DWTS Damian Whitewood, Peta Murgatroyd, Chelsie Hightower, And Mark Ballas In “America’s Favorite Dancers” Show (Photos)
Grand Productions have some great shots of Damian Whitewood, Peta Murgatroyd, Chelsie Hightower, Mark Ballas, and Sean Kanan (Sean has starred in “Karate Kid III”, “General Hospital”, “Bold and the Beautiful”, “Young and the Restless” and the Italian version of “Dancing with the Stars”) performing at the Riverwind Casino on July 22nd in Norman, OK. The five are headlining the “America’s Favorite Dancers” show. If you know of a special event in your area and would like to book these stars to dance, be sure to contact Grand Productions at this link.
Heidi’s Note: America’s Favorite Dancers?? According to WHO?? LOL. Um, okay.
LOL HEIDI!!! 😉
I love your note. “America’s Favorite Dancers?? According to WHO?? LOL. Um, okay.” i have to agree with you…
So Kym’s not one of America’s favorite dancers? :'(
LOL Heidi!
0.o
Thanks for the pics, Vogue! They are some of my favorite dancers. *g*
I deleted your last post, Maddy. While that should be strike 10, I’m going to be kind and call it one. You’ve been treading the toll line for far too long around here.
That is so cool! Good for them! Thank you for the post Vogue! I definitely love all four of them. Damian (bring him back!!!), Peta, Mark, and Chelsie are all awesome. But there are a few missing that should be a part of “America’s Favorite Dancers” IMHO. *cough* Derek… *cough* Maks…*cough* Kym. 🙂
LOL, Heidi! I agree though.
Nice pics! Thanks for posting.
Maybe they should have called it “Some of America’s Favorite Dancers”. But loved the pics.
Lol, Will! You’re right.
@Rebecca, maybe they should’ve called it “America’s Favorite Dancers who were Willing to go to Oklahoma in August for the 112-degree heat”????? 😉
Glad you liked Guys…well, with an exception to Maddy? Geez
“Maybe they should have called it “Some of America’s Favorite Dancers”. ”
I agree. That would have been better Rebecca!!
I got it: “Dancers That We’re Going to Label as America’s Favorite Because They Were the Only Ones We Could Get For This Event”. 🙂
Look, it’s the original AJ Quartermaine from GH! Man, that takes me back to days in elementary school where I was home sick and watched it with my Granny. Looks like Peta got stuck with the ho-hum red fringy dress again. And Chelsie’s rocking one of Cheryl’s many sheer-skirted ballgowns. Yay for “Who Wore it Better?” fodder!
Love it 🙂 Mark and Chelsie are my favorite dancers…it’s all a matter of your opinion 🙂 Thanks for the pics!
Good pics, but I have to say that Mark’s losing his grip. Watched his choreography on SYTYCD last night and although I liked his routines w/Chelsea [mainly because I liked Chelsea and thought she was a good dancer] what he put together last night was rough. Headline could also read “A few of America’s favorite dancers and a split-personality.
Without a partner who is likable on S13, I’m not sure even the hardcore Marky will be able to see him make a run at the MBT this season. I used to have so much more respect for him, but it is what it is.
Sorry about the last paragraph in my previous post.
It should read “I’m not even sure the hardcore Marky fans* will be able to see him make a run at the MBT this season”
I was at this show and met the dancers afterward at the meet and greet. It was called America’s Favorite Dancers but I noticed in the billing it was mainly Mark-for good reason. The show opened with a comedy routine by Sean Kanan, who is not funny when scripted, but delivered some good ones when ad libbing. Mark came out and did three songs and then the two teams for Chelsie/Mark and Peta/Damian took turns dancing two dances a piece. Peta/Damian led the group in teaching a few salsa steps and then Mark came out and did two more songs. The two teams each did one more dance. It ended with a Question and Answer session with nearly all the questions directed at Mark. Since I was there for Mark, this worked for me, but I did feel bad for the other dancers. I really liked Damian. He is quite hilarious and charming, and to me that didn’t come across on the show. Both he and Peta were very nice to the fans at the small meet and greet afterward. Mark was also incredibly gracious and patient with the fans. It was a great night for me, but I’m not sure the gig title was exactly appropriate.
I didn’t actually have a problem with Mark’s Choreography last night – I thought the dancers weren’t up to the task. My opinion is they neither like nor respect the work that ballroom requires. Much tougher to pull off than their usual fare.
WOW Heidi, we agree on something. The problem wasn’t the choreography, it was the dancers. I would have thought they would have executed this dance better. I haven’t seen very many good ballroom dances on SYTYCD. If they want to win a “dance” competition, they should be able to do anything imo!
