Dancing with the Stars – The ALL Ringer Season
Think about it – it would be cool. 🙂 So, I got the idea from Derek Hough, who made what I think was an offhand comment in his last blog of this past season –
Next time, I’d love to see some celebrities come on the show who have dance experience — with no apologies. When people say that’s unfair, I say it should be welcome. Then it gives the dancers a chance to do some great things.
So that made me think that wouldn’t it be an interesting season if you had ONLY celebrities with past dance experience of some type – NO trained ballroom people, but people like Nicole, Erin, Evan, Sabrina, Lance, Kristi, Mya, Mel B, Melissa and so on. That would eliminate (to a degree) the bitching and moaning that goes on every season and people would have to learn to understand that past experience doesn’t mean that all the dancers will have the same degree of *talent*. Nicole, Sabrina and Mel B were all in pop groups that dance as part of the routine – were they all equal in talent? Nope.
What would happen if you put Evan, Kristi, Nicole, Erin, Sabrina, Mel B, Lance, Melissa, and Mya all in one season? Well, Kristi would still win because she’s the ringer of all ringers – huge fanbase AND talent. So, get rid of her – the point is to try to level the playing field. 🙂
So, sans Kristi, just think of the great dancing we would see! It wouldn’t be so easy to predict who was staying and who was going each week. Like Derek said, each of the pros would (hopefully) rise to new heights of creative choreography – and if they didn’t it would be glaringly obvious. Even Conrad, the head dude, said before the season got started that Derek would be under tremendous pressure. The pressure would be on ALL the pros to deliver great dances for talented people week in and week out. And no outside choreographers allowed. Also, get rid of the stupid lift rule – if your people have some experience, they can handle a lift or two. NO, I’m not talking about something like So You Think You Can Dance – still celebs, but those with the relatively limited (when compared to SYTYCD) training like those I’ve listed.
The end result, I think, would be to make the competition as much about the pros as it is about the celebs – if it isn’t already anyway. Now, instead of being mostly about fanbase and less about talent, it would be about fanbase, choreography, performance – the talent should be a given. Who can bring it the most? The only question is – would the ratings allow it? Some people actually LIKE train wrecks. 🙂
I think it’s a great idea, but people will still moan because that’s the fun of reality TV and because they take competition so seriously (??). People would decide that one celebrity is more of a ringer than the others, even without Kristi.
I agree with Rooster. and frankly I’d rather not see it. Especially consider Evan does not have any dance experience before this. If he were included in this then people like:
Joey McIntyre, Mario, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Toni Braxton, Lisa Rinna, Drew Lachey, Susan Lucci, Willa Ford, Cody Linley, Monique Coleman, Joey Lawrence, Mario Lopez, Melissa Rycroft, Joey Fatone, Jane Seymour, Aaron Carter, and Donny Osmond. All with previous “dance” experience.
That’s exactly my point, Katrina – all those people did have experience. And are you going to try to tell me that Evan’s weekly ballet lessons in addition to learning choreography don’t count? Because if they don’t, then neither does Nicole’s learning choreo for PCD. Her being in musical theater in college? How is that different from Erin being on a dance team in college? It’s NOT. Dance experience is dance experience – it implies a sense of rhythm and musicality that people who have never danced can’t be sure they have. Some have more than others – hell, Mario and Marissa starred on BROADWAY, and Marissa recently won an award for *dance*. All that dance experience is no different than what Nicole (or Mel B or Sabrina or Joey Fatone or Aaron Carter) had. I think it’s hilarious that people dismiss the dance experience of all those people, yet build up Nicole’s to make it more significant. She was just more TALENTED.
It’s also ignored that Mark Ballas, a ballroom professional, choreographed for Evan’s skating. You mean to tell me that there is no link between ice skating and dancing? None at all? Puh-lease.
BTW, Roosters initial comment was that it was a great idea. So what do you agree with?
I think a 2 night competition could be fun.
Strictly has a two night competition around Christmas inviting 6 couples to compete.
DWTS could put up men and women celebrities that would agree to do it and we vote for the overall 6 we want. (3 men and 3 women)
I think to be fair anyone who has won a Design A Dance in the past, Sabrina and Melissa and Joey Fatone could sit this out.
