I’m really impressed with Shannon – she’s much better than I expected her to be. Damn, they were great last night – gorgeous dance!
I’m wondering if Mario’s first two weeks were flukes, or maybe he just needs more than a week to prep a dance. He was better than last week, but nowhere near as good as I expected him to be, given how he started.
Somehow I missed Marissa’s dance. What did she dance and what were her scores?
StG
Paso doble, and her scores were … decent. 7s and 8s, maybe?
I think she got all 8s, twick. Don’t hold me to it though. And I just thought her dance was OK. I thought all the rolling around on the floor looked silly. It looked like Tony was just flinging her around, and that he could do that to anyone without practice.
I’m finding Shannon to be not quite as hot as I thought she’d be, but way more cute. Her personality is growing on me quick, and I hope she and Derek stick around for a while. I thought their dance was the best of the night by far.
Adam’s dance showed what a genius choreographer Julianne is. She knows how to work with what she’s given. It was still a mess, but an entertaining one.
Odd judging tonight. Jason has a noticable slip, and gets two 10s? I thought Kristi was overscored too. And BTW Sam please, shut up about Kristi. Shannon and Derek were robbed - they should have had the top spot.
Sorry, didn’t know you only had one thread for the whole season. Anyway, moved my comments from the extraneous thread.
All in all not too great a night. Pretty average performances overall, with a couple of exceptions.
Kristi - elegant with lovely lines, but no spark. 9’s
Mario - better than last week, but still not the spontanaity of the first 2 weeks. The bolero jacket was all flappy and rode up in the back. Not a good look. 8
Adam - Flat feet city. Is never on his toes and just seems to clunk around the floor, except of course when he’s on his unicycle. What a hoot! 5
Priscilla - Nice posture and lines, but didn’t seem to flow as it should. Still very nice. 8
Jason - dance just looked like a bunch of poses with arm out stretched looking at his partner. Didn’t get the judge-love here. He does look mighty fine though. 7
Shannon - Wow. My personal favorite of the evening. Seemed light on her feet and just seemed to float across the floor. Her dress was perfect, performance devine. 10
Christian - Much better than the judges thought. Loved his attitude and demeanor, pefect for the paso doble. He strutted and grunted just like the matador character. Showed the dominance, strength and grace . 9
Marlee - Quite lovely, better than Priscilla but not as good as Shannon. I just really like her competitive attitude and a surprising grace on the floor. 9
Marissa - Much better than last week. Short skirts aren’t her friend. But she sure pours her whole heart and soul into her performances. 7
Does anyone else find the little kids doing a paso doble not just weird but a little creepy?
I find all little kids doing ballroom and especially Latin very creepy! I know the champs have to start early, but I don’t think it’s cute at all, and I don’t like it done publicly for anyone but the parents and friends. It reminds me of Jon Benet and the beauty contest culture.[[shudder]] Plus, it’s way tacky.
I think it was time for Adam to go. But he made a very graceful end.
Someone above said they thought that it was heavily star-popularity influence early on. I think it’s just the opposite - the end weeks are when popularity really counts. The first few weeks almost always weed out the really bad dancers, although there have been a few exceptions of single individuals (Sara Evans, Billy Ray Cyrus, etc.) kept on way beyond their proper exit point. But it’s later, when everyone left is a pretty decent dancer, and the criteria get so esoteric that people like me can’t really judge competently, that popularity comes in. Hey, at that point, it’s either popularity, or go by what the judges are saying. * I’m * certainly not competent to judge much - I may catch the occasional misstep or notice something after the judges point it out, but I don’t know what I’m doing well enough to really distinguish good from better.
I think we’ve almost reached that point this season. Everyone left is decently competent, and now it comes down to details and likeability. So my prediction is that Marissa and Priscilla will go down in the next two weeks, and then it’s anybody’s guess. Marissa because she’s heavy, and no matter how skilled she gets, it just isn’t going to look that good, and Priscilla because she’s so not animated. (A friend of mine told me that a corrupt plastic surgeon injected her with motor oil rather than botox or whatever she was supposed to get, and she has since won a law suit <and criminal charges brought>, but I have no idea if that’s actually true or not. I find it hard to believe.)
Ah, not exactly motor oil, but industrial low-grade silicon: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001636/news
in 2003.
That may account for a lot of her lack of expression. Or not.
Why do they always have to use such horrible music? Would it really have killed them to use actual Viennese waltzes?
James Brown, the waltz king! :rolleyes: That noise you hear is Johann Strauss spinning in his grave.
And let us not forget Master P.
I’ll go ahead and be “anybody” here – Christian, next. The hot guy slot is amply being filled by Mario and Jason, both of whom are way better dancers than he is.
Then Marlee and Mario, in some order. Final three: Shannon, Kristi, and Jason.
Oh please, no Shannon. If I have to look at her faux gawky grinny alleged sexiness for much longer I may do myself harm.
He’s etc. Well, part of it, anyway.
I’d like to see Marlee in the final three rather than Shannon if I had my druthers. But Shannon probably deserves it more. I’m just so impressed by Maitlan. Earlier in the season I would have bet my shirt that Mario would end in the top three, but now I think your predictions are dead on.
I think the judges made a mistake scoring Adam so low on technical merit. Now, we are left with a bunch of boring dance-a-holics who practice 12+ hours each day. There isn’t anything left in the show that I care about, so it’s time to cancel my Tivo season pass and free up my recording schedule a bit…
Why would you watch the show at all if you don’t want to see a bunch of dance-a-holics who practice 12+ hours each day?
Well, I only came into it for Adam and Penn, so there’s nothing left for me here. This was my first time watching this show, and the only reason I would stay is Bergeron. At least I’ll never have to see that male dancer’s guppy face again…
Which one look(s)(ed) like a guppy?
As far as I know, Adam never practiced nearly as much as any of the remaining dancers. Yet his dances, segments, and interviews were ten times more interesting and entertaining than anything else on the show. In other words, he single-handedly raised my enjoyment of the show and without him, it’s not half as fun for me.
I really could care less if someone’s hands are “pancakey” (whatever that means) or if Contestant A’s expressions did or did not move Judge B emotionally. They’re all essentially doing the same boring dances (and same as past seasons). As an accomodation to the non-pro stars, they cannot do a lot of the daring moves you see on a show with young pros like “So You Think You Can Dance” with the outrageous spins and flips and innovative choreography.
I noticed the judges love to nitpick on expression and connecting with the audience, but they constantly give robotic Kristy and Priscilla high marks on technical merit. I thought Adam’s Paso Doble was great and should have gotten better scores. If the judges can enjoy his dance enough to award Adam the encore, but at the same time sabotage him with much lower scores than any other couple, then this isn’t the show for me.
It’s not because of non-pro stars, many of whom would be perfectly capable of acrobatic moves. It’s because this is Ballroom and Latin Dance; like a dog show, the idea is not to be the most extreme or original, but to get as close as you can get to doing the perfect Ideal. There are moves you should make and moves you’re not allowed to make at all. The dances on the other show may be more entertaining to you than this is, but competitive ballroom dance (which is very much alive and well in the real world) is what this show is about, and that means no flips or lifts (in ballroom, anyway), and a limit to the originality of the choreography.
You might enjoy Baz Luhrman’s Strictly Ballroom, which is a movie about the struggle between rule-constrained competive ballroom dance and dancing more originally as the spirit moves.
Kristi definitely knows how to use her arms.
The one that dances with Kristi. He makes guppy faces that are really distracting - I never did see her whole dance, because I couldn’t not watch his freaky face!