DWTS 12, Week 7 – Nicki Minaj, James Blunt, Shirley Ballas, Val Chmerkovskiy & More On “Ballroom Greats Week”
The theme for week 7 is “Ballroom Greats”. Lots on tap!! The entertainment includes Nicki Minaj, James Blunt, Wayne Brady, and the Macy’s Stars of Dance. Former Ballroom Champions Shirley Ballas (Mark’s Mother) and Luca Baricchi will make special appearances to help teach the couples. Donnie Burns MBE (the most decorated Latin dancer of all time) will be a guest judge. Val Chmerkovskiy (Maks’ brother) and his professional partner, Daria Chesnokova, will dance on the Results show (see a new fun video of them dancing and Val talking with he and Maks’ Dad here.). More below and at ABC Medianet.
“Episode 1207″ – “Dancing with the Stars” celebrates “Ballroom Greats” week, MONDAY, MAY 2 (8:00-10:01 p.m., ET/PT), on The ABC Television Network. Serving as guest judge, alongside Carrie Ann, Len and Bruno, is Donnie Burns MBE, the most decorated Latin dancer of all time and head of the World Dance Council. Each couple, who will dance a style they have yet to perform, will have received a “master class” from one of ballroom’s best, either former Latin World Champion Shirley Ballas or Luca Baricchi, former Ballroom World Champ.
Monday is also the first time that the couples perform two dances, the second, the Team Cha Cha Competition. Captains Hines Ward and Chelsea Kane lead their teams, Kirstie Alley & Kendra Wilkinson and Ralph Macchio & Romeo, respectively, each to be scored as a group by the judges.
On TUESDAY, MAY 3 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET), the evening begins with “Dancing with the Stars: The Encore,” which will show highlights from the previous night’s performances. Then on “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show: Episode 1207A” (9:00-10:01 p.m., ET), another couple will be eliminated from the competition, and musical guests James Blunt and Nicki Minaj perform. James Blunt will sing “I’ll Be Your Man” and, in honor of “Ballroom Greats” week, Amateur U.S. Latin champions Val Chmerkovskiy and his partner, Daria Chesnokova, will dance. Nicki Minaj performs “Moment 4 Life” — Lacey Schwimmer, Chelsie Hightower, Kiki Nyemchek and Sonny Pederson dance.
This week’s “Macy’s Stars of Dance” is a special tribute to the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, in celebration of his birthday. The multitalented Wayne Brady stars in the number and is choreographed by creative directors Kevin and Marcel Wilson.
In the first “Spotlight Segment” of the season, the spotlight shines on 17-year-old ballerina Patricia Zhou. Patricia currently studies at the prestigious Kirov Academy of Ballet and has just been accepted at the Royal Ballet. In the weeks to come, “Spotlight Segments” will feature people whose lives have been changed by dance.
This is going to be fun. I can’t wait to see Val dance again! Who’s with me on this? 
OMG last week all we heard was Mark Ballas and P**, (I just cant bear to see the name again), now Shirley is on this week, and Corky was in the audience this week, so maybe he will on next week. These Ballas’s sure do love to hog the limelight.
Team Hines all the way. Team Chelsea is going down.
This could be a good week! I’m with ya, Vogue, I always look forward to Chmerkovskiy dancing.
@sandy – If it’s any consolation, Shirley isn’t an attention whore like Corky & Mark…she gets down to business and hates cheesiness (which makes me wonder what she thinks of Mark’s choreo sometimes). Her flaw? She’s just a bit…well, there’s no nice way to say this. Greedy.
Donnie Burns, huh? Another Schwimmer relative…at least it’s by marriage. He’s hitched to Benji & Lacey’s cousin Heidi…who is much, much younger than he is. Trophy wife much?
@Courtney — Why is Shirley greedy? That sounds intriguing, do tell more.
All these freaking theme weeks. Guilty pleasures and esp. America week were so lame that I’m dreading what they’ve got cooked up for the rest of the season. I did really like classical week, though,and this week actually sounds promising, too. Fingers crossed.
@Courtney – Uh, Shirley’s not an attention whore? Tell that to the freaky youtube video of her getting lipsocution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jze9Eq66tlw
Blam, checkmate! But, don’t watch it. It’s upsetting. Also, you can’t really talk about the May-December aspect of Donnie and Heidi if you don’t consider the fact that Shirley dated (dating?) Riccardo Cocchi, who’s like 25 years her junior.
I wonder if Donnie Burns will give real scores. Like 2s and 3s. I hope someone—anyone, really—gets reamed!
Okay, maybe more like 15-20 years.
Checkmate? Sorry, but this isn’t a competition for me. And you know why Shirley did that video? THE MONEY. Not the attention. She’d rather have the former, trust me – she’s the only coach I’ve ever taken a lesson with that would charge for an entire extra hour if we went over my lesson time by A MINUTE, insisted upon being put up in the best hotel in town when she flew in to teach at my studio, and always seemed to care more about what car some teacher at the studio was driving or what label someone was wearing while teaching than she was about anything else. But man – she knew how to sculpt even the most inept student into champion material. Corky was annoying at times, yes, and tends to waste more time on lessons with silly stuff – but he was far more down-to-earth, IMO. The dude loves to go to IHOP when he’s in town coaching. As for Riccardo – yes, she dated him. Yes, he’s younger than her. And yes, they’re done. It is not unlike Heidi & Donnie. Happy now?
Word Tom – sick to death of “themes”. How about this for a “theme” – good dancing with an appropriate song for the assigned dance? THAT sounds like a novel idea at this point.
LOL I am loving this talk on Shirley. I’m finding out all kinds of things I never knew before. She’s “50″ like Corky, right? Though her and Corky look more like they are in their 60′s.
