Welcome to Pure Dancing with the Stars

The 2008 Dancing with the Stars Tour dates and locations have been announced. You can purchase tickets to the show on Ticketmaster.

The following Dancers and professionals are planning to be on tour: Lance Bass, Toni Braxton, Maurice Greene, Marlee Matlin, Mark Ballas, Cheryl Burke, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Derek Hough, Kym Johnson, Alec Mazo, Fabian Sanchez, Lacey Schwimmer, Edyta Sliwinska, and Karina Smirnoff.

December 2008
17 - San Diego, CA - San Diego Sports Arena - Buy Tickets Online
18 - Ontario, CA - Citizens Business Bank Arena - Buy Tickets Online
19 - San Jose, CA - HP Pavilion - Buy Tickets Online
21 - Reno, NV - Reno Events Center - Buy Tickets Online
22 - Sacramento, CA - ARCO Arena - Buy Tickets Online
27 - Los Angeles, CA - Staples Center - Buy Tickets Online
28 - Glendale, AZ - Jobing.com Arena - Buy Tickets Online
29 - Las Vegas, NV - Orleans Arena - Buy Tickets Online
30 - Salt Lake City, UT - E Center - Buy Tickets Online

January 2009
2 - Tulsa, OK - BOK Center - Buy Tickets Online
4 - Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center - Buy Tickets Online
5 - San Antonio, TX AT&T Center - Buy Tickets Online
7 - Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center - Buy Tickets Online
8 - Moline, IL - i wireless Center - Buy Tickets Online
9 - Rosemont, IL - Allstate Arena - Buy Tickets Online
11 - Detroit, MI - Joe Louis Arena - Buy Tickets Online
12 - Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre - Buy Tickets Online
13 - Cleveland, OH - Wolstein Center - Buy Tickets Online
15 - Indianapolis, IN - Conseco Fieldhouse - Buy Tickets Online
16 - St. Louis, MO - Scottrade Center - Buy Tickets Online
17 - Cincinnati, OH - US Bank Arena - Buy Tickets Online
18 - Columbus, OH - Nationwide Arena - Buy Tickets Online
20 - Nashville, TN - Sommet Center - Buy Tickets Online
22 - Tampa, FL - St. Pete Times Forum - Buy Tickets Online
23 - Sunrise, FL - BankAtlantic Center - Buy Tickets Online
24 - Orlando, FL - Amway Arena - Buy Tickets Online
25 - Atlanta, GA - Gwinnett Center - Buy Tickets Online
27 - Greensboro, NC - Greensboro Coliseum - Buy Tickets Online
28 - Raleigh, NC - RBC Center - Buy Tickets Online
29 - Washington, DC - Verizon Center - Buy Tickets Online
30, 31 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena - Buy Tickets Online

February 2009
2 - Providence, RI - Dunkin Donuts Center - Buy Tickets Online
3 - Wilkes Barre, PA - Wachovia Arena - Buy Tickets Online
4 - Uniondale, NY - Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum - Buy Tickets Online
6 - Newark, NJ - Prudential Center - Buy Tickets Online
7 - Atlantic City, NJ - Boardwalk Hall - Buy Tickets Online
8 - Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Center - Buy Tickets Online

If you are planning to attend the Dancing with the Stars tour, let us know in the comments. We’d love to have you post your experience going to the tour and any pictures you might take from the tour.

This was an interesting video to see Nigel Lythgoe talking about Dancing with the Stars. He touches on some interesting issues about SYTYCD stars making the move over to Dancing with the Stars including Lacey Schwimmer and even the possibility of Chelsie Hightower being on the show. Chelsie is beautiful and would be an interesting addition to the show. Nigel also talked about fat dancers and what he thought about people calling Lacey Schwimmer a fat dancer.

Check out the video of Nigel:
Read more…

Reuters is reporting that Cloris Leachman has been hospitalized with pneumonia.

Oscar winning actress Cloris Leachman, who saw a resurgence in her popularity recently on the TV show “Dancing with the Stars,” has been hospitalized for pneumonia, celebrity TV show Entertainment Tonight reported on Monday.
…
Leachman, 82, became the oldest contestant ever when she appeared on this season’s “Dancing with the Stars” in the United States, in which celebrities are paired with professional dancers and compete in ballroom dancing.

She won a large fan base for her good sense of humor on the program, but was eliminated sixth in the competition.

Some have asked if Dancing with the Stars has a curse with all of these people getting injured (see Misty May, Kim K, and many other injuries too numerous to list.

Of course, I don’t believe in curses in general. However, even if I did believe in curses, I think it’s easy to see while there are all these injuries. It’s called people who are not usually active and bending like gumby actually doing those things. Welcome to dancing!!

I just heard them say that Lacey will be performing with her brother Benji on tomorrow’s Dancing with the Stars results show. That will be really cool. I always love watching Benji perform. Here’s a little video look at Lacey and Benji dancing together a few years back in Reno:

(Lacey joins about half way into the video)

I love watching Benji and his sister dance, but I wish Dancing with the Stars would have invited Benji and his cousin Heidi (also of So You Think You Can Dance fame) to perform on the show instead of Lacey. Benji and Heidi were just meant to dance together. If you don’t believe me, then check out Benji and Heidi’s Black Mambo performance on So You Think You Can Dance or even Benji and Heidi’s US Open Swing Dance Championship dance. Now that’s what I call dancing.

