PureDWTS POLL: Best Male & Female Celeb Dancers in DWTS History?
So I was eating my lunch outside today (since it was the first day in quite some time that wasn’t rainy) with some coworkers, when the topic of my favorite DWTS contestant of all-time, Alfonso Ribeiro, came up. We had been talking about the celebrity golf tournament he was in this past weekend (Vogue reported on it here, if you haven’t seen it yet), and the fact that he did the Carlton, and I think I said “He’s probably the best male dancer they’ve ever had on the show!” To which another coworker replied “Nah, Corbin Bleu was the best dancer they’ve ever had on the show!” And of course, a debate commenced over who was the better technician, who was the better entertainer, who was more athletic, etc. etc. etc. We ended up agreeing to disagree, but it got me thinking: really & truly, out of the 20 seasons we’ve had – who is the best guy we’ve seen, and who’s the best girl?
I did a bit of a snap poll on Twitter, but I figured “Why not make it a bit more official?” and do an actual poll here? So below, I picked the most likely candidates for who would likely qualify for “best dancer” on DWTS – most would probably fall under the “ringer” category, but that’s kind of expected when we’re voting on dance skills alone. Keep in mind that it’s not about popularity, or how well-known they were when they did the show – just dance skills & presentation, period; and independent of any previous training they might have had – so no “Well so-and-so was better because they had no previous experience and were great and that’s what DWTS is all about!!!” Strictly voting on dance skills/showmanship alone, kids.
Obviously, I voted for Alfonso for the men – I think he was the most consistent of all the male ringers we’ve had, and also the best showman; I also think part of his appeal was that he was a really organic, natural mover that seemed to really get into the pocket of whatever dance was thrown his way, even if he had no previous experience with it. While I agreed with my coworker that Corbin was more athletic and likely had more refined technique than Alfonso, I think he wasn’t as much of a natural as Alfonso and had to work harder to appear at ease with the movement of some of the dances – which didn’t always work, and made him a lot less consistent throughout his season.
For the ladies, it wasn’t as cut-and-dry for me – my knee-jerk answer was Nicole, but then I remembered she had some ups-and-downs and some dances that she wasn’t naturally good at (her first rumba and her samba come to mind); then I thought of Meryl, but while her technique was usually flawless, I remember thinking she sometimes lacked in the showmanship department, and could be a timid mover at times. Then I thought of Kristi Yamaguchi, who was a strong dancer AND entertainer, but I remember thinking that she seemed to always have that skater’s “perma-smile” that made her look a tad cheesy at times. As surprising as this may be for some of you, I actually ended up picking Zendaya as the best female dancer we’ve seen on the show – for a lot of the same reasons I picked Alfonso: she was consistent, she was a showman, and she was a very NATURAL mover. Granted, I thought Val failed her in the choreography department on multiple occasions (which may have eventually prevented her from winning, I think), and I didn’t love every single dance; but I do think she probably had the best skill set to work with, and seemed the most comfortable out on the floor.
So what do YOU guys think? Vote in the polls below, and then tell us how you voted & why 🙂
Good idea, Court! I love it! For the women, Nicole Scherzinger! For the guys, I went with Apolo Ohno, but, Alfonso would be a close second.
I picked Nicole Scherzinger for the ladies and Alfonso for the guys. Zendaya was awkward coming out of spins at times due to her long legs.
Well this is a fun poll 🙂
For the males, I chose Alfonso. While I think Corbin was a great dancer through most of the season, at the very end he got way too desperate and went downhill. Kinda turned me off watching his dances. Alfonso on the other hand, was always consistent, entertaining and had a great showmanship.
For the ladies I chose Zendaya as well. I was very tempted to choose Katherine and Meryl but I feel like Zendaya was a bit more natural than them. Katherine WAS very consistent during her season (think she got a score of 29/30 like 5 weeks in a row) but I felt like she sometimes was lacking in the performance department (felt too perfect). I felt like Meryl was also similar to Katherine.. a bit too perfect at times but never really felt like performed her dances. Too much tecnique! (and it didn’t help her partner was Old Chmerkovskiy). I think Zendaya had a balance of both technique and performance considering all the dancing she had done before.
