DWTS2013 Derek Hough And Amber Riley Choreography Hints On New Dances And More

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In case some of you haven’t read Derek Hough’s new blog at TV Guide, be sure you do. He gets us all caught up with he and Amber Riley. Below is a bit about their new dances and how they are not using her knee injuries as an excuse. He writes a bit on the choreography planned too and the songs. Also, be sure you visit Pure Derek Hough for some beautiful new high quality photos of Derek attending the 11th Annual Christmas Tree Lighting at the Grove in Hollywood last night. There are other updates too that you’ll want to take in before the show starts tonight including new rehearsal parking lot photos, etc. Pic above courtesy of ABC Dancing With The Stars.

We have the jazz and the Viennese waltz. For the jazz, I’m trying to figure out ways to make it intricate, fun and exciting. We definitely don’t want to use Amber’s knees as a crutch. I know that’s our “story” this season and yes, she does have bad knees, but we don’t want people to think we’re using it as an excuse or for people to say, “Well, that was good for you… for your knees being bad.” I’m trying to come up with choreography that will be technical and knee-friendly. There’s going to be some hand choreography. We had Tuesday off because Amber had to go to the doctor to get everything checked out, so we started Wednesday with the jazz and I’m thoroughly enjoying dancing it. It’s hard, but it’s fun.

Amber’s knees are better this week. What would keep happening was she would treat one knee and that knee would get better, but she would compensate on the other and the other one would get bad. That’s why it’s been going back and forth. When all that pressure is on her knees, they build up fluid and you have to relieve them. Now they’re good. She’s got both of them taken care of, so they’re equally distributed, if you will.

We’re still working on the Viennese waltz, but I’m very pumped about the song. Both dances are to the same song, but the Viennese waltz will be to the acoustic version. We actually couldn’t clear any of the existing acoustic versions, so I got on the phone with our music people and worked on it with them to make one suitable for a Viennese waltz. I was literally singing to the music producer, which was hilarious! And now I want to cover the song and perform it! Maybe I’ll put it on YouTube after the show.