DWTS16 Week 2 Mark Ballas And Aly Raisman Work On Communication, Speed Of Counts, And More
Mark Ballas has written his first blog for Dancing With The Stars Season 16 at USA Today. He writes of what a “joy” this season has been so far. He describes his partner, Aly Raisman, as a warrior, focused, driven, and she has the personality of an angel. This week they’ve been working on communication for numerous reasons. Below is a take about what they are working on for their next dance and the things Aly is struggling with….
This week, we have the quickstep and although Aly is finding the ballroom side of things to be quite natural, she is struggling with the speed of the counts. Also, we have been putting in the hours teaching her how to be more musical.
For a gymnast doing floor routines, the music is kind of ear candy. She doesn’t use accents or counts in that setting, so it’s really just background music. This is something that Aly and I really have to work on in order for her to progress in this competition. She is getting better and better everyday, but we still have a lot to accomplish. At this point, all I can say is that I’m really proud of Aly. She is killing it!
More at USA Today. You can also read a short interview with Aly at the LA Times.
Interesting read. I’m glad Mark is working on Aly’s musicality, teaching her to actually listen to and use the music and counts. If she gets that she could become a force to be reckoned with.
I had to chuckle at the reference to how “stunning” Aly looked in her costume. Sorry, Mark, you can’t talk your way out of that disaster. The dress was a fail; it made Aly’s muscular body look heavy and she looked on the verge of a wardrobe malfunction. She needs dresses with clean lines and not a lot of frou-frou.
Mark defended his gorilla jive. Doubt he will admit the fail the costume was last week. Aly won gold on her tumbling, not her musicality. She is not graceful. Even commenters said how she barely pointed her feet on bars. Think she will be better in ballroom, because she will be in hold.
While I’m not on “Team Aly-Mark”, I do think Aly is a good student who wants to learn. So I can definitely see her working hard to improve her musicality and become more graceful (if for no other reason than it would help her in gymnastics).
I agree, Melissa, she might be better in hold. One of the benefits of being a female celeb! The male, who’s a pro, does the driving. 😀
I like that Mark tells it like it is. Unlike some of the others I think she’ll be lucky in that she’ll have time to grow or, at least, I hope so. She’s one of the few celebs that I looked forward to watching this season.
That dress *was* a fail – Aly did not look “stunning”. Hopefully Mark’s costuming ideas will get better as the season progresses.
Agree the dress was wrong, imo, very distracting and unflattering. But I like Mark’s hair. And I like the sweetness of his blog, glimpses of the original Mark. And it must be fun for any of the pros to get partners who are willing to work work work and who are willing to listen regarding their challenges. I guess I didn’t realize it was possible to teach musicality, I thought either you had it or didn’t. Also, I agree with him that coming out and shaking what her mama gave her was brave and thus CAI was wrong about safe.
It did look like she was a wardrobe malfunction waiting to happen! That neckline was the only thing I would have changed on the dress. I think they are very well suited for each other as partners. After watching Shawn and Derek last season, I’m just finding it difficult to stop the comparisons. I also feel that way about Wynonna and Tony, and their similarities between Kirstie and Maks spring to mind. It just feels like we’ve been their done that, seen that. I think it’s going to take some fresh, out of the box thinking and routines to break that mindset. I definately think Mark and Aly can do that, but I’m not so sure about Tony and Wynonna.
CAI is wrong more than 50% of the time. He shouldn’t worry about what she says so much.
He is wrong about that dress though. Way wrong. I also am not sure it’s possible to teach musicality.
I think there are people who are naturally musical and those who aren’t. Still, I believe you can always get better at something if you have a good teacher and really work at it. So I think Aly can learn to apply some techniques that will help her be more in tune (and in time) with the music. That said, someone who’s naturally musical will always have an edge in something like dance show (as long as they also have the physical skills).
I took CAI being safe more about expectations. I thought the same. This looked like something Mark choreo for Bristol. We know he goes all out if they can handle it. Even Kristin C. Had tougher cha cha week 1 choreo. Also Mark never will admit if he makes a mistake. Even when he purposely broke rules, he got all huffy.
Melissa–completely agree. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t really think of straight up “shaking” as daring choreography. To me, it looks like a cop-out. Which is kind of odd because I don’t doubt that Aly can handle much more.