Corky Ballas | Pure Dancing with the Stars

Amazing Photos Of Dancing With The Stars Pros At Green Bay, Wisconsin Charity Show

Aren’t these some fantastic shots of Peta Murgatroyd, Derek Hough, Chelsie Hightower, Tristan MacManus, Sasha Farber, Corky Ballas, Oksana Dmytrenko, and yes, one lucky fan? On June 3rd, as reported to you earlier with photos and video coverage, the dancing pros of Dancing With The Stars did a show in Green Bay, Wisconsin to help benefit Donald Driver’s charities. Photographer D.King of dkingofimagez.com raved about how blessed he was to shoot the event. You can see more photos and read his take on the night at his facebook page. If you need this photographer to shoot any of your events and to see more samplings of his work, be sure to visit dkingofimagez.com as he does some amazing work as you can see.

Also, thanks to Tristan MacManus Fans Facebook for the heads up on these photos and D.King. To see them in a bigger size, click the photos.

DWTS Corky Ballas On Katherine Jenkins: “I just witnessed a gorgeous velvet sound of an angel”

Pictured above is Mark Ballas and Katherine Jenkins. They made an appearance at The Grove in Hollywood yesterday for an interview with Extra. Katherine sang while Mark played his guitar again. You can view more pictures of the two at Zimbio Pictures. Mark’s dad, Corky, was there to witness the event and below is how he reacted to it….

https://twitter.com/#!/CorkyBallas/status/198224744028438528

We may have more with these two later. Stay tuned.

The Top 5 Worst First Week Foxtrots in DWTS History

So the other day, we counted down the top 10 worst first week cha-cha’s in DWTS history. As you can see, we only have a top 5 for this countdown – probably because there have only been 37 week 1 foxtrots in the history of the show, and the bulk of them are neither good nor bad…but just hard to remember 😛 Only a handful have stuck out in my memory as notable – and those are the ones you are seeing 🙂 But first, some factoids for your enjoyment…

*The foxtrot has only been used as a week 1 dance in 7 seasons: seasons 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, & 12. The other seasons have either had a waltz (seasons 1, 2, & 8) or a Viennese waltz (seasons 10, 11, 13) as the week 1 ballroom dance. Season 9 had both the foxtrot and the Viennese waltz as first week ballroom dances.

*The lowest week 1 foxtrot score ever given was a 13 – it was given to Mike & Lacey in season 12.

*Besides the 3 newest pros (Val, Tristan, & Peta), the only pro this season that’s never done the foxtrot as a regular week 1 dance is Derek – unless you count the foxtrot relay in season 9 (I don’t, because it was only 30 seconds ;-)).

5.) TIE: Sara & Tony, season 3 and Leeza & Tony, season 4

Zzzzzzzz….uh, um, what? Sorry, fell asleep – thought I was watching paint dry, at the rate these foxtrots were moving! I’m not sure if these ladies thought they would shatter into a million pieces if they moved more than an inch or two, but there was just so little going on in these numbers – just some very slow strolling and painfully cautious turns. The foxtrot is already a pretty simple dance, so it’s up to the pros and their celeb partners to inject some much-needed jazz into it to make it entertaining…and when they don’t, you get these sleepy, unremarkable foxtrots that I bet half of you probably didn’t remember.

4.) Rocco & Karina, season 7

Rocco seemed like a really nice guy, but he was pretty dorky on the dance floor 😛 You could tell he was really trying as he bobbed and skipped and flailed his platter hands across the floor here, but he also had the “I feel like a massive tool” look on his face the whole time. Granted, I think both he & Karina were nervous about her ankle injury earlier that day, but honestly – Rocco was just not a dancer. Sorry, dude.. Read more..

DWTS Season 14 Stats Class: Pre-Season Elimination Breakdown

I’m BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!

Ok that was quite immature of me, but seriously. After the kind of hiatus that I’ve had full of drama what do you expect from me. 🙂 Anyway, the cast has been announced, we know the pairings let’s find out what the numbers say they would fare.

