Dancing with the Stars Season 9 | Pure Dancing with the Stars

DWTS Who Wore it Better? Part XIII – The Chelsie Appreciation Edition

Well she may not be on the show this season, but “out of sight” is certainly not “out of mind” for us here at PureDWTS! What better time to show Chelsie she’s loved than now? 🙂

I must confess, due to my own pessimistic tendencies, this was originally supposed to be the Anna Apprecation Edition, because I was so certain she wouldn’t be back this season. But thankfully, she is, and now I have inspiration to create subsequent editions of WWIB featuring all of the female pros – eventually. 😉 Finding costume dittos is hard sometimes, even for someone with a freakishly near-photographic memory like mine…

Battle of the peach jeweled ballgown: Brooke’s Viennese waltz with Derek in season 7 vs. Chelsie’s pro dance with Dmitry to Jewel in season 8

Heidi: I think the look worked on Brooke simply so that the dress didn’t detract from the emotion of the dance, which was a Viennese Waltz to Daughters, by John Mayer. It’s kind of plain on her, otherwise. I prefer it on Chelsie, and I like her softer hairstyle with this dress. Of course, it could just be the lighting. 🙂

Courtney: I noticed several patterns with Chelsie’s costume choices while compiling this post. The first is that she has an affinity for doing very lifty, contemporary choreo while wearing shortened ballgowns. You can’t see in this picture, but this dress has actually been shortened substantially – check it out on the Randall website. May not be of any consequence to you guys, but I do find it kind of interesting how the costume department, when pressed for time & unable to create new costumes, just takes what they have on hand & changes it to work for them – very resourceful. Anywho! I always thought the dress was very pretty on Brooke, but I’m not sure it’s a color she would pick for herself – seems too demure, and better suited to someone more wholesome and youthful, like Chelsie. And I’m not wild about Brooke’s hair – looks too…plastered down? Idk.

The winner: Chelsie, for better coloring…or maybe lighting.

Battle of the black, fringed, jewel-trimmed Latin dress: Chelsie in the season 11 finale opening dance vs. Anna’s opening credits shoot with Sugar Ray in season 12

Courtney: Another pattern I noticed with Chelsie: she is so freaking hard to get a decent screen cap of!!!!! Seriously – she never stops moving, and her technique is so good that she moves with such a range of motion that she’s seldom in a position where she’s facing the camera, in a neutral position. I got so many bad screenshots of her moving her body in crazy ways that made it impossible to see her costume well. She also seems fond of black-fringed costumes – this one is pretty similar to the one she wore for her cha-cha with Romeo, and she wore gloves for both. In truth – I’m not wild about this version of the black-fringed costume. Since there’s very little sparkle, it just seems to look a little blah on both ladies for me. At least with the Romeo version, there was quite a bit of sparkle to give the costume some depth. I prefer colored versions of this particular style, such as the hot pink & multicolored versions featured in WWIB Part XI.

Heidi: I don’t care for the long black gloves with the short, fringed latin dresses – I don’t get that wardrobe choice at all. Other than that, there isn’t much to say about it really – it’s hard to see but I really prefer the dress on Anna – and again, it could just be the background and the lighting influencing me. I’m so easy. 🙂

The winner: Anna by a hair…with an assist from the background & lighting 🙂

Battle of the sheer, white, feather-trimmed ballgown: Cheryl’s Viennese waltz with Chad in season 10 vs. Chelsie’s dance with Mark in the “America’s Favorite Dancers” show

Heidi: They all have their “tics” don’t they?? 🙂 Mark’s is high water pants and polka dots, Cheryl’s is the sheer ballgown skirt. I much prefer Cheryl’s tic in this case, although I do find it a rather strange choice. As for who wore it better?? Well, I think Chelsie is wearing it like it’s a dress made for CHERYL, if that makes sense. It doesn’t really seem like it belongs on her, and I also prefer Cheryl’s hairstyle, as it is fancy, fancy, fancy…just like the dress.

Courtney: Ahhh yes – another representative of Cheryl’s ongoing infatuation with sheer-skirted ballgowns 🙂 This one is odd for me: I think the bodice is gorgeous, with all of the beading & delicate details, but the skirt…looks totally silly to me. Like they let a class of preschoolers decorate it with a bunch of feathers & pom-poms. All that’s missing is the uncooked macaroni and you’ve got yourself a craft project! I don’t know…they both look good from the waist up, and bizarre from the waist down. I’m apathetic.

