Thanks to a reader of Pure Derek Hough, I just finished watching this video of Julianne Hough, Mark Ballas and Derek Hough on Barrymore. I don’t really know who Barrymore is, but this video of Julianne, Mark and Derek so young is awesome. It’s kind of crazy to see them so young, but even then they could move it. Enjoy!

Oh, there was some good stuff in the results show last night, in addition to the MJ Tribute. I really liked the “behind the scenes of a Monday” bit – kinda cool. Sure, it was all set up, but I still enjoyed seeing it.

I’m normally a big Nora Jones fan, and I liked her performances – but I can’t say it’s the best I’ve seen her:

LOVED Jonathan and Anna T’s dance to this song. Gorgeous.

Here’s a video of all the pre-tribute discussion from the pros and the Jackson family that I don’t think I posted before:

The Local ABC Affiliate’s interviews from Monday and Tuesday night are all posted.

Mario STOLE my line. All about the Aaron/Maks DRAMA.

Entertainment Tonight on the Group Dance – Mya all bruised up, Michael Irvin, Donny, Joanna and sickie Derek replaced by Maks.

Entertainment Tonight again – the stars talk about Natalie.

Wow. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel, but I really, really liked it. Nice mixture of true MJ (Derek, Mark, Lacey) and ballroom. This was a tribute to the man’s music as much as it was his dance. His music was beautifully represented in the dances – kudos to all the choreographers.

Another, clearly misguided, blogger at E! made the crack that the professionals weren’t cool enough or young enough to represent MJ adequately. HELLO???!!! Michael Jackson was a year older than DONNY OSMOND when he died. OLDER. Therefore, it stands to reason that the older pros have just as much a clue about MJ as the younger ones. I hate stupid cracks like that – admit your bias, people. I admit mine – and I don’t care for SYTYCD. There, I said it. Others prefer SYTYCD. They are two completely different shows and shouldn’t be compared – I think I wrote a blog about this a while ago. John, find me a link.

Speaking of bias – seeing lots of comments on twitter about Derek as the blond MJ. Yes indeed, my favorite pro was front and center for a reason. While I generally prefer Derek’s dancing to the other pros, I thought they all were fantastic tonight – great job!!

After my previous post where Debi Mazar commented on Maks’ choreography, I couldn’t help but start to think about the importance and value of the professional partner that you get on Dancing with the Stars.

Certainly the impact of the stars professional partner goes far beyond choreography. Other benefits (or detriments) that the professional brings are: fan base, teaching ability, personality (both on their own and with their partner), etc.

Think about your favorite couple or ones that have gone far in DWTS and you’ll see that many of the above factors played into the stars success. Take Ty Murray for example. I’m quite sure Ty would have been gone much sooner had he been paired with Karina instead of Chelsie. However, Karina was a good match with Mario Lopez. In similar fashion, Maks was great with Mel B, but I think Mel B would have just been odd paired with say Mark Ballas.

This season I think Joanna is lucky to have Derek. They seem to work well together, look great together and Derek pulls a lot out of Joanna. Plus, Derek’s playfulness is a stark contrast to Joanna’s previous TO incident. Louie and Chelsie are another great match. Could you really imagine Louie dancing with any of the other pros and see it fit as well as Chelsie?

On the opposite side, Michael and Anna D. just have never felt right together. However, Michael and Cheryle Burke would have been much more interesting. Probably because it would remind me of Cheryl and Emmitt and I liked that combo. Imagine if Natalie was with Derek instead of Alec. Would be much different story I think. How lame would Tony and Kelly have been?

So, what do you think of the importance of a pro partner? Are there other factors that a pro brings to the table that I haven’t mentioned?

P.S. We could also argue how important the celebrity is to the professional. I’ll leave that post to Heidi since she’s a pro at that.

I rather suspected they might do this tribute and I hoped for it! Now it appears to be reality. According to People:

Swayze, who died of pancreatic cancer on Monday at the age of 57, made a guest appearance on Dancing’s inaugural U.S. season in 2005, teaching friend and fellow actor John O’Hurley a few dance moves in rehearsal. He also came to the show and supported O’Hurley by attending the season 1 finale.

“He was one of the few people to integrate dance with being an A-list actor,” Green says. “He inspired many people and many of our pros to dance. We want to honor the great moments he’s brought to film by getting our dancers to do their interpretation to some music from his films.”

It also crossed my mind, when seeing all the male Pros coming out of rehearsal together, that perhaps they were also doing a Michael Jackson Tribute. I would LOVE to see both tributes. Who will play Johnny Castle? You KNOW my pic, what’s yours?

Lois Elfman from “Your Tango” writes about what it’s like to dance and portray the passion required for the ballroom…and how often it’s real. Here’s a brief excerpt:

We’ve all heard the rumors about celebrities hooking up with their partners on DWTS. Occasionally it’s true. Actress Shannon Elizabeth and dance partner Derek Hough started dating when she appeared on season six and are still together. Mario Lopez and Karina Smirnoff made for heavy-duty tabloid fodder for nearly two years, until she learned there were other partners on his dance card.

Most of the time, though, it’s just wishful thinking on the part of viewers who can’t quite understand how a couple could transmit so much chemistry on the dance floor and not allow the magnetism to spill over into real life. Being a professional dancer, especially one dancing with non-pros, means creating intensity and sensuality during a performance, no matter how you feel about your partner in real life.

I really like the addition of the Professional dancer competition. It makes it fun for us to get to know the possible professional dancers and the dances they do are really quite wonderful. The following are the professionals that are competing to be the next professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars Season 9:
Mayo Alanen
Brent Borbon
Afton DelGrosso
Anna Demidova
Genya Mazo
Snow Urbin

Brent & Afton danced a Cha-Cha-Cha to the song “Damaged”—Danity Kane

Mayo & Anna danced a Waltz to the song

Genya & Snow danced a Rumba to the song “Stop and Stare”—OneRepublic