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PureDWTS Season 28: What The Show Needs to Do to “Fix” Itself

After an 8 month hiatus (the longest in the history of the US version of the show), the next season of DWTS is upon us! Admittedly, I enjoyed the break – aside from the reprieve it gave me in my already-busy work/school schedule (I graduate in October with a bachelor of science in social media marketing…does this officially make me an expert blogger now? 🙂 ), it gave me time to ruminate on just how season 27 went so far off the rails, and what needs to be done to get DWTS back on track.

One opinion I heard quite a bit in the off-season? “Bobby is the reason why season 27 sucked!” While I agree that Bobby seemed to dry-hump my last nerve on a weekly basis last season, here’s a revelation I had…

…Bobby wasn’t the reason season 27 sucked. Bobby was simply a symptom of a much bigger problem: the show neglecting its core audience in favor of foolishly pursuing a wider, younger audience by tinkering too much with a formula that already worked pretty well on its own.

This isn’t something that happened overnight – I’d estimate it probably started about ten years ago, with season 9 (aka “the kitchen sink season with wayyyyy too many couples” – and also my first season here at Pure), and has simply gone through a cycle of snowballing and slightly receding since then. We had season 9 that threw a whopping 16 couples at us, absurd new dance styles and challenges, and the biggest ringer (Mya) and biggest ego (Donny) we had seen to date. Then we had the pared-down season 10, with only 11 couples and relatively normal dance styles.  Season 11 brought our first truly “controversial” contestant – Bristol Palin, whose continued presence (and only mediocre performance) seemed to polarize even the most laid-back fans. Season 12 was a return to form, casting-wise, but was the first time we saw the invisible ABC family hand pulling the strings to keep a Disney kid (Chelsea Kane) in the game despite them simply not having the votes. Season 13 gave us a pro shakeup, but otherwise seemed relatively tame; season 14’s agenda seemed to include making William Levy “happen”, despite being a fair-to-middling dancer that was a relative unknown to the show’s audience. Season 15 was the dumpster fire many of us recall as the All-Star season; season 16, aside from its unexpected outcome, was also fairly tame in the grand scheme of things.  So was season 17, which ended up being a pleasant surprise despite a cast that seemed pretty ho-hum initially. Season 18 saw the Meryl & Maks PR machine; season 19 gifted us with some great dancing and a cast that seemed to get along really, really well. Season 20 was “Val’s Rumer’s season” from the jump, and seemed to get extra nasty with the ringer finger-pointing. Season 21, aside from some shady partner-shuffling and Tamar being…well, Tamar, was relatively uneventful. Season 22 had a great cast, aside from there simply being too much competition; season 23 saw the rise of a previously-unknown-but-later-much-beloved star (Hinch), only to get felled in the end by a contestant that had been rather inconsistent throughout the season and conveniently was going on tour (Laurie). Season 24, which I like to refer to as “chock full o’ ringers”, was a good season, aside from being a bit of a thought experiment on what happens when you throw an ungodly number of female ringers in with a bunch of men that have absolutely no dance experience; season 25 was the last season I remember that was good on the whole, with great dancing and a generally quite likeable cast. And then the hammer dropped: ABC made the dumbfounding decision to pick up the defunct American Idol, hire Katy Perry to judge, and then fall all over themselves to cater to her demand for a whopping $25 million salary…and things start to get dicey REAL quick…

…2018 rolls around, and we’re told that we’re getting a paltry 3-week spring season of the show with just athletes, and it ends up being a pretty predictable (and snoozeworthy) endeavor. We’re treated to the delightfully un-manipulated DWTS Juniors airing concurrent with the fall season which is…a dumpster fire of epic proportions. Terrible dancers with obnoxious personalities defy logic with their staying power (Joe & Bobby), one ringer (Tinashe) quickly gets eliminated while production struggles to keep the other ringer (Alexis) in the game with a schlocky and painfully-forced showmance with her partner. The one really good male celebrity (Juan Pablo) is unsettlingly “juan-note” and just seems to do the same routine each week, and the full package of skill, personality, and fanbase (DeMarcus) gets injured and never quite gets his mojo back. By the time Bobby got his trophy, the wheels had completely fallen off season 27.