I didn’t watch Nicole’s season, but from the three or four dances I have seen of hers she was VERY skilled in both performance and technique, I think. I guess she could be a close second to Zendaya, perhaps.
I chose Alfonso for the guys and Shawn Johnson for the girls.. Although I think Kellie Pickler was amazing on the show.
For the ladies I picked Shawn but Nicole was a close second. For the guys I really had a brain vs gut moment becuase my brain said Alfonso (who I chose) And my gut said Gilles.
I voted for Mario Lopez – to be honest I can’t really remember his dances now, but at the time I voted for him each week and was upset when he didn’t win. I also love Apolo.
For the women, I picked Nicole. Her Argentine Tango is still one of my favorites. I really liked Shawn as well.
I wasn’t a fan of Zendaya – she always had those sneakers on and was a little too gangly for me.
I picked Nicole for the women – mainly because Derek actually gave her very difficult choreography (and was challenged several times with it thanks to crazy themes and music). That’s the problem with picking best ever dancer – if your choreographer gives you easier choreography and you nail it, are you REALLY a better dancer than someone who is nearly perfect with much harder routines?? I think Shawn was a close second to Nicole – I have to agree with Kelly in that Zen seemed to flop out of her turns a bit. Zendaya also opted out of ballroom shoes a few times when she shouldn’t have. It does give her an edge.
The men? Alfonso. But again, I ask: Was Charlie White’s choreography so much more difficult that it’s not a fair comparison? I’m honestly asking. It feels that way to me.
I picked Shawn for the Ladies as I still go back to watch her dances again and again most of which are done with Derek she was TOP CLASS for me. As for the men its a TIE between Charlie and Alfonso.
Why isn’t Kellie Pickler on this list? You don’t win DWTS with the top pro on the show without being a very good dancer. After he and Kellie had won, Derek said in an interview that there are those who call themselves dancers who couldn’t do what she did. Of all the Argentine Tangos he has performed with his celebrity partners over the years, it was his and Kellie’s, Argentine Tango that he referred to in his book as being a “great” one. Kellie brought Len to his feet twice, once for her Argentine Tango and again for her Freestyle. And she got two standing ovations from Carrie Ann, one for her Jazz and another for her, Paso Doble, who also called Kellie’s level of perfection in her Argentine Tango, “Absurd.” Sharna Burgess said on AfterBuzz that Kellie was “absolutely incredible” throughout the entire season, and she said you can’t deny that Kellie and Zendaya were both “outstanding.” So why doesn’t Kellie qualify to be on this list?
Hmmm…. this is a really interesting question.
I really do think that many people in this poll were absolutely fantastic!
For the guys, it was an obvious choice for me. Alfonso was by far one of my favorite males to ever compete on the show. His dances were all very memorable for me. Between that iconic jazz routine, his amazing trio paso doble, and that great jive… he was just fantastic. I could really go on and on about all of his dances, even his weakest were extremely strong in my opinion.
Choosing between the females was a lot harder. At the end of the day, I went with Mya. I feel like she was on one of the weakest seasons that the show has ever had, but she was a diamond on that rough season. I do think that she was incredibly underscored throughout that entire season. Though there are other contestants that definitely were amazing (Nicole, Mel, Shawn, Jennifer) I just think that if Mya had competed on a later season, she would have ended up being scored a lot higher for most of the routines that she and Dmitry had.
Nicole was by far the best female I’d seen on the show. The men is much harder for me. I couldn’t pick just one, but chose Apolo since I liked his style.
I’ll answer your question with another question, Kenya: if she was on this list, would you have actually voted for her? Or are you just trying to make a point?
I didn’t put Kellie on the list because I thought there were other, more trained dancers that stood a much better chance of earning the title “best female ever on DWTS”. Kellie was good, but there were others with better technique – Nicole was one of them.
