DWTS Season 16 – TWO New Dance Styles

It’s official. From the ABC Medianet press release:

“Episode 1601” — “Dancing with the Stars” is back with an all-new cast of fresh faces hitting the dance floor. This season features two new dance styles, contemporary and jazz; three new professional dance partners — Lindsay Arnold, Sharna Burgess & Gleb Savchenko; and notable theme shows. In May, “Dancing with the Stars” will commemorate their 300th episode with a spectacular celebration. The competition begins with the two-hour Season 16 premiere, live, MONDAY, MARCH 18 (8:00-10:01 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show” premieres in week two, with the first elimination on Tuesday, March 26.

Click the link to read the whole press release. I didn’t see anything else that was interesting or different, except maybe a new App.

Anyway, I can’t even begin to express how stupid I think this idea is. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the ballroom styles we had and if we lose Argentine Tango or Paso in order to have freakin’ Jazz, I will be pissed. It was bad enough last season when you had people who had been on the show before and you wanted to challenge them, but this is crap. The judges have a hard enough time judging Ballroom fairly, how are they going to manage dance styles they know nothing about?? At least Bruno and CAI might have a clue about Contemporary, but Len?? No. And most of the pros have little to no experience in and have never been trained in either Jazz or Contemporary. This might give Derek, Mark, and Lindsay a leg up on some of the other pros, but man…I don’t care about contemporary. This is a fail in my book.