When you take season 27 in the bigger context of what has been happening on the show the past ten years, it’s easier to see what went so horribly wrong: the show was likely going through its usual “make a stupid change, regret it, change it back the next season” cycle, and the arrival of the albatross that is American Idol simply put a brick on the accelerator: what probably would have been a relatively minor snafu turned into a flaming pile of garbage instead.

The news surrounding the new season seems to indicate that they knew they messed up with season 27, and to quote dear ol’ Tommy Bergeron “We hear you.” Do they, though? I’m seeing the same promise we hear season after season that they’re “going after bigger celebs” and “making format changes”– and I’m not sure that’s what the show needs. Hell, I’m fairly certain it’s not what the show needs – I think we need a “back to basics” season like season 10 to cleanse our palates. This show has never been about getting “big stars”; its early success was built on a bunch of has-beens and d-listers attempting to learn how to dance while giving us all a shot of nostalgia. Part of me wonders if we’ll lose a bit of the magic if they actually do manage to get a current A-lister on the show (I’m dubious that they’ll actually pull it off). As for format changes – the only changes I want to see are a return to simpler times, when they didn’t do wacky stuff like the dance-offs, immunity, live voting, etc. What I think we might end up with: a judges’ save, which doesn’t really do anything but piss off the fans.  But as is DWTS is wont to do – they will probably make some nonsensical choices and call them “improvements”, and we will probably be eye-rolling and shaking our heads once we hear about all these super-duper top secret format changes.

All complaints aside, if this 8 month hiatus has done anything, it’s given me a clearer slate and a lot more of an open mind for the season to come.  I’m willing to give it a fair shake – whether I continue to do so depends entirely upon these “changes” we’re being promised and how they manage to play out.

Thoughts? Feelings headed into the new season? I’ve got more content queued up for the coming days and weeks…stay tuned 😉

July 24, 2019 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

PureDWTS Alfonso Ribeiro Sues Fortnite Creators Over Their Use of the “Carlton Dance” (POLL)

So, this is admittedly a bit DWTS-adjacent, but given that this topic has somewhat been touched on in the past here (and there’s not much to report on DWTS at the moment, outside of tour updates), I figured “Why not see what our readers think?”

For those of you who haven’t heard, news broke this morning that season 19 DWTS champ Alfonso Ribeiro actually filed two separate lawsuits against Epic Games (the creators of Fortnite) and Take Two Interactive (the creators of the NBA 2K series) for their use of his famous “Carlton Dance”:

Carlton wants his dance back.

