DWTS Tacky Dance Themes
So I was going through old dances and remembered how on Season 10 there was a “Movie Night” where every dance was a theme song to a movie. But there have been other dances that were done over the seasons that were themed to a movie in the past… So stemming from “Movie Night” and some of the tackiest dances to come with it, I decided to come up with a few dances from the past that were just as tacky, if not funny 😉
EDIT: So what is my criteria for a “tacky” dance theme? Three simple factors naturally (music, costumes, nuances), but they all have to tie into one thing: the television or movie program that they are tied to. Each factor will be rated on a scale of one (not that tacky) to three (way too tacky). You’ll see what I mean as I go through each dance.
Season 4: Joey Fatone & Kym Johnson
Dance: Tango
TV/Movie Program: Star Wars
Tackiness Quotient
Music: Star Wars Theme Song… enough said. Score: 3
Costuming: So we have Kym dressed up as a Princess Leia wannabee, and Joey Fatone starting off as a Jedi Knight, complete with a lightsaber. Granted Joey shedded the cloak and had a suit underneath rather than the Jedi cloths that are so prevalent in the movies, so it wasn’t totally tacky, but still. Score: 2.5
Nuances: First they started the package with having R2D2 in rehearsal, and then the dance started with a lightsaber sequence? Yeeeaaaah, how about no? I’ll give them props in having Joey wearing a suit rather than a full Jedi getup, so it’s not totally tacky, but darn it’s high up there. Score: 2
Conclusion: Total Score: 7.5 out of a possible 9.
Yes, I think this dance was tacky, but hey, Joey likes Star Wars so I can’t fault him for that. In fact Joey liked this dance so much that he wanted to reprise this dance for the finale… Que sera sera.
Season 3: Joey Lawrence & Edyta Sliwinska
Dance: Tango
TV/Movie Program: Addams Family
Tackiness Quotient
Music: Addams Family Theme Song… again enough said. Score: 3
Costuming: Edyta as Morticia and Joey Lawrence as a taller, skinnier, and mustache-less Gomez? uh… Well it doesn’t necessarily invoke the movie as much as one would think so… Score: 2
Nuances: The dance steps are pretty cut and dry, and it didn’t really invoke the Addams Family mood, let alone the “tango” dancing that Morticia and Gomez are known for.. so Score: 1
Conclusion: Total Score: 6 out of 9.
So this dance happened because waaaay back when, Season 3 happened to coincide with Halloween, as thus every song danced for “Halloween Night” had some sort of spooky theme to it. And what is a Halloween Night without an Addams Family dance?
Season 3: Monique Coleman & Louis van Amstel
Dance: Cha Cha
TV/Movie Program: Ghostbusters
Tackiness Quotient:
Music: The Ghostbusters? Eh, not as bad… but still pretty bad. Score: 2
Costuming: So they both started with the Ghostbusters getup before stripping? But what the frack is Monique wearing? Forget what she was wearing, look at her make-up and hair! Ugh! Just for that alone.. Score: 3
Nuances: For me, there wasn’t really anything that invoked the Ghostbusters as much as I would have thought. So they lucked out. Score: 1
Conclusion: Final Score: 6 out of 9
Same as above, what’s a Halloween Night without some ghosts? Who do you wanna call when there’s a ghost in the neighborhood? Ghostbusters! But in all seriousness, other than the song (and even the song wasn’t all that tacky) the dance to me seemed a bit cut and dry… so not really as tacky as other dances because it could have been a lot worse.
Season 7: Kim Kardashian & Mark Ballas
Dance: Foxtrot
TV/Movie Program: Pink Panther
Tackiness Quotient:
Music: Pink Panther Theme Song… It’s an instrumental, and more often than not instrumental piece don’t induce tackiness to me, but the Pink Panther (I believe) is a bit more widely known and as thus… Score: 2
Costuming: What’s the Pink Panther without a lot of PINK… ugh. Way too much pink for my liking… Score: 3
Nuances: Overall it’s a decent routine, for what it was. Lots of finger snapping and what not. There are times that I kind of cringed as thus this gets… Score: 2
Conclusion: Final Score 7 out of 9
Nobody pulls off pink better than… Mark! With some well placed nuances and what nots it isn’t a bad routine… it’s just ok for what it was.
