Just a few media items for the Dancing With The Stars Live Tour. First, Peta Murgatroyd and Witney Carson talked with Richmond.com about the new tour and Dancing With The Stars. Here is a take with Peta below. More at the link with Witney.
Fans of the show will get to see a variety of new dances during the tour — some choreographed by the show’s professional dancers and others by choreographer Mandy Moore.
Professional dancer Peta Murgatroyd hopes the experience of touring will bring the dancers even closer together. “I am thinking the touring side is where you get to do your bonding,” she said, speaking from Los Angeles and joking about the “tight quarters” on the bus. “The pros are like family. We have a great time. We have mutual respect for one another.”
Murgatroyd danced on Broadway before joining “Dancing with the Stars.” Originally trained in ballet, she competed in ballroom competitions from ages 17 to 21. “Ballroom is extremely different than ballet,” she said. “I had to throw away a lot that I learned in ballet. I didn’t know what I was doing at first. With ballroom, you have free range to do what you want with your artistry. It’s an amazing art form.” She thinks that shows such as “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing with the Stars” have brought ballroom to the forefront. “Before, it was boring and uncool, something your grandparents did. It wasn’t for young people,” she said. “Now, ballroom dancing is on another level.”
Working on “Dancing with the Stars” is intensive. Professional dancers mentor their celebrity partners at least five hours a day, seven days a week during the competition. “We have a lot on our plate,” Carson said. “We have to come up with choreography, wardrobe and production. You have to please the fans, and you have to please the celebrity. I always want my celebrity walking away like he had the best experience possible.” She and the other pros will only have about 72 hours off after the tour ends before they begin mentoring new celebrities for the winter season of the television show. “We are going nonstop,” Carson said, adding that the workload doesn’t bother her. “This is a passion of mine. It’s something I have wanted for some time.”
Also, here’s a review from MassLive.com. This review says this show is a “vast improvement” from their first.
Clearly, Willis has the moves and voice to succeed on Broadway.
In addition to Chmerkovskiy, “DWTS” pros Peta Murgatroyd, Witney Carson, Artem Chigvintsev, Keo Motsepe, and Emma Slater strutted their stuff alongside troupe dancers Alan Bersten, Brittany Cherry, Sasha Farber and Jenna Johnson.
With a lineup heavy on professionals and light on celebrities, the Mohegan Sun Arena crowd was treated to 90 minutes of top flight ballroom dancing, including a lively jive set to “Jump, Jive an’ Wail” and performed by Slater and Farber.
Melissa Rycroft, who was the Season 15 champion, was a congenial hostess for the night. A recent knee injury kept her off the dance floor, but she moved the evening along at a brisk pace.
The current tour is a vast improvement over a previous trek, which played the Mohegan Sun Arena in January.
Gone was the poorly scripted banter between the participants and a greater emphasis was placed on dancing.
Chmerkovskiy, Murgatroyd and Carson, all “DWTS” champs, were clearly crowd favorites.
More at MassLive.com.