Salsa | Pure Dancing with the Stars

DWTS 14 Week 3 Power Rankings

Well thanks to the majority of tonight’s performances, I now have red, puffy eyes and a runny nose – and no, the show did not give me a rhinovirus Even though I tell myself I’m not going to, I still get verklempt each season when personal story week rolls around, and end up a big, blubbering blob of hormones that is willing to overlook some pretty glaring technique errors and overall mediocrity & lack of content :-P

Tonight, however, I refuse to overlook to continual over/underscoring and favoritism by the judges, and what I felt to be a rather contrived display of emotion on one individual’s part. Shall we get to it?

1.) Katherine & Mark – I always find myself without a whole lot of notes on these two. What more can I say, other than that she’s beautiful, a great dancer, and an overall likeable person? Thought Katherine danced a lovely waltz, and it’s becoming clear to me that the ballroom dances are really going to be her forte, and perhaps the rumba as well – any dance where she can really show off that posture and those gorgeous arms. Was there a lot of actual waltz steps in this one? Well, no, but on the whole, I don’t think anyone had a TON of real content and syllabus steps in their routines tonight…so I guess I really can’t fault anyone too much for that. With the points spread being relatively close tonight, I can’t say for sure that ANYONE is truly safe…but I think Katherine is probably safe this week. I think she is growing her fanbase, and seems to have kept Mark relatively calm this season. I enjoy watching these two dance

2.) Donald & Peta – I don’t think they had the best routine of the night (or even the best rumba), but man – Donald is endearing himself to pretty much EVERYONE, myself included I don’t think I’ve heard a single unkind word about the guy from any of the regulars here, and the fact that he has managed to go from dancing 3rd, to dancing 10th, to getting the pimp spot in 3 weeks tells me that he is proving to be a force to be reckoned with - he’s probably pulling in quite a few votes. And I do see him improving each week – I love that he devotes himself 100% to his performance each week, and is a joy to watch, but the guy is legitimately improving as well…his arms, legs, hips, and posture have all gotten noticeably better with each week. And I think if last season was any indicator, we shouldn’t underestimate the ones that slowly & steadily improve each week, as they’re the ones that could sneak into the finale out of nowhere…I think I’ve finally decided that he is indeed our dark horse this season Watch out, Katherine, William, Jaleel, & Maria!

3.) William & Cheryl – Grrrr….I can’t believe we’re in week 3 and the over-the-top tongue bathing is still going! This was an ok-to-moderate salsa – I wouldn’t say it was stellar and I wouldn’t say it was bad, either. But a 28??? C’mon, one point less than the top scorer, who did one of the best waltzes I’ve seen on the show to date???! I don’t get it…I just don’t get it. William doesn’t miss steps, and he stays on time; but I also feel like he never truly gets into the dance, and always dances so apprehensively, like he’s afraid he might hurt himself. Cheryl needs to take time out from her busy schedule of designing atrocious costumes from herself and actually bring him out of his shell a bit more, and work on his range of motion. Luckily for them (and not so luckily for us), I don’t think they’re going anywhere anytime soon, with all the judges blindly worshipping his every step. Ai ai ai. Read more..

DWTS Off Topic: New York Giant’s Victor Cruz Does A Salsa In The End Zone!

Did anyone see New York Giant’s wide receiver, Victor Cruz, do a “Salsa” in the end zone after he made a touch down on Sunday? Unless the Chicago Bears are playing, I rarely watch football, but, I just happened to see this scene go down while bringing hubby a snack (while he was watching the game). Priceless!! This guy should do Dancing With The Stars!! Below is Salsa instructor Jason Myra talking about it. You can also read more about Victor, his dance, and the game at the NY Daily.

NOTE: This is not a rumor and it currently has nothing to do with Dancing With The Stars…well, unless TPTB has seen him and decides to ask Victor to dance at some point? Very sexy Salsa, Victor Cruz!

DWTS Who Wore it Better? Part XII – More from Season 12

So the addition of the troupe this past season did have one unexpected positive effect: even more costume dittos! Which makes my job a bit easier And I’m noticing the costume department has a special affinity for red – lots & lots of sparkly, red, fringy, feathery stuff… Read more..

DWTS12 Week 9 Search Engine Round-Up

It’s that time of the week, kids – time to see what burning questions are leading you guys here for answers Let’s see what kind of light I can shed here…oh, and just in case you missed it the past 2 weeks: Hines is STILL not married

What did Bruno say to Karina?/What did Bruno call Karina?

