Derek Hough talks Lifts, Rumba and Jennifer Grey in New TV Guide Blog
We’ve had lots of whiners comments about why Derek didn’t get docked for the lift he did in his rumba with Bindi, and comments about the lack of rumba content – mainly just for Derek although a lot of other couples had the same issues (no surprise there, right?) – and Derek does us a favor and explains what HE was told when preparing for the dance. And he shows, once again, that he’s pretty well connected in Hollywood. 🙂 From TV Guide:
I texted Jennifer immediately afterward and she was like, “Love it! That was great!” Kenny Ortega also texted me and was super pumped about it. I’m glad they both loved it. We really tried to honor the original dance as much as we could. I know some of you were worried that we would be docked for a lift in the rumba since that’s not allowed, but we all had a lot of leeway in our choreography because it was about paying tribute to these iconic dances. We did some rumba in the beginning, but the dance was by no means a rumba! We were all told the rules were going to be loose so we didn’t have to be concerned about that. Now you may be wondering why they didn’t just give us a mambo since that’s the dance in the movie, but I’m kinda glad they gave us the rumba. We got it over with!
This week, we have the Argentine tango. We’re dancing to “Cry Little Sister.” With Bindi, we’ve seen the sweet side of her obviously. This is gonna be the fierce, sexy, strong side of her. I’m excited for everyone to see that. She totally gets into character and I think it’s gonna be good.
I suspected he would rather have had the other song, which makes me very curious about how the songs were handed out. Bindi, as the person with the highest cumulative score, should have had first choice. We’ll have to wait and see how that went down. Or how they portray it went down, in any case.
Glad Derek explained how the pro’s were directed but I can’t believe people didn’t know that when CAI didn’t deduct for the lift. I tried to tell myself that there is no need to attempt to rationalize with delusional people. It does no good. Happy for Derek that he is finally getting the recognition he deserves.
I can’t wait to see AT. I always enjoy the team dances. I am sure they both will be good but I am with Derek on liking the other team’s song. I am sure Derek, Mark, Whitney and Lindsay will do an interesting dance. If they are still working on the concept I am sure it is going to be very creative. Can’t wait for Monday.
Good point, Renee – you would think that people would get that when CAI ignored the lift (and other lifts that night) completely.
But I think their whole goal wasn’t to be rational, it was to complain about Derek.
I’m with Derek. I wish his team got the other song. More open to interpretation and therefore room for more creativity. Though I thought the non-Derek team has got the better song the last couple of seasons and I still ended up liking his team the best.
What I really respect about Derek is his optimism and…….I guess you could call it, his code of honor. He never finger points, riles up his fans or denigrates anyone to make himself look good. He’s ethical and professional. It’s refreshing and admirable.
Well said Susan2, couldn’t agree more.
In this blog I particularly enjoyed the way Derek covered some things we’ve been talking about (lift police concerns and rumba vs. mambo). I’m glad they have rumba out of the way too.
I’m really looking forward to their AT on Monday. I have no doubt Bindi will capture the character and emotion of the dance perfectly. Combined with Derek’s stellar choreography, it should be sizzling.
It’ll be interesting to see what scores TPTB will let them have this week because I think Team Crikey is really making mincemeat of TPTB’s plans for the season.
Great blog. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Derek so happy and relieved after a performance. Paying proper homage to this film and stars obviously meant a lot to him and you could tell through this performance.
I’m so glad to hear that both Jennifer Grey & Kenny Ortega were watching and loved it too. My favorite performance of the night. For me Derek would have been amazing in the role of Patrick Swayze as there were moments he really reminded me of him. Of course with his own unique flair.
I think both Bindi & Derek have a very promising careers ahead of them.
Looking forward to next week’s performances.
Got side tracked by Derek’s comments on their AT and forgot to comment on the team dance song choices.
Derek’s gotten stuck with conventional, bubble-gum songs for team dances a lot lately, and he always comes up with a clever concept for them. So I’m sure Team Bindi’s dance will be fun and well done. However, when I think of what he could do with an interesting song choice, it makes me gnash my teeth.
I bet TPTB massaged their process to make sure Team Nick wouldn’t end up with Ghostbusters. Once they knew who the team leads were going to be, they had a pretty good idea of who’d end up on which team and who would *not* want to do “Who You Gonna Call”.
My thoughts as well, Cidra. For the life of me, I don’t get why they’re so afraid to challenge certain pros by making them step outside their own box – and the other team definitely has at least one pro with a very small box. Perhaps because they know that pro won’t rise to the challenge?? They’re afraid he’ll look bad? After all, they’re relying on him to be the main dude on tour.
Thing is, if they gave the cooler stuff to Derek, he’d probably do something Emmy worthy with it. Instead, if he gets songs that make him roll his eyes, he’ll come up with something good…but less likely to be mind blowing. Again, their competing agendas at play.
Perhaps we’ll see that Bindi had to decide if she wanted to pick Music or team first…but that’s not what it sounded like from our source. If Bindi picked for the Team second AND didn’t have first choice on the music – well, that goes WAY against all the previous history of the show and it makes you wonder why they feel the need to do that.
It seems to me, not being an expert, during all star season it was a blind draw for the music. I also seem to remember that high score got to call the coin flip. I bow to you PH. I did no research on this am relying on a very bad memory.
Most seasons it’s been the high scorer gets to decide what they want to pick first, Music or team mate. IF Bindi got first pick at team mate, then they did a blind draw on the music, that would be acceptable because she IS the high scorer. But the reverse isn’t so fair, is it.
They did a blind draw for music on all stars too. I remember Derek being disappointed bc it was “call me maybe” I think Ghostbusters will be fun but the other song is my favorite by far.
As long as the person with the highest cumulative score gets first pick, I’m okay with the blind draw. That’s the question.
I have two somewhat-competing thoughts about how the songs got assigned to the two teams. First, I wonder if Bindi did get to choose the song but just chose “wrong” since (I’m assuming) Derek wasn’t there to give his input.
My other thought is related to if they are rigging the song choice to give Derek’s team the weaker/cheesier song. I wonder if it’s so that the leader-board doesn’t get completely messed up if/when Derek creates something that completely blows the other team out of the water. Derek with a good song vs. certain other pros with a weak song would lead to quite the lopsided team dance “battle”. 😛