Free DWTS Newsletter Want to receive the latest news on Dancing with the Stars sent straight to your email? Join hundreds of other DWTS fans who subscribe to Pure DWTS for FREE!
Bermain judi qq online tentunya setiap orang ingin meraih kemenangan besar, sekarang telah hadir situs judi online koinqq agen bandarqq online. Seiring berkembangnya judi online di dunia internet, maniaqq kini telah menyediakan dominoqq yang bisa kalian download melalui android / ios dihandphone kesayangan kalian. Cukup menggunakan 1 ID saja kamu bisa menikmati berbagai macam permainan idn poker seru seperti poker Online, Ceme Keliling, DominoQQ, Ceme Online, Capsa, Super 10, dan Omaha. Total ada 7 jenis permainan terbaik dimana bisa kamu nikmati dengan menjadi member disini.

Dancing with the Stars: The Jeopardy Theory

Every season, readers get very confused by the concepts of “bottom two” versus “jeopardy”. If you don’t listen carefully to what Tom and Brooke (now Erin) say, it’s easy to get confused. If a couple is in the bottom two, it means that they, along with the eliminated couple, had the lowest combined score. The combined score is determined by viewer votes and judges scores. The formula is relatively simple: they take a couple’s score and divide it by the total points handed out on a given night to get their share of the judges scores. They do the same with the viewer votes; they divide a couple’s number of votes by the total number of votes cast and come up with their share of the votes. They then add the two numbers together; the couple with the lowest combined total is then sent home.  You can see many examples of this in my series of posts called “Dancing by the Numbers”.

When the show is airing, there are two ways of getting to an elimination, by putting three couples in jeopardy (oh, the drama) and then saving one, and then one of the remaining two goes home. And then there is the straight up identification of the “bottom two” couples. Tom will say “the bottom two” if this is the case. If neither Tom nor Brooke (now Erin) says “these are the bottom two” then we don’t actually know if the two people standing at the end are really the low combined score getters. There are multiple reasons why they like do this. The main reason, of course, is DRAMA. How they love their drama. They like to make the show exciting and if the low scorer was immediately sent home every week, what fun would that be? This past week, you’ll note that Tom and Erin made it clear that Cody and Witney were “not necessarily” the bottom two.

The question that is asked every season is: does “jeopardy” (aka, being the last couple called safe) have any real meaning for the couples put there??  The answer is yes, of course. The problem is determining what that meaning is at the time. That is very difficult to do, although we’ve gotten pretty good at figuring it out every season.  You always have to remember a few key things:

  • The producers want to keep the show exciting, and jeopardy is a part of that;
  • The producers often have a reason why they want to keep a particular couple around longer and motivating fan bases to vote harder can be accomplished by “jeopardy” if they think the votes are too low;
  • Drama, drama, drama!! How exciting is it when the high scorer of the night is standing next to the low scorer of the night and you don’t know who’s going to survive – and the producers fool you into thinking that the low person is for sure going home…and then they don’t?

Yeah, I don’t think it’s really that exciting at this point in the show’s history, but I’ve long said that the producers have lost touch with their audience. 🙂

Now, since I’m the biggest nerd of a blogger on this site, I wondered if there was any kind of pattern to the “jeopardy” and the subsequent eliminations. So I made tables of seasons 11 through 17 to try and figure it out. Hindsight is 20/20 – but it can inform how you watch the show going forward.  The answer, as you may have guessed, is that yes there is something of a pattern. Sometimes. And it’s an easy one to see when you’re looking back – but still impossible to be sure of when you’re watching the show in real time. 🙂 That is unlikely to change. Read more..

March 26, 2014 I Written By

I'm a nerd and proud of it. Two degrees in geology also means I love BEER. :-) I'm also a Derek lover - proud of that too. So don't scream at those of us on this site and call us a bunch of "biased Derek-lovers" - it's just ME. :-) It may sound like I hate DWTS at times, but really, I'm just a snarky nitpicker from way back. And I'm cynical and jaded too. But I do love DWTS. :-)

PureDWTS Tribute: Julia Ivleva

Remember this gorgeous waltz that Jonathan & Anna danced in tribute to their cancer-stricken friend, Julia, back in season 14?

