I haven’t watched this in full yet, but, below is Afterbuzz with their Dancing with the Stars “after show” for Week 8. Their special-guests include Emma Slater, Sasha Farber, and Tristan MacManaus. Enjoy!!
I'm a fashion and music nut....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. Derek Hough (one of my favorite dancers) said at a recent Get Healthy event that ‘dancing’ is an outward expression of what is going on inside you. He says that in some ways, everyone dances and it's so true. To TPTB, how about this song for next season's theme song? Robin G Ft. Wilunleashed - A Good Time (Original) // Download High Quality
Gear up All! It’s going to be a big week on Dancing With The Stars next week. Stevie Wonder, Hunter Hayes, Will.i.am, And Olly Murs are all set to perform!! Below are some details from ABC MediaNet.
“Episode 1606 & 1606A” – Eight remaining couples hit the dance floor and pay tribute to singer, songwriter and legend Stevie Wonder, MONDAY, APRIL 22 (8:00-10:01 p.m., ET). Stevie Wonder takes over the ballroom as “Dancing with the Stars” devotes, for the first time, an entire evening to one artist. He will perform some of his classic songs, including “Sir Duke” and “My Cherie Amour,” and the celebrities will dance to his greatest hits, including “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” “For Once in My Life” and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours).” Special guest country superstar Hunter Hayes will perform with Stevie Wonder in a spectacular opening performance. The night will also showcase two team dances featuring the celebrities and their pro partners.
On TUESDAY, APRIL 23, one couple will be eliminated on “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show” (9:00-10:01 p.m., ET). The show will feature music by seven-time GRAMMY Award winner will.i.am performing his current single, “#thatpower,” and international superstar Olly Murs will perform his current hit, “Troublemaker.” In Addition, “Macy’s Stars of Dance” returns for its third installment of the season, choreographed by AJ Jones.
More at ABC MediaNet.
I'm a fashion and music nut....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. Derek Hough (one of my favorite dancers) said at a recent Get Healthy event that ‘dancing’ is an outward expression of what is going on inside you. He says that in some ways, everyone dances and it's so true. To TPTB, how about this song for next season's theme song? Robin G Ft. Wilunleashed - A Good Time (Original) // Download High Quality
The LA Times interviewed Aly after her week 5 dance on Dancing With The Stars. They talk of Mark Ballas and the most surprising thing she learned about him. She also gives her thoughts for what it was like to perform after the Boston bombings and in what order she’s like to dance if she could pick….
Q. You consider Boston to be your hometown, so performing a dance on Monday must have seemed a bit strange considering the tragedy at the Boston Marathon earlier that day.
Yes, performing on Monday was very difficult for me. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the tragedy since I first heard the news in our dress rehearsal. It is so heartbreaking and terrible. My heart goes out to everyone back home in Boston and anyone else who was affected by [Monday's] incident.
Q. If you had a choice, would you rather dance first and get it over with, or dance last and see how everyone else did?
I would rather go first! I am used to going last in gymnastics. I love going last because you have enough time to prepare and to check out the competition, but here on “DWTS” it’s a little different. I don’t consider this as much of a competition because I’ve just been having so much fun! I just love cheering everyone on, and the show and atmosphere are both amazing. It’s exciting for to me to see everyone improve so much each week! I love this show and I’m having a blast!
Please keep your thoughts and prayers with Boston and vicinity. They need us more than ever!!
To read the full interview, see the LA Times. Stay tuned later. We hope to have more with Mark!!!
I'm a fashion and music nut....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. Derek Hough (one of my favorite dancers) said at a recent Get Healthy event that ‘dancing’ is an outward expression of what is going on inside you. He says that in some ways, everyone dances and it's so true. To TPTB, how about this song for next season's theme song? Robin G Ft. Wilunleashed - A Good Time (Original) // Download High Quality
This is a fun interview with Anna Trebunskaya And Emma Slater from Christy Reports. They differ a little about who will be in the finals for Dancing With The Stars Season 16. Check it out. I agree with Emma more. What do you think?
