Dancing With The Stars - Season 22 (Spring 2016)

Cafe Society
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Dancing With The Stars is back with yet another field of celebrity has-beens and wannabes!

Some old faces have returned, including pro Edyta Sliwinska (!) and head judge Len Goodman. And some of the ‘regulars’ are absent, including Emma, Alison, and–perhaps most notably–Derek. Julianne isn’t judging, so this may be a ‘Hough-free’ season, barring a guest appearance by one or both.

Here is the line-up, celeb and pro:

Geraldo Rivera and Edyta Śliwińska
Mischa Barton and Artem Chigvintsev
Antonio Brown and Sharna Burgess
Nyle DiMarco and Peta Murgatroyd
Kim Fields and Sasha Farber
Doug Flutie and Karina Smirnoff
Marla Maples and Tony Dovolani
Von Miller and Witney Carson
Wanyá Morris and Lindsay Arnold
Jodie Sweetin and Keoikantse Motsepe
Paige VanZant and Mark Ballas
Ginger Zee and Valentin Chmerkovskiy

I actually knew who most of these people were without having to look them up! I was not familiar with Nyle (the deaf model) or Paige (UFC fighter) or Ginger (weather woman for GMA).

Three NFL stars! Have they had that many at once before?

No ‘internet stars’, thank goodness.

Among the pros: Great to see Edyta back. Damn, she still looks amazing! Artem and Peta weren’t on the show last season–good to have them back as well. As always, I’ll be rooting the most for my DWTS crush, Sharna.

The first two episodes have already aired (the past two Mondays), so I’ll comment on those results in a new post.

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I’ll be watching the second episode tonight, but I loved the first one. So many good dancers this year.

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Paige VanZant is this seasons ringer. She got perfect scores with a replacement partner, after Ballas got hurt in rehearsals. She’ll be fun to watch this season.

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I thought it was mostly duds compared to last time. Geraldo… just get the guy outta there. Mrs. Trump is actually quite good!

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This post will contain open spoilers for the first two weeks, including the first elimination.

Some thoughts on some of our celebs during weeks 1 and 2:

Mischa Barton - (actress) I knew of her, but I’ve never watched The OC or anything else she’s in. She seems like she’s got some mental problems. Seriously. She was bad in week 1 and horrible in week 2. I hope she goes away soon.

Antonio Brown - (NFL) not great, but could probably show a lot of improvement if he took it more seriously. I hope he does well for Sharna’s sake.

Nyle Dimarco - (model) Pretty impressive start, regardless of his deafness.

Kim Fields - (actress) Tootie! I had a crush on her back in the day–I’m a few years younger and watched The Facts of Life in its first run. She’s got tons of energy. Maybe a bit of a rollercoaster emotionally.

Doug Flutie - (NFL) I’m not a sports fan, really, but I do remember The Pass. And I’ve heard he’s always been a class act. Hopefully his dancing improves.

Marla Maples - (ex-wife of Trump) I admire her spirit and attitude and she’s off to a good start. Tony seems impressed with her.

Von Miller - (NFL) no opinion on him yet, except that he farts an awful lot!

Wanya Morris - (Boyz II Men) He did very well, could be one to watch.

Jodie Sweetin - (actress, Full House) her TV sister did pretty well on DWTS, she looks like she could go far as well.

Paige VanZant - (UFC fighter) Very good out of the gate–could go the distance. And damn, she’s hot! In her week 2 dance, Mark was injured and had to be replaced at the last minute (apparently just two hours before the show!) by a backup dance pro. The backup did a great job. I noticed that Mark had a sour look on his face while Paige and newguy were dancing. Maybe it was the back pain.

Ginger Zee - (weather woman) Not bad, but not memorable for me.

Geraldo Rivera - Probably the most well-known name from this group of celebs, and he’s the first one eliminated. He didn’t dance so much as stand there and sway to the music, but I wish that he’d been in for a while longer. Hopefully Edyta will be back again next season.

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Well, it really picked up in the last couple weeks. The deaf guy is crazy good, and the MMA female has real talent, too. The football guys are not going to make it-- DF especially.

But the whole thing with the mix-up in the scores for the deaf guy was nuts. Both Maks and Bruno clearly said “ten”, so what’s with them having turned in a different score?

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The four I’d most like to see make it to the end:

Nyle
Wanya
Paige
Ginger

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Nyle really is amazing. It’s hard to believe that he can’t hear. I could see him winning.

Ginger is adorable. Paige is fantastic.

Antonio could be great, but he holds back or something, it seems.

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Nyle, Paige, and Jodie are doing the best, IMO. I also think they all benefited from the partner-switch. Sharna, Sasha, and Val all did a great job.

Wanya and Ginger are also good.

I was sorry to see Marla and Tony eliminated last week–I thought they were a good pairing and she was a better dancer than several that remain.

Of the rest, I’d like Tootie and Flutie to stick around longer than Miller or Brown.

I wish they wouldn’t do so many ‘theme’ weeks. Memorable Year, Disney, Partner Switch and this week will be “recreating famous dances.” It’s all too gimmicky.

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I have to wonder if there was some translation issues with Nyle and his comments about Val. It was very weird listening to it. And I thought his dance was crazy good, but maybe I missed the stuff the judges were on about since it was also crazy fast.

And what was that with Mark and Fighter-girl in jeopardy? She’s one of the best!!

It did seem like they purposes gave the “black dances” to white contestants and “white dances” to black contestants.

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DWTS, like most other shows likes to create suspense and drama, they’ve said many time in the past, apart from the actual lowest score couple, the others are not necessarily the ones with the next lowest score.

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I was glad to see Brown step up his game a bit, though it was kinda silly for him to get butthurt over Sharna talking about other teams being better when he apparently wasn’t taking the competition too seriously before.

I don’t know much about Bollywood dancing, except that it looks like it’s very high energy and a lot of frenetic movements. That’s a tall order for someone who’s not a dancer to make it look good.

Yeah, Nyle’s comments about Val were odd. Either Nyle is a bit delusional and really arrogant, or there was some important context missing (which is likely given the producers’ penchant for manufacturing drama).

I hope Jodie’s injury doesn’t impede her too much.

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It’s been a few weeks since the last post. Here is an update after last night’s semifinals:
Leaving this week in a double-elimination were Antonio and Wanye.

I would have preferred to have Wanye in the finals over Nyle. Wanye and Lindsey’s last dance was a lot of fun and he did a great job.

Antonio was probably fortunate to have made it this far. I think he and Sharna knew this was their last night–they didn’t look surprised or too disappointed when they got the news.
So we’re down to three couples for the finals next week: Nyle and Peta, Paige and Mark, and Ginger and Val.

Nyle, IMO, peaked early in the season–like in his second dance with Peta, or maybe his dance with Sharna during the partner-switch week. He’s good, but not spectacular.

Ginger is very good, but I just find her kind of forgettable. I don’t know if that’s down to her personality, or just a boring edit, or what.

Paige is the best dancer. Not surprising since she has a background in dance and cheerleading. Still, she appears to work really hard and Mark has–as usual–come up with some very entertaining choreography. I’m rooting for Paige to win.

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The dances have been great. I agree Paige is the best dancer and should win, but I really like Ginger, so I wouldn’t be too disappointed if she won instead.

I’d have liked to see Wanye in the finals. He was really great this week.

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Nyle’s routine a couple shows back when they cut the music and all danced in complete silence was very powerful. I thought that was the best moment of the season so far. Agreed that Paige is the best dancer but what Nyle has overcome to be good at this is just too much to ignore.