88 replies to this topic

[sidwich]

cubanmiamiboy, on 23 October 2012 - 11:41 AM, said:

In general I'm always surprised of how many diverse rythms and music here are referred as mambo or cha cha cha, without having the slightest resemblance or even without using the real music at all. Mambo music and rythm, as invented and developed in Havana by Damaso Perez Prado in the 40's, is a very specific, different animal from what we see in DWTS. "The Mambo dance that was invented by Perez Prado and was popular in the 1940s and 50s Cuba, Mexico City, and New York is completely different to the modern dance that New Yorkers now call 'Mambo', which is also known as Salsa "on 2". The original mambo dance contains no breaking steps or basic steps at all. The Cuban dance wasn't accepted by many professional dance teachers. Cuban dancers would describe mambo as "feeling the music" in which sound and movement were merged through the body. Professional dance teachers in the US saw this approach to dancing as "extreme," "undisciplined," and thus, deemed it necessary to standardize the dance to present it as a sell-able commodity for the social or ballroom market^. The modern dance from New York was popularized in the 70s by Eddie Torres and his contemporaries who were 1st or 2nd generation Puerto Rican immigrants. This style is not danced to Mambo music, for which it is poorly suited, but instead to Salsa music."

A good friend of mine who is a professional dancer moved to New York from Texas, and I'm afraid when he first hit the floor with the mambo that he was used to, folks snickered at him for looking like "a Puerto Rican hillbilly."  New Yorkers like their mambo fast and aggressive, and competition mambo reflects that.  Here is a good example from Mambo World Championships:

[Helene]

That's like someone from Jerez complaining that people from Seville were dancing Sevillanas too softly.  (Although I'm sure it would be expressed as rudely and as offensively as your friend heard, but I don't know how to say it.)

Competition distorts many things, such as my favorite modern era ice dance team, who, apart from style, perform all of the figure skating elements that are totally inappropriate to the form in this mambo-rhumba combination

[miliosr]

Week Five - Scores:

(1st score is the individual performance.  2nd score is the group dance.)

01  29.0pts + 29.5pts = 58.5pts  Sabrina/Louis (waltz)
02  27.0pts + 29.5pts = 56.5pts  Shawn/Derek (rumba)
02  29.5pts + 27.0pts = 56.5pts  Gilles/Peta (rumba)
02  27.0pts + 29.5pts = 56.5pts  Apolo/Karina (samba)
02  27.0pts + 29.5pts = 56.5pts  Melissa/Tony (tango)
06  29.0pts + 27.0pts = 56.0pts  Emmitt/Cheryl (samba)
07  25.5pts + 27.0pts = 52.5pts  Kirstie/Maks (quickstep)
08  24.5pts + 27.0pts = 51.5pts  Kelly/Val (samba)

No eliminations this week so each couple lives to dance another day.  Sabrina had a great week between her waltz and being a standout in the group dance.  We'll see how it all shakes out next week, though.  And Kirstie's cartwheels in the group dance tonight were the worst cartwheels I have ever seen.

[Jayne]

sidwich, on 23 October 2012 - 01:41 PM, said:

Here is a good example from Mambo World Championships:

We need to show this to some islamic terrorists, their eyes will pop out of their sockets, and then they'll be blind.  Harder to construct bombs when you can't see.

In DWTS news, the Gangnam Style group dance was wacky, but not always in a good way.  I think this is Kirstie's week to go, but we'll see if her church members can rally votes.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Jayne, on 23 October 2012 - 09:26 PM, said:

sidwich, on 23 October 2012 - 01:41 PM, said:

Here is a good example from Mambo World Championships:

We need to show this to some islamic terrorists, their eyes will pop out of their sockets, and then they'll be blind.  Harder to construct bombs when you can't see.

In DWTS news, the Gangnam Style group dance was wacky, but not always in a good way.  I think this is Kirstie's week to go, but we'll see if her church members can rally votes.

