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New Pure DWTS Series – The Pros & Cons of the DWTS Pros

UPDATE: You can check out all the posts in the Pros and Cons of the DWTS Pros Series as their posted.

I’m really excited to announce that we (Heidi, Courtney, Marianya, and myself) have been working hard on a new series of posts where we discuss the pros and cons of each of the Dancing with the Stars Pros. That’s right. All four of us share our perspectives on what some might call the real stars of DWTS: the Professionals. Seriously, the pros on DWTS have become stars in their own right.

I think you’ll enjoy the series of posts, because we really don’t hold back in our opinions of the dancers. Remember that they are just our opinions. In fact, even amongst ourselves you’ll find that we have different opinions about the various pros. We think that’s healthy and we welcome you to have your own opinions about the pros we discuss and that you share your opinions in the comments.

We don’t claim to be unbiased in our posts since we think that’s impossible. Everyone is biased. This series of posts will display the Pure DWTS writers’ biases front and center. For example, if you ever wonder why I always ooh and ahh about all the blonde pros, you can just refer back to these posts to remember how much I love the blondes. Plus, we figured this would be something interesting for our readers to enjoy while they (and we) wait for the DWTS premiere.

We’ll be posting about each of the pros 2 at a time from now until the start of the show in no particular order (basically as they’re finished). So, if you don’t see us talking about your favorite pro, just be patient. We’ll get there.

September 6, 2010 I Written By

Better known as Charlie.

DWTS Season 11 – The Great “Previous Dance Experience” Debate, Part I

Since the cast announcement, there’s been a lot of talk about whether or not some of this season’s cast members have an unfair advantage on the show due to having “previous dance experience”.  So I took it upon myself to do a little digging around to see just who out of our 12 celebs is no stranger to the dance floor…and guess what? All of them have done a little dancing before…well, at least a very loose definition of dancing 😉 So why don’t we see how they all measure up, shall we? Let’s begin with the stars with the more obvious experience: Brandy, Florence, Jennifer, & the Hoff. Watch and discuss…

First up, we have Brandy, who starred in a revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella back in 1997.  Here’s her big “dance number” – the song “Ten Minutes Ago”, where she croons with Paolo Montalban while doing some Viennese waltzing:

 

As for any experience she may have garnered in her music video days, here’s the most “dance-heavy” video of hers I could find – “Afrodisiac”:

Courtney: Ok, the first video is some pretty basic Viennese waltzing – natural turn, reverse turn, underarm turn, repeat.  And Brandy & Paolo suspiciously disappear when the extras begin the heavy duty spinning & lifting. I mean, as far as an advantage – it may save Maks 15 mintues of practice time explaining what the Viennese waltz is and what the basic movement is.  But other than that…nah. As for her video (and I think this goes for all of her videos in general) – Brandy does a lot of grooving and a little bit of basic choreo, but she leaves the hard stuff to her backup dancers.  She may be able to inject the “sexy factor” into her dances, but I don’t think she’s going to have an edge in terms of technical skill.

Marianya: I remember when I first saw Brandy and Paolo dance in Cinderella I promised myself that I would learn how to do that. And then when I went to do it, it was the most basic steps in the repertoire… talk about disappointment. Also in regards to music videos or shows, Brandy was big in the 90s, but the 90s weren’t all that dance heavy for the female soloists… at least not until Britney Spears and Co. from the Mickey Mouse club took over the music world for a spell (turn of the millennium). So really in regards to prior dance experience, none… can she pick up choreo? Definitely, but that’s something that most anyone could do… the mere fact that she’s done choreo before just edges here out slightly…

Heidi: Who choreographed that Cinderella thing? Will they own up to it? 🙂 Yeah, not a ringer, but I do think she has more of an advantage due to her relative youth and physical conditioning.

The verdict: Her basic knowledge of choreo may give her a SLIGHT advantage, but we think she’s going to have more of an edge from her young age & great body.

Now we’re onto Florence Henderson, who did some serious disco grooving back when she was on The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (unless you want to sit through some serious cheese, I recommend starting at the 2:24 mark to see Flo shake her groove thing 😉 ):

Marianya: I was watching this at work and was shaking my head a few times… man everyone was all over the place, it’s amazing. The steps are very basic that most anyone could pick up the choreo, I don’t think this could transcend into ballroom dancing. Plus it’s been a few decades for her… and she’s not getting any younger.

Courtney: The hustle portion is hysterical – at some point, every single one of them messes up.  Again, some pretty elementary “jazz hands” type dancing…which even Flo fouls up a few times. And this was quite a few years ago – I don’t know that Flo is gonna be as lithe & nimble now as she was then.

Heidi: Didn’t I also read that Florence was also a Broadway baby? Yup, I did. 🙂 I think, like Jennifer, that her age kind of equalizes any perceived benefit to having been in Oklahoma and South Pacific – but the advantage that doesn’t go away is the comfort in front of a live audience and doing a live performance. See, I think everyone has an advantage of some sort – it’s going to come down to who has the most.

The verdict: Her age will likely negate any edge she may have had from Broadway, but she may be more comfortable in front of a live audience than some of the other celebs…just don’t ask her to do the Hustle.  😉

Here we have the celeb who has been accused of having the greatest amount of dance experience this season – Jennifer Grey.  Now, due to the fine folks at Lionsgate Entertainment and their vigilant policing of any uploaded clips from Dirty Dancing, an embeddable copy of the famous “final dance” from the movie does not exist on the interwebs – so you can go watch it here.

