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’. 🙂