Actor Alfonso Ribeiro is suing to stop two video game developers from selling a dance popularized by his “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” character.
In two lawsuits filed Monday, Ribeiro said the companies have “unfairly profited” from using his likeness and from exploiting his “protected creative expression.” The suits name Fortnite developer Epic Games Inc., and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., creator of the NBA 2K series, and several of its subsidiaries.
Epic Games declined to comment on the lawsuit. Take-Two subsidiary 2K Games did not respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuits ask a California federal court to bar the game developers from using, selling or displaying the dance. The suits state that Ribeiro is in the process of copyrighting the dance.
Ok, so right off the bat, I’ve gotta raise my eyebrows a bit at the fact that Fonz is “in the process of copyrighting the dance”, but doesn’t have it copyrighted YET. I think it might be hard to prove copyright infringement if you don’t even officially own the copyright yet (and the question remains whether you can truly copyright a dance at all – more on that later). I also find the timing a bit curious, as both Fortnite and NBA 2K have been around for over a year (the latter definitely longer, though I don’t know how long they’ve been using the dance), and Fonz is just now slapping them with a suit. But I digress…
…I’ve said more than once that I think copyrighting specific dance moves is a slippery slope – given that dance is an art form that has very much evolved from collaboration and various individual moves slowly becoming widely-known pieces of dance vocabulary, I think granting people the ability to copyright certain moves has a potential chilling effect on dance as a whole. I’m all for people getting credit for their intellectual property, but I think within a dance context that should be applied to entire choreographic works, rather than just specific moves…particularly very simplistic ones, like “The Carlton”, which I think could be argued is a very natural movement that pre-dates Alfonso making it his “thing”. Alfonso has even admitted that he basically came up with the dance just by watching a young Courteney Cox dancing onstage with Bruce Springsteen in the “Dancing in the Dark” video, and imitating Eddie Murphy’s “White People Dance” from his Raw standup performance. All that being said – Alfonso might still have (somewhat of) a leg to stand on.  Check out this post from a trademark lawyer’s website, titled “Can I Trademark a Dance?” – it basically says you can trademark the NAME of a dance, but not necessarily the move itself. So if I’m interpreting it correctly, Alfonso might be able to claim that the move is called “The Carlton” (especially since the Fortnite character that does it supposedly looks a lot like his Fresh Prince character) but I don’t know that he can really claim to have invented the dance and own exclusive rights to it in any capacity. And who the hell knows how you go about monetizing that type of trademark. But here’s where I think it gets even more complicated: I’m not even sure that Alfonso owns the rights to the character of Carlton Banks – it’s hard telling, but I think most of the rights to the characters on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actually belong to Andy & Susan Borowitz, the show’s creators, and to a lesser degree, Benny Medina (whose life experiences the show was loosely based on).  So does he really have the capacity to say “This is the Carlton dance!” when he himself might not even own the rights to the character that performed it…? I dunno…it all seems pretty murky to me, and it seems like a bit of a cash grab on Alfonso’s part.
But what do you guys think? Vote in the poll below and speak your mind in the comments!
December 18, 2018 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

PureDWTS Court Rants: Why Hayley Didn’t Get A Pro Spot on Season 27

Ok, so when the pro lineup was announced earlier this week on GMA, I saw a lot of folks thrilled for Brandon – and even more that were sad about Hayley not getting promoted to pro. I was honestly kind of shocked that so many people were incredulous about her not getting a pro spot – to me, it was pretty easy to see why…they just ran out of spots.  But in light of me getting some genuinely curious questions from fans who wondered why Hayley was passed over for a pro role, here’s my honest opinion.

But first, let’s get this main point straight: there is not an unlimited number of pro slots.

THERE IS NO MORE ROOM AT THE INN.  I REPEAT – NO. ROOM. AT. THE. INN!

Fall season traditionally has had (13) couples (we won’t talk about the chaos of season 9).  It’s a nice number, and usually fits pretty nicely with the (usual) 10 week schedule.  Since (13) is an odd number, we’re either going to end up with (6) female pros and (7) male ones, or vice versa. Which we get more of is solely dependent upon who gets cast – if they happen to get (7) female celebs to sign on, then it’s your lucky day, boys – one more male pro slot just opened up.  Sorry, ladies – we only need (6) of you this season. Just the way the cookie crumbles, I’m afraid.  Due to the budget and schedule, it’s simply not feasible to “add” another couple, particularly if it’s only so one of the pros can have a shot.  NONE of the pros are that important.

But why couldn’t they have sat one of the other female pros out, so Hayley could get a turn?

Ok, let’s take a look at who we’re working with here: of the 6 female pros this season, 5 are MBT holders.  Right off the bat, I don’t think any MBT-holder is going to get benched in favor of a pro that isn’t battle-tested. One of them is a 2-time MBT winner, and the sole OG pro from the formative years of the show – and Cheryl is still really popular, so as far as I’m concerned, she probably has an open spot waiting for her whenever she wants. Jenna is the current MBT-holder, and just came off a strong season with Adam and an impressive first choreographic outing on SYTYCD – regardless of how you feel about Jenna as a person, the girl’s got choreo chops, and that’s what this show needs right now…so I don’t see the sense in cutting her in favor of Hayley. Lindsay is another choreo heavyweight and a recent MBT winner – plus she seems to get along fantastically with all of her partners, so it’s beneficial to keep her on as well.  Witney’s MBT win wasn’t as recent, but she is a choreographer that has started blossoming these past few seasons…so it makes sense to keep her as well. That leaves us with Emma & Sharna.  Emma’s a fairly recent MBT-winner as well, and is extremely good at turning partners that are not much to sneeze at on paper into competent contestants – plus she’s married to another pro, which TPTB need now that their token married couple has flown the coop. Sharna’s MBT-less, but has more than proven herself as a skilled choreographer – and she’s popular. I’m not sure who we’re supposed to be cutting here…