Even from this video...I still don't get why they call it mambo when the music being played and the rythm being danced are not mambo, but SON.  That will be like calling a waltz music Polka and dancing a mazurka to it...

[miliosr]

Week Six - Scores

01  30.0pts  Sabrina/Louis (rumba)
01  30.0pts  Apolo/Karina (Viennese waltz)
03  29.5pts  Melissa/Tony (Viennese waltz)
04  27.5pts  Kirstie/Maks (rumba)
04  27.5pts  Shawn/Derek (cha cha cha) [Note: My broadcast feed was difficult tonight so I'm not 100% about Bruno's score (9.5pts).]
04  27.5pts  Gilles/Peta (cha cha cha)
07  27.0pts  Kelly/Val (tango)
08  26.5pts  Emmitt/Cheryl (foxtrot)

Kirstie and Maks won the side-by-side group dance performed to Big and Rich's "Save a Horse - Ride a Cowboy".  So, they get 2 extra points added to their score.

Tom Bergeron really is the host with the most.  Tonight was Country&Western night and I cracked up when he described Gilles' goth/S&M costume as 'How the West (Hollywood) Was Won'.  Too funny!

[miliosr]

Weeks Five and Six - Scores - Combined:

01  88.5pts  Sabrina/Louis
02  86.5pts  Apolo/Karina
03  86.0pts  Melissa/Tony
04  84.0pts  Shawn/Derek
04  84.0pts  Gilles/Peta
06  82.5pts  Emmitt/Cheryl
07  82.0pts  Kirstie/Maks
08  78.5pts  Kelly/Val

Kelly is in a world of trouble heading into tonight's elimination round.  I expect we'll see her in the Bottom Two.  Kirstie should be there, too, but she is like Houdini with her ability to cheat "death".

[miliosr]

Week Six - Elimination:

The Not Necessarily Bottom Two Bottom Two: Sabrina/Louis and Apolo/Karina w/ Sabrina and Louis leaving

Despite being at the top of the leader board, Sabrina finds herself repeating her same trajectory from her regular season.  In no way was it her time to go but, in an All-Stars season, there is no slack for a weak or slumbering fan base.  Her was not a deserving boot but, perhaps, was not totally unexpected.

I don't believe Apolo and Karina were truly in the Bottom Two but I'm not entirely sure who was.  I am happy that Kelly and Val pulled through for another week.

Fusion week next week!

[miliosr]

Week Seven - Scores - Fusion Week:

01  30.0pts  Shawn/Mark* (tango & paso doble)
02  29.0pts  Melissa/Tony (cha cha cha & tango)
03  28.5pts  Gilles/Peta (Argentine tango & samba)
04  27.5pts  Emmitt/Cheryl (samba & rumba)
05  27.0pts  Kelly/Val (foxtrot & cha cha cha)
05  27.0pts  Apolo/Karina (cha cha cha & paso doble)
07  24.0pts  Kirstie/Maks (quickstep & samba)

*Derek was injured so he choreographed while Mark danced with Shawn.

(I'll bet the producers would love for the Top 3 tonight to be the Top 3 for the finale.  It would replicate the Season 8 finale which had the greatest Final 3 in the whole history of the show.)


Group swing dance marathon points:

01  10.0pts  Melissa/Tony
02    9.0pts  Kelly/Val
03    8.0pts  Shawn/Mark
04    7.0pts  Emmitt/Cheryl
05    6.0pts  Apolo/Karina
06    5.0pts  Gilles/Peta
07    4.0pts  Kirstie/Maks

No elimination show this week due to Election Night coverage.  Double elimination next week.

[miliosr]

Week Eight - Scores

Round One:

01 30.0pts  Melissa/Tony (quickstep)
02 29.5pts  Shawn/Derek (Viennese waltz)
02 29.5pts  Gilles/Peta (quickstep)
02 29.5pts  Apolo/Karina (tango)
05 28.0pts  Kelly/Val (Viennese waltz)
06 28.0pts  Emmitt/Cheryl (Viennese waltz)
07 27.0pts  Kirstie/Maks (Viennese waltz)

Round Two - Trio Dances:

26.0pts  Shawn/Derek/Mark (samba)

I gave up at this point.  Seeing Carrie Ann give them a '10' for a samba with no samba content, I had had enough.  At least Len slammed them and gave them a '7'.