It was bleeped out during the telecast (5:41 mark), and a friend of ours who happened to be in the studio audience that night could not hear what exactly was said over the crowd booing – so this is my best guess, given the context. I think it was something along the lines of “You were too rough with your p*ssy!”, and it was directed more at Ralph, meaning he lead Karina (who was wearing a leopard-print bodysuit) too hard or was just out-of-control with his partnering…hence, Bruno backpedaling after the fact and saying “I mean pussycat!” (of which, I’m sure you know, there are none on the show – but how awesome would it be if there was? How bout replacing Carrie Ann with a cute little kitten and letting him judge? ). Anywho…I think Karina thought it was more directed at her…and a certain part of her anatomy, which is why she (rightfully, IMO) got offended. Bottom line: whether Bruno really did mean pussycat (psssh, riiiight) or not, it was a poor choice of words with an ambiguous context – otherwise, the Muppets up in the sound booth wouldn’t have bleeped it out. And here’s a tidbit of probably-worthless-but-still-kinda-interesting trivia – this isn’t the first time Bruno has dropped the p-word when critiquing one of Karina’s routines. He got bleeped for saying something about consuming it in reference to Mario & Karina’s rumba in season 6 – and I don’t think he was talking about Chinese food. No wonder Karina’s touchy about that word…

Did Mark Ballas get married?

I think I can state with 99.9% certainty that the answer is no. Why? Because I doubt he would be able to shut up about it if he had. The .1% uncertainty is just in case he’s keeping this ace in his back pocket for publicity at a later date. Moving right along…

Did Kym Johnson have plastic surgery?

Personally, I doubt it, but short of Kym acknowledging it or denying it in an interview, I can’t confirm one way or another. Maybe Liz can help with this one. I know there was some debate in the comments a previous post about her maybe having a brow lift, but looking at the picture in question from last season and comparing it to pictures of her now, it looks like she may have just had a very overzealous brow waxing back then, or maybe some Botox (which has now worn off) to perk things up a bit. Not that I think she needs it, because she looks FABULOUS However, if she did, no biggie – she wouldn’t have been the only DWTS pro to go under the knife. Karina has publicly acknowledged getting a rhinoplasty and has expressed great satisfaction with the results.

Tayla

Definitely cool to see so many people interested in Tayla Kelley – the young girl that performed with Lacey & Chelsie on the results show this week. Tayla suffers from primary immunodeficiency, which is a genetic disorder that prevents her immune system from functioning properly. Simple infections that a person with a normal immune system can easily fight off can be deadly for someone with Tayla’s condition – which makes me think it’s all the more amazing & admirable that she is able to handle the rigors of being a dedicated dancer. As much as I may hate “filler” on the results show – I definitely don’t mind hearing stories of triumph like Tayla’s

Kym Johnson injury video

Ugh. *stomach churning* I’m gonna give you guys the benefit of the doubt and assume that the reason you’re searching this is because you just don’t know how Kym got injured…because seriously, this video is hard to watch – at least for me, as I’ve had a family member who became a quadriplegic after falling & hitting his neck at home. But alas, here you go – don’t say I didn’t warn you that it was rather graphic. If nothing else, I guess it serves as a warning to anyone on the show that they should NOT be trying this stuff at home…or anywhere else.

DWTS Season 13 casting rumors

Glad to know you guys are chomping at the bit just as much as we are to get this wretched season over with and move onto a better one Generally, the casting rumors for the fall season are pretty intermittent & vague until mid-July (about a month before the cast annoucement) and then they come pouring in like crazy the week before it. As of right now, I have only heard 2 names, and both sound like they’re pretty unlikely – Regis Philbin & Donnie Wahlberg. Last week Vogue reported that he announced on Live with Regis & Kelly that he’d been asked to be on season 13. He seems like a big fan of the show (and is a huge Derek fanboy ), but he’s allegedly not leaving Regis & Kelly until November & he’s had quite a few health problems in the past few years – I just don’t see it happening. At least not next season. As for Donnie, the campaign for him being on the show cropped up after his pretty impressive dance with Peta on the week 5 results show. Someone started a petition (which rarely works when trying to get the attention of the casting directors – sorry kids), and both Donnie & Peta have publicly said that they’d LOVE to dance together next season. However, two (ok, more like 3) big hurdles to overcome: Donnie is tied up with Blue Bloods, which just got picked up for a 2nd season, and films on-location in NY. It’s also on CBS, and to my knowledge, they’ve never asked a someone from a current primetime show on a rival network to be on DWTS. I doubt that’s going to change anytime soon. But hey, stay tuned – there are sure to be plenty more rumors to come in the next few months…just search “DWTS13 Casting Rumors” and any that we find are bound to pop up.