I’m not sure why Shirley dating a younger man is a part of this conversation as if it’s a strike against her, along with other strikes. Corky dates much younger women all the time and no one bats an eye. Sexist much, J??
And if you keep up that posting style, I can almost guarantee you won’t last long here – too arrogant and antagonistic.
J: “I wonder if Donnie Burns will give real scores. Like 2s and 3s. I hope someone—anyone, really—gets reamed!”
This week is sounding more interesting by the minute.
I love me some Val Chmerkovskiy! The “Good” Brother, LOL.
J: I hope Burns doesn’t give “real” scores. This isn’t a “real” competition. These are celebs doing the show for any number of reasons, and in the process they provide us with some light entertainment. I don’t enjoy seeing anyone getting reamed. You need to lighten up, dude.
No one likely needs to worry about Donnie reaming anyone. He can’t get too upset or else he might bust the stitches from his latest facelift. ZING!!!
Ok, that was mean. But the man’s face is looking a bit Bruce Jenner-ish as of late, and he certainly isn’t the first (or last) guy (or girl) in the ballroom world to have a little work done.
And Heidi, I’m gonna amend your last statement: Corky doesn’t date younger women. He sleeps with them and then runs for the hills
haha
Oooh Daria Chesnokova, she’s dating Karina’s former partner Slavik (infamous partner stealer)! I heard that Yulia and Riccardo were performing, is that still true
Monday will definitely be very exciting and interesting. Riccardo and Yulia are set to perform as well as Arunas and Katusha Demidova. I guess ballroom greats could be a good theme week if we get to see some top notch dancing from top pros!
It was not sexist. She called Donnie out on his marrying a younger woman, I said that Shirley dated younger men. I was saying that you can’t hold it against Donnie when Shirley did it too. I didn’t say she was any worse, I was just responding to the fact that a shot was taken at Donnie that has just as much validity as when applied to Shirley. Why not say anything about the unprovoked initial comment about Donnie? It’s okay to call him out but not her? Meanwhile, is there not a touch of antagonism in referring to Heidi as a trophy wife?
Oh, right, Courtney – my mistake.
And so much more acceptable on his part. LOL
I think why you get called out, J, is because of your whole “score!!” attitude in your posts and I know Courtney pretty well. You started out posting here with a really competitive, antagonistic vibe – we don’t know you from adam and this is a community. You very noticeably got off on the wrong foot. It makes a difference.
Thank you, Heidi – yeah, someone throwing in a “BOOM! Checkmate!” is a definite invitation to rumble to me. As for my “unprovoked initial comment” about Donnie, the few occasions on which I’ve met him, he’s been arrogant & unfriendly. Kinda makes it hard for me to give the dude the benefit of the doubt on stuff – especially the fact that he married a student that he’s known since the age of 6. As for Heidi – I find it a little fishy that after her marriage to Donnie, she not only got his last name, but a slew of lucrative dance studios with his name attached to it. Couple that with the fact that they’re quite far apart in age (25 years) and Heidi’s an attractive young lady (and Donnie is…well, not aging well), and you’re bound to get some raised eyebrows. I find it hard to believe that 2 individuals that far apart in age can find enough of a common ground (aside from ballroom dancing) and enough of a mutual attraction in order to make a marriage work – especially in the dance industry, where most marriages are tenuous at best. If they’re truly happy, more power to them – but I still say it’s bizarre.
As for Shirley – the fact that she dated Riccardo was not an intentional omission on my part. I just think someone briefly dating someone younger than they are and someone marrying someone younger than they are are two different things. And the age difference between Shirley & Riccardo is more like 15 years as opposed to 25…and let’s just say Shirley is known as a bit of a “cougar” in the ballroom world, who has taken pretty good care of their body compared to a lot of the old champion competitors. In other words – guys still think she’s pretty hot. I’ll even admit that she has got some great boobs! Riccardo & Shirley also have very complimentary personalities – Shirley’s very type A, while Riccardo is more of a laid-back, charming type B. I could see why they would be attracted to one another. Based on that, I’m more inclined to think the Shirley-Riccardo romance was probably based more on genuine attraction than the Donnie-Heidi one – somehow I doubt Heidi goes around gushing about what a hottie her husband is. And if she does – I want a huge dose of whatever she’s smoking, because it must be some good sh*t.
But whatever, I’m done talking about it now. I’ve got errands to run and cheesecake to work on
Hey Gang…Sad to hear Donnie had work done. His former partner, Gaynor Fairweather, had so much work done I didn’t even recognize her.
They were BOTH Heidi’s dancing idols (Benji’s as well). Can you imagine marrying your idol? Kind of weird. Oh well, she’s not the first young girl to marry an older man…for whatever reason. I think she was just star struck. Man, he was the best on that dance floor. Saw him many times. Loved him.
Riccardo and Julia? They are my (new) all time Latin favs. Arnus and Katusa? Wow is America in for a treat. It’s about time the public saw our two current International champion couples.
NOW….what about our two American Style couples? (Titles that both Tony and Jonathan captured in the past).
Riccardo and Yulia — or, for me, just Yulia — how great! Now I’m excited.
But somehow I wish they’d done Ballroom Greats week during a season with stronger celebs. Ah, I just hope Ralph and Hines and Chelsea and the rest really raise their game.
I agree Princess Heidi with your “theme” idea of having good dances and appropriate song selections. I’ve been saying that to my friends a lot this season.
Also the team dances this week…i’m so glad they’re not doing that lame-ass thing they did last season with Apolo and Kristi as “captains” …that was just stupid.
Can’t wait to see Val dance…love him and Maks!!
@dancingdog – Gaynor is frequently brought up as an example of someone in the ballroom world that’s had wayyyy too much done. It’s sad – she really looks nothing like she did during her heyday with Donnie.