The winner: Cheryl loves her some sheer skirts…and rocks them well.

Battle of the red, jeweled midriff Latin costume: Chelsie in the pro dance with the Mwano family in season 11 vs. Edyta’s salsa relay with Ashley in season 9

Courtney: Chelsie costuming pattern #3: she will never show her stomach completely. Seriously…find me an example of her midriff being completely exposed and I will gladly admit I’m wrong. She’ll wear cut-out dresses, or ones that show a teeny-tiny bit of belly, but then you’ve got 2-piece costumes like this where they slap a piece of mesh down the front. This costume definitely had to go through some un-Edytafication before Chelsie would wear it…the mesh, the extra layer of fabric on the skirt to cover the sides, the increased chest coverage. Normally I would give this one to Edyta, no contest, but the open sides of the skirt look weird to me. Gotta go with Chelsie this time.

Heidi: Edyta, by a mile. It was originally designed for her and by adding back material it just makes an already unfortunate dress worse. 🙂 When you add the mesh on the front it make the whole dress look heavy, what with the double patterned belts around the hips and under the bra line. I think Edyta is just playing the part here better than Chelsie is – and damn that woman has a body. 🙂

The winner: Edyta, for playing the part.

Battle of the lavender, jewel-trimmed, one-shoulder ballgown: Kym’s Viennese waltz with Donny in season 9 vs. Chelsie’s Viennese waltz with Jake in the season 10 finale

Heidi: I think Chelsie is a bit too short for this dress – maybe if it was straight to the floor instead of layered it would work better for me. Both women look very pretty, but I’m gonna have to go with Kym, I believe.

Courtney: This is another thing I hate about screen-capping – it always makes colors look too warm. The dress is closer to the color on the left than the color on the right – but it’s a pretty color, regardless. I think it’s a good example of the “less is more” concept of costuming – very simple silhouette, flattering color, minimal trim. Lovely 🙂 Looks great on both ladies, but I have to give this one to Kym – love her romantic wavy hair. Looks like Chelsie may have been the victim of the dreaded quick-change, which usually necessitates un-fussy, generically-styled hair to fit multiple costumes.

The winner: She of the Awesome Boobage dominates once again.

Battle of the gold, fringed, halter-top Latin dress: Chelsie in the season 8 intros vs. Ashly in the 150th episode pro dance to “Hard to Handle” in season 6

Heidi: Hmmm….tough call. Both ladies wear this dress well. It compliments both Chelsie’s sunny, California girl look, and Ashly’s darker hair and complexion. This one is a tough call!! I think I’m leaning toward Chelsie, but I have to idea why. 🙂

Courtney: Maybe because we have a hard time believing a wholesome Mormon mommy like Ashly would pick out an outfit like this for herself? 😉 I dunno, at least that’s what I think – both ladies are on the wholesome side, but Chelsie is able to pull off sexier, flashier outfits a bit better, IMO. The impression I get from Ashly in this dress is that “I had to wear a gold dress to match the other dancers, so I bit the bullet and picked out the most conservative one I could.” Plus I love the way a gold outfit looks paired with blonde hair 🙂

The winner: Chelsie, for looking more comfortable being sexy.

Battle of the pale blue, jeweled high-neck ballgown: Nicole’s waltz with Derek in season 10 vs. Chelsie’s pro dance with Dmitry to Goo Goo Dolls in season 11

Courtney: I had completely forgotten about this one – and now that I’m looking at it, I’m realizing that it is really a beautiful dress. Simple silhouette with delicate details. Again, looks great on both ladies, but I’m gonna go with Nicole on this one – I think this dress is better balanced as a long dress, and the high neck looks a bit odd on Chelsie.

Heidi: I think the high collar on this dress rather begs for an upswept, formal hairstyle. It draws the eye to a nice neck and you don’t want your hair ruining the effect. So, I have to go with Nicole also. The bodice of the dress with the shorter length (and lack of shoes) on Chelsie just doesn’t look quite right.

The winner: Nicole, by a length…of dress.

Dance of the Day… Let’s compare Donny and Nicole!