If you’re new to how I calculate the Pre-Season Elimination Predictions please look at Season 11’s Who Has the Edge Part 1, Part 2 as well as Season 12 for information, one of these off-seasons I’ll write a more thorough analysis for you all… but until then, settle for the short form.

Below I’ve taken the time to rank the breakdowns within the following categories: AGE, OCCUPATION and PROFESSIONAL PARTNER so you have an idea of what variables I use before applying them to Season 14’s cast. So here’s a look at how everything ranks as of last season:

AGE is broken down by decades, starting with the teens. It would seem though in general as you get older, the lower the rank (on average), somehow those in their 60s tend to fare rather well… and who knows why? These include George Hamilton, Jerry Springer, John Ratzenberger, Susan Lucci and Kirstie Alley. Maybe this is a reflection of the voting public? Your guess is as good as mine. The age groups in bold are the ones being represented on the show. The ranks go from highest ranking to lowest ranking:
1: Teens
2: 20s
3: 60s
4: 30s
5: 40s
6: 70s
7: 50s
8: 80s

OCCUPATION is a trickier category to break down, because there are a lot of crossover celebrities, or those that happen to be multi-talented. So I try to categorize celebrities based on what they are most known for, not necessarily their most recent occupation (Billy Ray being a Country Singer as opposed to Disney Star). I also separated the Olympians, NBA players and NFL players from all other athletes. Entertainers are those that actually have a little dance background and entertain with not just their voice (Singer) but with their overall personality on stage (imagine Donny and Marie Osmond), Band Member is anyone that happened to be part of a band in their time (98 Degrees, NSync, Spice Girls).
1: NFL
2: Olympian
3: Disney
4: Band Member
5: Entertainer
6: Soap Opera Star
7: Singer
8: Actor
9: Athlete
10: Host
11: Actress
12: Reality TV Star
13: Boxer
14: Other
15: NBA
16: Model
17: Comedian

PROFESSIONAL PARTNERs, whether we like it or not, play a major role in how their celebrity partner does on the show. Being that this is the 14th season of Dancing with the Stars, at this point in time the professional dancers already coming into the season with their own fanbases (Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Derek Hough anyone?). Below are how the professional dancers fared on this show with how many seasons they’ve “competed” on the show. Not included are professional dancers that have permanently left the show.
1: Derek Hough (8 seasons)
2: Julianne Hough (5 seasons)
3: Cheryl Burke (12 seasons)
4: Tristan MacManus (1 season)
5: Maksim Chmerkovskiy (11 seasons)
6: Karina Smirnoff (10 seasons)
7: Kym Johnson (10 seasons)
8: Lacey Schwimmer (6 seasons)
9: Mark Ballas (9 seasons)
10: Louis van Amstel (8 seasons)
11: Chelsie Hightower (5 seasons)
12: Dmitry Chaplin (3 seasons)
13: Tony Dovolani (12 seasons)
14: Anna Trebunskaya (8 seasons)
15: Corky Ballas (2 seasons)
16: Ashly Costa (4 seasons)
17: Jonathan Roberts (7 seasons)
18: Val Chmerkovskiy (1 season)
19: Peta Murgatroyd (1 season)

Stayed tuned as my next post would take all of the above rankings and see how the numbers would rank Season 14’s Dancing with the Stars cast.

DWTS Season 14 – Pro Watch!!