The problem is that there’s no pleasing everybody – and these polls could easily get very, very long, especially for the ladies, because we’ve had many more technically strong ladies over the years than we’ve had technically strong men. I could put Kellie on the list, and she might get a few votes – but judging from the fact that you’re the only one that’s mentioned her so far, I highly doubt she’d win, up against powerhous ringers like Shawn, Nicole, & Meryl.
Here’s my thing about Charlie: he often looked ill-at-ease to me while he was dancing. He nailed his contemporary, tango, & jive, but by week 4 (his rumba with Peta), he seemed progressively less comfortable out on the floor. I saw it in his cha-cha, his paso doble, and that ridiculous “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems” samba they made him do. I partially blame the judges and the ridiculous critiques they gave him (because God forbid anybody outshine #maksyl) for chipping away at his confidence, and who knows – maybe if things would have turned out differently, he’d be my #1 guy. But thinking back to Alfonso’s dances, even in his weakest dance – his “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” samba – he looked totally cool, confident, and in control. Even if he wasn’t particularly wild about the dance he was doing, he still was 100% in it…and he owned it.
If Kellie was on the list, I would have voted for her, Courtney, because I believe that her technique was as good as those you listed for all the reasons I stated in my post. So we’ll agree to disagree on this one, you certainly have the right to have on your poll whom you like. By the way, I wasn’t the only one, poster, #AEE mentioned how amazing Kellie was as well.
I have to agree with Kenya, Kellie Pickler should definitely be on this list. She was so flexible, her lines were always beautiful and she was able to execute Derek’s choreography. I voted for Shawn with Nicole being a close second, but for me Kellie is definitely up there. In my opinion, she was for sure better than Brandy, Melissa (overrated), Janel, Mya and Kristi. I would put her on par with Zendaya since they both had different strengths and weaknesses ( I consider Val a weakness). She may not have gotten the most votes but she would’ve def gotten more than Brandy who is still at zero.
Male – ALFONSO by miles! The best male dancer ever on DWTS!
Female – I pick SHAWN JOHNSON. The dances she with did with Derek during the All Star season is unbeatable and iconic! The partnership between Shawn-Derek was excellent. I think Shawn-Derek became really close as friends, remember how Derek cried before the finale night and said how Shawn made him believe in himself again.. that was so touching.
I don’t think zendaya was on the same level as Kellie at all, to me Zendaya was the best female dancer ever on the show just a hair more than Nicole (sometimes like in her first rumba Nicole let her nerves get the best of her). For the men for me it was either Anton ohno or Mario Lopez, but to be honest I would be fine with anyone disagreeing with me because it was really hard picking the best male dancer. For some reason I’ve never been crazy about Shawns dances, but she was an extremely talented dancer. Oh and I also thought of Sabrina Bryan! She was great, but totally get why she’s not on the list for multiple reasons.
If you guys did a best pro dancer that would be really interesting. Well Derek would probably win the male one, but it would be interesting to see who evry1 thinks the best female pro is.
Come on, Guys! Give Court a break. This post was just for fun and she didn’t have to include some people if she didn’t want to.
I wanted to add how much I loved Charlie White. Also, it’s just my personal preference, but, I loved Donald Driver too. Both Charlie and Donald had so much “passion” in their dancing that I loved that Alfonso seem to lack and yet, Alfonso had the ‘entertainment’ factor in spades. Decisions decisions!
And this, kids, is why I don’t do very many polls – always somebody whining “But what about [insert person here]???” How bout next time, I’ll just list every single celeb that’s ever done the show? That ought to make everyone happy…
(((((Court))))) xxxx I thought it was perfect. I loved it!!
I love the idea of this poll.
I voted for pre-douch, partnered with Cheryl, Gilles. A natural mover with great musicality who lived in the moment of each step.
For the women, I voted for Nicole. She took all that complex, intricate and amazing choreography that Derek gave her and made it sing.
