DWTS 15 All-Stars: The Great “Previous Dance Experience” Debate – Bristol Palin Edition
We’re mere days away from the premiere of the all-star season – who’s getting pumped??? 
I find myself surprisingly excited about it, given that I was feeling pretty ho-hum about it only a few months back. Be sure to keep a close eye on Heidi’s “Who’s Dancing What” post – you never know when someone’s cha-cha song or dance order or phone number might pop up 
#justsayin
Anywho, if you’re feeling nostalgic, you can view all of the previous editions of this series here. Now buckle in, kids, because I’m about to tackle the ups and downs (but mainly just downs…) of the most polarizing contestant in DWTS history: Bristol Palin.
For Bristol’s best dance, I picked her tango:
As her worst dance, what else could I pick but that god-awful monkey suit jive?:
Ok, I will admit that Bristol is not the worst dancer we’ve ever seen on the show (I think’s a dubious honor reserved for Master P, with Kate Gosselin as the runner-up). On the contrary, I actually thought she was relatively good the first few weeks of the competition – I even threw a few votes her way in week 1. I think what ended up getting to me as the season wore on, though, was the fact that all the other contestants seemed to be improving by leaps & bounds…while Bristol just seemed to barely muddle through some of the dances, and hit a bit of a plateau in terms of improvement. To add insult to injury, we were losing MUCH better dancers each week that Bristol remained – and by the time the finale rolled around, Bristol seemed to have developed a sense of entitlement, and copped an attitude when she wasn’t getting the 9′s and 10′s she felt she deserved. In the end, she just left a bad taste in my mouth, even if some of her dancing really wasn’t all that bad. SOME. In rewatching a lot of Bristol’s dances, I noticed that she tended to do MUCH better when she was able to stay in-hold for the bulk of it – so most of the ballroom dances she did went quite a bit more smoothly than the Latin ones. I don’t know if Mark holding onto her and leading her so directly helped improve her confidence or what, but she moved a lot more cleanly & clearly in dances like the tango – no missed steps, she stayed on time, and had pretty good posture. And I blame Mark for the silly air guitar break in the middle 
On the other hand, in dances where she had to separate from Mark and do some of the dance on her own, she either barely muddled through or seemed to fall apart completely – case in point? The dreaded monkey suit jive. Right off the bat, she seemed to blank on a good 10-15 seconds of side-by-side jive choreo. Then, once the suit came off (and even that was pretty rough), she never seemed to get 100% into the groove of the dance, and always seemed like she was 1 step behind or ahead of Mark. And although we kind of expected it, based on her complete lack of experience in performing, Bristol wasn’t exactly the best at connecting with the character of a dance – and when she didn’t know what to do, she seemed to resort to an expression that reminded her of back home in Alaska: deer in the rifle sights Maybe this time around, she’ll be a bit more comfortable and will be able to let loose and have fun. Or not…who knows. I’m still of the opinion that she likely won’t last past the midpoint of the competition, this time around – she’s up against much better dancers with much bigger fanbases, and I daresay she’s lost a bit of that “single teen mom” appeal she had 2 years ago. Will be interesting to see what Mark is able to conjure up…
Court’s verdict: Probably the weakest all-around performer/dancer this season, and Mark needs to work on getting her performance value up to snuff…as well as making sure she knows her choreography and is confident enough to not forget it. She should probably also work on her media presence – she needs to be as likeable as possible if she wants to stand a chance against some of the more popular contestants.
Thoughts on Bristol?
Admirable attempt at objectivity
Oh, and did I mention how excellent this whole series has been!
I agree with Faby on both comments!
My favorite dance by Bristol was by far her Waltz. I would even put it in my top 10 best dances on the show. Movement quality wasn’t top notch but it gives me chills every time I watch.
Ditto what Faby said – THANK YOU COURT!!!!!
Awwww you ladies are too kind
Thanks for sticking with me through this journey and giving such good feedback!
@Sasa – I toyed with the idea of picking Bristol’s waltz as her best dance, but upon watching it again I realized that it wasn’t so much Bristol’s dancing that made it memorable – it was that haunting music. Oddly enough, I think I said the same thing in my power rankings from that particular week 2 years ago.
I agree with Sally and Faby, you are doing an amazing job Courtney!!
I will confess, Bristol has to be by far one of the biggest letdowns for me in DWTS history. I know…get your jaw off the floor, let me explain LOL
Obviously, before the season started, I didn’t expect much from her like a large majority of people thought as well. But in the first couple of weeks she seemed totally endearing. I saw a young, shy, quiet girl go out there and just try her best. I absolutely adored Bristol the first two or three weeks. What I thought we were going to see from her was like a Kelly Osborne/Jennie Garth transformation from her. I thought she was going to come out week after week, do her best and improve, eventually ending leaps and bounds ahead of where she started. As Courtney said…that didn’t happen. And that just left me sad at the end.