There better not be any themes this year, or at least not obligatory ones.
I tried looking for Cameron and Edyta’s “Superman” Paso Doble but no such luck. I really liked that dance, but it was indeed super cheesy.
ck410 – stay tuned 😉
I hope they won’t do a theme like this again either. But, my fave (and most believable) from the above is Edyta and Joey. Boy, I’m sure going to miss her.
Another fun post. Thanks for going to all this work, guys. I’m loving this site.
I forgot about Julianne and Helio quickstep to the mask and Mark and Shawn quickstep to Aladin.
THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH for adding Monique to the list! Man, how I wish she won that season!
Gilles and Cheryl – Superman quickstep?
Melissa’s salsa to the Mask arrrrr there are so many
@Marianya – Hahaha, thanks for the laughs! I had forgotten a good number of these. Kim’s foxtrot was a non-event for me – likely because Kim looked like she would’ve rather been anywhere but there at the time.
@Jeniffer – I actually found Mark & Shawn’s Aladdin quickstep to be really good – it wasn’t so much a “theme” as it was just them using the song. At least Mark wasn’t painted blue & dressed up like the genie! Hehe.
@Cameron – I actually really liked Gilles & Cheryl’s quickstep, too. Another example of a theme that didn’t get out-of-control – it fit really nicely with the music and the costumes weren’t super tacky.
One dance that I did find pretty tacky, though: Karina & Aaron’s Muppet quickstep. He was good at it, but man – those costumes were god-awful!
Voguerista – I don’t mind theme dances… just not a whole night of them!
Carlie – You’re welcome! 😀 There’s more where these came from. 🙂
Jeniffer & Cameron – I haven’t forgotten, so stay tuned.
Courtney – You’re welcome! I actually had this post stuck in development hell since the ill-fated “Movie Night”. The original intro went something like, “Well Courtney you asked for it! More tacky dance themes”. But I didn’t think it would fit this time around since it’s been months.
All – There are just some of the funnier ones, there are others obviously, and there are some that actually worked (I think) so those are going into their own post: Tacky Dance Themes that worked! 😉
Well, the thing about “required” dance themes, like Movie night (which has been 2 seasons in a row, hasn’t it? It wasn’t new last season.) it’s very easy for one couple to get completely screwed. Or, at least, the potential is there. I don’t think that Maks and Erin benefited from comparisons to when Julianne and Apollo did the Pulp Fiction thing. And I remember when I first heard that Derek and Nicole had to do a tango to Pretty Woman. Pretty Woman, WTF? I believe was my reaction – but obviously that one turned out okay.
I think that if the theme is of the pro and celebs own design – they picked the music and the costuming in addition to the choreo – they they are responsible and let the chips fall. But to have it foisted upon you? Seems like they could easily set some people up to fail. It just adds one more level of manipulation.
What about Edyta and Jason’s paso to the Monday Night Football theme?
John – Stay tuned… 😀
Heidi – I was considering putting “Pretty Woman” as a tacky dance theme… but the dance didn’t fit my idea of a “tacky” dance theme…
To me “tacky” starts with the music that invokes memories of a particular movie/television program, and if the couple has costumes to match the movie/television program… and finally if the actual routines has nuances that also tie into the television/movie program that the song caters to…
With the “Pretty Woman” tango, even though the song shout out the movie Pretty Woman and, and the costuming reminds us of the movie… the dance itself to me embodied the song rather than the movie… so it wasn’t as tacky as let’s say the Star Wars Tango.
But that’s just me.
Hmm… I think you just gave me an idea for future installments!
Oh, I didn’t think it was remotely tacky – I thought it would be impossible to do a good tango to when I first heard they had the song. But I underestimated Derek. It wasn’t remotely tacky, but it might have been in someone else’s hands.
All – Okay, I know I was grandfathering it in.. but I decided to add the “Tackiness Quotient” into the commentary.
Enjoy! 😀
Heidi – Yes I think you’re becoming an influence on me… a good influence 😀
Now you’re scaring me, Marianya. 🙂
[…] round two of the Tacky Dance Themes, if you are wondering what the heck is this about… go to Part I and enjoy the […]