Health Watch and Debi Mazar on DWTS 9
This first article, from Entertainment Weekly, seriously cracks me up – it’s titled ‘Dancing with the Stars’ Health Watch. Fantastic concept, considering the fiasco that was last season which had more injuries than were even widely reported. The ignored injuries belonged to Lil’ Kim and Derek; ribs and knee, respectively. While this article claims that everyone is injury free, that’s not quite true. If you watch all the celebs and pros on twitter, you know that Derek has hurt his back/neck (again) and Mark Dacascos has a hurt foot. This article mentions, but downplays, the foot – not as sexy as a popped rib, I guess. š
The 16 contestants for Dancing With the Starsā ninth season have all survived their first two weeks of rehearsal (despite this photo of Donny Osmond on the ground and Mark Dacascosā much-publicized bruised sole). The celebs, who had various start dates from August 17 through August 21, were given training guidelines for the first time in the showās history. Why? āWhen they do the show in the UK, people take it much more like itās a bit of fun, but Americans are so competitive,ā exec producer Conrad Green told us when the cast was first announced. āEveryone comes into it, āOh, this is a bit of fun, itās a bit of funā¦ Ohmygosh, look at his quickstep, itās incredible! Iāve got to do better!ā We do spend most of our time encouraging people to just relax a little.ā
āOnce the first two weeks are out of the way, there should be sufficient muscle development and muscle memory to help cope with the trauma of training,ā Green said. Which means: Game on! The contestants are now on their own.
Article number two appears to be a rehearsal blog from Debi Mazar (who I root for when Derek and Joanna aren’t looking) from More.com, a blog celebrating women over 40. Some excerpts are below, but I highly recommend going to the site and reading the whole thing.
Itās been an enlightening experience: I’ve found out that Iāve been dancing sloppily for 30 years. I grew up in New York and Iāve been to salsa clubs and discos; Madonna and I used to enjoy dancing together āback in the day,ā just going out and shaking it on the dance floor. But I guess we were more into freestyle, and when you go into a ballroom dancing situation itās extremely purist in form.
I have no formal dance training, so itās been challenging because for the first time Iām watching myself in the mirror. I do have rhythm but I donāt have form. Because Iāve had two children and two C-sections, I donāt feel like I have core strength. I lost my baby weight, but I havenāt gone back to the gym; I donāt have time. But I look like a dancer, and it’s kind of working against me, because everyone goes, “Oh, you look so great, youāre going to be fabulous!” And itās like, but Iām out of shape! Why is size a factor? Why are you saying just because my arms are defined, which is god-givenāI havenāt lifted a damn dumbbell in yearsāthat that means I can sell it?
I have to work really hard because Iām completely uncoordinated. Maks says left, I go right; he says flex, I point. Iāve become dyslexic out of pressure. And he’ll throw me into a pose and say, “Oh, that hurts?” Yeah, it hurts! Heās always telling me how he threw Mel B. into a split, and saying, “Youāll be doing splits by the end of this.” And Iām like, “Listen, I have no desire to do a split. I didnāt do a split when I was 12, or 20, or 30, and Iām definitely not doing it at 45. And if you do a split with me Iām going to kick you in the balls and youāre going to end up in the hospital, I’m going to end up in the hospital, and weāre going to be eliminated! My legs are going to snap off like a Barbie dollās!”
I love her. I would love to see her kick Maks in the balls, just to see the fireworks. I’m really twisted that way. š
My first week I was really broken and in pain because I hadnāt had a workout like that in a couple of years. And I picked up my daughter from camp and I was sort of crying a little bit in the car, and she goes, “Mommy, itās not about winning.” Iām like, “Youāre right, but unfortunately it is a contest and I want to stick around, I want to be good.” The thing is, Iām not a competitive person but Iām competitive with myself. So I have tried to take this on as a character study: Iāve gotten the spray tan, which is actually required because of the lighting, and the outfits are up to your crotchāIām not used to showing off my body, and Iām dancing in a bikini, basically. Iāve gotten the nails, because it gives you pretty hands.