Sadly, Anna reported on her Twitter today that Julia passed away this morning, after a long & courageous battle with lung cancer.  She remembered her friend poignantly:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/atrebunskaya/status/320241630164705282″]

Julia’s passing touched me rather personally, as I had the pleasure of watching Julia and her husband, Igor, dance at one of the first ballroom competitions I attended, almost ten years ago.  I was struck by how powerful they were on the floor, and their showdances were always the most creative and engaging.  I feel blessed to have been present to witness the debut of one of the greatest showdances in ballroom history – when Igor & Julia proved that you can dance ballroom to any music…even Nirvana!

And a few years later, they again proved that rock & ballroom can mix perfectly, when they did this beautiful, vulnerable foxtrot to quite possibly my favorite song of all-time:

We here at Pure send our heartfelt condolences out to Julia’s friends and family during this sad time.  Rest in peace, Julia.

 

April 5, 2013 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

DWTS “Who Wore it Better?” – The Pre-Season 15 All-Star Edition, Part I!

This season, we opted to do things a bit differently – as we have with just about every other regular feature we do each season, since the format is a bit wacky, to say the least 😛 First, we’ve divided WWIB into two parts – mainly to accomodate the fact that Kirstie & Maks’ and the 13th couple’s (who we now know to be Sabrina & Louis) promo photos have yet to be released, but also to buy us some time for the labor-intensive task of finding good pictures for some of these 🙂 Secondly, we’ve included the couples’ promo photos from their original seasons for comparison as well.  But as always, we’ve offered up our usual snark commentary on each of the costumes, for your enjoyment 😎

Battle of the turquoise & black lace corset dress/Kelly & Alec vs. Kelly & Val:  Kelly & Alec’s season 1 promo pic vs. Kelly & Val’s season 15 promo pic vs. Edyta in the season 9 pro tango demo

Courtney: The Iceman cometh! Wow, even Alec’s promo pic screams “I have no emotions” to me.  And while Kelly is a bit better, I still wish she’d actually smile in her promo pics – the whole “smoldery non-smile” she does just seems like she’s trying too hard to me.  And I’m probably the only one that feels this way, judging from some of everyone’s initial comments on the promo photos, but I’m not really all that wild about Kelly & Val’s pic…you’ll see I’m not much of a fan of the couples that went the “smoldery” route with their promo pix.  As for the costume itself – gotta go with Edyta on this one.  Granted, it’s hard to hold a candle to Edyta in pretty much ANY costume, but I think I like it better with a lace skirt, as opposed to a fringed one.  And while I was cursing under my breath while putting this edition together about how BAD some of the costumes have gotten since Randall left, I thank my lucky stars we’re not still stuck with Designs to Shine, who costumed the first season. Can we say “tacky”? 😯

Heidi: Val sez, “You…are sooo sexy.” To which Kelly sez, “You are sexy, but I am sleeping with my cousin’s best friend’s husband’s brother and am simply toying with you as a cover to hide our true looove….” That is my long winded way of saying, Kelly is a soap actress…they only do smolder.  Sometimes well, sometimes not – and Val is a huge step up from Alec in terms of emotion and Kelly has evolved to smoldering with her mouth *closed*. 🙂 The dress you ask? I go with Edyta sans fishnets.  Although I think it’s cuter in the shorter length.

The verdict: Just say no to soap opera smolder.  Read more..

August 28, 2012 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

DWTS 14 End-of-Season Award Winners: What Was the Biggest Controversy?

Other responses:

All of the above/any combination of the above answers – 17 (Sorry guys, too many different combos to list them individually!)

Derek & Maria’s kiss – 1

William & that stupid running & sliding move in every single dance – 1 (Annoying, yes, but is it really a “controversy”, per se?)

Katherine’s “injury” – 1

Derek’s behavior – 1

Cheryl’s Emmy-worthy creativity *sarcasm* – 1

None – 1

Rock & Roll Week – 1

Overstating Maria’s injuries, ribs NOT broken…hurt, yes, but not broken – 1

William wearing the same shirt in many different colors – 1 (Again, it’s annoying, but is it really controversial?)