Whooo Hoooo!!! It’s nearly that time of year again, folks!! DWTS Season 14!! Me ‘cited. 🙂

Okay, this is REALLY early and most pros don’t actually know if they’re dancing yet, and they won’t for about a week and a half. With the cast announcement coming on the 28th, I would expect the pros start getting confirmation the week before that – and many have big mouths, lucky for us. Both Cheryl and Derek have indicated, today (coincidence?), that they are planning on dancing. Derek just now on Twitter and Cheryl earlier this morning. Normally, I wouldn’t report on these plans, because planning doesn’t make it actually happen – but in the case of Derek and Cheryl, I’m putting it out there because those two are most likely to be signed early. Plus, Derek, in the past, has only mentioned DWTS and dancing when it’s been a done deal. So, him saying “Who do you want me to dance with?”” is about as close to a confirmation without a confirmation you can get. 🙂 Especially from the absurdly tight lipped Derek. 😉

PLEASE don’t tell me that Louis said he wants to be back (same for Dmitry and the rest) because I think that’s blatantly obvious – and Louis and several others aren’t guaranteed a partner. Most of the rest of the pros WANT to be on the show, I just need something more concrete….along the lines of “Yay, I got a partner.” Heh.

ETA 6: @DWTSGossip has had more to say regarding the men – that there will only be five and apparently he/she is retracting Val and saying “a Chmerkovskiy”. Good news for Tristan fans…sucks to be a fan of Louis or Dmitry (or Val OR Maks). MY ASSUMPTIONS ARE IN BLUE, @DWTSGOSSIP IS IN RED. Please take special note of the word “assumption” – please look it up if you have to, I don’t want to have arguments about it tomorrow. 🙂

The MEN

Derek Hough – IN
Maksim Chmerkovskiy – unknown
Mark Ballas – In per @DWTSGossip
Louis Van Amstel – OUT
Tony Dovolani – In per @DWTSGossip
Dmitry Chaplin – OUT per @DWTSGossip
Corky Ballas – OUT
Val Chmerkovski – Unknown
Tristan McMannus – In per @DWTSGossip

The WOMEN
Cheryl Burke – In
Kym Johnson – In per @DWTSGossip
Chelsie Hightower – In per @DWTSGossip
Lacey Schwimmer –OUT
Karina Smirnoff – In per @DWTSGossip
Anna Trebunskaya –In per @DWTSGossip
Peta Murgatroyd – In per @DWTSGossip

Pure DWTS Random Talk On Mel B, Brooke Burke, Corky Ballas, Madonna, And The Super Bowl

Just some random reportings today on things related to dancing and Dancing With The Stars!!

First up, join us in congratulating Spice Girl and Season 5, 2nd place winner Mel B as she has been signed on to co-host the Australian Version of Dancing With The Stars. Below is a take from Adelaide Now with a quote from Mel B confident that she can pull the job off. We wish her much luck!

“To have the opportunity to host Dancing with the Stars is great, as I know exactly what the contestants will be going through,” she said.

“To be honest, I’m just really looking forward to this year. I feel like it’s going to be my Aussie, Sydney year. I also hope to get my (Spice) girls out here.

“Emma (Bunton) and Victoria (Beckham) have new babies. As a group we’ve only been here two days, so we never got to really experience it and I’ve been telling them how fabulous it is out here.”

Speaking of co-hosting, there has been some chatter here, around the internet at various places, and at twitter about Brooke Burke possibly not co-hosting next season’s Dancing With The Stars since she tweeted about some disappointing “crazy Hollywood Industry” news which hit her hard this past week. The tweets lead many to believe it had something to do with her losing her co-hosting job. Well, with two tweets similar to the first tweet below within 8 hours apart yesterday along with Tom Bergeron addressing her as his “partner” in reply, I think it’s safe to say her job is safe?? Then again, who knows? The Hollywood Industry is indeed “crazy”. Look what happened with Steve Jones, Nicole Scherzinger, and Paula Abdul on the X Factor this week. Never did I think they’d be let go in such a fashion and so soon. 😯

https://twitter.com/#!/brookeburke/status/166018505525821440

https://twitter.com/#!/Tom_Bergeron/status/165899016708694018

Moving on! Give it up to Dancing pro Corky Ballas!! He’s been recently helping Olympic ice skating hopefuls Maia and Alex Shibutani on their choreography since last year’s world championships in which they finished third in just their first season as senior skaters. Below are some takes from ESPN. Be sure to read the link in full as they write about how costume designer Randall Christensen helped them with their costumes as well.

