Dance life

I know I’m not the biggest Dancing with the Stars fan, but I always think it’s fun when they release the list of contestants. 

Here’s the complete cast for Dancing Season Nine:

Mya, singer
Melissa Joan Hart, actress
Michael Irvin, former Dallas Cowboy
Ashley Hamilton, actor, comedian, singer-songwriter
Aaron Carter, singer
Kathy Ireland, former supermodel-turned-businesswoman
Debi Mazar, actress
Natalie Coughlin, U.S. Olympic swimmer
Louie Vito, snowboarder
Chuck Liddell, ultimate fighting champ
Donny Osmond, singer
Tom DeLay, former Republican congressman
Macy Gray, singer
Joanna Krupa, model and actress
Mark Dacascos, Iron Chef personality
Kelly Osbourne, reality star

I’m sure Mya will do great, since she’s a trained dancer.  I’m happy Melissa Joan Hart is on the show because I love her and I’ve missed her.  Aaron Carter joining the cast is just kind of sad, he seems like just a has been and I can’t imagine him winning.  Donny Osmond is going to be the cutest, most adorable contestant, he’s so funny in a corny cheesy way.  Macy Gray, hmm, I have no clue how she’ll do.  I think the most random/funniest contestant is Kelly Osbourne though.  Apparently she has been asked to do the show since it started, but declined cause she says she cant dance at all…that being said I don’t think she’ll do very well, but I’m surprised they wanted her on the show so much.   The show starts September 21^st, if I’m not too busy with school and the two overlapping seasons of SYTYCD (America and Canada) then maybe I’ll tune in to see who’s doing well…if not I’ll see all the eliminated contestants on Ellen.  

I interviewed Aubree Marchione‏, a professional ballroom dancer, and she showed me a type of dance I’d witnessed before – Wheelchair ballroom.  Aubree is a beautiful young dancer who was introduced to wheelchair ballroom by her dancer teacher Sandra Fortuna the owner of Universal Dance Center in New Jersey.

Aubree teaches the disabled so they can dance at special events.  She has taught people in wheelchairs to dance with their able-bodied partners socially, competitively, for their first dance at their wedding, and at various fundraisers.  Aubree has changed the lives of countless people, including older people who thought they couldn’t dance anymore because of their wheelchairs, young disabled veterans who wanted to dance with their wives at their weddings, and kids with disabilities.  She even taught a blind couple to dance together at their wedding.

Aubree’s story is beautiful, just like her dancing, and with her partner Nick Scott Aubree has performed some great routines.  It seems hard to believe that someone wheelchair-bound could keep up with a professional, but the two work well together and I genuinely think their dance is great – it’s really cute and I can’t help but smile!

There goal is to make it on a show like Dancing with the Stars or SYTYCD so they can raise awareness for Wheelchair ballroom and I hope that they achieve that goal one day.

There are two worlds of dance: competitive groups and solos of all styles, and ballroom.  Since I’m so involved in the first world of dance I sometimes forget the other exists.  I pride myself on being an active member of the dance community and it seems as if my school and I know every competition and convention that is going on in Montreal.  In reality we don’t even know the half of it.  My school and I do jazz, ballet, hip hop, tap, irish, highland, lyrical, contemporary, musical theater, and more.  So when people ask me what kind of dance I do, I’m always tempted to say everything.  It only really hit me last dance class when we had a guest teacher showing us salsa and latin ballroom how much of the entire dance world I’m missing out on.  I think of dancing as a hobby for young and fit women, but ballroom opens up a whole new realm for men and women of all ages.  With ballroom the steps are fun and simple and there aren’t the same restrictions and physical demands as other styles of dancing.  After a two hour salsa and Latin ballroom class we were all sweating but feeling great.  Ballroom dancing didn’t have the same intensity as ‘our’ dancing does.  We dance very hard and very fast for short periods of time, and with salsa it’s a different pace which makes it easier for adults. 

Ballroom dancing is a lot more intimate than my world of dancing.  You have to connect with your partner the whole time and move together.  When we’re dancing in a group if you make a mistake you stick out like a sore thumb.  In ballroom you and your partner help each other so making mistakes can be avoided.  The whole experience was fun and enriching.  We went from partner to partner and I got to be a part of my peers dancing in a way I never could before.  Seeing the way someone moves and dancing with them are vastly different, so in salsa when I danced with some of my class mates I got to know them as dancers better by adapting to their movements just having fun.  At first we were all a bit shy, but by the end of the class I could have danced with anyone.  I was just having fun and taking advantage of this rare opportunity. 