Voted for Corbin and Shawn. I’m a fan of females that can be sexy elegant but also portray strength (contrast). I would have actually voted for Sabrina if she were on the list. I loved Nicole and Kristy, and liked Meryl, Jennifer G, Janel and Zendaya, the were all good dancers but I think they all danced to “dedicatedly” for my taste.
Melissa I actually think is not even a good dancer. Just ok.
Male: It’s a toss between Apolo Ohno and Mario Lopez for me. Apolo did brilliantly on both seasons he was at, and he did prove that he could do just as well in the less Ballroom-strict and more Ballroom-advanced choreography, thanks to Karina’s exquisite choreography on the All-Stars season. Mario, on the other hand, will always be the first truly excellent male dancer in DWTS history for me. Sure, John O’Hurley (who was much better than Kelly Monaco) and Drew Lachey were great as well, but Mario was just that slightly better than both of them. In the end, I voted for Mario.
Female: Nobody has defeated the excellence of Nicole Scherzinger, in my opinion. Well for me Stacey Keibler was the very first truly excellent female dancer, but then Kristi tags along and was even better, not to mention the arrival of Mya. All three of them were fabulous but the choreography they were given by their respective partners weren’t on the level of what Derek gave to Nicole. And dancing exceptionally to THAT high of a choreography standard, gives her the edge easily. Elegant Viennese Waltz, bouncy Samba, funky Paso, seductive Argentine Tango, comedic Tango, Proud Mary Jive, Rihanna Jive, Buble Foxtrot, or both Rumbas Nicole did them all wonderfully. After Nicole there were several female dancers that were very strong too, such as Katherine Jenkins, Shawn Johnson and Zendaya, but Nicole stands firm on the top of my list, though Shawn is a pretty close second now after her excellent All-Stars season.
For natural ability and style, I’d go with Alfonso for the men, with Mario as the runner up – for my personal preference though, I’d go with Apolo and then Charlie close behind him.
For the females, natural ability, style, and execution, I gotta go with Nicole, and Jennifer Grey close behind. Personal preference though, I like Shawn and Kathrine. Zendaya is tough for me, because I think she came in with oodles of ability and training, but I just didn’t enjoy watching her dance – maybe it’s the long limbs or her awkward turns, or crappy shoes or whatever. I just tend to prefer the more average-height female aesthetic when it comes to dancing.
I’ll add this about Zendaya: I think she came into the competition with a promising natural & learned ability, and a good bit of showmanship – but I think what ultimately screwed her was Val. The turn problems, the shoes, the disappointing choreography – all things Val could (and should) have fixed. Had she been partnered with Derek, I daresay she’d be giving Shawn a run for her money in this poll.
As for Shawn – she was good, but I always found her to be a bit robotic. I’ve found all of the gymnasts to be somewhat robotic – Shawn, Ali, & Nastia all left me a bit cold at times.
Thanks Court! Great idea!
I picked Alfonso and Zendaya. Just because I had fun watching them. If Zendaya was partnered with Mark or Derek she would have won. JMO
I appreciate your choices Courtney! I know it’s for fun and you picked great dancers!
As for me, when I think of the gentlemen, I always think of who I would personally love to dance with. My two choices are Alfonso (just for the sheer fun of it) and Gilles (I would love to do an AT with him!). I would, however, choose Alfonso as #1.
For the ladies – this is a tough one but I would go with Nicole.
For the guys, I agreed with Court and picked Alfonso. Think he had the perfect amount of showmanship and strong technique needed – didn’t disappoint at all throughout the season, and each dance was fun and also very strong.
The girls was tougher for me. I considered Mya, Zendaya, Meryl, Nicole and Kristi – so it was a close race! I ended up going for Mya, since I thought a lot of her dances were really refreshing and exciting to watch and she had the great technique to boot. I still remember her Jive with Dmitry which will go down as one of my favorite ever routines on this show, because it just felt like one of those dances I would see in a stage production or show – it was so much fun and almost flawless in it’s technique. So yeah, I think Mya’s the strongest female, but it was tough!