The Shibutani siblings got in touch with Corky Ballas through their agent, using the Yamaguchi connection, and headed to Los Angeles to begin working with him after the worlds last summer.

“But we are the first skaters he’s worked with in a while,” Alex, 20, said. “Obviously with his background, his son, Mark, and Derek and Julianne, we were honored to work with him. He’s such a fun guy to work with. It was an intensive boot camp-style Latin training with him. He’s kept up with our performances. He thought we could use a breath of fresh air.”

The coaches had high praise for the Shibutanis’ performance.

“It was awesome, awesome,” Zueva said. “All the changes worked really well. Most Latin dance movement is very sharp off ice, but it totally disappears on the floor because the surface is different. [Ballas] found them the best movement on ice.”

They worked with Ballas again in Detroit after the ISU Grand Prix Final, where they finished fifth. Alex said they have gotten “really comfortable” with the Latin style, a break from their usual, more classical style.

“The new program is much more exciting and a much stronger vehicle for us,” Alex said.

Lastly, if you are a fan to dancing in general and huge dance productions, be sure to tune into the Super Bowl halftime tonight. According to the New York Post, Madonna will be dancing, performing and singing 3 classics: Vogue , Ray Of Light with Holiday mixed in it, Like A Prayer , and her new, hot single Give Me All Your Luvin from her new MDNA album . I wanted to give this a special mention since number one, I’m a huge fan 🙂 and, number two, Madonna did a Salsa in challenging Dancing With The Stars rumored contender Victor Cruise at a press conference on Thursday, and number three, Nappytabs has been helping with the production of it. As you know they’ve helped with choreography on Dancing With The Stars among many other dancing accomplishments in their career. They are also currently helping Derek Hough with his new movie Cobu3D. Below are some tweets Tabitha shared about rehearsals.

https://twitter.com/#!/NAPPYTABS/status/165249877889138688

https://twitter.com/#!/NAPPYTABS/status/165892491466383360

Yes, can you tell I’m excited? 🙂 Be sure to let us know your thoughts and here’s to a fun Super Bowl Holiday!! xxx

UPDATE: According to Madonna website Madonnarama, the Ray of Light and Holiday Mash-up has been replaced by Music(ft. LMFAO – “Party Rock Anthem/Sexy and I Know It” Remix). Also, there will be an
“Open Your Heart/Express Yourself” interlude to transition from Give me all your Luvin’ to Like a Prayer. Madonna has tried to keep the final setlist a secret as long as she could.

DWTS Mark Ballas’ New Pepsi Commercial And Miss America Preview For Tonight (Videos)

Who plans to tune in to the Miss America Pageant tonight at 9:00pm ET (ABC) to watch Dancing With The Stars pro Mark Ballas judge? I think I just might!! Here is a little sneak preview for what happened in preliminaries this week….

The Las Vegas Sun also has a cool summary on the Pageant preliminaries which mentions Mark in it. Be sure to read it here if interested as he won “Judge of the Year” and it explains why he is singing above.

Also, below is the Diet Pepsi commercial that Mark choreographed starring Sofia Vergara and his Dad Corky!! I’d say they’ve got themselves a winner here! What do you think?

If you haven’t seen it yet, you can view some behind the scenes footage in an earlier posting here. Way to go, Mark!!

DWTS13 Who Danced it Better? The “Most Memorable Year” Edition

As many of you may have noticed, costumes aren’t the only things that get reused on DWTS – songs get recycled as well, sometimes ad infinitum! After oodles of requests from you guys for a feature like this, I’ve finally carved out the time to sit down and make it happen 🙂 Marianya actually used to do these posts awhile back – if you go to the search bar and type in “dance comparison”, you’ll see several editions she did for season 10. Heidi & I are going to try and do it as well as she did, but you know us – if it doesn’t involve snark, we probably have the attention span of goldfish. 🙂

Battle of Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love”

