The Maks And Val “Our Way Premieres Tonight, Dress Rehearsal Photos, And More
Much luck to the cast and crew of the Maks and Val “Our Way” Tour tonight as they premiere their first show in Melbourne, Florida. Below are a few teasers from dress rehearsals and more. If you haven’t bought tickets to see the show yet, go here. Also, if you are able to see the show and you have photos and videos you’d like us to share, write to us at our contact link. We’d love to share your experience.
Not sure if this is for the Our Way tour, but, I thought it was cool…
how exciting for them
Had a look to see if they had sold out their first show and their’s hundreds of seats left. Also loads left in the next city where DWTS sold out in the winter. A reminder of how much work you need to do to develop a strong following outside of official DWTS tours. Derek’s managed, the brothers obviously still have a long way to go. Good luck to them though.
I’ve grouped some of the DWTS pros into ‘families’, here are my observations.
-Official ‘Fam’ – Maks, Val, Peta, Sharna
Four mirrorballs
Maks and Val are brothers, and Peta is Maks’ finacee, Sharna is Peta’s best friend. Choreography between Maks and Val are very similar, a lot of walking instead of dancing. Both males have won one mirrorball. The ‘Fam’ is known for trying really hard to be ‘sexy’, for some reason, Val always wants to be shirtless, sometimes for no apparent reason. Even in ballroom dances like the quickstep, he finds an excuse to not have his shirt on. Whenever Maks refers to ‘The Family’, this is the family he is referring to. This fam has the most devoted fans, but doesn’t have the most fans, however, because of how devoted their fans are, it seems that they have more than the other families listed.
-Ballas/Hough Fam: Mark, Derek, Julianne
10 mirrorballs
The smallest family, Derek and Julianne are siblings, but they practically grew up with Mark. By far the most successful family in terms of mirrorball trophies, Derek has six, Julianne has two, and Mark has two, they also have the best choreography. Derek and Julianne have an Emmy award while Mark has been nominated for an Emmy. In reality, this fam has the most fans despite only having three members. Derek, Julianne, and Mark are the DWTS pros that really made a name for themselves outside of DWTS and have the most social media followers. After Julianne left DWTS and Derek left just last season, Mark is the only one remaining from this family.
-Utan Girls. Witney, Lindsay, Brittany, Jenna
1 mirrorball
The newest ‘fam’. All of them were born and raised in Utah and have been good friends since childhood. They are also all SYTYCD alums, with Witney and Lindsay from season 9 and Brittany and Jenna from season 10. Witney and Lindsay joined DWTS in season 16, and Brittany and Jenna joining in season 18. Witney is the only member of this fam to have won a mirrorball but that’s partly because Brittany and Jenna are not pros and are only part of the troupe. This is the group that fluctuates the most, Witney won a mirrorball and also managed to snag an Emmy nomination, but afterwards, she didn’t create the choreography she had in season 19. After Witney seemed to peak, Lindsay became a pro again and created great choreography for her partners in season 21 and 22, but will it last?
Just my interpretation.
@Alison
Thanks for the lesson.
And I think you’ve got Jenna in the wrong “family”
I went to the show tonight in Melbourne. It was a lot of fun. A few empty seats, but I’d say 95% full.
Good variety of dancing. Cha Cha, Contemporary, Salsa, Jive. Nice segments of when Maks used to teach dancing and the other dancers in the show pretended to be his students.
Peta and Jenna were in the audience and I was onl y3 rows behind them and I managed to get a selfie and chat for a minute. Maks made a nod to Peta during the show and she was having fun, screaming and clapping loud each time.
@Jennifer
I still feel like Jenna is closer to Witney, Lindsay and Brittany than she is to Maks, Val or Peta. But I can see why you want to put her there.
The empty spaces were in the balcony Matt, assuming you were in the orchestra you probably didn’t see it. Good to hear you had a great time and meeting Peta must have been really cool. She always seems nice to any fans who approach her.
Awesome Matt! Thanks for letting us know. I’m going to feature your thoughts in a new post. 😉
Did we need the “lesson” in la familia? I agree that Jenna is in the wrong family and would add that Derek has a total of SEVEN Emmy nominations, two of which he won. Julianne has TWO Emmy nominations (both are shared with Derek), one of which she won. Does Mark only have one? I think so, but I suspect he will add to his collection and share a nomination with Derek in July.
Oh Heidi, I can’t wait for the Emmy Nominations this year and you said it.
And I agree about Jenna being grouped in the wrong family. See the new “Our Way” tour post to see what I mean, Alison. And if she is closer to Witney, etc, why isn’t she in Utah getting ready for the “Born and Raised In Utah” show like the others?
I think Jenna migrated to the other side, if you will, in part because her bf is in that “fam” which is almost cult-like. I’ve noticed she never interacts with the other girls anymore, and she does not look terribly happy to me. Maybe it’s just her personality, but I have a feeling that membership will be short lived.
The thing I really wanted to say though is that it’s not that the fam have more devoted fans, but that they flaunt their success like no other. Derek, Jules, and Mark are much more humble and let their actions speak for themselves. They attract a different type of audience. Notice how Maks and Val always label whatever they’re doing as the first, or the best, or none like it before. In a recent article Val even likened this tour to the play “Hamilton” which nearly gave me a coughing fit lol.
Heidi, I may be wrong but I believe Julianne has three Emmy nominations as she was nominated solo in 2008 I think for her mambo with Helio. I agree that the Ballas/Hough choreography is certainly Emmy worthy,
I guess Jenna might have migrated to the other side, and it is strange how she seems more focused on Our Way instead of Born and Raised in Utah.
