DWTS 12 – Ralph Macchio Sizing Up The Competition And More (Videos)
Zap2It and KTLA Morning Show interviewed Ralph on the fall this week, his dancing, and his friendship and connection with Karina. He also sizes up the competition going into week 7. He says he and Karina have a lot to show yet and he hopes he can make it to the finale. Lots more below. (note: my boss thinks this couple will be the two to go home next. I hope not. I hope its Kendra and Louis still)
Tell your boss I think he/she is full of hoo-hah
I think anyone that is so sure Ralph is going to be the next to go home (over less established stars like Romeo, Chelsea, & Kendra) is seriously underestimating Ralph’s appeal. He’s had some pretty damn low scores the past few weeks, and has managed to stick around over couples with higher scores – that’s a testament to just how popular he is this season. On top of that, I think he’s gotten his most difficult dances out of the way – he’s only got 1 Latin dance left, and he even gets a sort of “practice round” with it during the team cha-cha before doing it on his own. He’s only had 2 ballroom dances so far, and has done incredibly well with them. I think he’s gonna annihilate the quickstep. I’m more worried about Romeo dealing with the samba, or even Chelsea & the paso. I don’t see Ralph getting ousted before at least Kendra & Romeo…Chelsea could give him a run for his money.
I so hope you are right Courtney. I love these two second to Kirstie and Maks. I love the threatrics they bring to this Season which is in a seperate realm of it’s own from the others.
I’ve been watching DWTS since it started and this is the first time I’ve said something like this: “I think the judges have favorites”. Ralph can’t do anything right, it seems. Last week they gushed over Hine’s hip action. Watch the film again…there is VERY little hip action. It’s been obvious from the beginning that they favor Hines Ward. Watch and listen and see if I’m not right. I believe Kendra will be the next to go. Her Samba was just SO-SO in spite of the judge’s comments. Not much dancing, just a lot of “shaking what God gave you”…or whatever.
Great interviews!! Thanks for posting, Ralph seems like such a sweetie. I really hope your boss is wrong about Ralph being the next to go. He and Karina are my favorite pair, and I’m so hoping they make the finals!!
Jewel, I totally agree wityh you about how hard the judges are on Ralph:(
I hope your boss is wrong Vogue. Has he/she been right all season on who was being eliminated? Kendra and Louis really should be next in my book. Ralph and Karina are one of my favorite pairs this season so I would be sad to see him leave. These were great interviews and I see they have a lot left to offer on the dance floor. I would love for him to be in the finals and I am not ruling out he couldn’t get there. I think you have a good point Courtney. He really does have most of the Latin dances which he struggles with out of the way. Since he is strong in ballroom, he should be able to nail the last few dances he has left. I’ve noticed also he seems to get a lot of audience support when he dances. Since I love him, it makes me think other do as well outside of the ballroom. Judges do have their favorites and they have been hard on him which I don’t understand why. The next few weeks will be interesting for sure.
My only explanation for the judges being uneccessarily hard on Ralph is just simple “storyboarding” – think of what a intriguing tale it would be if he started out as the favorite, fell out of favor in the middle of the competition, and then came back strong at the end? And I think that last part is entirely possible, given the dances Ralph has left. Just like they milked the hell out of “early leader falls to the bottom of the scoreboard!” after his samba, I’m sure they’re gonna love labeling Ralph the “comeback kid” in the next few weeks.
Lisa, she’s been right a few times and wrong a few times. Same with American Idol. Though this past week, she called the elimination of both shows dead on.
I agree with you all about the judges and how they’ve picked at him. I feel sorry for him and it’s so undeserving.
Ralph should be doing better than he has, but the truth of it for me is he’s not as good as his hype. He’s been dancing since he was a child, was the lead in the travelling troupe of Bob Fosse’s How To Succeed in Business, was negotiating to play the lead on Broadway in Tommy Tune’s Grease so he should have better dancing chops. He SHOULD be as good as Nicole Scherzinger based on resume, or at least as good as Jennifer Grey who is close to his age. But he isn’t. He’s been disappointing in terms of what his resume tells us and what he can do. Of course he’s ticked because he obviously wants to get back to dancing on broadway. He’s even more upset because a football player who has never danced before is getting decent scores. But he really should be looking at the strange choreography and costume choices Karina has laid out and start there. Don’t do a line dance when you’re supposed to Samba, and don’t wear a coat that swings if you don’t know where it’s going to end up. If it’s a Matrix thing, all Karina has to do is look back to season 7 when Warren and Kym did the Matrix Paso Doble, much more successfully. Warren wore a long leather coat…and it didn’t swing like a skirt.