Dance marathon – 1

Courtney: Again, it looks like we have several different interpretations of the term “controversy” here. I guess the way I interpret it within the context of the show, a “controversy” is something that occured that caused a great deal of debate and dissenting opinions on the issue – but maybe some other people interpret it as something that just really bugged them personally. I guess I need to be a bit more specific in my explanation of next season’s awards, perhaps along with eliminating the write-in category 😛 Anywho! I think the results are about right on the money – I found the most prolonged, contentious, polarizing issue of the season was the question of whether or not William was getting unfairly favored by the judges and/or the TPTB, and just the judges being highly subjective in their scoring across the board.  I don’t think we’ve ever had a precedent for a situation like the one that unfolded this past season – I can’t recall a time in a past season where the judges were so blatantly displaying favoritism towards a certain contestant.  Granted, there is always some degree of subjectivity, and the judges do tend to pick favorites each season, but I don’t think we’ve seen it before to the degree that we did this season.  As for Jaleel’s behavior, the dance duel, & Cheryl’s behavior – yes, they all generated a great deal of debate and polarity in opinions, but perhaps weren’t as prolonged as the William/judges controversy.  As for the trio dance – I know some of you are probably balking at the notion of it being “controversial”, but I seem to recall quite a few debates about which couples would pick which pros and how it would be advantageous to some and a disadvantage for others, so there was at least a bit of controversy there.  Especially on the topic of who would get Tristan 😛

Vogue: I think this poll was spot on as well. As much as I loved William himself and his dancing too, the pimping was over the top. I was patient about it at first and could understand the interest in him being he was a new sexy Latin star to hit the Hollywood scene, but, the hype and the manipulation from the producers and the judges scoring and then Cheryl herself out of control took it’s toll on a great many of fans. Sadder yet, was that William himself could see it too and it wasn’t something he welcomed. I really admired his humbleness through out it all which made me a fan. I wish I could say the same for Cheryl. I’ve lost a lot of respect for her that I once had. I was also outraged with Jaleel’s behavior. I was so glad when he was finally picked to go.

Heidi: I think the top three were the only real controversies – and they were doozies. The rest? Nah.  And the write ins?? Some people need a little reality check.  🙂  Although I did snicker at the “emmy worthy creativity” one. 🙂  Every season there is someone who is the judges favorite – but it’s usually someone who is the best dancer. Not this season. This season they had their favorite….and he was also pimped to high hell at every opportunity by the show itself. It was quite ridiculous.  Now can we go to my favorite moment of the season? Carrie Ann’s mouth falling open when said controversial dude took THIRD place. 🙂  Anyway, after a while it seemed to be a highly orchestrated dance (pardon the expression) between production and judges to make sure this guy went to the finals. Of course, they seemed determined to get Katherine there as well (and keep Donald away), but it was at a much higher level with Willy…and Katherine could really DANCE. Madness.

*photo courtesy ABC/Adam Taylor

July 18, 2012 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

Katherine Jenkins to Dance with Derek Hough in Utah Concerts

Many thanks to @carolynbishop2 for the heads up on this story – cross posted from PureDerekHough.com.

So is this why he’s been spending time with Katherine? Or is this a result of his spending time with Katherine. Inquiring minds and all that. 🙂  From Express.co.uk:

The 32-year-old mezzo-soprano is set to jet out to the US to perform at a series of concerts with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra in Salt Lake City and is (ahem) apparently fascinated by all things Mormon.

“I’m really intrigued to find out more about the Mormon way of life,” she tells us. “I’m going to be dancing the paso doble with Derek in front of 44,000 Mormons.”

UPDATE: Thanks to Elmari for the heads up that you can watch this on TV if you get BYUtv on your cable…or you can watch it online.

July 16, 2012 I Written By

I'm a nerd and proud of it. Two degrees in geology also means I love BEER. :-) I'm also a Derek lover - proud of that too. So don't scream at those of us on this site and call us a bunch of "biased Derek-lovers" - it's just ME. :-) It may sound like I hate DWTS at times, but really, I'm just a snarky nitpicker from way back. And I'm cynical and jaded too. But I do love DWTS. :-)

DWTS 14 End-of-Season Awards – Which Celebrity Improved the Most?