Courtney: Ok, now while this iconic scene may be forever embedded in some folks’ minds as “fantastic dancing”, I think Marianya (and anyone else that has seen REAL mambo) will agree that this is pretty mediocre by most ballroom standards.  Very stiff, very obviously choreographed. And again – quite a few years ago, and Jennifer has had some health problems since then, so even if she could remember these moves, there’s no guarantee that she’d be able to execute them.

Heidi: Interesting note about this dance: I read or saw a show on Patrick Swayze and they said this was the first dance filmed and they could only do ONE take because Patrick was having…was it back issues?? There was not a lot of takes on this dance, if the thing I saw was correct. It’s possible they were talking about “the lift” too. It’s been a while. That said – I think that most people are blinded by the romance of the moment, and miss the amateurish dancing. It’s a sweet movie – but it’s not truly about dancing.

Marianya: It’s funny when you see iconic dances in movies or television and you think “I wanna be able to do that” and when you actually start learning, it’s a whole different ball of wax. Now, Jennifer has studied dance growing up, but that was how many decades ago? Sure, she could pick up choreography… decades ago, but again, so can most anyone else. I think Jennifer would be slightly ahead of the game in the ballroom dances due to her dance studies growing up, but in regards to the latin dances the most is probably the basics in mambo, but that’s it… An edge? Not enough to win, but enough to score above average I’d say.

Courtney: Heidi, I’m glad you notice the amateurish dancing as well.  I think it becomes especially obvious when you compare Patrick & Jennifer’s version to Cheryl & Tony’s version that they performed during season 2 – notice how much more fluid it looks when people who know how to actually dance mambo do it:

The verdict: She may have a slight advantage from her Dirty Dancing days, but that alone not going to be enough to take her all the way.

Last but not least, we’ve got David Hasselhoff.  Now as one of the videos that Heidi posted earlier mentioned, David has a little bit of musical theater under his belt – he’s been in the Las Vegas production of The Producers, was the lead in Jekyll & Hyde on Broadway back in 2000, and played Billy Flynn in the London production of Chicago for 3 months back in 2004.  Now while I’d love to showcase him dancing in one of these productions, I cannot find any videos of him in The Producers or Chicago, and Jekyll & Hyde is not a very dance-heavy musical.  However, I do have something even better – the Hoff getting funky in the 1976 film Revenge of the Cheerleaders:

Courtney: *hysterically laughing* Wow, those cheerleaders were loving them some Hoff! Ok, that aside, I’m sure the Hoff has some rhythm, and I think the musical theater background has helped – but then again, if my knowledge of musicals serves me, Billy Flynn & Roger DeBris (his role in The Producers) aren’t known for being particularly difficult roles, dance-wise.  Mainly a lot of jazz hands 😛 What I’m more concerned about – and I’ve said this before – is that the Hoff’s mind may be a bit rusty.  Seriously- sometimes I think he’s got more than a few screws loose.  So in spite of all this experience, I think he might have trouble remembering choreography (or even being able to pay attention when Kym is teaching it).  What good is previous experience if you can’t remember it to draw from?

Marianya: Oh heaven help me. If that is what the Hoff is capable of then I foresee another Jerry Springer in the works. I saw the Hoff in the Jekyll & Hyde musical and there was no dancing in there. In fact the other parts that he has done in musical theatre were minimal if any dancing. So I don’t know if he could pick up choreo, ok he could pick up choreo but I don’t believe that he could do anything with it like Donny Osmond. He’ll ham it up, that’s for sure… but I think the buck will stop there.

Heidi: Oh my lord. What more can I say about that? I think The Hoff is going to do well on the show, but I don’t think it will be because of any perceived advantage.

The verdict: If he does well on the show, it sure as hell won’t be due to his Broadway experience – or the sizzling moves we see here!

 So there you go – some food for thought for those of you who think that some of these celebs have an unfair advantage.  But what about the other celebs this season, you ask? Oh boy – just you wait for part II…because you guys are gonna be blown away by some of the hoofing the other celebs have done in the past 😉 Did you sense the sarcasm there?

I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

DWTS Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris Dances

We all know that Brooke Burke was introduced to Dancing with the Stars world as a contestant on Season 7 before becoming co-host on Season 10.

Now that Samantha Harris is no longer co-host does that make her eligible to dance as a contestant on the show?

The following dance seems to indicate that she could do all right on the show. This is from Season 2, her professional partner was Jonathan Roberts… and they danced the Jive to Prince’s Delirious Prince - 1999 - Delirious.

Now I don’t know about that armpit smelling move… but I digress.

And of course Samantha wouldn’t have been persuaded to do this hadn’t Tom Bergeron jump in first… So here is Tom Bergeron dancing the Quickstep with Ashly DelGrosso (now Costa) to the song Get Happy made famous by Judy Garland Judy Garland - Judy Garland's Greatest Hits Live - Get Happy.

Tom’s so popular he could last a while… =)

And of course as a quick send off… Drew Lachey with Cheryl Burke as a fill-in during a results show episode when Gloria Estefan had to back out at the last minute due to family. This is their Ballroom Medley (it includes Foxtrot, Quickstep, Jive and West Coast) to Danke Schoen as sung by Season 5’s Wayne Newton Wayne Newton - The Capitol Collector's Series: Wayne Newton - Danke Schoen

I Written By

My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)