I see Ralph being eliminated either this week or next. I think he’s tied with Kendra for being the weakest dancer left on the show. And I would say she has more fans than him.
In my opinion his scores have been fair. I saw arm flailing in the Samba and Jive, no hip action in the Rumba and Samba, odd facial expressions in all dances. I also don’t see his connection with Karina on the dancefloor, it seems forced.
I think people are taking their affection for his personality to heart, and pretending he is a better dancer than he actually is.
Jenny, I don’t think Ralph is a bad dancer, I think he does some lovely things in the Standard section, He may have a great Quickstep brewing, but he’s had a couple of bad weeks and in a season that’s close, I don’t see him going to the end.
Mary/Andie, once again, you’re making a slew of assumptions and presenting them as fact. No way in HELL should anyone expect Ralph to be as good as Nicole – the poor man is 49. Nicole was 31 when she won, and was still very much active in her “dancing career” with the Pussycat Dolls. You conveniently left out the fact that Ralph did Broadway in *gasp* 1996. I daresay the man probably hasn’t been taking dance classes or practicing his moves on a daily basis since then. I just have to laugh at the fact that you think Ralph is “ticked” because of Hines. HA. The dude doesn’t seem to have a mean bone in his body, and unless you’re suddenly clairvoyant, you have no way of knowing if that is, in fact, the case. As for the samba to “Sweet Home Alabama”…what did you expect them to do? Strut out there in full carnivale gear and pretend that they weren’t dancing to Skynyrd?
Well then, Ralph is younger than Jennifer Grey. I did mention that in my post that he should be at least as good as her. Jennifer’s last great dance was in wait for it, 1987.
I don’t think he’s a bad dancer, I enjoyed his Foxtrot and Waltz.
I just think everyone, except for Kendra, has danced better than him.
Think what you want, Mary – just preface it with “I think”. Don’t present it as fact. I still think the implication that “Ralph SHOULD be as good is Nicole” is just ridiculous.
And wow, a whole year younger than J. Grey…what a difference a year makes.
I had to point out that I said Jennifer Grey, and I said “for me” which is my opinion. And I don’t think the notion that Ralph who’s been dancing since the age of 7 and has been the lead in a Broadway musical should be as good Nicole who consentrated on singing route instead of the acting/dancing route and has yet to play a lead role in her theatre career is a ridiculous notion at all.
One “for me” in a sentence before a paragraph of assumptions is pretty misleading, Mary.
Are you now trying to argue that Ralph should be BETTER than Nicole? Ralph did ONE BROADWAY SHOW. One. 15 years ago. Nicole has both sang AND danced as part of a pop group since 2006 – and she actually has played a lead role in theater, Mary – she was Maureen in Rent last summer, after finishing DWTS.
It is what it is. I find similarities with Ralph and the Iron Chef fellow- the judges never caught on to him and I thought his performances were better than as scored. Ralph has gotten what he needed out of the show career-wise, already, and I’d like to think he will be a gracious loser if he goes this week. Now, if he were a Disney star … Good comment about the costuming-why even hazard something like that. If the teams were Kym & Ralph, Karina & Hines, the relative positions of Ralph and Hines at this point might be reversed???
Oh Mary, please. Why should he be as good as Jennifer Grey? Because he was in one Broadway show? So what? Most Broadway shows don’t have their leads doing a huge amount of choreography, ESPECIALLY not that particular one. Jennifer was just a talented dancer, as was Nicole. Ralph also has talent and charisma, but not as much as those two ladies – NONE of that has to do with “resume”. It’s more about natural talent. Who has it and who doesn’t. You do realize that people can get musical training for 20 years and still not be able to sing worth a damn, right? Same goes for dancing – I’m sure there are thousands of people who take dance lessons every single day who can’t dance like either Jennifer or Nicole. Training and practice can only take you so far. Then there are people like Brooke Burke – who had no training and no experience and was a natural dancer. You can’t just look at someone on paper and state with that much certainty that they “should be able” to this or that.
And Ralph is less than one year younger than Jennifer – wow.
My Opnion: He SHOULD be as good as Jennifer Grey because he danced the lead in a touring troupe, and it’s not just any choreography, its Bob Fosse, and he was up for the lead in Tommy Tune’s Grease.