Travis Wall boyfriend

Errr…not sure why some of you are looking for this info here, considering Travis has had a much bigger presence on SYTYCD than on DWTS…but it keeps cropping up, so I’ll entertain the notion anyway. From what I can tell, he’s never publicly said he’s gay, but I do remember there being some pictures posted on his MySpace page a few years ago (they’ve since been taken down) that caused quite a bit of speculation, so my official opinion on the matter is that he’s most likely gay. As for the identity of his boyfriend – well, if he’s not really, officially out, I doubt he’s going to be introducing any guys as his significant other. However, a quick sweep of some SYTYCD forums (which one should ALWAYS take with a grain of salt) seems to indicate that Travis had a boyfriend named Anthony back when he was a contestant on SYTYCD in season 2 (summer of ’06) that somehow stabbed him in back by posting pictures of the two of them online with the caption “me & my bf travis wall”. Ouch – I think being forced out of the closet against your will is just plain cruel. But alas, Travis managed to channel the hurt into something pretty cool – it was allegedly the inspiration for his contemporary routine on SYTYCD for Kent & Neil last season, which had a “backstabbing” theme to it. Dunno if that’s a satisfactory answer, but I think it’s a pretty interesting story And in the future, kids – you might wanna direct SYTYCD-related questions to PureSYTYCD or @puresytycd on Twitter </plug>

DWTS12 Week 9 Power Rankings

So how many of you still think us crazy bitches here at PureDWTS were smoking crack when Heidi predicted that all of this would happen…waayyy back on Wednesday?

Yes, I’m gloating on behalf of Heidi, and I don’t care – because honestly, I’ve never hoped she’d be wrong more than I have this past week. But in a show of true favoritism & wanton idiocy, the judges played into every single cliche they could that resulted in an extraordinarily padded score for Chelsea – and a brutal beating for Ralph, leaving him so far down in the basement in scores that nothing short of divine intervention could possibly save him from going home tomorrow night. Whoops…did I spoil the rankings for you?

1.) Chelsea & Mark – These two couldn’t possibly be any safer, and it’s not due extraordinary dancing – Chelsea was decent tonight, but nowhere near deserving some of the truly inflated scores that were being handed to her. Her Argentine tango had the potential to be good – if she wasn’t moving so damn gingerly. Wendy’s foxtrot had more impactful footwork than this! She captured the mood, yes; but the lifts looked a bit clunky & she never seemed to really hit any of the steps with the staccato that I like in a tango (perhaps she should have watched the playback of Mark doing the “salsa” last week for inspiration). As for the rumba…*shaking my head* Strike one: using a silly prop like gauzy fabric. Strike 2: using an “edgy” song from the Twilight soundtrack. Strike three: wearing character shoes instead of ballroom shoes – AGAIN. If that wouldn’t be enough to get her out, strike 4 would have been the complete lack of hip & leg action I saw from her. I might have enjoyed this more had I not been spoiled by great rumbas in the past by Jennifer & Mel B, which actually were 30-worthy. Their “winner take all” cha-cha was decent, and definitely more complex than any of the others – but I still feel like Chelsea’s legs stay pin-straight throughout the dance, and she lacks the characteristic bending & straighting of the knees. But none of this matters to the judges – they’ve made it abundantly clear that they want her in the finals, and so to the finals she goes. Pffft.

2.) Hines & Kym – Hines, god bless him, was the one true bright spot of the evening for me – and dadgummit, I cried with he & Kym after their Argentine tango! While I don’t think that tango was perfect (I’m gonna chalk it up to nerves due to Kym’s injury), he definitely schooled Ralph & Chelsea in what A. tango should look like – and Kym, god bless her too, soldiered through and the two of them actually managed to perform a routine that made me give a damn. It was definitely nice to see Hines back in the same fight mode that I haven’t really seen from him since his samba in week 3 Their salsa was definitely cute – and Hines is the master of staying on time and not missing steps. But like their A. tango, I don’t think it was perfect. Near-perfect, but not perfect – something about Hines’ face just made me think he wasn’t 100% in the dance. He definitely had the cleanest cha-cha – but I guess the judges would rather have complexity over cleanliness, which is why they chose Chelsea over him. I give up. I would have given these two the 15 points as the icing on the cake for their soldiering through what looked to be a very, very scary injury to me (this is coming from a girl who’s grandfather was a paraplegic for 10 months after a simple fall at home). I don’t mess with spinal injuries – this made my stomach churn even worse than seeing Evan land on his neck after a stunt in season 10. But I digress. These two are safe, thanks to some pretty damn good performances on an otherwise dismal night…and one very ridiculous points spread.