Brad Paisley will be performing tomorrow on Dancing with the Stars before hosting the CMA Awards the next night. What a busy man. Of course, the cool part for country music fans that love Dancing with the Stars is that Julianne Hough will be dancing on the show tomorrow night. Who would have thought that this is how Julianne Hough and Brad Paisley would be sharing the stage again? (Julianne toured with Brad Paisley earlier this year where she met Chuck Wicks)

Tomorrow is the Design a Dance performance where the audience got to select the dance, the song, the costume and the dancers. I think we can easily assume that the dancers that were selected for the design a dance competition were Julianne and Derek Hough. They are the most popular dancers and why else would Julianne be dancing tomorrow? Not exactly sure why Derek will be the guy other than it would be really cool to have Derek and Julianne dancing again together tomorrow night. Let’s just say that I’m not a betting man, but I know the show well and my bet is that Julianne and Derek will be dancing on the show tomorrow night.

Starting tomorrow, it looks like country music is taking over ABC. At least for a couple days. Not a problem for me.

Check out all the Dancing with the Stars music from October 20, 2008 where they introduced new dances and therefore an interesting mix of new music.

Lance & Lacey danced a West Coast Swing to the song “Breakin’ Dishes”—Rihanna

Toni & Alec danced a West Coast Swing to the song “The Way You Make Me Feel”—Michael Jackson

- Original Music Video
Susan & Tony danced a Hustle to the song “Upside Down”—Diana Ross

Warren & Kym danced a Hustle to the song “Funky Town”—Lipps Inc.

Cloris & Corky danced a Salsa to the song “Tres Deseos”—Gloria Estefan

Maurice & Cheryl danced a Salsa to the song “Everything I Can’t Have”—Robin Thicke

Brooke & Derek danced a Jitterbug to the song “Don’t Be Cruel”—Elvis Presley

Cody & Julianne danced a Jitterbug to the song “Big Time Operator”—Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

Everyone figured that Dancing with the Stars was going to do the same thing as they did when Sara Evans dropped out. Basically they did. They just revealed that Rocco and Karina were the bottom 2. That too was of no major surprise to anyone watching the show. Of course, I hope that Rocco and Karina can pour it on next week and that Cloris will lay even a worse egg than she did this week. I hope Len digs in and pulls out the 4 paddle we haven’t seen much. Cloris was funny the first show. Now she’s just annoying.

The highlight of the night was Derek and Julianne Hough dancing to Jennifer Hudson singing “Spotlight” You can see why Derek and Julianne are so successful. Just fantastic dancers. I’m sure Derek isn’t that fond of dancing with his sister, but I think the audience really enjoyed it. I know I did.

The other musical performance was by Kool and the Gang doing a Greatest Hits Medley. If I have time I’ll put together a list of all the songs they did. For now, here’s Celebration by Kool & the Gang

All of the couples that I really like our still in the show. Life is good. Next week’s Dancing with the Stars should be awesome since it’s Samba and Tango. Two very wonderful dances to watch.

Dang, I almost forgot. Maks and Edyta did the dance that Misty May was going to do to the song “Shake It” by Metro Station. Maks’ nerd outfit was spectacularly awful. What a way for him to end his season. I wouldn’t mind teaching Edyta though.

The following video by E! News Weekend is a good report on both Misty May’s Injury and Helio Castroneves’s tax evasion legal problems.

We know now that Misty May tore her Achilles. OUCH!!

I don’t know what to think about Helio, but we’ll just let it play out in the courts before we decide any sort of verdict.

It was a sad day for true Dancing with the Stars fans, because Misty May is injured and no longer on the show. Still a ton of great competitors and we have no clue who is really going to win this year. However, I would have liked to see Misty May finish developing herself on the show. I felt like she never broke out in her dancing.

Ok, Misty May aside, here’s the list of all the Dancing with the Stars music from tonight’s episode of DWTS.

Susan & Tony danced a Jive to the song Why Do Fools Fall in Love sung by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers

Lance & Lacey danced a Viennese Waltz to the song Let Me Leave sung by Marc Broussard

Maurice & Cheryl danced a Jive to the song Rock Around the Clock sung by Bill Haley & His Comets

Rocco & Karina danced a Viennese Waltz to the song What’s New Pussycat? sung by Tom Jones

Warren & Kym danced a Viennese Waltz to the song Lovin’ U sung by Alicia Keys

Cody & Julianne danced a Jive to the song Call Me The Breeze sung by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Toni & Alec danced a Viennese Waltz to the song Für Elise sung by Ludwig van Beethoven

Cloris & Corky danced a Jive to the song The Girl Can’t Help It sung by Little Richard

Brooke & Derek danced a Viennese Waltz to the song Daughters sung by John Mayer

- Original Music Video
Check out all the previous songs from Dancing with the Stars.

Brooke wrote on her blog about Derek Hough getting hurt while practicing for their Dancing with the Stars performance. Here’s an excerpt of what happened:

It has been an intense weekend, especially yesterday when Derek and I almost found ourselves out of the competition. Saturday, on the CBS stage, we were practicing as usual when Derek accidentally tripped over a box, while walking backwards. As he tried to break his fall, by jumping up, his foot caught a stage light which sent him further into the air. He landed on his back on the wooden dance floor and smashed the back of his head. He was disoriented, blacked out for a few seconds, and was flattened out in pain. He couldn’t move, I sat beside him as he layed there and we waited for help to arrive. Our producers called 911 and the paramedics arrived to carefully examine him. He suffered a neck injury last season which had him down for a week, so the reoccurance was definately scary. They rushed him off, stretcher and all, in the ambulance for further testing in the ER.

Derek hurt himself last season too. Amazing that a dancer with such wonderful precision on the dance floor could be so clumsy. Although, I don’t think I’m one to talk either.