But it’s not fair that Hayley’s been in the troupe for 7 seasons, and Brandon’s only been in it for 3 seasons and he got a pro spot first!

First, you need to let go of the notion that this show somehow has to be “fair”. It seldom is, particularly to the female pros; and then there’s the small matter of Val basically being handed ringer after ringer, season after season. But I digress. Secondly, you’re comparing apples & oranges – Hayley is a contemporary dancer that only started dancing ballroom within the last 3-4 years; Brandon is a ballroom dancer that is cross-trained in contemporary and other styles, and has been doing it for quite a bit longer than Hayley.  On paper, Brandon is a much safer bet – especially when you look at some of the other contemporary-dancers-who-got-a-crash-course-in-ballroom pros we’ve had: Tyne (who had one short, unmemorable season and we never saw her again) and Allison (great at contemporary, but not-so-great at ballroom/Latin, and was cut after 4 seasons).  Right now, the ballroom dancers cross-trained in other styles have a lot easier row to hoe on DWTS than do the contemporary dancers who have only taken up ballroom in the last few years. Brandon also won the junior pro competition on DWTS back in 2007. And once again, THEY NEEDED MORE MALE PROS THIS SEASON. It’s not as if Hayley would have gotten a spot if Brandon didn’t – she can’t partner a female celeb. Also, tenure in the troupe isn’t everything – we’ve seen enough troupe members do a handful of seasons and then get let go, and Sasha seems to get shuffled back to the troupe every so often as well, despite being promoted to pro awhile back.

But why do the men seem to get promoted from troupe more often than the women?

I’m not sure this is really true, as the last few promotions from the troupe (prior to Brandon) that we’ve seen are Alan, Jenna, Lindsay (although she was a pro to begin with, went to the troupe, then went back to pro) and Witney – statistically, you’re more likely to get promoted to pro if you’re a female in the troupe than a male, as the female pro lineup seems to vary quite a bit more these days due to marriages/pregnancies.  But as a side note, I’ll say this: the current female pros, on the whole, are FAR more skilled as teachers and choreographers than the male pros.  Every single female pro in the lineup this season is both a stellar choreographer and a stellar teacher – I can’t say the same for the men.  I honestly feel like the male pros as a whole need all the help they can get – with the departure of Mark & Derek, there is little hope in terms of strong male choreographers.  Sasha & Artem seem to really try, and seem to do pretty well about 60% of the time; I think Alan is still pretty green and trying to figure out his choreographic identity; Gleb & Keo, bless them, are not great choreographers. You know how I feel about Val’s choreography – it’d be pretty good, if he would just stop with all the props/time-wasting/troupe-overutilization.  We need a dynamite male choreographer – and I think it could be Brandon. I heard tremendous praise for his choreography skills during Juniors, and since he’s coming from the same school/era that gave us Lindsay, Witney, & Jenna, I think he’s got some serious chops. I tend to think of it more as a compliment to the women that they seem to be keeping the ladies the same while shaking up the male pro lineup more and more these days – the women are killing it, so why mess with something that works? The men need work – so they keep tweaking the lineup.

But…but…will Hayley ever got a shot at being a pro???

