If you head to USA Today, you can read how Meryl Davis and Charlie White are feeling on Dancing With The Stars before the premiere. Below are a couple of takes. Can tomorrow night not come soon enough?
“We’re on the same page,” he says. “Coming off the Olympic gold that we just won, we’re coming into this not as this die-hard competition. Obviously our competitive spirits will take over at some point, and we’re looking forward to learning a lot. We feel like we’re in it together. Seventeen years of partnership, it’s certainly going to be a tough habit to break.”
She’ll be dancing with the bad boy of the ballroom, pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy. And he’ll be dancing with Australian hottie Sharna Burgess.
“I don’t want to say he’s not a bad boy, because everyone enjoys seeing him that way,” Davis says of Chmerkovskiy. But “I’m finding that I’m so impressed with him on and off the floor. His style of teaching I’m very comfortable with. I think we’re getting along really well.”
Maks can be such a brute. And she seems so Princess Jasmine sweet. Isn’t he going to make her cry?
“That’s not going to happen,” she assures. “I’m used to being coached. Something I learned long ago is that a coach is trying to make you better and to be the best version of yourself.”
Conrad Green, Dancing’s executive producer, says he knows they’ll be beautiful to watch. “They’ll be very balletic, very pretty dancers. In ballroom, they’ll probably be pretty strong.” But “a lot of people come in with different skills for the show. They’re used to having their legs fixed on ice.”
White agrees: “In some ways, we have an advantage — in musicality and performance — but we’re not as much a blank slate as other people because the technique we use in skating goes against what they do on the floor. The way you move your hips, for example. So we’re king of having to unlearn some things.”
ETA: You can read another article with interviews at the NY Post. Below is a take. Thanks to @DWTSMaksimFans for the heads up…
“We’re kind of unlearning everything we know,” says White, 26, “because when we take steps, we’re definitely doing it wrong. The way I like to move on ice doesn’t look right on the dance floor.”
Which is not to say that this problem can’t be overcome. Olympians have always done well on this show. And Olympic skaters — Apolo Anton Ohno, Kristi Yamaguchi and Evan Lysacek — have either won the mirror ball trophy or come in second.
But Sharna Burgess, the “Dancing” pro paired with White, says that these two come in with both tremendous advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is that both skaters have had years of ballet training to make their upper bodies graceful. Add to that years of learning to move with another person. “Charlie’s greatest advantage is that he understands how to partner,” says Burgess. “He’s fantastic at doing lifts, and just knowing where the upper body weight needs to be when you’re dancing. His biggest disadvantage is from the ribcage down, trying to get that hip action. Right now, it’s quite awkward.”
For Davis, another possible disadvantage is that she will not be paired with five-time “Dancing” champ Derek Hough. “Dancing” fans who followed the Olympics are well aware that Hough worked with Davis and White last spring, helping to choreograph their top-scoring Olympic short program. But “Dancing” does not allow celebrities to request specific pro partners, and these two didn’t try.
“They just assigned them to us,” says White. “Height is taken into account. But it’s a complete surprise. And that was really nerve-racking for both Meryl and I.”
UPDATE: Sharna has replied at twitter to us that the NY Post twisted what she said and/or readers took it wrong. They paraphrased her and the end result made her sound much harsher than she intended. Knowing Sharna, I knew this was the case. The NY Post has been known to do this before. ADDING: As Jim just reminded me at twitter: “This is why I take whatever the media says with a grain of salt unless I hear it directly from the stars/pros themselves!” Anyway, thanks Sharna for clearing this up! Read on…
@puredwts multiple people brought something to my attention on your site.. For the record, my ORIGINAL comment said that I would LOVE to see the magic Derek would create with Meryl, but maybe they did it because some fans may have complained that he always gets the star… I also said that maybe it’s because if anyone can make Amy amazing it’s him!! This has been taken completely out of context!!!! I’m not saying that I personally would be outraged! I was praising him on the press line, I think his incredible, I have nothing but love and admiration for that man. #dontgetittwisted http://nyp.st/O2PS7V