[Marga]

Absolutely lovely performance from Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild as well as Anna and Val! What a pleasure it was.

[miliosr]

Week Eight - Eliminations:

First Elimination: Kirstie/Maks

It was Kirstie's time. to go  She lasted longer than she should have so there's nothing unjust about her departure.  From the loud ovation she got, she showed she was an audience favorite so, from that standpoint, she left on a high note.

(The producers killed the "suspense" by having Kirstie/Maks and Kelly/Val face an elimination round together.  Prior to the elimination, Tom announced that Val would be dancing with Anna and two dancers (Robert Fairchild, Tiler Peck) from the New York City Ballet later in the show.  No way would they have eliminated Val and then had him dance.)

Second Elimination: Gilles/Peta

Well, if it's possible for an elimination to be a shocker and a non-shocker at the same time, this elimination shows how.  He was a huge fan favorite (w/ Cheryl) in Season 8 and, in my opinion, should have beat Shawn in the final.  But, on the second go-round, the magic wasn't there.  He danced well but he never had with Peta what he had with Cheryl.  In its place, there was this strange mix of desperation and tawdriness.  A sad end for a beloved competitor but that's how it breaks sometimes on this show.

So, the five remaining couples are:

Shawn/Derek
Kelly/Val
Apolo/Karina
Melissa/Tony
Emmitt/Cheryl

Double elimination again next week!

[miliosr]

Week Nine - Eliminations:

Sorry gang -- I didn't have time to do the scores this week . . .

First Elimination: Apolo/Karina

I would have put them ahead of Emmitt and Cheryl but, at this point, the remaining couples are all strong so someone had to go.  A valiant effort on the part of this team although I never thought their chemistry was quite as good as it was with Apolo and Julianne in his original season.

Second Elimination: Emmitt/Cheryl

Well, color me surprised!  When the final elimination came down to Emmitt/Cheryl and Kelly/Val, I thought for sure that Kelly and Val were done for.  On the merits, I'm perfectly OK with Emmitt and Cheryl leaving as I thought Emmitt was the weakest competitor left.  I'm just shocked that Kelly's fan base proved to be stronger than Emmitt's.

The Final Three will be an all-female affair: Shawn, Kelly and Melissa.  (Is this the first all-female final ever?)  What a curious turn of events given that the men's field, at the start of this season, looked so much stronger than the women's field.

As for predictions, my heart is with either Kelly/Val (my favorite couple this season) or Melissa/Tony (potential for his first mirror ball trophy) but my head tells me Shawn will be tough to beat.

[Paul Parish]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...  I'm not surprised. In all the dances, if it was the amateur who looked the best, I thought they'd win -- and they did. Karina always outshone Apolo, and  Cheryl never looked less interesting than Emmitt.

Not that the fans don't make the difference -- BUT -- the fans can I repeat they CAN tell when Shawn and Melissa and Kelly are the ones that shine. That's the way it worked out -- and it's the work of good leads -- the choreographer is also leading, and the follow gets to shine. Melissa has line, and Shawn has dynamics. It's between the two of them, Melissa is a bottom, Shawn is a top. Maybe I should say, Melissa dances for sentiment, Shawn for joy. That's what I think. or what Tony and Derek think -- and look what they do for them Way to go, guys.

[Helene]

I disagree about Kelly, whom I like, but who I think is a bit wooden.  

I'd love to see Melissa win, if only for Tony's sake and for how Derek manipulated the choreography.  (Geoffrey Zakarian won "The Next Iron Chef with flagrant rule-breaking, so I understand the logic, even if I don't respect it.)

Kristi Yamaguchi was on one of the celebrity faux-interview shows to plug her new clothing line, and she was asked directly if she was asked to be on the All-Stars sow, and she said no.