I will also go out and say this right now, if Bristol DID follow that path, (improve week by week, do the best she can, slowly gain confidence, and prove to be a total sweetheart like she did in the first few weeks) she might have been one of my favorite DWTS celebs. A few of my favorites (Jennie Garth, Maria Menounos, Kelly Osbourne, and the like) followed a path just like that or very similar. Something just didn’t turn out right and she didn’t improve by much, a really big shame IMO :/
But enough of me going on about something petty like that, on to the actual post. I agree. She tended to be well-placed and at times clean, it just came from an overall lack of just letting it happen and giving it conviction. I don’t think she’ll last long either to be honest, which is a shame because I did want Mark to do well with his partner. We’ll have to see what happens.
Well as usual Pure dwts shows it liberal side. What do you not know
about taking a person and bringing them up from a non-dancer/proformer
to as well as this you lady did. I believe in giving credit where
credit is due and credit is difinitely due here. And I feel this
was a slap in Mark’s face and his wonderful teaching that he did with
her. He turned a non-dancer into a beautiful ballroom dancer in
14 weeks. The fans loved it because this was a non-dancer. They
had seen all of the other celebrities who had performing backgrounds.
And Jennifer Gray saying she had never danced other then that little
bit in Dirty Dancing. Her daddy is a professional actor/dancer.
I am looking forward to seeing what Bristol and Mark will do this
season. I just can’t get over how people want to cut this young
beautiful lady down all the time. 22,000,000 people tuned in and
it wasn’t just for celebrity performer. This is what DWTS should be
all about.
@Lady Mil, I couldn’t disagree with you more. And bringing politics into it is a complete red-herring. Just for the record, I “self-identify” as a conservative. Deeply conservative. And I didn’t enjoy Bristol’s dancing. You do yourself a disservice by trying to link things that aren’t linked. Fact of the matter is that Bristol didn’t improve. What Jennifer Gray did, or did not, do simply doesn’t matter. Bristol reached a plateau, and also displayed a bad attitude (e.g., giving the camera the finger). She needs to own that – after all, isn’t the notion of self-reliance, owning up to your actions, and taking charge of your own life supposed to be conservative principles?
#9 Sally – Sing it, sister! I think that was an example of a message board model of well-reasoned, tactful and intelligent Disagreement. Wish I could do that.
Wow. My dad was an electrician. I must be one too!! Only…um, not.
I don’t think most conservatives actually like Bristol and I don’t think that Bristol’s nasty ass attitude is BECAUSE she’s conservative. I think it’s because she’s a moron. Her politics have nothing to do with it, other than to paint tea partiers in a very bad light. But then, her fans do that too.
The whole ratings thing?? Was not new, nor due to Bristol.
Courtney, thanks for being objective about Bristol, there’s a lot in there that I definitely agreed w/ ya on. Technique really wasn’t an issue for her, as Len said back in her season’s finale she “had the ‘How’, while Kyle had the WOW”. Every season has a “journey-man/most improved” of their season and Bristol was definitely that for her season. Personally, I think what Bristol plateaued on was her “performing”, the one thing she could never do was just fully let loose and go, which is the most crucial thing she has to do this time around. If she doesn’t do that, she probably won’t get my votes or any votes for that matter. I’m really hoping Bristol’s done her homework, watched back her old dances and knows what she needs to do to stay in the game. I’m sure Mark is also stepping up and giving her more challenging choreography to keep her competitive w/ everyone else. He says he’s been throwing more difficult moves & choreography at her for her to do and she’s been going w/ whatever he’s giving her, which is a good sign to me. In Apolo and Karina’s recent sizing up of the competition in TV Guide, I have to agree w/ Apolo and I think we’re going to be seeing a more confident, outgoing and different Bristol this time that just might make the difference in helping w/ the performance factor for.
Love you, Faby! And Court, and PH, and Vogue!
Sally, I agree with you, too. I consider myself a moderate republican, and I didn’t find a single word of Courtney’s analysis to be politically motivated. I thought it was extremely interesting and objective, as all of Courtney’s previous dance experience debate posts have been. (And if they weren’t objective, who cares? It’s her site.)
I feel Bristol, initially, had the opportunity to distance herself from any stigmas that came with being Sarah Palin’s daughter, and for me (and many others), she blew it in the finale when she made the infamous middle finger comment. And in several interviews after the All-Star cast announcement, she came across as extremely defensive. Some of the questions she was asked were stupid, and she may have thought so too, which perhaps inspired her off-putting responses. I don’t doubt the interviewers asked those kinds of questions to push her buttons, and she jumped to the bait every time.