Other responses:

William Levy – 9 (Not sure how you can improve your ass-shaking & shirt-removing technique a whole lot…)
Roshon Fegan – 7
Gladys Knight – 3
Jaleel White – 2 (Maybe if you consider witholding his crocodile tears an improvement…)
Sherri Shepherd – 1
Everyone – 1 (If only that were true :-))

Courtney: I don’t think this season’s “most improved” award was quite as clear for me as it’s been in previous seasons – I know when I voted in season 12, it was like “Duh, ROMEO!” and in season 13, “Of course it’s Rob!!!” This season, I found myself wavering a bit, as it seems like a lot of people started out being good and then stayed pretty good the entire season – and then there were others who were a bit up-and-down.  In the end, though, I think the improvement was most apparent with Maria.  I remember muttering “Yikes!” after her cha-cha in week one, as she looked downright terrified and pretty unsteady on her legs.  Then she looked a bit more relaxed and in the zone in week 2, and a little more in week 3, etc. By the time classical week rolled around and she managed to get the first perfect 30 of the season, I was pretty impressed.  As for Donald – I do think he improved, but it wasn’t quite as marked as Maria – plus he really never seemed to get the love he deserved from the judges, so I guess it kinda distorted things for me.  It became a matter of “Is he really improving drastically, or are the judges just finally warming up to him?” I will credit Melissa with improving in her stage presence, but overall, I think her dancing only improved slightly during her stint on the show.  I think Gavin could have improved quite a bit, had he stuck around a little longer – but his transformation in the short time he was on was enjoyable nonetheless.  🙂  I feel the same about Roshon as I do about Donald – I don’t know that he was truly improving (I thought he was pretty good the whole season), but the judges just seemed to vacillate between lavishing praise upon him and absolutely ripping him to shreds from week to week, so I think it gave a false impression of him having all of these dramatic ups and downs.  I thought Gladys gave it a good try, but only had a slight net improvement throughout the season; I thought Jaleel was down more than he was up; and I still don’t think I even saw enough real dancing from William to even determine if he improved greatly.  I think his finale cha-cha looked better than his week 1 cha-cha, but that’s the only benchmark I have to compare to.

Vogue: Court, I’m with you again. When I first read this Poll, I was baffled for who to vote for “most improved”? With every season we’ve done this, I usually know straight away for who to answer with, but, not this time. After thinking on it, I voted for Maria. Looking back to her first interviews and first dances, she was weak and a little uncoordinated. She so nervous and unconfident. She was worried she wouldn’t be as good as Derek’s other partners which she voiced several times in interviews which, in turn, made me nervous for her too. Well, just like Derek said, he worked on her “walk” first. After that, he totally molded her into a confident dancer. Soon, we saw her relaxing and them playing off of each other’s humor and creativity. His Fox totem was hard at work and in tune again. He can “blend” into anyone to make a union work. It amazes me how he can do that season after season. It’s too bad Jack Wagner was sent home so early. I think he could have improved more with every show too.

Heidi: Yeah, I’d go with Maria. The problem with this category is that you pretty much have to totally tune out the judges nonsense and the crowd reaction to get to the heart of what is real – that’s very hard to do. Roshon started out good and stayed good – but it’s easy to think there is actual improvement when one week the judges are saying how poorly you did and the next week they are raving. It’s very easy to hear all that “noise” from them and have it start to sink in. As for Donald? The judges never liked him, IMO, and never “wanted” him to win (I think in the end their rank comes out in the scoring regardless), so when they finally started giving him credit it was like an epiphany. “Oh, he’s improving!!” Well, maybe – but not as much as Maria. The judges own bias turns into noise, which turns into false impressions for a lot of the dancers. But I think Maria truly went from “Bambi on ice” (per Derek) to a decent dancer. She’s not the best of his partners in terms of dance quality, but I think she did go the farthest in terms of growth.

*photo courtesy ABC/Adam Taylor 

June 27, 2012 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

DWTS 14 End-of-Season Awards – Which Couple’s Elimination Was the Most Disappointing?

Other responses:

William & Cheryl – 4
Jaleel & Kym – 2
Katherine & Mark – 1
Gavin & Karina – 1
All of them really they were all so much fun – 1 (Vogue, did you write this one in? 😉 )
None.  Even if it was a shocker, I wasn’t disappointed because I wasn’t rooting for them. – 1 (And I thought I had a hard time this season!)

