Dancing With The Stars 12 – Mark Ballas Says Chelsea Kane Is Owning The Jive
Mark posted another blog on Friday. He’s excited about Monday and says he and Chelsea’s Jive is “unconventional” and the “most detailed” he has ever choreographed. What’s more, Chelsie is owning it. He sure sounds confident. Here is a take.
Our in-season rehearsal schedule goes like this: after the Tuesday result show, I choreograph the dance for the next week. Then on Wednesday, I teach the dance to my partner. Thursday we repeatedly go over the dance to learn it forward and backward. On Friday, I put the finishing touches on the choreography, to make it really pop. On Saturday and Sunday, we squeeze in rehearsal time when we can to keep the dance sharp, but we also have interviews, wardrobe fittings, camera blocking, and other requirements. Then on Monday, we have dress rehearsal with the whole cast before going live at 5:00 p.m. That gives us about four days from the conception of choreography to being performance-ready on Monday!
As I mentioned the last time I wrote, we have the Jive this week. That dance typically is difficult for the celebs (and anyone) to pick up, especially quickly. It’s considerably faster than the Foxtrot that we had in Week 1. As a dance teacher I try to slow down the choreography into its basic steps, then I compare those steps to what Chelsea has already learned from our Foxtrot training. Chelsea is a really quick study and picks up the choreography after a few passes. Then we have to tweak it, personalize it, coordinate our movement, perfect it, and perform it.
Our jive is going to be really fun — it’s very unconventional. When I think about it, it might be the most detailed Jive I’ve ever done in eight seasons on Dancing With The Stars. I’m really looking forward to breaking it out this week! I’m thrilled with how well Chelsea has picked up the choreography and really owned it. Our song is a cool number that I’ve always really liked, which helps to become engaged in the dance.
Heidi’s Note: Remember what happened last time Mark talked like this?? Monkey suits. Just sayin’. 
I’m so glad I discovered you few...
Heidi – haha I’d be skeptical too. However, I think their Jive is amazing. Not very Jive-like but very good, hope you all like it.
*Just saw Heidi’s addition. LOL
Well, if that’s the case, I will be very interested to hear what Len has to say about it. He stupidly let the monkey suits go, paving the way for a long Bristol run, is he going to return to form tomorrow night and pick on a dance that isn’t very “Jive-like”??
You know, I kinda enjoyed the monkey suits. I mean, sometimes you have to do something drastic when faced with a gal like Bristol who was SO stone-faced. I have a feeling that Mark went home after every rehearsal pulling at his non-existent hair trying to think of some sort of choreography to make her more appealing to the masses. I have to say, it made me laugh and not in a mean way either. I know, heresy, but that’s how I roll! *g*
What bothers me about the monkey suits is not the suits themselves, but how Len made such a huge exception for Bristol that he’s never made for anyone else. Dmitry got lectured for using a feather duster for too long (agreed), Maks got lectured a variety of times for similar infractions, and Derek gets yelled at from time to time as well. So why did Bristol get a pass??
unconventional = dotted outfit!!!!
Carlos, for Mark a dotted outfit would be the opposite of unconventional.
Mark + jive + unconventional = Run to the hills!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unconventional for him is not putting his partner in polka dots? I don’t know. He seems excited about Chelsea and her abilities to show off choreography. I thought their foxtrot choreography was a bit frantic. He loves the jive so I am sure he put a lot of focus on their jive over their foxtrot. His jives all look so similar down to the costumes. But if it is a bit hip hop infused, then I do think Mark is watching Derek’s dances with Nicole as inspiration. The foxtrot reminded me a lot of his foxtrot with Nicole.
Joking of course :p
But Chelsea and Mark should stop trying to downplay her advantage (her age her theatre background) so hard. Even if Jennifer won, it didn’t come easily for her. If jive is tough on her body, maybe Chelsea and Mark should think about how much tougher it is on Kirstie and Ralph!
Unconventional..mayb he’s trying to do something like what Derek n Nicole did (the sailor outfits’ dance) … just so he could b nominated for an Emmy, something he could put on his resume. I’ll b reprimanded for it but it would certainly b worth it if i could get an Emmy nomination out of it.
Well, Chelsea’s a different league of performer than Bristol, so I am praying and crossing my fingers that she’ll help make Mark’s latest creative burst a hit!
Princess Heidi, it was obvious that Bristol was feeling greatly embarrassed (on the verge of tears) after their dance. Some people are never able to recover from such humiliation, so IMO all of the judges were rightfully kind to try and encourage her instead of harping on the negative.
Well, it wasn’t Bristol’s fault really – he tears into Derek and Maks on a regular basis for stuff like that, so Mark should have gotten some words.
That could be malei – the problem tends to be that when you TRY to choreograph something Emmy worthy (instead of just being creative), well…you try too hard. We’ll see – maybe it will be awesome. It’s just I have bad memories from the last time he was talking like this.
@AL – I’m sure Michael was equally as embarassed after his dog house jive as Bristol was after monkey suit jive, but Michael still got raked across the coals while Bristol got a reprieve. I still don’t understand why people (yourself included) think Bristol should have gotten such special treatment while on the show – because she was “young & fragile”? If that’s the case, then maybe she shouldn’t have signed up for the show in the first place. The judges were hurting her instead of helping her when they gave a decent critique for a dance that just wasn’t good – how was she supposed to improve when they didn’t have the cojones to tell her what she did wrong? It seemed like from that point on was when she was always disappointed in the confessional when she wasn’t getting 9′s & 10′s. And really, they should have come down harder on Mark, too – those monkey suits were a load of rubbish.
As for Chelsea’s jive – I’m just praying that Mark has given her choreo that will show off her strengths and not get her yelled at by the judges. A break from the ruffly polka-dot dresses would be nice too
I loved the ludicrous monkey suits idea. It was so absurd that it was really good. Unfortunately Bristol messed up the dance.
They got good scores on it even if realistically the dancing alone was terrible. I wrote about it last season. I think I can guess why Len over scored it. He got that absurd, Monty Python- like feel of the idea and wanted to endorse it. So I think of it as a score more reflecting Mark then Bristol.
I don’t really remember what Bruno & Carrie Ann said but I can’t imagine what it was that made them forgiving. Was it that they thought she was brave to go along with it? That shouldn’t be enough, Michael was also brave. I dunno, I guess they just had more sympathy towards her then toward Michael. Young, female, already controversial from the get go. I’m not saying it’s fair but it is like it is. I’m on Len’s side on this one.
Oh and I also loved Mark’s Waltz choreography, the one with the moody music. I thought it was refreshingly different. So I actually either love or hate Mark’s choreography. I’m interested in what he comes up with this season. Up until now I never liked his Latin dances so I wonder if it’s gonna change or not.
I remember last season that Mark was sorely disappointed that Bristol kept saying that she HATED the jive, over and over again, which is of course his favorite dance, haha! She looked awful even in their make-up jive at the end of the season. Heaviest feet ever. I bet he’s really stoked that he has someone that is light and eager to do something so fast paced.
I’m very interested to see what Len’s going to say about their dance. It’s different than any Jive I’ve seen before, especially from Mark, and yes the costumes will be different than usual too
Buttercup, you rock! Thanks for what you can tell us always. Can’t wait to see what you mean.