For the men, I picked Alfonso. To me, he had the whole package as a dancer: technique, musicality, showmanship… that man was born to dance!
For the women, this one was hard! I went back and forth between Nicole and Mya (I voted for both), but ultimately I’m going to have to go with Nicole. Derek gave her difficult, intricate and creative choreo and she executed them (almost) flawlessly, in my opinion. If Mya had been partnered with Derek, I think she would then become my first pick. I think she had great natural dance ability but I felt like her pro Dmitry let her down by not showcasing her true potential.
What an interesting and awesome poll, Court! Thanks for this! 🙂
For the guys, I also picked Alfonso, although I don’t feel he ever truly “clicked” with me and I was just pulling a little more for Sadie, I attribute this mostly to the fact I rarely if ever got to watch season 19 live and saw very little more than the dances, so it’s not at all a fault of his. I totally agree that his technique may not have been quite as refined as one or two others, but he was always grounded, natural, and confident. Even with the best, I feel that they have to work hard to make some of their moves look so great, but with Alfonso, I almost NEVER felt like he was trying that hard, even though in reality he was working his butt off. So kudos to he and Witney, such a fabulous team 🙂
As for the ladies, it’s a much harder one. I’m stuck between Shawn, Nicole, and Zendaya, but ultimately picked Shawn and a LOT of it comes down to personal preference. All three ladies had FABULOUS technique and skill. Shawn was incredibly precise, clean, and could pull off even difficult, weird moves beautifully (I always note her Quickstep, Bhangra, Mambo, Instant Cha cha, Tango/Paso and Samba as prime examples. All of them had REALLY tricky, difficult choreography, but she was right on it, every time). Nicole had a way of dancing with such musicality and grace that it just looked gorgeous and awe-inspiring almost all the time (I note her Final Rumba, Argentine Tango, Quickstep, Paso, and Proud Mary Jive). She oozed talent and dance. Zendaya was so natural, used her entire body well, comfortable, and had a great balance of technique and precision (Her cha cha, contemporary, and Argentine tango stick out to me). All three ladies also had distinct weaknesses. Shawn could be comparatively stiff and a little jerky, Nicole showed some moments of balance issues, strange leg action, and Zendaya did have issues getting total control of her long limbs and it could at times affect her feet (though I agree Val could have done more to help this). They’re all fabulous I think, and so close. All in all, I just preferred Shawn’s really strong, grounded, athletic, precise, on the mark dancing and even in the hardest dances she had, these qualities didn’t falter. She’s an athlete, and I feel that Shawn knew how to get her body moving the best because she already knew it. With Nicole and Zendaya, I’d see moments where I feel they just didn’t know what to do with their body all the way, and it detracts a bit for me. It’s different and appeals to my tastes of dancing technique a bit more than the daintier, prettier technique we see VERY often. Again, I personally believe it comes down to taste, really all of it does 🙂
Thanks again for the poll, Court!
I see the Janel fans got a hold of this post…funny how she jumped from 6% to 16% overnight…
I have now closed the poll for the ladies due to some suspicious voting activity that I don’t feel accurately reflects reader opinions. Feel free to continue voting in the men’s poll. Carry on…
Someone has too much time on their hands. And a WAY over-inflated view of their favorite celeb.
I bet her fans stayed up all night to reach that achievement! lol
From the men, I chose Charlie White. I felt like he had the most challenging choreography and the most diverse choreography. And his performances stood out more for me. Although Alfonso was obviously very good, he didn’t wow me like Charlie. Not only with routines like the Mary Poppins one, but his trio dance with Candace and Mark was just amazing.
I find it quite funny that a lot of Janel fans were ones who openly spoke against this fansite, yet they’re all rushing on here to vote for her in the poll. To quote that quote you’ve posted a few times, Court… “b*tch, you’re a fan”. 🙂
Joanna +1!!! LOL