You have to have major dance ability to be in either of these productions.
This All happened 10 years AFTER Jennifer did Dirty Dancing. The car accident happened at the same time as the movie opened and she was unable to dance for years.
Bruce, I agree. Hines might not have done as well with Karina at all. To me, she doesn’t pitch the dances as well. The choreography gets a little manic at times. I think Ralph might have really done well with Kym.
Karina is the great dancer on the show, but her choreography doesn’t really shine.
Courtney, I know she played Maureen. But that’s not the lead female role. That went to that Vanessa girl.
And RENT was only 3 nights at the Hollywood Bowl. Hardly a Broadway run. Now, Nicole has fantastic talent and ability and Broadway are beating down her door, but she’s doing her singing thing with cameo roles here and there in movies and such.
Mary—So are you saying Ralph is a ringer? Looking at his arms flailing wildly at times, and his spatula hands, I’d think not!
The only thing Ralph is guilty of is likeablity and able to put on a great performance. It clear to everyone that Ralph was NOT a dancer.
Oh, he’s a dancer imo, a very good theatre dancer, good at his craft but there’s a difference between putting that across to the audience and really learning the technique. It’s a picky thing but his footwork on the Foxtrot wasn’t really strong technique, and yet he was able to emote the character and it was somewhat overlooked. That’s all okay, it’s part of the performance. Bruno talked about his chainez turns on the Waltz. I agree they are pretty, but they aren’t required syllabus. Those turns are used in other forms of dance primarily. A dancer without ballroom training can put that into the dance and if you’re not familiar with ballroom you would think it’s part of the requirements of Waltz. I don’t use the label ringer, because that denotes that anyone with experience shouldn’t be on the show. I disagree. I think anyone who hasn’t ballroom danced should be on the show, and use all their gifts. I think Ralph is going to do a great Quickstep this week, he’ll have a character, he’ll be able to show some strong footwork and it will be his road back. But, I really think he’s lost some ground these past couple of weeks. He’s going to need to overcome Chelsea or Kirstie I think to get to the finals.
Boy, oh boy, Mary – you sure have a way of completely ignore anything that doesn’t fit your world view and harping on the same old points that both Courtney and I have debunked pretty well. Your position seems rather ridiculous to me – so because Nicole isn’t doing Broadway, yet Ralph did ONE Broadway show he should be better than her?? In what universe does that math make sense?? Following this logic, because Brittany Spears has sold millions of albums, she is should be a better singer than, say…Lea Michele or hell, Nicole as a solo artist. Most people will recognize that the ability to sell millions of albums to teeny boppers doesn’t mean you are a better singer. By the same token, having been on Broadway more doesn’t make one a better dancer. Brooke Burke has NEVER done any kind of Broadway or other forms of dancing – and she’s a better dancer than Donny Osmond who’s been singing and dancing his whole life. The argument you are making is that Donny SHOULD be better just simply by vitue of his career. You seem to totally eliminate from consideration degrees of natural talent, yet emphasize that which isn’t a good indicator- ie Broadway.
Grease? Not great dancing. Most Broadways shows, in fact, do NOT feature great or complicated dancing by the famous leads. It includes choreography that they rehearse for weeks or months to learn and then perform for 8 shows a week. Not even close to the same thing as learning a Paso Doble in 4 days. It’s apples and oranges. There are others on the show this season that have greater advantage than Ralph does – Hines for being an athlete, Chelsea for her youth (same for Romeo) and so on.
Ah, so Mary is Andie? I remember her before she got banned – so not surprised by the way these comments come out.
I think Andie is having such an issue with Ralph because he’s Hines and Kym’s biggest competition, so she’s taking any opportunity to show her bias against him. Ralph will be 50 this year, he’s not a professional dancer, and I think he’s been great. He’s been harped on all season by the judges because it makes for more drama. They can see how great he is and how nice he has been (not ticked off, as you say). I have nothing against Hines, and I like Kym a lot. But for my money, Ralph has had some of the best routines all season (that waltz was awesome).
Color me cornfuzzled…… I’ve read these comments several times, and about the only thing I think I got from the whole thing, is that Mary hates Ralph because she thinks he is supposed to be a better dancer than he seems to actually be. Of course, Mary could have said something different, because somewhere along the comment thread, things seem to start getting contradicted, and the longer it went, the more cornfuzzled things got. Mere confusion isn’t enough.