Courtney: This is always an interesting category, because I think certain people interpret it in different ways – some people seem to vote for the most shocking elimination, some people vote for their favorite couple (because it would stand to reason that their elimination probably would be the most disappointing in their mind!), some people vote for someone in the finale that they felt they didn’t place high enough.  *shrug* To each his own.  I guess I tend to vote for the couple whose elimination seemed to illicit the greatest emotional response in me – and I think that often gets colored by how that couple fares throughout the season.  My knee jerk reaction with this one was Roshon & Chelsie, but then I realized by the time they got sent home that they had been beaten up so badly by the judges week to week that I was almost relieved that they weren’t going to have to endure it any longer, and I wasn’t going to continue yelling at the tv in frustration.  I was kinda sad to see Gladys go, for the simple reason that I thought they really kinda screwed her in the end; I was disappointed to see Maria & Derek go, because I thought they could have delivered a much more entertaining performance in the finale than William & Cheryl.  But in the end, as surprising as this may sound, I think I was actually most disappointed to see Jack go – because at that point in the season, I wasn’t totally jaded by all the fishy stuff the judges were doing, and I thought Jack was one of the stronger male dancers in the competition and I wanted to see more from him.  I guess by the time Roshon & Maria’s eliminations rolled around, I was kind of “whatever” about this season as a whole, so it didn’t bother me quite so much – but I was definitely upset by Jack’s earlier ouster.

Vogue: My feelings in this category stumped me too. I thought this award would go to Roshon all season, but, he actually stuck around until the right time despite how harsh the judges were on him all season. In the end, it was a toss up between Martina, Jack, and Sherri. Who did I pick? Sherri!! Yes, Sherri. At first I had my misgivings with all the cheating stuff and then she started wrapping me around her finger with how funny and compassionate she was about learning how to dance. She was so into it all. When she cried during her elimination, I cried too. She was so thankful to her fans and the experience. I also loved it when she said to take on the things you are most scared of and how that can make you the happiest in this life “on the other side”. Remember that? I melted. I was sad to see Jack go as well because there was potential there and he was just an all around nice guy. I would have liked to have seen his message about adoption and finding his daughter played out more. Then there was Martina. I was really hoping to see a retired tennis champ and one of my tennis mentors really take over the dance floor “mentally” somehow like she did tennis and her competitors somehow, but, I was more disappointed in Tony than in Martina. I will always wonder if she had another partner, would she have done better? Maybe not?

Heidi: Well, believe it or not, I don’t think I voted and I don’t think I was really disappointed to see any of them go – I’m a glass half full kind of woman when it comes to Derek and partners like Maria. Maria was not a natural dancer, but she worked so freakin’ hard and wouldn’t give up and had so much fun and made Derek have so much fun that it’s probably one of my favorite partnerships. But really, with someone like Maria and Derek I end up just being grateful that they made it as long as they did. Sure, I much preferred them to William and Cheryl and they would almost certainly have brought more to a free style – but Maria had a great run. And it was a more successful season for Derek than it was for Cheryl, that’s for sure. Despite all the pimping, Cheryl couldn’t get past third place. Derek, on the other hand, took someone that he thought would be eliminated in week three or four and found a way to make sure she stuck around in a season where she could have easily been forgotten in the William/Katherine mass pimpage.  Katherine being the only one worthy of such pimpage. 🙂  Well, yes, I was probably sad to see Jack go…and Gladys…but disappointed?? I dunno.   Hellooo? Katherine and Mark were not actually “eliminated” – they just didn’t WIN. Geez, greedy much? 🙂

June 21, 2012 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

DWTS 14 End-of-Season Award Winners – Which Dance Was the Worst?

I think it’s safe to say that this one is pretty cut & dry 😛

Other responses:

Sherri & Val’s jive – 3
Maria & Derek’s jive – 2
William & Cheryl’s rumba – 1
William’s porn “dance” sequences – 1 (Normally I’d eliminate this one for ambiguity, but I’m curious – what’s a porn dance? :-P)
William & Cheryl’s finale cha-cha – 1
William & Cheryl’s quickstep – 1
William & Cheryl’s Argentine tango – 1
William & Cheryl’s paso doble – 1
Katherine & Mark’s 1st jive – 1
No bad ones – 1
NO comment – 1 (Then what do you call your write-in response?)