I really like Mark but wonder if he needs an intervention. Bristol & that gorilla dance started a downhill slide to the dark side, IMO. I was disappointed in his choreography on SYTYCD…too many lifts, not enough of a cha cha feel.
I’m not as narrow minded as most fangirls, Beth – Mark fangirls included. 🙂 In fact, I’m not a very good fangirl at all – ask Courtney. 🙂 I try to calll a spade a spade – I thought SYTYCD dissed Mark pretty bad last night and it pissed me off. Kinda like if someone picks on my brother. I’M allowed to pick on my brother, but if anyone outside the family picks on him, watch your back.
In any case, this is NOT a new conversation here – we’ve been having it for a while. SYTYCD does craptastic ballroom and they do if in order to be flashy. IMO, if you need to do a series of lifts in a ballroom number in order to make it flashy, you are a craptastic ballroom choreographer. SYTYCD looks down it’s nose at ballroom and sneers at it and Nigel has the NERVE to critique it as if he knows what he’s talking about. Why? Because it’s very difficult and they can’t DO it. If you can’t DO IT, you critique it. He critiques it stacked up against his favorite contemporary crap, which is just idiotic. Mark, IMO, choreographed a decent Cha Cha for those dancers and they couldn’t hang, pure and simple. They admitted it was VERY difficult – damn straight. Respect it. Might have been an excellent Cha Cha, but it was kinda hard to tell when the dancers weren’t up to the task. Now, on Twitter Nigel was not blaming the choreography, but he was very wishy washy about it. On the show he was bordering on insulting, IMO. I was groaning the whole time I was watching it. He did NOT make it clear enough to those dancers that they didn’t manage the dance, and he tip toed around blaming Mark.
Frankly, I often wonder at the treatment that some DWTS pros (mainly Louis, Jonathan and now Mark) get on that show – Nigel makes cracks about DWTS all the time (which is just ignorant) but I think he suffers from an extreme case of envy – DWTS has twice the ratings of SYTYCD and he knows in his heart that DWTS doesn’t get the Emmy nominations because most of that community is all about Contemporary dance as well. It’s a peer vote for nominations after all. Best ballroom dance on SYTYCD??? Louis’ tango from a few weeks back. By far. The rest has been crap.
Heidi I actually agree with you on this particular issue. There was nothing wrong with Mark’s choreography-the dancers flat just didn’t deliver. And the show did IMO insult Mark by not saying one word about him-not even a welcome to the show. You seem very familiar with the show and with Nigel. If he is so anti-DWTS, then why does he use DWTS pros to choreograph? Surely there are adequate ballroom professionals who could fulfill their requirements since clearly they aren’t interested in serious ballroom. I have tried to watch SYTYCD a few times and it doesn’t keep my interest. I watched two weeks ago to see Janette Manrara whom I loved in Burn the Floor. Turned it off as soon as she danced. Watched last night until they did that to Mark and then quit watching. To me the show is definitely not anywhere near as interesting as DWTS.
LOL Heidi, I’m glad you asked that question so I didn’t have to.
On a different note, I didn’t care for Mark’s choreography last night on SYTYCD, it had too much “filler” for me, but so does almost every other ballroom routine on that show. It was like the judges knew the dancers were bad but just didn’t want to fully admit it.
SYTYCD has never been as good as DWTS, IMO. Frankly, I think Nigel hopes that by using DWTS choreographers he’ll grab a bit of audience share. Of course, it’s entirely possible he at least respects them as dancers. I know he’s friendly with Derek and surely he is with Mark by now, since Mark did that Cinderella choreography. I just expected a hell of a lot more out of Nigel last night than what we got. He also made some totally unnecessary comments to the two remaining male contestants toward the end of the show. Perhaps he’s trying to become the star a la Bruno.
Michele, thank you for the review. It does sound like the show was Mark Ballas and the other people who showed up to make him look good. That was also how the event was promoted.
I thought Jonathon’s “twisted” quickstep (Sasha and ?) was really good.
I thought Sasha and Tadd looked awkward doing that chacha. They just couldn’t cut it. The height difference between the two also did not help.
Yes, Michelle, thanks for the notes and congrats on being able to attend. This is what entertainers do, they get out and entertain-whatever the venue. I once saw Toy Caldwell at a small bar way past the Marshall Tucker Days, but he gave it his all and it was memorable.
@Bruce, you are right about entertainers getting out and entertaining. They have to keep the money coming in during their off seasons.
How fun that a Marksie shipper came here and posted about the pictures. LOL!!
I’m confused here. Maybe I don’t understand the meaning of shipping. I thought ‘shipping’ was when you are trying to make or push a “romantic” relationship. I didn’t think shipping just meant a fan.