I’m sure she’ll get her shot, probably within the next year or so.  I think it helped that Sharna sat out Juniors, as that created a mentor vacancy for Hayley to fill and somewhat prove herself.  I think Peta’s out for the foreseeable future (if not permanently), as she’s expressed a desire for more kids; additionally, Sasha & Emma have said they want to start trying for kids next year, so depending on their success in that arena (hehe), we could see a female pro slot opening up in the spring (if there’s a spring season) or fall (more likely). There’s also the fact that both Lindsay & Witney have been married a few years now – what’s to say they might not start thinking about kids soon? Or even Jenna? And then there’s Sharna, who seems to be blossoming professionally – she may find herself occupied with other gigs before long, and might decide that she’s outgrown DWTS. There’s not a single pro that has been on every single season of DWTS – the pro lineup isn’t static, and if you’re patient, long-running troupe members do eventually get promoted. Relax – I’m sure Hayley will get her moment, when a slot opens up.

Just start praying for a DWTS baby boom, I guess 😉

August 30, 2018 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

PureDWTS Season 25, Week -2: What’s Gettin’ Court’s Goat Today??? Jake T. Austin, Canadian Voting, Married Couples on DWTS

Given that we’re roughly 2 weeks out from the premiere, let’s just think of this as week negative 2 😛 Came up with this post to cobble together odds and ends that maybe weren’t quite enough to warrant their own post, but I wanted to share nonetheless – this may or may not become a regular feature, depending on just how often I’m finding my goat gotten by this show 😛 ONWARD!!! Read more..

September 8, 2017 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

PureDWTS Season 24: Why Normani Didn’t Win

So, to say that the four days following the announcement of the winner of season 24 of DWTS have been “interesting”, would be an understatement 😛 I’ve seen mainly rejoicing, but also some general rage from the Harmonizers, who simply can’t fathom how Normani came in 3rd place and insist that the show must be rigged/racist/sexist/capitalist/whatever-ist because she didn’t win. While this is unfortunately the type of behavior many of us have come to expect from that particular group of fans, there have been a few fans that have sincerely expressed a desire to know why I think Normani didn’t win.  So here is my sincere response – if you are genuinely puzzled as to how it happened, this is my personal opinion, backed up with some numbers and some general observations about voting behavior. Very little of this actually has anything to do with Normani herself – most of these are factors that were out of her control, out of her fans’ control, and weren’t really things that anyone (other than maybe the executive producers) could have done anything to fix. I think Normani herself was just kind of a victim of circumstance this season – just not destined to win, for whatever reason. So the cries of “You’re just being mean to Normani!!!”? Keep ’em to yourself or GTFO.

So if you are genuinely interested, read on – and if you can remain civil and level-headed, feel free to comment or ask questions. But if you’re just here to complain about us or just generally be obnoxious, I will delete comments and permanently blacklist posters without a second thought – I’ve never witnessed the same level of vitriol from some fanbases as I saw this season.  I have no time for it. Read more..

May 27, 2017 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

PureDWTS Season 24 Court Rants: The Real Problem With The Girl Group Team Dance

And no, it’s not solely just “sexism” from the judges/audience/viewers – stay with me.

Over the past 48 hours, I have rolled my eyes so hard over some of the complaints about the group dances that it’s a wonder they haven’t gotten stuck.  The majority of the ridiculous comments seem to be coming from the disgruntled #TeamGirlGroup crowd, who seem eager to complain about “sexism” on the show. Yes, sexism is a problem on DWTS – a big one, and one that Heidi & I will attempt to tackle in a future post. But why the Team Girl Group fans are complaining, I’m not sure, because the girls got one point more than the guys did – last I checked, the “winner” of the team dance was determined by who got more points. So congrats – you won. Why are you so upset?

My guess is that they’re mad about Team Boy Band generally getting more positive feedback from both the judges and the viewers – to which I say “well, tough luck” because people disagreeing with you is kind of a fact of life. You’re never going to agree with everyone, all the time. But in the interest of turning this into a teaching moment, I’m going to indulge some of you and explain just what many of us found wrong with the girl’s dance, and what the boys team did right. Whether you choose to actually consider it is up to you – but I can tell you now that empty accusations of “sexism!!!” undermine the real instances of sexism we encounter on a daily basis; and within the context of DWTS, believe me – women in general (particularly the female pros) tend to get screwed on a regular basis.