I’m getting older (not old, but growing up) and I’ve been thinking about how many years I can keep dancing.  When I’m in my thirties, unless I’m a teacher, there isn’t much place for me to continue dancing the way I do now.  This ballroom class gave me hope for the future because now I know that even when I’m much older dance can always be a part of my life.   

This season there have been so many injuries on the show ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ Haha I hope you guys aren’t sick of reading about this show yet, but everyone seems to be so surprised that ‘for some reason’ everyone is getting hurt.  Shows like Etalk call it a curse, but I know what it really is…

IF YOU CAN’T DANCE, DON’T DO IT. YOU WILL HURT AND EMBARRASS YOURSELF.  YOU ARE NOT CURSED, YOU ARE JUST PATHETIC. 

These are this season’s injuries…so far:

·       Jewel also left before the competition started because of swollen knees and ‘over-working.’ She was the first injury of the season.

·       Nancy O’dell, who also did not make it on the show because of her injury, just had knee surgery.

·       Stevo-O injured his back and couldn’t be there for one of the episodes.

·       Gilles, the best one in the competition, has tendonitis in his shoulder

·       Steve Wozniak fractured his foot

Point is, it’s not working well for the non-dancers, what a shocker…

Steve Wozniak, the Apple co-founder on ‘Dancing with the Stars’, has once again piqued my interest and I think his dancing should be shared with everyone so they experience the sadness and disgust I experienced. 

This guy is so cute when he’s just standing there smiling, you even feel bad for him because he’s doing so badly, but I just saw his dancing for the first time today and it was wrong.  Watching it, I felt dirty.  This old sweaty man is dancing with this hot young thing and you feel bad, like a bad person, watching it.  I saw him dance for the first time, and I felt like I just got kicked in the stomach I felt so sad and embarrassed for him.  He has sweat under his man boobs, and when he was trying to do a dance move over his partner I saw her helplessly on the floor and I just knew she was thinking, “this big sweaty pathetic man is smothering me and I’m scared he’ll find a way to crush me.”

What made me write this blog was one specific move he did last week, the worm.  If anyone knows me they know that the worm is “my move.”  When I saw him do it I realized how lame it is, and I’m a little less proud of my ability to do the worm now.  As one of the judges said he wasn’t so much doing the worm, it looked more like an earth worm or a little slug. 

So here it is guys, the creepy video itself (the professional dancer’s little glance away from her partner like ‘Oh God help me’ is priceless):

I’ve had a rant building inside of me about ‘Dancing with the Stars’, and I just have to let it out.

‘Dancing with the Stars’ is a dance show that dancers don’t watch.  The only times I’ve ever heard someone make references to ‘Dancing with the Stars’ were by moms who’ve never danced a day in their life.  The reason dancers don’t watch ‘Dancing with the Stars’ is because it’s slightly painful to see professional dancers dumb themselves down to the level of amateurs with virtually no dance training.  It’s just sad to see these beautiful dancers dragging around their unknown celebrity partner across the dance floor. 

It is mildly amusing to see the professionals struggle with the ‘stars’, so I do have to give the show some credit.  ‘Dancing with the Stars’ is an entertainment show.  It is not targeted to dancers, but it’s a show for ‘anyone.’ The dances are simple yet esthetically pleasing for those without much dance knowledge.  Everything about the show and its dances scream ‘old’ ‘housewife’ or ‘stay at home mom’. 

Back on a positive note, it’s hard enough for experienced dancers on shows like SYTYCD to learn choreography each week, so imagine how difficult it must be for those without dance training.  Kudos to their efforts, and all things considered it’s not bad.  The point is, dancing isn’t mean to be not bad though, it’s supposed to touch you and stir up the audiences’ emotions.  Only dancers can do that effectively, not has been stars.

Which leads me to my next point, it’s getting increasingly difficult to distinguish who the ‘stars’ are.  The dancers are D list actors, former reality show contestants, football players, singers who haven’t released albums in years, and to top it off this season there is an Apple co-founder.  These stars aren’t popular, so I feel no connection to them in any way when I watch them dance (with the exception of Shawn the gymnast because I loved her in the Olympics, but come on Olympics to ‘Dancing with the Stars’, what a step down.) 

The one thing about this entertainment show that I like is the fact that the contestants are scored and their scores make a difference in the elimination.  This helps the ‘good’ dancers stay in the game longer, but when no one’s that good, it doesn’t make a difference. 

My thoughts on the best and worst dancers:

Steve Wozniak, you’re a cutie, and congrats on co-founding Apple, but you have to leave.  Gilles, you’re pretty entertaining, but who are you!?