Carrie Ann Inaba Writes About The DWTS Season 17 Finale, Celebrates With The Cast (Photo)
Carrie Ann Inaba has written her new and final blog of the season at Parade.com. She starts off saying that “the best dancer won”. Below is more including her thoughts on all the finalists.
Well, the best dancer won!!!! I know this season was very unique in that no one really knew how the audience was ultimately going to vote. With the Bill Engvall Phenom, it was hard to say how things were going to turn out since we had shocking elimination after shocking elimination this season. But in the end, I would definitely say that the best dancer won. Amber Riley had a special kind of dancing Mojo. I was so surprised to see how emotional she was in her final package.
After Amber won, she came right over and thanked the judges. In all 17 seasons, that’s never happened! She was so happy and thrilled to have won and thanked us for our comments throughout the season. That was a treat for us. 🙂 It’s nice to be thanked!
What I love about Amber is that she really let herself become vulnerable during the season. In life, we go through a lot of it with feigned confidence and faux strength. I see more and more in life that people don’t allow things into their hearts and risk hurt through failure or disappointment. But in life, it is truly the case that if you don’t risk, you don’t gain. I was impressed with the amount of emotion that came flooding out of Amber in that final video package before they announced the winner. You could see that she opened her heart to this whole experience and she really let it move her. Actually, I think that was the case for most of our performers this season.
This was a beautiful season with a fantastic ending. The freestyles on night one of the finals were incredible. I haven’t seen such wonderfully produced and performed production numbers in a long time. The Amber Riley Stomp and shoot-out fest was cool and slick and powerful and ever so well rehearsed. They were tighter than tight!!!! And it was a first that frat stomping was used in a freestyle. And then, Jack’s incredible Old School Hollywood Ending was touching and glamorous and felt like the picture-perfect ending to a wonderful story that was Jack’s story. His incredible strength is to be admired. I suffer as well from a few Auto-Immune conditions that make life challenging at times but you have to (ask Jack always says) Go Big or Go Home, which is exactly what he did. He went big and he never gave up. And, he didn’t use his illness as a crutch for sympathy which made his journey even that much more respectable.
Lots more at Parade.com. I loved when she called Derek Hough a “mastermind choreographer” and that he is.
Also, be sure to see E Online as well. They have a new feature posted about Carrie Anne’s finale dress and how it came to be. She looked beautiful, didn’t she?! So classy! I loved it. And here she is at the Dancing With The Stars wrap party with Bill Nye after the show. Pic courtesy of Zimbio Pictures.