First, let me lead with this: I do not blame the female celebs for any of the failures of their team dance, so if you’re trying to twist this into “You’re being mean to Normani!” or “You’re being really unfair to Heather!”, you’re putting up straw men, you’re gonna get called out, and you’re gonna look dumb. The onus is on the pros to create and choreograph a suitable routine to make their partners look good – and I feel like the male pros failed their partners. EPICALLY. I also don’t blame the judges, because for once, I think they were pretty on-the-money with their critiques and scores (I’ve written off the extra point as a sympathy point, given as a bit of an “oh boy, your pros really screwed you – here, have an extra point!” consolation prize) – I don’t think they were completely off-base in what they were saying. And actually, I don’t blame the powers that be, either – I actually think the girls got a much better set of songs to work with (including one sung by one of the girls on the team – ahem) that gave them a lot more creative potential than the songs that were given to the boys’ team. Really and truly, the stars were aligned for the girls to really slay the team dance – and then the male pros kinda shat all over the opportunity. Read more..

April 27, 2017 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

PureDWTS Season 24 Court Rants: I Don’t Care How “Rabid” Your Fanbase Is, You Won’t Win Without the General Audience Vote!

For the regulars, you probably have witnessed what prompted this rant 😛 For the non-regulars, bear with me: it seems like every season, there is at least one fanbase that just bugs the ever-loving sh*t out of me – and it’s usually because said fanbase decides to obnoxiously remind the entire online DWTS fandom how awesome their favorite is, and how they’re going to win, and how they’re sooooo much better than other contestants, and how much harder they’re gonna vote than all the other fans, how rabid & supportive the fanbase is, etc.  Basically – if they can think of something to boast about, they will.  Loudly, frequently, and obnoxiously…and the rest of the fans just have to grit their teeth and bear it until the season ends or that particular contestant gets eliminated.

But here’s the funny part: for all the boasting these fanbases do, very seldom do their contestants actually win DWTS.  Why? To quote one of my Twitter followers, “If you have to tell us how big it is…it’s probably not that big.” 😉 But seriously, though – there’s a bit more to it than that.  You have to take viewing demographics into account, and whether or not that fanbase aligns well with the main viewing demographic; you also have to consider if there’s another contestant on a particular season who perhaps aligns better with the main viewing demographic.  The bottom line is this:

You cannot win DWTS if you don’t have the main viewing demographic of the show on your side.

And right now, I can hear the defiant protests of hoards of Harmonizers 😛 Go ahead – you guys can tell us all till you’re blue in the face how “rabid” you are, how “organized” you are, how “passionate & committed” you are.  It comes across as a tad insecure, but go ahead.  But I’m gonna warn you right now, unless Normani can get demographics on her side (or the show tries to pull off a pimping of never-before-seen proportions), I can almost guarantee she will not win. Let me explain why, using historical data from the show…

Read more..

March 24, 2017 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

PureDWTS Season 23, Court Rants: Why I Don’t Really Care About the Troupe

Let me preface this rant with this: I know everyone is excited for the season to start.  I know that there hasn’t been a whole lot to report (yet). So I’m willing to cut people a little bit of slack – I think we’re all just looking for stuff to discuss until the next piece of intel falls into our laps. What’s puzzling to me is that of all things there is to talk about, I’m seeing an inordinate number of questions about the troupe – a fixture on the show that I find to be of little consequence anymore.

Not sure if it’s just not as exciting to talk about the pros that we’ve seen year after year or if people really do feel passionately about the troupe, but I guess it’s just hard for me to relate when people seem very invested in whether or not [insert dancer here] is going to be in the troupe again or might get a shot at pro a certain season.  It’s of such little interest to me that I don’t even really actively seek spoilers about the troupe in the pre-season – I’d rather focus my efforts on the pros and their celeb partners, so you’ll have to forgive me if I respond with a bit of frustration when I get questions on Twitter about “Have you heard who’s in the troupe?” or “Do you think so-and-so will get promoted to pro this season?”