This was actually the VERY FIRST song ever used on DWTS, when Joey McIntyre & Ashly Costa (née Delgrosso) danced their cha-cha to it back in season 1…

After that, it didn’t pop until again until 10 seasons later, as the opening pro number for the 200th episode results show in season 11:

And of course, most recently, Kristin chose it as her “most memorable year” song for her samba with Mark:

Court’s take: I was pleasantly surprised at how the band managed to tweak the beat to feel more “samba-y” for Kristin, but as much as she tried to shake her booty and flip her hair – she just didn’t manage to fully embody Beyonce’s swag. Loved Joey & Ashly’s attitude for their cha-cha, although in retrospect Joey was probably not as good as I thought he was back then – the standard of competition has definitely gone up in 13 seasons 😉 But for me the real standout was the 200th episode pro dance; loved the fact that we saw multiple styles in it (cha-cha, quickstep, a little bit of samba) as well as a TON of pros from the past coming, almost literally, out of the woodwork – all the usual suspects, as well as some rarer ones like Anna D., Corky, Ashly, & even Inna (remember her?) While they may have a bit of an unfair edge…gotta give it to the pros in this one. That dance was HOT.

Battle of No Doubt’s “It’s My Life”

First, Louie Vito had it for his foxtrot with Chelsie in season 9:

And of course, our favorite fashionista, Carson, tangoed to it with Anna for his “most memorable year” dance:

Court’s take: Poor Louie never stood a chance against the fabulousity of Carson 😛 Plus the song just feels better as a tango for me.

Battle of Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon”

Fittingly, it was astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s foxtrot with Ashly in season 10…

And then Rob honored his late dad with the song when he foxtrotted with Cheryl to it this week:

Court’s take: While I thought Buzz was adorable, his age kinda limited his range of motion – and by extension, the tempo of the music he danced to. It just felt so slooooow. I actually really enjoyed Rob’s – it was light and carefree, and Rob looked like he really connected to the song and enjoyed himself.

So whose renditions of these songs do YOU guys prefer? 🙂

DWTS Season 13 – Pro Watch!!

ETA: Updates are in red.

Note: John taught us a new trick – we can now “stickie” a post to the top of the page and add new posts below it. Which is what I’m going to do with this post, so don’t miss anything down below. 🙂 ETA: You can tell a stickied post by the lovely blue color. 🙂

Okay, so the pros supposedly find out if they are competing on Monday, but in seasons past they actually start getting confirmed this weekend. If you believe @DWTSGossip on Twitter, 8 have been confirmed and 4 are waiting to find out. She also says there will be three “new faces” on the dance floor with partners. Which means only ONE of the currently unconfirmed pros will be getting a partner, according to what she wrote about it. I’m still wondering if it just means 3 new Troupe members, but she implies three new faces competing with celebs (which means they don’t necessarily have to be Troupe, since those aren’t technically “new”). Wow. I just made my own brain ache. I hope you all followed that. 🙂

I’ve noted all those called “confirmed” by @DWTSGossip, below. All that said, a word of caution: I do think that @DWTSGossip has a source that is reliable. I say that’s likely because I’ve had them before and @DWTSGossip has been on target in the past. HOWEVER, as with anything you read on the net, it is not “for sure” until it comes from the Pros themselves, Tom Bergeron or DWTS producers via GMA. We’ve seen a previously reliable source (TMZ) go down in flames this season and they were right the last two seasons. Just be cautious before you start throwing parties…or go into mourning. 🙂 I think she’s (?) probably right…but that’s what I said about TMZ as well. 😉 ETA: Please note that nothing is certain until we hear it from the Pros or the show. Don’t yell at me if something turns out to be incorrect. 😉 Read more..

Pure Dancing With The Stars: Rate Your Favorite Male Pros

Hey, thanks Everyone for your participation in the “Rate Your Favorite Female Pros” post. It appears Kym and Anna were the most popular with our readers. So now, how about the male pros? How do you rank them at this time from your favorite to least favorite?

