James Maslow Chats About Dancing With The Stars, The Competition, And More
USA Today interviewed James Maslow about Dancing With The Stars. He was shocked to see Cody Simpson leave last week, but, is proud for how he and Peta received 4 10’s. More below including his thoughts on if he has a chance to win and more.
He’s also putting in five hours a day of dancing rehearsal time. On the show, he has talked about how he was bullied as a kid because he was “chubby.” Although he still is careful about what he eats, he says, “I know how easy it is to go backward.”
Maslow, who attending performing arts schools from eighth grade until he graduated from high school, learned some basic dance steps along the way, but it was “never my forte.” He was more into music and acting.
Although happy with his perfect scores, he says he was surprised by teen pop star Cody Simpson’s exit this week. Simpson, 17, seemed to have a healthy young-girl fan base.
“I don’t feel safe,” says Maslow. “I think there’s a huge audience that’s been watching the show for years that’s not part of my 3 million Twitter followers.”
So far, he hasn’t suffered any injuries. “I’ve done ice baths and seen a chiropractor, but knock on wood, that’s it.”
Of all the stars still dancing, he sees Meryl Davis as his biggest threat. “People are impressed by her. I could see her being the winner.”
It almost seems unfair that the Olympians who have years of dance experience would be allowed on the show. “We’ve all thought of it that way, too but they’re really nice people,”says Maslow. “They’re on tour now and having to learn this while they’re doing that is tough. They’re working hard like everyone else. To me, it’s complimentary that I’ve gotten better scores than professionals.”
He adds, “I wouldn’t be on the show if I didn’t believe I had a chance to win it.”
More at USA Today.
This is the second celebrity who has labeled the ice dancers as professionals, which they clearly are. It is almost as if there should be two competitions with two mirror balls, one between Charlie and Meryl, and another between the rest of the cast.
Other then Nene, Amy called Meryl a professional dancer in a q and a she did with la times. So three I think so far.
Danica also said it in the video with Val that was just posted.
The word “professional” is subjective. Sure, Meryl and Charlie can be considered more “professional” dancers than Danica, Amy, and James are perhaps, but they are certainly not professional ballroom, contemporary, or jazz dancers like Derek, Karina, etc. They still certainly have their advantages, but also have their setbacks as well (i.e: Charlie has a problem with hip action as showcased in his rumba because in ice skating they lock their hips, which is the complete opposite of the hip action in ballroom dancing).
They’re not professionals though. They are professional skaters – not ballroom dancers. If they were professional ballroom dancers Charlie and Meryl could compete at the all the Dancesport competitions. But it’s doubtful they have the skill level to compete with the best in Dancesport. So tired of the other contestants saying that they’re professionals when figure skating/ice dancing and ballroom dancing are two different things.
Technically, Meryl & Charlie aren’t even professional ice skaters. They compete in amateur competitions.
They aren’t paid to dance or teach dance so to me they are not professional dancers. They are professional figure skaters. (There are no pro competitions anymore so I don’t see people make the amateur/pro distinction anymore.)
They are ice dancers, not figure skaters,who have stated that in addition to ice time they study ballet and ballroom. It is definitely an integral part of their profession and to insinuate otherwise is to mislead people. If the audience wants one of the hem to win so be it, but let us call a spade a spade. Maksim himself has said how easy it is with Meryl. If you have watched him in the past, you know full well he has zero patience with anyone who is not at his level.
Ice dancing is figure skating. The “dance” patterns in ice dance are the purest form of actual FIGURES skating left in the sport, an if you watch say a rumba pattern it has approximately nothing in common with the dance. Knowing how to perform one will not help you rumba, nor vice versa. They are not professional dancers, they train WITH professional dancers and choreograph with them to add the flavor of the real dances to their skating. Say they have an unfair level of dance training or have taken too many ballroom classes or whatever, but professional dancers they are not.
I know most people here don’t care about the details of figure skating, but since people are also going out of their way to state them incorrectly, here goes: Ice dancing is one of the four disciplines of figure skating, which are mens singles, ladies singles, pairs and dance. All ice dancers are figure skaters, not all figure skaters are ice dancers.
Yup, and lots of singles skaters will study ice dancing because it focuses so much on basic skating skills, figures, turns, edges and so on. Charlie White only took ice dance in the first place to help him correct bad habits he picked up playing hockey that were detrimental to him in singles.
and this has what to do with DWTS?
That’s funny, Lizze – that’s EXACTLY what I said about Derek and Nicole.
Still, they are HUGE ringers. No getting around that.
#10 Lippy,that reminds me of how they tell you in math how a square can be a rectangle but a rectangle can’t be a square. It could be the other way around actually. I don’t remember. I don’t think it’s fair to call them professional dancers but I agree with PH that they are huge ringers. I admittedly don’t know much about figure skating except from what I can remember from reading this book series but they’re definitely not professional ballroom dancers. I know that for sure! I’m liking James more than I thought I would. He’s doing a good job this season and seems very well spoken.
Oh that’s rich (Lippy #3). Danica, li’l bro Val’s stealth ringer, throws shade at big bro Maks’s open ringer. What a delightful little hypocrite she is.
Charlie and Meryl certainly qualify as ringers (as does Danica although they’ve managed to sweep that neatly under the ballroom floor). They aren’t the first, won’t be the last. Maybe Meryl or Charlie will win this season, but the track record for ringers actually taking home the MBT isn’t all that good.