It’s definitely getting more difficult in choosing my favorites! It’s been said over the seasons, that the quality of the dancing has been improving, as the seasons go on, and I am seeing that! What do you think? We’re almost done, and shortly, we’ll move on to compare other things, and then come back to this. I want everyone time to watch and vote for their favorites, so when we get through the 12 seasons, we’ll come back to finish. Meanwhile, if you’ve not watched and voted for your favorites, here’s what we’re doing…

We are watching our DWTS Champions on their first week’s dancing, and comparing our first impressions of them. So far, we’ve seen Kelly Monaco and Drew Lachey, Emmitt Smith and Apolo Anton Ohno, Helio Castroneves and Kristi Yamaguchi, and Brooke Burke and Shawn Johnson. Today, we will see Donny Osmond and Nicole Scherzinger, and then following, Jennifer Grey and Hines Ward.

When we’re done, I’ll move on for a time to allow people to vote in the above polls, and we can compare rumbas and foxtrots before coming back to here. We’ll take the 6 poll winners, and put them against each other, in 2 groups of 3, and we will watch their Week 5 dances. Then we’ll take the winner of each of those, and they’ll battle it out with their Freestyles! When I announce the winners, we’ll see some randomly selected dances that we’ve not reviewed yet. Does that make sense?

Anyway, onward we go! DONNY VS NICOLE!!!

Season 9 brought us Donny Osmond with his professional partner, Kym Johnson. Donny’s sister, Marie, was a contestant on Season 5, and she made it to 3rd place, and had the infamous doll dance. I had thought about using it on a day we were rewatching dances we didn’t want to relive, but instead, if you want to see it, just click the link. Donny had a show in Vegas with his sister, while he was also training and competing on DWTS.

DONNY AND KYM SEASON 9 WEEK 1, Foxtrot to All That Jazz.

Nicole Scherzinger came to us during a Season which brought us several competitors who all had the ability to win…. If they weren’t all competing against each other. However, her biggest competitor was herself, as she was the ultimate perfectionist. Tom has a great line, after the critiquing of Nicole and Derek, about parallel universes…. You’ll hear it when you watch. Bruno and Carrie Ann gave glowing critiques, while Len sat and picked it apart, showing the flaws…. I do think some critique is necessary, so that the celebrity can grow as a dancer, but couching it so that it doesn’t come across like they are a terrible dancer is important… But, Len obviously saw Nicole’s potential, and decided to make her work toward that.

NICOLE AND DEREK SEASON 10 WEEK 1, Viennese Waltz to Hold You In My Arms by Ray LaMontagne

So, which Week 1 dance did you like better? Donny or Nicole?

DWTS – Emmy Nominations 2010!!

Dancing with the Stars leads the “reality” show nominations with 9. From Reality TV World:

Reality TV receives 54 Emmy Awards noms, ‘Dancing’ leads again

Leading the 2009-2010 reality TV Emmy Awards nomination field for the fourth consecutive year is ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, which received nine nominations from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences — one fewer than the reality record-setting 10 nominations it received last year.

CBS’ The Amazing Race was next with seven nominations — including one in the Outstanding Reality Competition category it has won every year since the Academy created it seven years ago. Just like each of the last three years, The Amazing Race will compete against American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Project Runway, and Top Chef for the award

Keoghan will compete against American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron, Project Runway host Heidi Klum, and Survivor host Jeff Probst in the category, which Probst has won both times it has been awarded since its 2008 creation.

The Amazing Race also received nods for cinematography, directing, picture editing, sound editing, and sound mixing while Dancing with the Stars also got nominations for hairstyling, lighting, makeup, sound mixing, and technical direction as well as a pair of choreography nods in which Derek Hough was nominated both individually and with Chelsie Hightower.

Derek was nominated with Chelsie for their acoustic Paso Doble in Season 10, and he was nominated individually for his futuristic Paso Doble with Joanna/Quickstep to ‘Anything Goes’ with Nicole. I have to read the rules, but I think the last two dances were a combined nomination – I guess you can submit up to 3. Mya Michaels, for example, has three dances listed under her nomination, but it appears to be only ONE nomination, not three. If I understand what I have read about the rules prior to the nominations being announced, you only can have two nominations if they are from different shows OR if one is part of a team, which is why Derek is nominated twice. Chelsie submitted their Paso as a team, then Derek submitted the Futuristic Paso and the Quickstep – hence, two nominations.

You can read all about the Emmys and see the full list of nominations at Emmy.com.

DWTS Freestyles Season Eight & Nine

Check out the entire Dancing with the Stars Freestyle Videos Series as we cover the freestyle videos from every Season of DWTS!!