Mine goes as follows:

Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Derek Hough: Seriously, I go back and forth on these two and can never decide who is my absolute favorite? I love them both so much. Derek is our modern day Fred Astaire. He has a fascinating Fox totem who magically connects and blends into each of his partners. His creativity, choreography, and good looks are one thing…but, then there is the “character” he gets into every time he steps out there. I so LOVE LOVE his dramatic facial expressions as well. Such a class act, humble, and can rise above most anything. He’s beyond amazing. In fact, legendary!!

Then there is Maks in all of his bad boy charm. You just can’t help to love him. Yes, he’s made some mistakes along the way, but, he is a constant learning process and always striving to be a better person. I love his mysteriousness, edginess, strength, power, and how romantic he is on the dance floor. He’s got the “X factor” in spades. It’s unexplainable, but, he leaves you always wanting more on the dance floor and in life in general.

Damian Whitewood: This guy is so sadly under-rated and forgotten about with producers when he is serious fan favorite. Look at the mark he left with just one season and how we’re still talking about it and him. He’s full of compassion like his girlfriend Peta. He soaks up the camera and stage just like her. If producers read this, PLEASE BRING ON DAMIAN THIS SEASON!!

Val Chmerkovskiy: Every time this guy has danced on the show in pro numbers, he leaves me wanting more just like his brother Maks. He’s a powerhouse out there and he plays the violin in the same way!!

Tristan MacManus And Teddy Volynets: I love these two newcomers. They are fun to watch in the troupe and always leave me wanting more as well. Both cute, refreshing, compassionate, and romantic. Teddy V’s personality is just waiting to bust out. I really hope we get to see it happen one day.

Tony Dovolani: This guy is so full of heart. I’ve always enjoyed his dancing. He gets the most awful partners though sometimes which is sad.

Alec Mazzo: I loved Alec and his dancing. Such a romantic dancer….especially with Edyta!

Jonathan Roberts: Like Tony, Jonathan is so full of heart. I always enjoyed his dancing too….especially in the pro numbers with Anna! He’s unforgettable!

Dmitry Chaplin: I haven’t always been a big fan to Dmitry, but, I really liked him last year with Petra!!

Louis Van Amstel: I like Louis and I like him on the show, but, there have been times I didn’t too. His best season has been with Kelly Osbourne. That’s when I liked Louis the most.

Corky Ballas: I favor and respect Corky as a “teacher” to some of the above pros more than anything. I’ve also enjoyed his dancing in some of the pro numbers. But, I really haven’t liked him paired with a celebrity…although sometimes it’s probably necessary with older celebrities.

Mark Ballas: What can I say? Mark has seriously gotten on my nerves these last few seasons. Although he can have heart, he also has an egotistical side that dominates his role on the show and the dance floor. He has also copied a lot of choreography from Derek for his dances and yet, tries to take the credit. Sometimes he’s too ‘in your face’ much like Lacey is. The one thing I do like though is his futuristic mind much like in a Lady Gaga kind of way. Now, if he could just learn when to bring it on and when not to is the question?

Ok, YOUR TURN!! We look forward to your replies as always! 😉

Amazing Photos Of Dancing With The Stars Pros At Green Bay, Wisconsin Charity Show

DWTS Corky Ballas On Katherine Jenkins: “I just witnessed a gorgeous velvet sound of an angel”

The Top 5 Worst First Week Foxtrots in DWTS History

DWTS Season 14 Stats Class: Pre-Season Elimination Breakdown

DWTS Season 14 – Pro Watch!!

Pure DWTS Random Talk On Mel B, Brooke Burke, Corky Ballas, Madonna, And The Super Bowl

DWTS Mark Ballas’ New Pepsi Commercial And Miss America Preview For Tonight (Videos)

DWTS13 Who Danced it Better? The “Most Memorable Year” Edition

DWTS Season 13 – Pro Watch!!

Pure Dancing With The Stars: Rate Your Favorite Male Pros

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