This seemed to be
another night for some
of the celebs to "whine,
whine, whine".
Especially
Sabrina Bryan and
Jennie Garth.
Interesting to note that
folk like Marie
Osmond - who
could have used the
fainting spell as an
excuse - and
Jane Seymour -
who could use age, her
mother's passing or
depression over that
fact as an excuse - were
extremely positive about
the challenges they
faced.
The costumes were all
quite nice except for
that Pocahontas and
Miles Standish thing
that Edyta
and Cameron
had on. [Right,
like dear old Miles
would parade around the
forest dancing with the
Indian maid in a
sleeveless outfit and
soft "cheek hugging"
trousers, displaying his
"manliness" to the
world as if he were a
modern-day male dancer
in a strip club]
And I didn't care much
for Marie
Osmond's outfit
which, in my opinion,
made her look like the
Matron from Transylvania
instead of the matador's
cape.
Sabrina Bryan
and Mark Ballas
did a Foxtrot (?) that
was all Jazz and Razz-matazz,
and she sure was busily
and enthusiastically
selling all that flash
and trash. But ... did
she actually dance a
Foxtrot? To me, both
she and Mark looked
somewhat lost out there
at times as they just
did a lot of fast and
faster moves that had
very little relation to
Foxtrot as a dance.
Neither of them has any
real control over the
slow actions that are
occasionally needed to
provide depth and
contrast in this dance.
And, instead of adding
those types of moves,
they try to "wow"
everyone into accepting
their "fantasticness" by
doing contrasts between
the fast and faster
moves mentioned
earlier. Their 25 point
was about right, though
I do think Carrie Ann
was a bit too generous
with her 9.
Jennie Garth
and Derek Hough
did a great routine that
was full of good energy
and that contained
several neat "tricks"
that were
well-performed. She did
miss an arm connection
once and almost got on
the 1 beat a couple of
times but, otherwise,
this was a "spot on"
performance. My opinion
of Jennie's dancing has
risen steadily in the
weeks since her fall and
I do feel she could be a
contender for the mirror
ball trophy. I felt
that Jennie "glowed"
during this dance, so
was not surprised to
learn that it was her
favorite. She deserved
all 27 points received.
Jane Seymour
and Tony
Dovolani were
scored far lower than I
felt they deserved.
Jane seemed to put her
heart and soul into that
Jive routine and did
some fairly difficult
moves with quite a bit
of agility. Her
personality was more
lively than normal, she
had a solid bounce
action and was quite "in
sync" with Tony most of
the time. This Jive was
a bit on the slow side,
which caused it to be
less "springy" than a
"real" Jive, but I think
it was appropriate for
Jane's age. A major
drawback was that her
outfit was not as well
thought out as it could
be since it displayed
the thinness of her legs
and the shoes made her
feet look big.
Nevertheless, I think
she danced very well and
just wish that her age
and ability would be
taken into account and
that the judges would
quit trying to change
her persona. It's
almost as if they want
to turn a silk purse
into a sow's ear and I
much prefer that elegant
and refined silk purse.
Jane's score of just 22
points was an injustice,
in my books.
Cameron Mathison
and Edyta
show-lots-of-flesh
Slawinska
wore what I feel were
crappy outfits for that
Samba. Carrie Ann
was way off base in
saying that she "got"
that they were going
"tribal" and showing the
primal passion of the
Samba. Miles Standish
and Pocahontas never
even heard of Samba, so
I'm sure they weren't
volta-ing around the
wig-wams in skimpy
outfits showing their
primitive tribal
passions. Cameron
displayed a lot of bad
body lines, a rather
sissy-looking butt, bad
posture, bad bounce, bad
feet bad leg actions and
badly performed steps.
Yet he got higher scores
than Jane Seymour? His
25 points was right up
there with Sabrina's?
What's the deal on
that? (Is this another
ABC plot???)
Mel B
and Maks C
did a FABULOUS Rumba and
I was so unprepared for
finding out that they'd
spent just 6 hours
working on it! Mel had
such control over her
timing. And some of her
lines were so
well-developed that any
dancer should be envious
of her ability to
present such
high-caliber
dancing after so little
training. Overall, her
leg, foot, arm and hip
actions were so strong
and solid that it just
showed a WORLD of
difference between the
level of dancing Mel can
produce when compared to
Sabrina. Mel and Maks
definitely deserved the
30 points awarded. If
her dancing continues to
improve as much as it
has at this stage, I'm
convinced that Mel
should be the winner for
this season.
Marie Osmond
and Jonathan
Roberts
presented such a ho-hum
Paso Doble that it left
me wishing they had done
something else. So slow
and ploddy! That music
literally BEGGED for
some fast moves and
syncopations to fill up
the time between beats.
There were a few good
lines and Marie
definitely gives strong
facial expressions, but
there is NO WAY that
this routine was better
than the Jive danced by
Jane Seymour. I would
not have given this but
21 points and was quite
surprised when, after
saying that it was under
par, the judges awarded
this performance a 23.
Helio
Castroneves and
Julianne Hough
performed at a fantastic
level that was on par
with their earlier Mambo
routine. It was nice to
see Helio looking
relaxed and as if he was
truly enjoying putting
on that playful little
show. He really
displayed some good body
rhythms, nice arm moves
and intricate timings.
Unlike during the past
couple of weeks where he
seemed to be more
mechanically going
through the moves, this
week he really danced
the choreography. He
certainly deserved the
28 points received for
that routine and he has
now restored my opinion
that he could be a
contender for that
mirror ball trophy.
The group routine was
high energy
razzle-dazzle with lots
of great moves. It was
so busy that you could
hardly evaluate the
skills of the
performers, but it was a
lot of fun and was very
entertaining.
Because of her low
scores and smaller fan
base, I'm sure Jane
Seymour will get bumped
from the show tonight.
For sheer dance ability,
she should remain a
while longer and folk
like Cameron and Marie
should go home long
before Jane. But, then,
this is really more of a
popularity contest than
it is a true dance
competition. And we
must all just bite the
bullet and accept that
fact. Especially since
they never do disclose
exactly how many votes
any one person gets.
Even if they did, how
could we tell if there
was any tampering going
on?
I often think the judges
have been instructed to
make comments geared at
stirring up controversy
to keep people more
interested in the show.
I also believe that the
producers are quick to
react to public
sentiment about some
things and "tweak" the
results here and there
to to see if what they
do will get more people
calling in, even if they
just want to "fuss"
about the way the show
is run. After all -
we're talking about
Hollywood, where dreams
become realities.