So for those of you who don’t understand why the troupe is not all that important to me (and Heidi, really), I give you this: the 7 reasons why Court doesn’t care about the troupe. Read more..

August 15, 2016 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

PureDWTS Court Rants: The Argument in Favor of Outside Choreographers

Ever since the “Choreography Emmy-gate” scuttlebutt erupted last summer, there seems to be a new, controversial topic I see thrown around more and more amongst the fans: the pros using/not using outside choreographers. And there have been offshoots of that topic as well – how much credit outside choreographers should be given (if any), the contractual ins-and-outs of using outside choreographers, and whether or not the use of an outside choreographer somehow makes a pro “less talented”.  And honestly – it kinda gets my goat, because fans that know little to nothing about how choreography works suddenly have their noses in the air about some of the pros on the show using them. So I’ve been meaning to do this for awhile now: just a post setting the record straight, and hopefully addressing some of the misguided opinions I’ve heard about the use of outside choreographers on the show. Read more..

April 8, 2016 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

PureDWTS Season 19, Week 3 – A Brief Rant on “Movie Week” Issues

Since Heidi’s “Who’s Dancing What?” post is getting a tad long, I thought I had better move this over to its own post and open the floor a bit more for discussion 🙂 So as of yesterday, we received intel that Janel & Val had switched songs – they were no longer dancing to “I Feel Pretty”, and had been seen rehearsing to “America” instead.  At the time, we didn’t have an explanation as to why; but now, with some additional intel, I feel as though a bit of a rant is in order…

…but first, an explanation of what I like to call West Side Storygate.  As of Monday, we had heard that SOMEONE was dancing a Viennese waltz to “I Feel Pretty”; based on hints Derek gave during the show, we assumed it was Bethany & Derek.  However, Val actually confirmed in a post-show interview that it was he & Janel, and that he had requested the dance style be changed from Viennese waltz to jazz “in order to do the movie justice”.  Apparently he actually choreographed a pretty cool routine that was reminiscent of the big dance at the gym in the movie – the troupe was involved, they were going to have a big dance set, the works.  However, apparently later in the week (I guess Tuesday or Wednesday), the studio that owns the rights to the movie allegedly said “Whoa, hey, time out there, chief – you can use ‘I Feel Pretty’, but the dance can’t look anything like the movie!” So basically, kind of the same thing that happened to Derek in season 15, when he & Shawn were tasked with doing a Knightrider-themed bhangra…but were not legally allowed to use any elements from Knightrider.  A tough row to hoe for any pro, methinks.  So Val basically had to redo the entire thing – they switched songs, changed the set, omitted the troupe, and redid most of the choreography.  Janel picks up choreography quickly and should PROBABLY be ok in time for the show, but Val was (understandably) upset.  Which brings me to my rant…

…WHY WEREN’T ALL THE RIGHTS TO THE SONGS AND MOVIES BEING USED CLEARED PRIOR TO THIS WEEK???!!! Seems like several couples were still waiting to see what their music and dance styles would be as of Monday evening – that’s gotta be a tad stressful for the pros, who then have to scramble to adapt to themes, music, and dance styles thrown at them at the last minute.  Seems like they haven’t had this problem so much in previous season that have done a “movie week” theme – maybe we just didn’t hear about them, but I’m wondering if perhaps Rob  & Co. have tried to be a bit too accommodating to the celebs this season, and let them suggest the movies they want to dance to….and that’s resulted in some time crunches & movie/music clearance issues.  Remember, the added complication of “movie week” clearances is that you have to clear both the song AND the theme rights to the movie – and the latter category is where we encounter most of the issues.  So anywho – what are you guys’ thoughts as viewers? Would you mind seeing a dance using a song from a certain movie that really wasn’t at all reminiscent of that particular movie? Is there any benefit to letting the celebs pick what movies they want? Do we really need movie week at all? Let’s hear it 🙂

And because I’m not a total Crabby McCrabberpants…here’s a pic of Witney holding Alfonso’s adorable son.  Because ADORABLE BABIES, dammit. 😉

September 27, 2014 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.