In past seasons it was not terribly uncommon for celebrities to drop out due to injuries, personal problems, etc. What is uncommon is for two celebrities to have to drop out at around the same time prior to the premiere of the season. Even more uncommon is for someone to be added into the lineup just days prior to the start of the series… though if that last minute addin is a ringer of sorts then I suppose it could work…

Season 8: Melissa Rycroft & Tony Dovolani
Song: Gonna Make You by C+C Music Factory
Placement: 3rd Place

Season 8: Gilles Marini & Cheryl Burke
Song: Flashdance (What a Feeling) by Irene Cara
Placement: 2nd Place

Season 8: Shawn Johnson & Mark Ballas
Song: Do Your Thing by Basement Jaxx
Placement: 1st Place

Well, most people seem to be believe that “bigger is better”, that’s probably what many people in ABC were thinking when they made the decision to expand the cast to sixteen celebrities… granted with every decision made, there are bound to be consequences.

Still as diluted as this season started out, there were many memorable moments to be had…

Season 9: Kelly Osbourne & Louis van Amstel
Song: I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor
Placement: 3rd Place

Season 9: Mýa & Dmitry Chaplin
Song: You Can’t Stop the Beat from Hairspray
Placement: 2nd Place
Start at 1:26

Season 9: Donny Osmond & Kym Johnson
Song: Back in Business by Liza Minnelli
Placement: 1st Place

DWTS versus Strictly Come Dancing – Part II

Where were we? Oh yeah – what would happen to DWTS if we made it more like SCD? Well, I think a lot. Kind of. 🙂

Of the differences I outlined in my previous post on the subject, there were a few BIG ones:

The scoring difference;
The voting duration difference;
The voting style difference;
The number of judges.

The number of judges on the two shows isn’t as huge, IMO, as the other three. By having four judges (or five) instead of three, the only effect is the slight watering down of the impact of a rogue judge. Similar to how having two or three dances in a week softens the result of one bad dance, for example. You have one bad dance, followed by one great dance, and you can still end up in second or third place – like Derek and Joanna in Week 9. The same thing happens with four or five judges – you have one mean judge that scores you badly but the other three score you high, that one judge’s score isn’t a huge of an impact on your total.

The scoring difference is a different story. Remember my “Shocking Elimination” post and the explanation of the scoring and the math? Remember in Week 9, when the Judges scores were worked out we had the following:

Judges Scores:
Mya = 87
Joanna = 81
Kelly = 78
Donny = 72

Add up the total points given = 318
Now figure the percentage of total points each celeb got:
Mya = 27.36
Joanna = 25.47
Kelly = 24.53
Donny = 22.64

If they were on SCD, they would be ranked as follows:

Mya = 4
Joanna = 3
Kelly = 2
Donny = 1

So instead of a 4.72 point difference between Donny and Mya, it shrinks to 3 points. It may not seem like a lot, but it could be. Not only that, but Mya’s lead over both Joanna and Kelly shrinks as well. Mya had a nearly two point lead over Joanna – it shrinks to 1.

What happens when you add in viewer votes? What if Kelly, for example, actually had just a bit more viewer votes that Mya, putting her second behind Donny. Quite conceivable, really. On DWTS it might not be big enough to beat Mya’s judges scores, but on SCD? That makes the viewer ranking the following:

Donny = 4
Kelly = 3
Mya = 2
Joanna = 1

When you add them together, you have:

Donny = 5
Mya = 6
Kelly = 5
Joanna = 4

Which is presumably how it turned out. But what if Joanna had more votes than Mya? What if, using the DWTS system it wasn’t enough to beat the difference in the judges scores, but it was still more actual votes? That would give you SCD viewer ranks of:

Donny = 4
Mya = 1
Kelly = 3
Joanna = 2

When you add the judges rank and the viewer rank together:

Donny = 1 + 4 = 5
Mya 4 + 1 = 5
Kelly 2 + 3 = 5
Joanna 3 + 2 = 5

What happens in a four way tie? Viewer votes win, Mya goes home over Joanna. Of course, we didn’t have the dance off in the final four, did SCD? I don’t think they did, but that *might* have saved Mya – but no guarantee. And this doesn’t hold true in the Final because the judges scores don’t actually count – it’s all viewers votes. Mya still loses. But think about the lack of Judges scores in the final tally!! There is no storyboarding – no judges manipulation in favor of who they consider the best dancer! That’s pretty significant too, although I wager some voters listen to the judges.

