Tepid Scores and Nervous Wrecks - Dancing With the Stars 3, Premiere
Another season of Dancing With The Stars! Has is been a year already? No, not quite, but the little show that could has finally rated a true premiere season instead of being a filler. With a lineup of eleven celebrities this time let’s get right down to the dance floor.
Joey Lawrence & Edyta Sliwinska
During the opening segment I saw this cute, buffed bald guy and thought, “Yum, who’s that?” Imagine my shock when I realized it was an utterly unrecognizable Joey Lawrence (Blossom)! He’s sheared off his trademark mop of hair, buffed up and leaned out and it suits him. Edyta likes him too and she’s pleased to have someone in shape, as opposed to George Hamilton last season. Joey hasn’t danced in front of an audience in 23 years, since his 1982 appearance on The Tonight Show. That doesn’t stop him from pulling out the stops. He’s quiet and unassuming, but works it hard in the studio. His cha cha is energetic and intense, he has smoldering facial expressions and seems relaxed, like he belongs there. He throws himself into it with the physical fitness to back it up and almost reminds me of last season’s Drew Lachey. Almost!
Len said it was a great first dance with good potential, Bruno called it sharp and sexy, Carrie said Joey was a powerful performer. The scores were excellent for the first dance of the season.
Carrie: 7 - Len: 7 - Bruno: 7 - TOTAL SCORE: 21 out of 30
Sara Evans & Tony Dovolani
Country music star Sara Evans was hit by a car at age 8 and had both legs broken, so she’s pretty amazed to be dancing. She sweet and cute and completely mild--the girl next door before she’s had her coffee. She does drag Tony on tour with her and tells him to make her his slave, of course Tony does just that. When she comments that it hurts he tells her “Welcome to ballroom dancing.” Her foxtrot is just as mild she is, soft flowing but completely lacking in personality. I hope we get to see her in a salsa, because I just can’t picture that at all.
Len said that it was definitely romantic, but her footwork was wrong. Bruno summed up my feeling best by saying that she shifted from Jackie O to Barbara Bush. I love that man. Carrie gave a nod to Sara’s natural grace but added that she looked very nervous.
Carrie: 5 - Len: 5 - Bruno: 5 - TOTAL SCORE: 15 out of 30
Tucker Carlson & Elena Grinenko
MSNBC News anchor Tucker Carlson admits to being more comfortable in Beirut than on the dance floor, and he has only danced while drunk at weddings. He’s nerdy and goofy and doesn’t seem to care who knows it. His dance partner has no words for his natural ability to dance, so she simply instructs him to have fun, and he definitely does that. I don’t hate the guy, and I applaud his willingness to get up on national television and dance but how shall I put this? He doesn’t have the dance gene. He just doesn’t have it. During the cha cha he was actually closing his eyes, doing dorky hip thrusts and I’d swear I saw him biting his lip while bobbing his head up and down. The dance started and ended with him in a chair, it was the middle part that was painful. Where’s the old fashioned vaudeville hook when you need one? Sorry Tucker, nothing personal. Stick to drunk dancing at weddings, my friend.
Carrie and Len were good natured about it, saying he looked like he was having fun but the real problems started when he got out of the chair. Only Bruno was cruel (unless you’re counting me) and called it an awful mess.
Carrie: 5 - Len: 4 - Bruno: 3 - TOTAL SCORE: 12 out of 30
Monique Coleman & Louis Van Amstel
Monique Coleman (High School Musical) is a young actress and took dance lessons when she was young(er) but you can tell she’s never truly been tested. Louis takes her in hand and gives her an inkling of what that means. She cries a lot, and is way out of her element, fortunately Louis has experience with emotional females (Lisa Rinna was his partner last season) and knows when to give her a hug. She rises to the challenge and works through it, but their foxtrot is only passable. She makes all these naughty little faces and come hither gestures that belong in the tango, not the foxtrot. She’s overcompensating for the fact that she’s young and scared. Some of the steps are good, some are awkward as this girl tries to fill a woman’s dance shoes.
All the judges loved her arm movements and Bruno called her a Dreamgirl in the making. Carrie said she over danced her face, and Len said there was no romantic chemistry. Romantic chemistry? Louis could end up in jail for that.
Carrie: 6 - Len: 6 - Bruno: 7 - TOTAL SCORE: 19 out of 30
Emmitt Smith & Cheryl Burke
People laugh when they see football players and boxers come on this show, but the thing about them is that they have a finely tuned drive to succeed and a high pain tolerance. I wasn’t expecting much from Emmitt Smith of the Dallas Cowboys because he’s a rather husky fellow, but I was dead wrong. Reigning champion Cheryl Burke got the honor of teaching him, and he brought not only his determination to win but his obvious passion for dancing. Their cha cha was all energy and fun, the guy bounced around all over the place and never slowed down once. His footwork was light, unusual for someone his size, he totally got his groove on and earned the first standing ovation of the season from the crowd.
Carrie jumped up to shake his hand and simply said, “You can dance!” Len loved the naturalness of it, and felt it was not contrived at all. Bruno called him the king of effortless dance.
Carrie: 8 - Len: 8 - Bruno: 8 - TOTAL SCORE: 24 out of 30
Willa Ford & Maxsim Chmerkovskiy
Willa Ford is the self professed “bad girl of pop,” whatever that means. I have no idea what she’s sung, but then I’m over 35 so my opinion doesn’t mean squat in the world of pop music. She’s also very young, giggly and nervous, I kept expecting her to punctuate her sentences with “like” every five words. She really doesn’t want to “suck” at ballroom dancing. That’s as eloquently she can put it. “I’m not used to being bad.” But wait, I thought she was the bad girl of pop? It’s her trademark. Fortunately she crushes on Maxsim and they develop a lovely chemistry that carries over to their foxtrot. Physically they compliment each other -- Willa is a tall girl and has a beautiful back and frame which helps her glide and turn flawlessly and keep up with her taskmaster.
Bruno called it an exquisite treat, Carrie said it was graceful and flawless, Len called it seamless and fluid.
Carrie: 7 - Len: 7 - Bruno: 8 - TOTAL SCORE: 22 out of 30
|
(1) 2 »
The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
|
|
|
