Pure Dancing With The Stars Discussion: When The Music Matches The Style Of Dance

Who needs to relive this number last night with Karina Smirnoff and Jose Manuel Carreño when they danced the Argentine Tango? I thought it was steamy, beautiful, and so passionate! Also, I love it when the music matches the style of dance. I wish the producers of Dancing With The Stars would discontinue theme weeks and go with matching music to the style of dance instead. The whole package is just so much better when everything goes together. Do you agree or disagree?

Special thanks to PureDWTS reader Jimmbboe2 for the video! Let’s get Heidi and Court’s thoughts:

Heidi: Aw, come on…who doesn’t love someone attempting to Tango to Bohemian Rhapsody?? 🙂 Sorry, that’s cray cray.  All you have to do is look at the music the pros choose to dance to when they have a choice: Karina last night…Derek and Allison Holker last season…neither “Popular” music, but both dances were great and well received.  We figure that the producers are trying to accomplish making the dancing more…current?? But at what cost? The very least they could do is have the pros pick the actual songs for the actual dances from a list of popular music. At least then the tempo would be more correct.  And people are watching ballroom dancing on TV in 2012 – shouldn’t that tell you something about the need for pop music?? I dunno. I think they could do a better job at it.

Courtney: I agree, sometimes a song can totally screw a couple, and for what? So they can have some hokey theme, or appeal more to mainstream viewers not familiar with “real ballroom” music? I think Tristan’s been the victim of it 2 seasons in a row now – “Devil Went Down to Georgia” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” were nothing more than an excuse to fit with a theme, which is one of the many reasons why I hate theme weeks.  The tempo and phrasing were not at ALL conducive the dances they were meant to coincide with, and the end result was 2 particularly train-wrecky dances.  I get that they want to appeal to a broad audience – hence the need for “current” music.  But yeah, like Heidi said, at least try to pick current music that’s actually conducive to ballroom dancing.  However, on the flip side, I often wonder if the nary impossible music some of the couples are given is an attempt to get the pros to “rise to the occasion” and craft some innovative, unique, Emmy-worthy routine, a la Ricki & Derek’s Psycho tango or Karina & the Situation’s “Boom Boom Pow” foxtrot.  I’m all for unique, innovative, & Emmy-worthy, but there’s just one problem: not every pro is capable of spinning a crazy song in that direction, and I’m not sure every “wacky” song they dole out is even capable of being translated into something cool.  Sometimes, a song is just bad, and better left off the dance floor 🙂