Private Members Area – DWTS Season 25 Week 5 Discussion
It’s time again for Dancing with the Stars chatter! Share your thoughts and insights on this week’s episode of Dancing with the Stars from the comfort of the Pure DWTS Private Members Area. If you’re not a Pure DWTS Insider yet, you can do so here. If you are, then I look forward to the discussion in the comments.
It’s Disney week and we’re on a new server. I’m in San Antonio and giving a speech tomorrow bright and early, so I’ll keep this short and sweet.
Did you love this year’s Disney week? Any standout dances? Any you never want to see again? How about the scores?
Sound off in the comments. Thanks everyone for all of your support.
Disney Night is always great but can the next one have a moratorium on use of “The Bare Necessities?”
Really enjoyed the vintage Mouseketeers bit and Keo’s high kick. Hayley and Alan were too adorable in that Cinderella bumper.
The new server seems to be working great – had no delays in browsing on “game night” and the phone UI is also great (old phone UI had some eccentric quirks).
Good luck with the speech, John! You wouldn’t happen to be in Toastmasters would you?
I was an officer in my region’s number one rated, non-prison-related, Toastmasters club. (Those guys in the state pen clearly have too much free time!) I know it sounds weird but it was great training for dancing – all that breath control and training on overcoming stage fright.
I’m with you on outlawing Bare Necessities. I think it’s an awful song to dance to also.
Glad the server is working well. That’s interesting that you like the new phone UI. It’s really just the regular website on a phone. People generally hate it and want something mobile optimized. I’ve never had a problem pinching and zooming personally.
Thanks for your kind words. I survived the speech. People seemed to be pretty happy. A couple people came up with some nice praise for the things I said. I’m not in Toastmasters. I’ve thought about it and probably should to improve my skills. I am mormon and so I’ve been speaking in church since I was 3, so that helps. They recorded the video, so we’ll see how that goes. Other than my start wasn’t great because they had tech issues. Oh well.
I’m with you Nukegrrrl & John concerning “Bare Necessities” being outlawed, also.
I actually enjoyed “Disney Night” with all the production & costumes and animated characters incorporated into everything. What I really liked the most were the dances where the dance style had lots of content, and still cute Disney like choreo. Some seem to get caught up in the “Disney” theme and slacked on content.
I loved Derek & Nastia’s Disney jazz dance to “Frozen” song “Love Is An Open Door.” (Season 20) She and Derek talked just like in the movie and looked the part, too.
I loved Lindsey & Mark’s Foxtrot, so eloquently beautiful. She was a beautiful “Tinker Bell.” Mark did a perfect choreo to their song.
@ KreativeKat: Re: “Some seem to get caught up in the “Disney” theme and slacked on content.”
I’m pretty sure Gleb had something to do with that!
I don’t think I have seen the set look so detailed before for a regular mid-season dance, and it was like the writing on the wall. If only Gleb had put half as much thought into their dances as he had used on the props, then maybe we’d have one less Chmerlachey?
I’ve been rewatching the heck out of Mark and Lindsey’s foxtrot. I like how Lindsey’s outfit was inspired by the era the film was released in, instead of a more literal Tinkerbell costume. Her costume also reminded me of the Blue Fairy’s hair and gown.
Nukegrrl,
You really think Gleb thinks about their sets? I bet he has very little influence or ideas about the set. Especially on Disney week. That’s the show doing all the set work.
There was the recent package for Sasha’s “Guilty Pleasure” baking dance where Gleb is fussing about how to use the many baking props, and not fussing enough about her dance.
Gleb’s dances are centered around ridiculously elaborate props, like that shower bed with Jana or unicorn with Erika. Then we don’t see these props like this used or reused for other pros that seem to be given a lot of propping up themselves, which makes me think it’s mainly a Gleb thing.
With that in mind maybe it’s more fair of me to say that: it seems like Gleb’s method is to rely on props making the dance special vs the Star making the dance special!
Is Gleb just Keo without as much of a mouth? (ie. Gleb is just a quiet Keo?)
John, for me, no. Gleb seems well versed in all Ballroom/Latin styles. I agree, now that I’m thinking back, he does like props but so does Mark Ballas. I don’t think we’ve seen any incidences of Gleb’s partner’s forgetting their choreo yet, have we? And to me, he doesn’t outdance his partners in the way that Keo does. Both pros are gorgeous though! And I’d be FINE with dropping Gleb and Keo, especially if it meant bringing back Sasha Farber.
Keo ALWAYS out dances his partners and his routines, pre Charro, seemed more designed to show off himself than his partners. (I read on Tumblr that he’s been using a ghost the last couple of seasons.). Granted that 3 of his 6 partners were older but didn’t all of them forget some choreography? Not enough drilling perhaps? And the real problem for me is that he doesn’t seem to have strategies for helping his partner if they stumble. When Jodie was struggling in her Zootopia number, he just seemed to move center stage and danced more frantically himself vs. When Nick got lost in one of their numbers, Sharna could be seen talking him through it. I know fans have been complaining that TPTB always give him crappy partners but Artem had 4 older women of 6 seasons, 1 more than Keo! Not to mention TPTB sh*tting on Emma, Sasha and Allison while continuing to give Keo chance after chance despite his poor results. Lolo, his 1st partner was a young Olympic champ. Jodie Sweetin was both a fanbase ringer, an actress and she’d had “a lot of dance training when she was younger.” So she was a bigger ringer than Paige VanZant! And Keo’s season with Jodie showed me that he’s much better versed in Latin than Ballroom. His Quickstep was wonky and there was the Viennese waltz with Kim with no hold what so ever! I did find that performance pretty. But he should have known that Len at least would eviscerate him for that. He has others. Keo did not warn Kim that his choreographic choices could hurt their score. And yes, Maks was ridiculous and out of line in his critique. But Keo abandoned his partner and sulked like a child even while she was hurting too.
So no, IMO, Gleb isn’t as poor a pro as Keo.
Nice analysis Colleen. I’m glad we agree that they could both be gone and that would be fine. It’s amazing to me that they don’t rotate the pros more actually since they likely could find some stars that would surprise them. Although, there could be some logistical challenges with doing so.
Your description of Keo was pretty spot on though and makes me wonder why they really have kept him around. Fine, as a troupe member it doesn’t matter much, but not as a pro.
Hello, John…Just going to put this post here to see if things are working again. If it posts then something going right.
KreativeKat,
Looks like the above comment worked. Let me know what you did to fix it. Glad to have you back posting.
Thanks for the post, Colleen!
In terms of Keo, I feel like there’s no good reason why it shouldn’t have worked out better with Jodie. And I totally forgot about his partnership with Kim Fields until you brought it up!