I'm a fashion and music nut....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. Derek Hough (one of my favorite dancers) said at a recent Get Healthy event that ‘dancing’ is an outward expression of what is going on inside you. He says that in some ways, everyone dances and it's so true. To TPTB, how about this song for next season's theme song? Robin G Ft. Wilunleashed - A Good Time (Original) // Download High Quality
Well, side-by-side challenge night went about as well as can be expected when you put complete amateurs (well, and a ringer or two…) next to seasoned pros with years of experience under their belts. If nothing else, it let us see some sorely missed pros doing what they do best :-) The judges have made it pretty clear at this point who their favorites are (ZENDAYA, Kellie, Jacoby, & Aly), who they are lukewarm about (Sean & Ingo), and who is disposable (Victor, D.L., and unfortunately, now Andy), and seem to be scoring accordingly. And dare I say that many of the pros came out dancing at full throttle…but noticeably slowed down and calmed down when the celebs joined them on the floor? No bueno. And god bless Tom for soldiering through what had to be a tough night for Bostonians :-( Let’s get on with it…
1.) Zendaya & Val – It was a good dance, and I was actually impressed with Val’s first venture into Argentine tango choreography – and thankfully, he seemed to eschew the multitude of lifts big bro seems so fond of, and put in some good basic steps. Zendaya handled pretty well, and I liked the jewel thief storyline – I was worried they were going to go more the smut route, which would have felt…icky. But this was appropriate :-) So that was the good – now here’s the bad: I don’t think it was 10-worthy. Sorry kids. Once again, I find myself just fixated on how BENT Zendaya’s legs are – yes, I am aware she is tall, and yes, Argentine tango is usually done with a flexed knee. But girl was damn near SQUATTING – and consequently, it made her upper body look that much more flimsy when they were in hold. I hate when tall people (male or female) try to compensate for a shorter dance partner – it almost always looks awkward, and you don’t get the full impact of their lines. I say stand up straight and forget about who’s taller – the bf has 2 female students that have a good 3” on him in heels, and when they’re dancing to the full extent, it’s MAGICAL…their legs just go on forever. You don’t even worry about who’s taller, because the lines are so gorgeous. So with that said – these two are obviously safe (and thankfully, there were no Twitter machinations this week to tip things in their favor), but I do think Zendaya’s legs will continue to be an issue in the coming weeks.
2.) Kellie & Derek – I’ve always loved Derek’s foxtrots, and the Broadway quality & character they have to them. This was no exception – great side-by-side, playful choreography, and Kellie seemed to handle the sweeping motions of the foxtrot well. She seemed to get a bit stiff in her neck and shoulders at a few times, which looked a bit awkward, but other than that, she handled this routine well and I liked watching her do it. I think she probably came the closest to mirroring her pro counterpart tonight – and I think she has Derek to thank for not dumbing down the choreography, because in most of the routines, the pros went from dancing full-on, difficult steps to dancing simple, kindergarten steps without much energy. It gave me whiplash, at times. But the transition in this one felt seamless – the way Kellie was keeping up, it felt more like another pro couple joining Henry & Anna on the floor, rather than “Oh sh*t, here comes the celeb, better slow it down…NOW!” So even if Kellie “doesn’t like Derek’s ways” – I think it was those “ways” that probably helped her look so good tonight. 
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Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donny Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night".
Hey All!!! Dance Junkies TV will be interviewing troupe member Emma Slater tomorrow night (Wednesday). Like recently and in the past, feel free to ask her what you like in the comments section and then Stuart Brazell and the gang will try to get as many questions answered as they can. I’ll leave my questions in comments too as I want to ask her about the new members of the troupe. See you there!!
Picture above courtesy of Zimbio Pictures.
I'm a fashion and music nut....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. Derek Hough (one of my favorite dancers) said at a recent Get Healthy event that ‘dancing’ is an outward expression of what is going on inside you. He says that in some ways, everyone dances and it's so true. To TPTB, how about this song for next season's theme song? Robin G Ft. Wilunleashed - A Good Time (Original) // Download High Quality
Well DWTSers, it looks like they’re expanding the Troupe this year, from 6 dancers to 8! Sharna was promoted out of the troupe this season, so we knew we would get at least one new pro troupe members. Instead, we get THREE!
First, ELENA SAMODANOVA… She comes to us from Australia’s DWTS, like Gleb, who is one of our new teaching pros.
Elena was born in a dance family so she started dancing before walking. Since her infant years Elena has always been on the dance floor dancing to all different styles of music..
During her youth Elena has won many Russian championships and awards in Latin American and Ballroom genres internationally.
Elena became a professional dancer at the tender age of 16 and she became the “World Youngest Professional Latin American Dancer” and soon after such, Elena was ranked the Top 20 dance couple in the world ranking in Latin American genre. Even since she has been performing, teaching and competing all over Europe and Asia.The next decade marked further special achievements in Elena’s career in which she won many more international competitions and championships around the world. In 2009 she hit the Top 10 professional dancers in the World ranking of Latin American. Elena’s titles include being the Asian Professional Champion, Hong Kong Champion, Japanese Champion, Singaporean Champion and England Champion.
