Dancing With The Stars Live Tour Review From Worcester, Massachusetts

Telegram.com from Worcester, Massachusetts reviewed the Dancing With The Stars Live tour. Overall, they said it “lead with joy”. Here is more.

The show began current “DWtS” champion Valentin Chmerkovskiy leading a jokey routine to Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime.” Chmerkovskiy, renowned for his physique, was wearing padding underneath his clothes to make it appear that he had “let himself go” since the the season ended. It was a cute and jokey false start, which was thankfully interrupted by former “DWtS” champion Witney Carson, kicking things into a gleeful and high-spirited jive to Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1000 Dances” and, then, joined by the entire company, a spectacle of a routine to Walk the Moon’s recent hit, “Shut Up and Dance,” which is kind of obligatory for all contemporary-oriented dance shows these days.

The addition of the rest of the dancers — Emma Slater, Keo Motsepe, Artem Chigvintsev, Alan Bersten, Brittany Cherry, Sasha Farber and Jenna Johnson — created a bright, cheerful energy, and while there were a few moments of intensity throughout, that was the vibe that prevailed. Make no mistake: All of these dancers are fantastic and technically skilled, but the audience was there for more lighthearted fare, and the troupe delivered.

Rycroft, who refrained from dancing because of an injury, proved a charming host, riling the crowd up by consistently mispronouncing “Worcester” and cajoling the male dancers to take their shirts off, which was cute for a while but, admittedly, the drooling got a little tiresome. (Although judging from audience reaction, that might be a minority opinion.)

But the night’s first show-stopper belonged to Willis and Chmerkovskiy, with a re-creation of their foxtrot to Hozier’s “Take Me to Church.” In a lot of ways, the live rendition was superior to its televised performance. Willis seemed comfortable, but has an intensity about her that gives her an immense amount of presence on stage. Her lines were clean and flowed effortlessly, but there was also an edge there which, regrettably, was often lacking throughout the night.

More at Telegram.com including some beautiful photos