Pure DWTS – Ballroom Superstars Camp and Ballroom With A Twist Candy

As reported earlier, “Ballroom With A Twist” is currently receiving some fantastic reviews and here’s yet another from LA Weekly.

One of Dancing With The Stars’ professional dancers, Louis Van Amstel, stages his own show after an illustrious 20-year career as a performer and competitive dancer. His fluidly staged, marvelously high-caliber entertainment (with a couple of also-ran American Idol singers (Gina Glocksen and David Hernandez) thrown into the mix, moves seamlessly from fast numbers to slow ballads, from dance to song and back again. Athletic bodies draped with Randall Designs’ gorgeous costumes cavort through Van Amstel’s well-orchestrated spectacle, which also celebrates diversity with its casting of various races and body shapes. Van Amstel hosts the evening, assisted by hilarious comedienne Niecy Nash (his partner from the most recent season of DWTS). She brings welcome humor when not tearing up the dance floor. The costumes are figure-hugging sexy, flowing and dazzling (with rhinestones) as well as casual and relaxed for some of the modern dance numbers. Van Amstel’s exceptional choreography feels liberated from the constraints and repetition of competitive ballroom regulations. Salsa, Paso Doble, Jitterbug, Quickstep, Waltz and Argentine Tango – Van Amstel name-checks every dance style, yet pairs each number with everything from slow ballad duets to clubby dance mixes of classic and contemporary tunes — something for everyone.

Mitsy Gaynor hosted the show on January 20th. She posted some fun photos of the night at her facebook account which you can see one photo below. Be sure to see more at the link.

Anna and Jonathan were interviewed by Ballroom Fantasy on “Ballroom With A Twist” and all of their past, current, and future projects (including personally). This is a great interview. They are so cute! I can’t embed the video. So be sure to see it >>>HERE.
I’m loving the costumes. Randall Christensen has done a good job for this show and I like his work on Dancing With The Stars for the most part too. Rachael Ray has been really critical of his work on her show. So much so, Randall sent her a letter and she apologized which you can see in the video below.

In other Ballroom news, next weekend the first Superstars of Ballroom Dance Camp will take place at the Burbank Marriott Hotel and Convention Center on Feb. 4-6th. You can take classes with your favorite pros from Dancing With The Stars. Details below with pricing and more information at Dancing and Romancing.

On Friday, the dance scene will be hot and sexy with salsa classes with Paul Barris, cha cha with Dmitry Chaplin or Elena Grinenko and rumba witih Tony Dovolani. That will get you prepared for the salsa part that evening with Angel Lebron y su Sabor Latino.

Saturday, there will be more Latin dances (samba with Dmitry Chaplin, rumba with Corky Ballas, paso doble with Tony Dovolani and tango with Elena Grinenko). Chelsie Hightower will be giving waltz lessons, and Nick Kosovich will be teaching foxtrot and Vienesse waltz. For those who want something daring, there is a lift class and a spin, dip and variation class.

Saturday evening, there will be a dinner show and party with Dovolani, Hightower, Chaplin and Cheryl Burke performing. On Sunday, it’s West Coast swing, Cuban motion, Argentine tango, Lindy hop, jive (with Kym Johnson), Bolero and East Coast swing. As you can imagine, Sunday night is a swing party! As we reported earlier, private dance lessons with Tony Dovolani and Cheryl Burke have already sold out. Corky Ballas, who trained Derek Hough, Mark Ballas and Julianne Hough has one slot left!