Elena has obtained her official certificate as a professional Latin American and Ballroom professional dance teacher and has the highest credentials and qualifications to teach in Russia, Hong Kong, England and Australia.
At this moment Elena Samodanova is the National Australian Professional Latin American Champion having won the 4 major dance titles down under and as a result she will now be representing Australian on the next World Dance Championship this November. This year Elena also makes her DANCING WITH THE STARS debut.
ADDING: What fun! I finally realized that I could possibly find more about our new troupe dancers on You Tube! Elena WAS on DWTS Australia, but my computer wasn’t cooperating with me to play any of those videos! However, I DID find one of her dancing the Paso with Gleb! And, since he’s a New Pro, and one we HAVEN’T seen dance yet, here’s our opportunity!
Elena and Gleb dancing Paso at a private function, 2009(ish)
Second, WITNEY CARSON… Witney competed this past summer on So You Think You Can Dance along side her friend Lindsay, who is now one of our new teaching pros.
Witney Carson was born and raised in American Fork, UT. Witney has been dancing since the age of 3; training, performing, and competing has been her life. Her specialty dance is Ballroom. She recently graduated from American Fork High School, and is ready to start her new adult life!
ADDING: A video from SYTYCD, which seems to be the first week of competition?? (I didn’t watch) She’s dancing Samba with her partner Chehon.
Witney and Chehon, “So You Think You Can Dance” 2012
Third, JULZ TOCKER…
Unfortunately, my search has come up scarce, and all I could find on Julz is what’s on his twitter bio, Dancing With The Stars season 16 cast member. International Ballroom and Latin American Champion, Dance Teacher/Coach, Model, Actor and a whole lot more people. That, and he has Gleb and Jason Gilikson on his facebook friends list.
ADDING: Julz was dancing in Australia on the show, “Everybody Dance Now 2012″ which ran only one season, and was cancelled. I did find one video with him dancing with his partner Annalisa. He’s in the first 5 minutes of the video…
Julz and Annalisa, “Everybody Dance Now” Australia 2012
If you know or can find anything more on Elena, Witney or Julz, PLEASE let us know in the comments, with url or documentation, and we’ll add it and credit you. Unfortunately, all 3 are new to me.
Rounding out the troupe are returning members SASHA FARBER, EMMA SLATER, HENRY BYALIKOV, OKSANA DYMTRENKO, SONNY PEDERSEN.
ADDED: A couple videos from @ButterflyWhirl, thank you!
Witney, Lindsay and Nick doing a ballroom trio, SYTYCD 2012
Elena and her partner Shannon Noll, DWTS Australia 2012
The post started getting long and confusing, so I decided to move the current standings up to the top of the page. There are supposedly 12 couples, so things can still get interesting. 
Current Standings:
Male Pros
Derek
Val
Tony
Mark
Gleb Savchenko
Tristan
Female Pros
Cheryl
Lindsay
Sharna
Peta??
Karina
Kym
Out For the Season
Chelsie
Anna
Maks (???)
Lacey
Louis
ETA: See Karina’s facebook and Lacey’s twitter for the source of my latest updates. Late on Saturday before the announcement and we still have some HOLES in our roster. Hmmmmm…
ETA2: DWTSGossip tells someone that Tristan is in, but doesn’t actually tweet it outright. Uncertain?
ETA3: Louis tweets that he’s not going to be on this season, which is not too big of a surprise. An ambiguous tweet from @DWTSGossip makes us wonder if Maks really is out or not…and it appears as though Lizzie Grubman may have flown to LA yesterday. Emma confirms she’s in the troupe again this season (and is not a pro), which leaves us wondering: who is this mysterious 12th pro??? 
ETA4: And the mysterious fourth pro appears to be Gleb?? It is very obnoxious of me to say this just cuz I’ve never heard of the guy…but is this a joke??
ETA5: And I must give props to Miss Sally for picking up on the suspicious ”What a beautiful day!” comment Kym tweeted at 4:26 AM Sydney time – which is actually 9:26 AM Los Angeles time…because DWTSGossip is reporting Kym is IN as the last female pro 
Looks like Tristan has also been confirmed as the final male pro, which leaves Maks & Henry out in the cold. Interesting…
Confirmed Sooper Troupers
Witney Carson (according to Grant’s source)
Sasha Farber
Emma Slater
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I'm a nerd and proud of it. Two degrees in geology also means I love BEER. :-) I'm also a Derek lover - proud of that too. So don't scream at those of us on this site and call us a bunch of "biased Derek-lovers" - it's just ME. :-) It may sound like I hate DWTS at times, but really, I'm just a snarky nitpicker from way back. And I'm cynical and jaded too. But I do love DWTS. :-)
Awww, isn’t it good to see Anna Trebunskaya again?! She tweeted out the photo above when she attended an AdmeTech Foundation event last night.
