DWTS Season 10, Week 8 – The Pros Blog

Okay, have all the other bloggers fallen off the face of the earth? Is it just Derek and Maks now?? If you know of another one, clue me in. Thx. 🙂

Oh Maks. I started this season so fond of you. Why must you keep proving me right about everything?? :::sigh::: And now you and Erin both are whining all over twitter because TV Guide didn’t put you on the cover? From TV Guide

Everyone’s talking to me about Erin’s jump off the stage and how she was flipping out in the rehearsal package. It wasn’t as big of a deal as they showed. She was just concerned, but she wasn’t scared to jump a few feet into the air. I just told her to jump and she did it, and we had a lot of fun with our Argentine tango. I think we’re the only ones left who actually have fun. There have been a lot of things said about Nicole and I know some people find her crying a little absurd, but it’s the way she does things. I think Evan has a lot to prove and Chad as well, but he needs to rein in his antics in rehearsals. We’re looking at everybody else, like, “Why is everybody stressing out?”

How does one claim their package is over exaggerated and in the next breath seem to take the other packages at face value??

We have a paso next week, which I’m very excited about. We’re going to try and do something cool with what we’ve got. Erin’s open-minded about this one. Honestly, she’s open-minded with everything, but I didn’t want to tap into that until it counted, like now. We’ve came up with stuff people didn’t expect the last few weeks. We’re doing stuff beyond what needed to be done. I pride myself that I really did teach Erin how to ballroom dance. She has learned how to dance and we did it our way. We didn’t come out with gimmicky stuff in the beginning. We’ve done dances the way they were supposed to be. Now, we’re brining a little bit of X factor. I’m sad to say that I feel like we’re not being looked as contenders. We’re definitely a darkhorse. But, like I said, it’s a matter of opinion and choice. We’re not focused on what everyone’s doing; we’re just focused our ourselves. I think our paso’s going to be cool. The celebrities have to do a 15-20 second solo in the Latin round, so I think I’ll have Erin knock it out in the beginning.

Does he really believe he didn’t come out with any gimmicky stuff in the beginning?? And dude, you spent more than half your blog focusing on other people.

We also have the Viennese waltz, which we’ll be more traditional with. I’m not going to go too out there. We’re going to put up the Viennese waltz. There’s a bit of inconsistency in the judges’ comments again, which shows in everybody’s performance. Nicole came out earlier this season and was heavily criticized for not doing a proper quickstep. On Monday, she came out with an amazing dance, but I didn’t think her routine had a lot of foxtrot in it. However, everybody praised it. So we were all confused. We’re not criticizing Nicole. We’re just not sure what the judges are looking for. I think when they critique Erin, they see something in her that they can’t describe, whether it’s positive or negative. They speak, speak, speak and then give her an 8. I really admire Chad for bringing it every week and trying his hardest, but he got the same score for his jive, which, in my opinion, was not on par technique-wise with Erin. So go figure. It’s the way the competition goes.

Okay, so the pros blogging isn’t necessarily a good idea. 🙂 Next, Derek – Ok! Magazine. Pretty interesting to hear how he came up with the dances.

The funny part is, although our Paso caused more of a sensation, I was much more comfortable with the foxtrot in rehearsals. Immediately when I heard the song we were given, “Haven’t Met You Yet,” I was like, this is going to be fun. Already, I saw a story in my head; it was instant. When that happens, you always know it’s going to be good — or at least, you’re going to enjoy it.

I saw a vision in my head immediately for this foxtrot and Nicole gave me her input, too. It was Nicole’s idea to have us reading newspapers to start the dance. We played out the theme of two strangers who don’t know each other but then look at each other and instantly fall in love. Through the whole dance, we’re desperately in love with each other. I felt it was very Gene Kelly over the top. Then, at the end, we sit down and we still haven’t met each other yet — it was all in each other’s heads.

When I first heard the concept for our second dance, a 1950s style Paso Doble, I thought, are you trying to sabotage me? What’s going on here?! For the 1950s, you usually think of something fun and light, not dark and fiery, as the Paso usually is performed. I was like, I don’t get it. I decided let’s just do a Paso, and then I’ll add little touches in there to make it say the 1950s.

So, everyone is talking about Nicole crying in rehearsal after that footage was shown on DWTS Monday night. A lot of times I lose my temper and get upset in rehearsal, but you don’t see that because producers want to focus on the celebrity. Most of the time, Nicole is the funniest girl I know and we have a blast and then for a short moment it’s a little too much for her — and then that’s the ENTIRE story on TV. They only want to show the tears because it’s more dramatic. But we hope to prove to viewers how much fun we’re having. After all, we wouldn’t be doing so well on the show otherwise!

The truth is, though, I want to cry right now because I’m so overwhelmed. It’s week eight and there is so much pressure. I don’t think people fully know how many hours we’re putting in. For example, on Wednesday, we practiced from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. and we felt like we didn’t achieve enough, but Nicole had to go record for an upcoming album.

She comes back to dance rehearsal then for another four hours, if you read his whole blog. I’m sure the Maks fans will be all up in arms that I’m showing favoritism toward Derek – but I challenge you to read Derek’s blog and find where he talks about anyone other than himself and Nicole.