Dance of the Day… Let’s compare Helio and Kristi!

Ah, Memories!!! One thing that I’ve noticed while watching older seasons of DWTS, is how much the JUDGES have changed! Or, NOT! They seem like the same people we see now on the judging panel, only….. Not as much! It’s like as the season passed, they’ve all become stronger versions of themselves, so that they can have the spotlight on them…. (Heidi’s Note: I’m still working on the series discussing the Judges and their “growth” or “devolution”, depending on your perspective, and Season 7 will be posted soon. Season 5 and Season 6 were posted during the last hiatus, if you want to catch up.)

We’ve been taking the time, and revisiting our twelve DWTS Champions on their first week of their Seasons. These were our first impressions that we had of them, and we’re comparing them, two at a time. Once we get through all 12 seasons, I’ve got a couple ideas rolling around inside my head. First, we saw Season 1’s Kelly Monaco and Season 2’s Drew Lachey, and you can see that post here. Next, we saw Season 3’s Emmitt Smith and Season 4’s Apolo Anton Ohno, and you can see that post here.

Onward we move and today we get to revisit our first impressions of Season 5’s Helio Castroneves, and Season 6’s Kristy Yamaguchi.

Helio’s professional partner for Season 5 was Julianne Hough, who had also won the previous season with Apolo Anton Ohno. He was the third athlete in a row to win DWTS, following Emmitt and Apolo. He’s the only race car driver that’s competed on DWTS, and had won the Indianapolis 500 twice at the time he competed. Since then, he’s added another Indy 500 win!

Kristy’s professional partner for Season 6 was Mark Ballas. She is an Olympic Gold Medalist in Women’s Figure Skating, and was one of those contestants where I was sure couldn’t be the age she said she was, she had to be younger. Yet, grow up she did, with a wonderful Professional Hockey player-husband, and the sweetest little kids….

HELIO CASTRONEVES AND JULIANNE HOUGH Season 5 Week 1. They danced a foxtrot to the TV Theme to Bewitched. This is the season where Samantha Harris took a few weeks off at the beginning of the season to bring her first daughter into the world, Drew Lachey took over guest host duties during her (way too brief) maternity leave.

KRISTI YAMAGUCHI AND MARK BALLAS Season 6 Week 1. I must apologize, because I’ve been misspelling her name, and I’m too lazy to go back and correct them all… Normally, misspelling names really bothers me. They danced a foxtrot, and the song isn’t in the info… (Heidi’s Note: Michael Buble’s “The More I See You” according to Wiki)