I think that would be a lot of fun, and we’d probably get to see a lot more from the pros than we have in the past. Before this season I didn’t think Anna was all that great, and was kind of disappointed when I heard she would be paired with Evan. I thought “Oh no, he could be so good, but with her? I don’t know…” but I’m so happy to say that I was wrong. Anna was fantastic and put together a lot of really great routines. I guess she had a lot more to offer, and just wasn’t able to showcase that with her previous partners. I’d be interested in seeing if the same would happen with any of the other pros if they were given a partner who was already a talented dancer.
I agreed with that people would think that one person would be more of ringer than others.
Evan has had only a handful of classes, not like a professional dancer or any stretch of the imagination. And it wasn’t to help out his choreography per se. It was to help his posture and his arm movements. Completely different than learning ballet.
As for Mark choreographing for him. It was once program and it was only after he started DWTS.
I’m not saying Nicole’s was more or less but compared to Evan? By far and way unfair. And compared to say Mya yah it was the same but compared to Evan.
I don’t buy it Katrina – all of Evan’s experience, including his ballet and being able to work with Mark, is every bit as helpful to him as the PCD was to Nicole. If Nicole hadn’t been on the show this season, most would have been crying foul at Evan for HIS ringer status for all the reasons I’ve mentioned. Of course Evan fans want to downplay the fact that he was a ringer that got beat by a more talented ringer. Unfair? Bullshit. There have been ringers every season and if Evan hadn’t had Nicole to deal with you’d be singing a different tune, and ERIN fans would be pissed at him instead of Nicole.
Let me ask you this – do you think anyone, with the proper training and practice, can be an Olympic Gold Medalist? I would imagine that your answer is no, and rightfully so. So you, of all people, should understand innate talent versus training. Similarly, lots of people have dance training – but not all of them become great dancers. Many remain just good dancers.
Evan had other advantages though. His age is one thing. He was the youngest competitor this season and he an Olympic athlete so he is fit. He came right off the athletes so he is in prime shape and he is used to being coached and trained. All the pros said that athletes are the easiest to work with because they are used to being coached, trained and know how their body moves. Evan had the same advantage that Nicole, Mya and every other ringer had. He is aware of his body, knows how to move it to music. Both Nicole, Evan and Erin started ahead of others because they are not starting from scratch. Evan and Nicole both know how to perform in front of an audience. Instead of focusing on who had it worse, I loved having ringers and in the end the best dancer won.
I think this is a great idea, and I’ve thought about this as well as them doing like a 2nd chance season with people who have competed already. I think either one could be great, with the possibility of being a very interesting season with lots of great dances.
Also, you would not believe the number of times I have heard that Evan’s ballet classes aren’t ‘THAT kind of ballet’ that they were another type of ballet that wasn’t dancing and refusing to believe that it in any way helped him with the show. Evan and Erin fan really annoyed me with all their moaning about Nicole having so much dance experience when neither of them had any kind of experience. I find it hard to believe they can call themselves fans and say with a straight face that neither had any prior experience that helped them.
Since all of the dancing would be quite good, the choreography would stand out and matter more. So wouldn’t it make sense for this to also be a competition among professionals, and to judge them based on the choreography? Or do you think this would be too competitive or mean-spirited? Probably not, because TV doesn’t worry about such things. I think that would be cool.
Hedi,
“do you think anyone, with the proper training and practice, can be an Olympic Gold Medalist?”
Actually I do but it depends on the sport. With figure skating, take for example Sarah Hughes, not the most talented skater but because of politics and other events, including a weaker field, won the gold model. Sarah practiced and had proper training and won. So did Tara Lipinski. But, figure skating is almost a different sport than other sports. Why? Because there a huge subjective aspect to the sport. The same is true with Dancesport.
I don’t care whether you buy it. It’s how I feel and I’m going to keep saying that Nicole’s experiences were much more unfair than Evan’s. I know other things that you might know and that’s fine.
If they were to do anything to change the format, I wish they’d just have a big bag of dance styles that they picked from every week, so it wouldn’t just be one bad samba after another, et al. They could even put something like “Pro’s choice” or something in there. Then, for example, if she comes back, Lacey could give WCS another go. Or maybe something we’ve never seen. Though, I know social dances are a source of ire for some.
to dancing with the stars a trubute for my mother and best friend could you pleaseput belly dancingin your resultshow honor my momin your season 11