Courtney:  Poor Martina…she was kind of a shoo-in, methinks.  It was really kinda hard to watch that jive…she just got so awkwardly off-time and never really regained her footing, and you could tell she was really frustrated.  I don’t think that costume did her any favors, either – shame on you, Tony, for dressing your partner in a bedazzled tuna net! Mama Spence voted for William & Cheryl’s jive, because she loved watching the part where William tries to swing Cheryl around and her foot awkwardly thunks on the floor – repeatedly.  And she laughed heartily each time. 🙂 I think the worst part of that routine was that, by the end of it, I think William was to the point of “f*ck it” and just half-assed the last few bars.  As for the rest of the dances – I think a lot of them suffered because of bad song choice.  Unless you’re a pro who ROCKS at doing out-of-the-box-but-still-proper dances, you’re probably gonna get screwed by a bad song at least once per season.  The Shaft routine? Now that was just a hot mess. 😛 And in a move that will probably surprise some of you, I’m actually gonna disagree with all the William write-ins – I actually never thought he was a bad dancer.  Far from it – dude had some natural talent.  But what turned me off is how much they were hyping him, and how oversexed his routines became.  But despite that, I still don’t think he had the worst dance of the season.  Even though I enjoy seeing Mama Spence crack up at his jive 🙂

Vogue: As much as I hate to admit it, the voters in this Poll pegged it. Being I was a huge tennis fan of Martina’s, I was really hoping she’d stun the dance world like she did her tennis days back in the day. But, oiy,…as soon as I saw her costume for the Jive, I cringed and could foresee her fate. From there, it just got worse. I felt so sorry for her. It wasn’t like she was trying. Like Court, I blamed Tony for the costume. This dance was proof positive how a costume can set the tone. Even still, she was lagging in time. It was sad and painful to watch. She knew it was bad too. As for the other dances, I was shocked (yes, I am pathetic) to see Jaleel and Kym’s Shaft dance have the outcome it did. I wasn’t a fan to Jaleel all season, but, the Shaft dance actually made me smile and laugh. I liked how it kind of poked fun of him. It was so “him” too.

Heidi: How can you NOT blame Tony for the costume since he’s the one that repeatedly uses that type of costume on his partners? Take a look back at some of Melissa’s dances with him. At least it was better on her. I think Martina looked in the mirror and could no longer focus on dancing because of that horrible costume. Horrendous. Gawdawful. Worse than the dance even. As for William – yeah, he wasn’t a horrible dancer, but he was also not the best thing since Gilles like they promoted him – and I laugh every time I see that Jive too. 🙂  Of course, it gave Cheryl something to blame and she ranted about that shoe to anyone who would listen for days afterward.  As for the other write ins – why take the time to write no comment or no bad ones?? And I also think that anyone who writes in Maria or Katherine is someone with an axe to grind. Disgruntled William fan? 🙂 Same goes for Sherri and Val’s dance, actually. Worst?? With Martina in the running? Right. 

*photo courtesy ABC/Adam Taylor

June 18, 2012 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

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.

June 16, 2012 I Written By

"Dance is the hidden language of the soul" ~ Martha Graham. That's what DWTS makes me think of every Monday night. To read more about me and my other interests, see Lisa Kay Photography. You can also follow me at Voguerista Twitter & Voguerista Soundcloud.

DWTS 14 End-of-Season Award Winners – Which Dance Was the Best?

Lesson Court learned from putting together these awards: perhaps the “other” option should be eliminated, starting with next season’s end-of-season awards 😛 I got an insane number of write-in responses for the “best dance” and “celeb you most want to see on the all-star season” categories, and let’s just say it was no easy task weeding through all of the write-ins 😯 I also learned that some people are too lazy (or inattentive) to click “read more” and vote in the other categories, and as a result we got almost double the number of votes for the “best dance” category than we did everything else.  I love our readers, but sometimes they drive me a little bit bonkers 😛

Other responses:

Donald & Peta’s freestyle – 23
Melissa, Maks, & Val’s samba trio – 10
Katherine & Mark’s Argentine tango – 8
Maria, Derek, & Henry’s samba trio – 4
Katherine & Mark’s jive – 4
Maria & Derek’s rumba – 3
Roshon & Chelsie’s freestyle – 3
Katherine & Mark’s freestyle – 3
Maria & Derek’s Viennese waltz – 3
Katherine, Mark, & Tristan’s cha-cha trio – 3
Sherri & Val’s foxtrot – 2
Team Paso Doble – 2
Maria & Derek’s Argentine tango – 2
Katherine & Mark’s 2nd paso doble – 2
William & Cheryl’s samba – 2
Gladys & Tristan’s cha-cha – 2
Tristan & Karina’s waltz demo – 1
Tristan & Chelsie’s DaD samba – 1
Melissa & Maks’ paso doble – 1
Katherine & Mark’s samba – 1
Roshon, Chelsie, & Sasha’s paso doble trio – 1

Courtney: Can’t say I’m too surprised at the results – the two that I predicted would do well ended up on top, and the rest got a small share of votes, likely from diehard fans of that particular couple.  I do think the jive trio was the dance of the season – the fact that they took a dance that was hard to do with only 2 people and managed to create something fun, energetic, and proper with 3 people was beyond impressive to me.  And the fact that they DIDN’T get a perfect 30 for it??? APPALLING.  I seriously think people don’t realize how HARD it is to lead 2 women – and Donald’s the only one that took on that challenge in his trio dance, and he KILLED IT.  I didn’t see Roshon or William trying to lead two ladies.  Maria & Derek’s paso was good – for this season.  I just can’t seem to get too excited about it, though, because it just wasn’t up-to-snuff with the paso choreography I’m used to seeing from Derek.  As for all the other responses – I think they all were those couples’ best dances, but probably not the best dance of the season.  Write-ins? It’s the usual smorgesbord of random dances, and I usually find myself shaking my head reading some of them, and saying “Really? You REALLY think that was the best dance?” But alas, different strokes for different folks.  🙂 The only one I’m gonna comment on is Donald & Peta’s freestyle…and I guess Katherine & Mark’s, too.  I always shy away from including those as options in the “best dance of the season” category, because it seems that, unless a couple REALLY picks a dud, it’s a dance that most couples do well with, and the scoring is pretty inflated – it almost seems like too much of a gimme.  That said, I did really enjoy Donald’s freestyle – but I didn’t think the level of difficulty was as high as his jive trio was.  And I thought Katherine showed better endurance in her jive than in ther freestyle.

Vogue: Court, you took the words out of my head this time. My favorite dance of the season (and the dance I thought was the best) was Donald and Peta’s Jive trio. Donald’s fast leg and footwork amazed me at the time. So much so, I screamed to my husband in the other room to come watch (and we had to replay it after the show several times …which I don’t ever remember doing with him as long as I’ve been watching this show). Our mouths literally dropped to the floor especially when Donald jumped over the top of both girls. 😯 A blow away for me as well was their Freestyle. I also loved their Paso Doble and Argentine Tango with the amusement ride twirl. Other stand out dances for me that I thought were the best were Derek and Maria’s Bollywood Trio dance and Paso Doble. Looking back now, I will remember Derek and Maria’s Bollywood Trio dance the most of their dances even though it probably wasn’t her best dance technically, but, it was different, so creative, theatrical, and entertaining. Another dance I have to give props too is also William and Cheryl’s Argentine Tango. I loved all the passion in that dance. William was so into his character and I loved his tails which is when he looked the sexiest in my opinion. 🙂 Anyway, great poll and results!!

Heidi: Yeah, I agree with the top two – by a MILE. Say what you want about the “talent” this season, but Donald and Maria were the two most memorable. As for Derek’s choreography –  I think that Maria was one of his least naturally talented partners EVER (she’s in a club with Joanna and Shannon and wouldn’t have gone as far with ANYONE else), yet his dances with her were just as memorable as anything anyone else did. That’s quite an accomplishment for both of them. He has a way of doing that. He was really challenged with her – she wasn’t naturally talented and she was pretty injured the whole time.  Poor Derek though – he’s set his own bar too high. 🙂  But the Bollywood Samba I also loved, and their rumba just because they were so into it.  As for the write ins?  Sad to say I don’t actually REMEMBER a lot of those dances. Most of Katherine’s dances have left my brain. Oddly, several of Willy’s I remember out of sheer disgust.  Someone wrote in DaD?? All I remember is Chelsie almost getting blown off a table. 🙂

 

 *photo courtesy ABC/Adam Taylor

June 11, 2012 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.