Anna wasn’t the only dancer from Dancing With The Stars to make an appearance at a Red Carpet event these past few days. Below is troupe member Sasha Farber at the “Warm Bodies” premiere in Hollywood. You can see more pics of him at Getty Images. Girlfriend and troupe member Emma Slater was also pictured with him. You can see a picture of her with Sasha in this tweet.
Speaking of Sasha and Emma, they’ve been making their rounds across the country dancing in “America’s Favorite Dancers”. You can watch one of their dance routines below. You can view more videos of them at Sasha’s You Tube Channel. So energetic, quick, and full of passion.
Derek Hough, Kym Johnson, Chelsie Hightower, Mark and Corky Ballas also made a showing at one of the “America’s Favorite Dancers” events in Marksville, LA. Corky tweeted the picture below of them out after dancing. You can view more pics and coverage of this show at Pure Derek Hough. Too fun and Derek is fine fine wearing a black satin lined suit. 
Last, but, not least, and speaking of Corky Ballas, I ran on to this little twitter exchange yesterday that had me giggling. Note below how Lee Meriwether and Miss America would like to tag team with Mark Ballas to dance or better yet, Miss America can have Mark and Lee can have Corky.
Lol! So cute, but, don’t take this exchange too seriously. They are just having fun and as Heidi said privately to me, the season Lee stops talking on Dancing With The Stars all together is most likely when she will seriously be dancing. Then again, who knows? It’s fun to picture, dream or speculate on none the less.
And that is all for now, Beautiful Readers!!!! Have a great Sunday! xxxxx
I'm a fashion and music nut....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. Derek Hough (one of my favorite dancers) said at a recent Get Healthy event that ‘dancing’ is an outward expression of what is going on inside you. He says that in some ways, everyone dances and it's so true. To TPTB, how about this song for next season's theme song? Robin G Ft. Wilunleashed - A Good Time (Original) // Download High Quality
This weekend several of our pros from Dancing With The Stars are in Lexington, Kentucky to dance in “Ballroom With The A Twist”. Kentucky.com has a feature article up promoting it. Also, in the article, Anna Trebunskaya and former husband Jonathan Roberts talk of the differences between performing in “Ballroom With A Twist” versus performing on Dancing With The Stars. Here is a take….
The celebrity competitors on Stars often overshadow their partners, who dance for a living, but Roberts and Trebunskaya said the big names and the variety of celebrities demonstrate a broad interest in ballroom, and that interest is taken up by the audience.
“You look at your football players,” Roberts says. “When Donald Driver wins Dancing With the Stars, as a guy, you have no excuse not to dance,” he says, referring to the Green Bay Packers star who won season 14 of the show with partner Peta Murgatroyd.
Other NFL players to win the show are Dallas Cowboys star Emmitt Smith and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Hines Ward. Trebunskaya’s partners have included Super Bowl champions Kurt Warner and Jerry Rice.
“That was phenomenal, to get a taste of their lives and what their talents were all about,” she says. Even as trained athletes, she says, “They all think it’s a walk in the park in the beginning — you get a nice costume and dance with a pretty girl. Then they realize it’s actually hard work.”
She and Roberts, who were married nine years before announcing in October that they were divorcing, like meeting and working with the celebs, but they also like the opportunity that Ballroom With a Twist provides for them to show their stuff as professional dancers, sans competition.
“It’s nice to be a performer and dance and do something that you know you’re good at, and give the joy to people who come and watch,” Trebunskaya says.
Roberts says, “You don’t have to worry about getting the judges’ attention. You just go out there and dance for the audience, and that’s my favorite thing.”
You can read more at Kentucky.com.
Here is another interview and some teasers. It’s so cool that Anna and Jonathan can still work together and so compassionately too, isn’t it?!
Special Message from Dancing with the Stars’ celebrity Anna Trebunskaya from Lexington Opera House on Vimeo.
If you are in the Lexington area, be sure to take the show in this weekend. Dancing With The Stars troupe members Emma Slater and Sasha Farber are also in the show.
I'm a fashion and music nut....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. Derek Hough (one of my favorite dancers) said at a recent Get Healthy event that ‘dancing’ is an outward expression of what is going on inside you. He says that in some ways, everyone dances and it's so true. To TPTB, how about this song for next season's theme song? Robin G Ft. Wilunleashed - A Good Time (Original) // Download High Quality
“First, the good news. With his DWTS partner Sharna Burgess by his... 