I was also almost tempted to add Emma with Witney, Lindsay, and Brittany, but she wasn’t born and raised in Utah, which is why I refrained.
I would have added Tony to the Maks/Val “fam”. He’s a friend and co-owner of the DWM studios.
At one point I think Sasha was considered family but after his blatant disregard for fam loyalty and helping Derek and being so gracious, I think they pretty much dropped him. Sasha is too kind and humble to be in that group anyway.
I agree with the posts that Jenna is in the wrong family. She’s definitely working on her M.R.S. and Val is her intended. It may not pan out that way, but I truly do believe that is her goal. But I don’t know her so I could be off base.
@molly
I could’ve added Sasha to the Ballas/Hough ‘fam’, just the way I could’ve added Tony to the ‘official’ fam or Emma to Utah girls, man the more I’m reading these comments, the more I want to edit my list
I would definitely want to hang out with Hough/Ballas if I had to chose any family lol. I don’t know them but Linds/Wit seem like the type to exclude others (Jenna/Britt) when they are around.
He likened their tour to Hamilton? Wow. More and more deluded all the time.
You could be right, Melissa – there were more DWTS nominations due to the lack of SYTYCD and I don’t follow Julianne that closely. Cheryl and Louis both have nominations as well.
Re: Julianne’s Emmy nominations, I think Melissa is right. I looked it up and she was nominated in 2008 for her Mambo with Helio (which happens to be to the same song as Shawn and Derek’s Emmy-winning Mambo 5 years later). She was up against dances from Season 3 of SYTYCD and lost to Wade Robson’s “Hummingbird and Flower” routine. Louis also got a nomination alongside SYTYCD routines (Season 2 in his case) but IIRC he was the ONLY nominee to not win that year (it was a 3-way tie). Cheryl and Tony on the other hand didn’t have SYTYCD to contend with when trying to get their nominations because, for whatever reason, SYTYCD didn’t get any nominations for its first season (they ended up loosing to High School Musical).
Alicia, same here. I would definitely hang out with Hough/Ballas fam. They are so humble. I bet most of DWTS viewers don’t even know Derek plays so many musical instruments. Classy is when someone has everything to flaunt but chooses not to show it. I also think if Julianne would’ve stayed longer on DWTS as a pro, the Hough/Ballas fam would’ve gotten more MBTs. I may not like her as a judge but as a pro, she’s a force to be reckon with. 🙂
My problem with the c-bros is when they bring their Fam mentality (throwing shades at other pros and their partners on social media) to DWTS. The producers also seems to feed this kind of attitude. Loud doesn’t mean they have more fans than the Houghs/Ballas.
Cheryl, Louis, and Tony each have a nomination (in 2006 or 2007), for a pro dance each, if I remember correctly, plus Cheryl has one with Nick Kosovich, also for a pro dance. Travis Wall, Teddy Forance, and Nick Lazzarini were nominated for a special dance, and Allison and Chelsie were each nominated with Derek for a pro dance, while Witney was nominated for dances with Alfonso, Julianne with Helio and twice with Derek for pro dances, winning with him for Elastic Heart. Mark was nominated for dances with Shawn, while Derek has been nominated 7 times (4 times with his pro partner/s and 3 times ‘alone’), winning twice. This year I’m hoping for Derek to be nominated alone for dances with Bindi, and with Mark for the two dances they did together with Bindi and/or Alexa. Mark really deserves a win for his dances for/with Paige this past season, too. And maybe Lindsay will get nominated for dances with Wanya. Don’t know why there was no nomination for any of Derek’s dances for Nastia – they were all beautiful. SYTYCD REALLY fell down the last 2 seasons choreography-wise. We’ll see if anything gets nominated from them for last summer…
Er, Laurie, pretty sure we covered most of this already and the conversation started as a contrast between the Hough clan and the C-bro clan.
I think Derek/Mark will get a nomination, and possibly MAYBE Derek with Bindi – but I think that will be it for DWTS this time around. MAYBE Mark will replace Derek/Bindi, but I think Derek did more Emmy-friendly routines with Bindi, while Mark tends to focus more on concept and staging more than choreography – and there’s NOTHING wrong with that. I think he tends to make the right choices for his celebrity in the context of what DWTS is – but it doesn’t always translate to Emmy. Derek does the same (does his best for his celeb in context of DWTS), but his style lends itself more to Emmy nominations.
I just don’t think we’re going to see three DWTS nominations just yet, although I agree that SYTYCD was on a real slide last year. The problem is that the vast majority of choreographers are geared to contemporary styles over ballroom and they are the ones making the decisions.
I do not like the new format of SYTYCD. There are only so many cutesie kid shows I can tolerate.
For me it has jumped the shark. I’d be surprised if the new format gets an Emmy nod. They’re going to have to go back to last season it was on.
While Lindsay is my favorite, and she’s done in awesome job with choreography in the past two seasons with Wanya and Alek, I don’t think it’s Emmy worthy just yet. If she can continue with the momentum she has from season 21 and 22, I see no reason why she shouldn’t get a mirrorball trophy in the near future, an Emmy nomination, and possibly a win. However, I do expect Derek to get a few more nominations under his belt, and maybe one for Mark as well.
Sorry PH – didn’t mean to go off-subject, but I find it interesting that only Derek, Julianne, Mark, and Witney have nominations for dances with celeb partners while all the others were for pro/special dances. Didn’t think I needed to explicate which ‘family’ each was in…
SYTYCD is only eligible for last summer, Molly. Not this one.
Thank you PH. I just meant that I don’t think this season will get a nomination at ANY time. Not necessarily this year.