At the end of the day, if Joanna had gone to the final instead of Mya – Donny still wins. But I would have had Derek for one more week. 😉 And it’s all about me. I think this difference in scoring has the potential to be huge – think about early on when Donny was way down in the ranks but way up in viewer votes? Would his chances of going home have been higher? I think so. But how do the other differences work in concert with this one? Do they even the playing field once again?

I’ll attempt to discuss the rest of it in Part III.

Twittering with the Stars – DWTS 9 and Beyond

While waiting on the breakfast to be ready (Champagne Brunch – Yay!!), I took a stroll around twitter and found the celebs and pros have been tweeting fools. Enjoying their time off. I won’t post all their tweets, but some of them and their twit pics were fun. If you want to follow them and see what they have to say, you can find all their twitter accounts on a previous post!

Aww, Tony, so sweet. And the Ballas men – strange. 🙂 Lacey and Lance at the Dizzy Feet Gala!! And Natalie Jinxes herself.

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Mark has a hot cousin, ya’ll. 🙂

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Joanna is talking about her new Peta Ad campaign. Jonathan cracks me up, as does Louie Vito. 🙂

joannaTAME300_sm

Natalie – word to the wise, never talk about how good traffic is, because then it WON’T be. 🙂 Derek being a good uncle, taking the kids to Miley Cyrus with Julianne and his sisters. They apparently hit a local honky tonk after – I assume someone took the children home. 🙂

Derek Hough and Nephew

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For those who didn’t know, Carrieann had some sort of surgery yesterday – it appears she pulled through nicely. Apparently it was minor and related to her neck/back. I could look it up, but dudes it’s Thanksgiving and I’m stuffing myself. 🙂

Twitter 7

Natalie tweeted two of her favorite pictures from Finale night:
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Kym J. finally gets some sleep. 🙂

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Top Dancing with the Stars Season 9 Music

Many of you know that we’ve been doing our best to list all of the songs used on Dancing with the Stars. Hopefully you’ve found that useful. I see a lot of people visiting those pages, but rarely hear what people think about it.

Anyway, I always think it’s fun to look back at the music from the season of Dancing with the Stars and see which songs were the most popular. This isn’t scientific. It’s basically based on which songs got the most clicks. So, here’s the top 4 songs used on Dancing with the Stars season 9.

Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen (this blew all the other songs out of the water)
Would You…. ? – Touch & Go
Living on Video – Trans-X
They – Jem

Very interesting set of music. Thanks for stopping by all year for the DWTS music. Of course, we’ll be doing our best to keep up with the other rumors in the off season and be back for more DWTS music next season as well.

DWTS Season 9 – Finale Week Media, Part II

Huge thanks to Codebear on Youtube – he/she got a ton of media with just makes my job easier. 🙂

Good Morning America!

Mya and Dmitry on Entertainment Tonight

Donny and Kym on Entertainment Tonight

Kelly and Louis on Entertainment Tonight

DWTS Season 9 – Finale Week Media

Kelly and Louis on TV Guide Network

Final three on The View

The View exit interview

The Winner of DWTS Season 9 – Congratulations to…

…Donny Osmond and Kym Johnson.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the best person won out of that final three. I never thought, at the beginning of this season, that I would be so ecstatic that an Osmond won the competition. But, while not the best dancer, Donny had heart, humility and passion for this show that was required to win. Sans the massive fanbase and ringer status, he still deserved to win over Mya and Kelly. The man got it done.

Why? Well, for me, it boiled down to Donny and Kelly. The two of them made me FEEL their dances – I cried when Kelly and Louis cried. Donny just plain entertained during his freestyle which Mya, with all her technical perfection, just couldn’t do. And, tonight, Donny made me feel all mushy and happy – yeah, he’s got too much of a mouth at times, but tonight when he was genuinely shocked that Kelly took third, and then he was over joyed when he won….well, he showed more excitement and heart than Mya showed all season. And that, my friends, is the key to winning Dancing with the Stars.

Congratulations again, to Donny and Kym.

DWTS Who Wore it Better? Part XIII – The Chelsie Appreciation Edition

Dance of the Day… Let’s compare Donny and Nicole!

DWTS – Emmy Nominations 2010!!

DWTS Freestyles Season Eight & Nine

DWTS versus Strictly Come Dancing – Part II

Twittering with the Stars – DWTS 9 and Beyond

Top Dancing with the Stars Season 9 Music

DWTS Season 9 – Finale Week Media, Part II

DWTS Season 9 – Finale Week Media

The Winner of DWTS Season 9 – Congratulations to…

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