing about dancing is showing up in The New Yorker - there's been hardly anything of late, and with this week's Kirov review that makes two in a row, a hopeful sign. (It doesn't have to be Acocella - good dance writing from any quarter would be welcome in the magazine.)It might have been more helpful if she had talked a bit more about the dancing itself, which is discussable.

It is also possible that she makes too much of the 'toil and suffering' theme, which is also commonly heard on a variety of sports broadcasts, especially when they're trying to attract female eyeballs. I remember one Olympic cycle where a concentrated effort was made in this direction, and there were so many soft focus film segments with embattled athletes and their dying (or ailing, or recovering) relatives, pets, etc., that people started complaining.

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I'm glad any writing about dancing is showing up in The New Yorker - there's been hardly anything of late, and with this week's Kirov review that makes two in a row, a hopeful sign.

Two weeks in a row! Have we been teleported back to the 1970s? Hooray!

:blink: (Of course Acocella's lead-in is a review of a puppet performance -- but it's a performance of "Petrushka," by Basil Twist. Acocella calls it "an astonishment.")

Regarding DWTS: has there been any discussion of a cross-over influence i whichh the show's great popularity somehow leads to greater interest in (or ticket sales to) other kinds of dance performance, including local ballet productions?

Edited to add: Just came across the following, from an interview in the latst (Winter 2007-08) Ballet Review. Rachel Moore, Executive Director of American Ballet Theater, says:

These new TV shows, So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing With the Stars, have brought a greater awareness of dance to the general public than there was five years ago. ... [T]icket sales are actually way up. Over the past three years we've seen a huge increase in ticket sales, so that's encouraging.
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