3.) Kirstie & Maks - I’m afraid I just don’t have a lot to say tonight about these two, other than “Did I miss something?” I don’t think Kirstie was at her best tonight, and I guess I’m gonna chalk it up to burnout – of the 4 remaining contestants, she’s the one that I still worry about most when it comes to endurance. However, the judges seemed to think she was fantastic, and much more so than Ralph – I just don’t understand it. She misses steps in her paso (which, on an unrelated note, seemed to end rather abruptly…anyone notice that?), and got a tad off-time in her Viennese waltz. Yet she still scores considerably better than Ralph, who I don’t think missed any steps. *shrugs* I’m beyond trying to understand it at this point. I definitely preferred her V. waltz to her paso doble, as it was actually pretty lovely, aside from the timing issue I saw a few times. Felt a little let down by her cha-cha - it felt like the same cha-cha she’s done twice before this season, and she still messed it up a bit this time Again, I’ll give her a break due to lack of energy, but I was counting on her to hopefully bump Chelsea out of the running for those extra 15 points…and she didn’t deliver. Luckily, she’s got the fanbase to pull her through, and a pretty decent lead over Ralph – she & Maks better step up their game in a big way, though, because both Chelsea & Hines are miles ahead of her in terms of stamina.

4.) Ralph & Karina – I should have known better than to think that the judges might turn over a new leaf and actually be nice to Ralph tonight…because the barrage of criticism they threw at him was downright sickening at times. No love for his Argentine tango, which really wasn’t all that bad – he may not have been 100% in the sultry “character” of it, but I daresay his technique was better than Chelsea’s, since he actually managed to get some impact with his steps. The judges went straight for the jugular on his salsa, too – I actually thought he had more energy and more entertaining content than Hines’ salsa did, but either the judges were blind to it or I was drawn to it more than the average bear, because it was lost on them. And Karina – god bless her for calling Bruno out on what I’m deducing was one very uncalled for lewd comment – had I been there, I may have needed to be put in a straight jacket after breaking that fool’s nose and then going for his gonads. Admittedly, his cha-cha was the weakest – but I knew that going in. The poor guy has never been great at cha-cha – he was facing a stacked deck going into this 3-ring circus of a “bonASS dance”. I wanted to shove a dirty sock in all three of the judges mouths as their sole words of compliment were “You tried so hard tonight!” before heaping praise on Hines. Made me sick. And now, he’s gotta face the music tomorrow night – and I’m sure the judges will all sit there, with their smug little smiles on their faces, and pretend to be disappointed that the poor guy is going home and that they’ll miss him – when in reality, they’re the ones to blame for his departure. Bravo.

And so ends quite possibly the most disappointing night of DWTS I have ever watched. Sorry to burst the bubble of any of you that had the time of your life watching tonight – because I was miserable for most of it, due to the blatant over & underscoring going on. I don’t deal with hidden (or in this case, not-so-hidden) agendas very well. But I’m gonna suck it up and go power vote for Ralph, in the event that there were enough Ralph fans as pissed off as Heidi & I were at how things panned out that are doing the exact same thing. Wouldn’t it be so awesome to watch the judges’ jaws drop if Ralph stuck around for yet another week? I know, I know…wishful thinking. But a girl can dream Fare ye well, Ralph…

Joanna Krupa Sent Home on DWTS

Is anyone else pissed that Joanna was sent home last night? I think she should have been in the finals no questions asked. She was sexy, elegant, and amazing to watch all season and to come this close just kills me. And with Derek’s hot choreography I’m pretty sure their freestyle would’ve been HOT!

BEST DANCES
Week 1: Cha, Cha, Cha

Week 4: Lambada

Week 6: Waltz

Week 7: Rumba

Week 8: Futuristic Paso Doble

Week 9: Cha Cha Cha

HOTTEST COSTUMES

Salsa Edition: THE GOOD, THE BAD, and THE INCREDIBLY HOT!

The salsa has only been around since season 7 so there’s slim pickings for this edition but still enough to educate on what a salsa should in tale or not in tale for that matter!

THE GOOD
Season 8: Gilles Marini
How can you not love watching Gilles shake it! Latin dances are all about the hip movements and shoulder shakes! I think Gilles nailed both of those aspects while being an incredible frame for Cheryl!

THE BAD
Season 7: Cody Linley
Okay, this is a TERRIBLE salsa but you can clearly see that Cody has no hip action go on and no shoulder shakes that are exceptional! He had great enthusiasm but not enough technique.

THE INCREDIBLY HOT
Season 7: Yesenia Adame & Paul Barris
This is exactly what a salsa should look like! Now I know celebs will hardly ever look like this but this is HOT!