I hope in the actual show that her behavior is palatable. If it isn’t, I hope for an early exit!
Awwwww I’s having a warm fuzzy – look at everyone who jumped to my defense when some kook who’s never even posted here before waltzed in and started spouting nonsense & insults.
Not much I can say that hasn’t already been said – I too am a republican, and I still think Bristol is one of the worst contestants they’ve ever had on the show. The implication that disliking Bristol = being liberal is one of the most unintelligent arguments I’ve heard made by a reader here…and I’ve heard some pretttttty dumb arguments. But if it’s asshats like lady mil that are going to be voting for Bristol this season, then maybe I’m not too worried about her sticking around for long – because sooner or later, they’re bound to boycott their phone/internet provider for not being fast enough to accomodate more votes for Bristol. Such liberals!
It’s so cute when people come to this site acting all nasty, and then create sock puppets to back themselves up. It never gets old. Busting them, that is
Thanks for these great recaps. I had to have a bit of giggle though while watching the Monkey jive. The ad on this site right next to it had a picture of a banana. Appropriate advertising? LOL
Excellent assessment of Bristol’s first appearance on DWTS, Court, and completely objective! I’ll add my thanks for your hard work putting this retrospective together for us.
I’ve really enjoyed it.
*snicker* I love it when knuckleheads stroll in to take a swipe at one of our great bloggers and everyone gang tackles them
I would also like to chime in that Courtney did an amazing and objective job on this. I wanted to say that last night but for some reason I couldn’t get any of the comments to come up! I kept getting a weird “script is running” pop up.
Anyway, I have not once ready anything by Courtney that I thought was not objective. Even though a lot of the time I know who her favorites are by her saying it in other comments,etc, in all of the articles she writes I find them to ALWAYS be fair to everyone.
Kudos, Courtney.
Exactly right! She blew it with the middle finger comment. Probably anyone who gave her a “pass” for that due to her age or stress (not being used to public eye at the time) probably has no pity for her now since she did her reality show. She’s not an actress, so that attitude on the reality show wasn’t acting—it was the real deal. Too bad
Thanks again for another one of ur amazing previous dance experience analysis and I found that I agreed with everything that you mentioned about Bristol she is much better in hold then out of hold and may have a problem Monday holding her own in the cha-cha against Emmit, Apolo, Joey and Sabrina. And Lady Mil if you red any of Courtney other posts of previous Dance experience she is always pointing out flaws of the returning celebs because they all have then and thats what us viewers will be looking at to see if they can improve. That being said Lady Mil because Courtney pointed out Bristol flaws doesnt mean she is a Bristol hater but their were obvious thing that some diehard viewers could see with her attitude getting worse and worse as she continued to stay and her season was one of the weaker ones dance wise Michael Bolton, the Situation, Margret Cho to name a few so it was easier for her to stick around compared to this season with 6 previous winners and a bunch of other people with more natural performance and dance skills. Courtney I cant wait to see the Kristie previous dance experience post
I have 3 kids. I’m a flight attendant. Getting ready to go on a 3- day tomorrow. I just realized I’m flying on the season premiere. So, Courtney, I am so looking forward to your Power Rankings. My favorite post. Kudos to you guys for a wonderful site, that I have enjoyed for quite some time. I’m only posting b/c I have had 4 beers and have to get up at 4 am. I just wanted to say keep up the good work! Your site and effort is much appreciated. I love reading the Princess’s candor, and Vogue, you are one busy lady!
@sheery, you are absolutely right. The middle finger thing was the last straw for me. I couldn’t believe she would be immature enough to do that in front of a camera. I sure hope she has grown up some this time around.
I have really enjoyed this entire series! It’s been very objective and informative. No bias shown here whatsoever, imho. I really appreciate all the time and effort you put into this series, Courtney. It adds so much to the DWTS season.
vote Bristol off soon America! ok saying that, I think she is way out of her league this time around.
Okay, to have any hope of finishing this series anytime this season, shortening my comments (always a good thing, lol) and relying on my memory (never a good thing!).
Even if I were to subject myself to Bristol’s dances again, I couldn’t add much to Courtney’s great assessment. I too don’t think Bristol has the dance ability or showmanship of anyone else in the competition, but I do think she can improve and am hopeful her new self and experiences helps i both departments, because I want to see everyone do their best. Not as certain of her voting base as she’s had more recent entertainment of her own volition. Also wouldn’t completely discount that tea party vote given it’s a Prez election year, but then again maybe the Palinites are otherwise distracted…or at least less fervent about a dance show this go.