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"Dancing With the Stars" 2007-Mambo for the Females; Quick Step for the Fellows
I am to understand that the Mambo involves syncopated footwork and a little bit of Charleston. The Quick Step, on the other hand, also involves syncopated footwork but should include fast turns and swivels.
It's been said that a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Armed with a little bit of knowledge about the Mambo and the Quick Step, neither of which I have ever danced, I continue on to judge the dancing the evening of 3/26/07 and on to the elimination round on 3/27/07.
Two evenings of dancing scores from the judges are combined with audience votes and the dance team with the lowest scores is eliminated. I am not at all sure if this scoring methodology will continue throughout the contest but for now, the contenders have had a chance to dance the Mambo, Quick Step, Cha-Cha and Foxtrot before the audience voted the first dance team off.
For the record, this missive is written AFTER the elimination round and I can right up front here note that Paulina Porizkova was the first celebrity voted off. Former Miss U.S.A. Shandi Finnessey was in the bottom two. The most intriguing fact about this information is that the two most gorgeous females on this year's contest were in the bottom two of the judges' scores and audience voting in the first elimination round.
Well sure they evidently didn't dance all that well but how many times have beautiful women won or achieved far better rewards than that which entitled based simply upon supreme looks? Also, both Shandi and Paulina are not just attractive women, they are stunningly gorgeous women.
Let us move on to a team by team critique by mine own fine self now armed with a little bit of knowledge.
Apolo is a young man, a former Olympic gold medal winner. He's handsome with a positive personality and a beaming smile. He also dances quite well. Apolo, whose last name really is OHNO,sported some spiffy tails as he danced a fine Quick Step with his partner. I noticed a bit of a dance misstep in that it seemed that Ohno almost slid down to a fall. The judges too noted this misstep. Apolo scored 26 out of 30 points for the night. Add to this score the 21 points earned in the prior dance round and Apolo and his partner had a score of 47 points out of a possible 60.
Speaking of the former beauty queen, Shandi danced a Mambo with her partner and someone needs to tell Shandi that no matter how beautiful she thinks she is, she has to MOVE when she's on that dance floor. For that's all I noted when Shandi danced...she hardly moved! The judges declared that Shandi performed badly and that the choreography was "difficult". The way Shandi acts when she's on the dance floor, she only need show us her pretty face and exquisite legs and we will be bowled over by the beauty. Shandi received a score of 39 out of a possible 60 points and goodness, on neither night did she and her partner score above a possible 20 points out of 30.
6'7" Clyde Drexler came up next and somehow this fellow got his long legs to move around the floor for a Quick Step. Clyde and his partner danced to the tune of "Your Love Lifted Me Higher" and the sounds of this familiar and upbeat tune helped this duo survive. Because Clyde and his partner both scored lower than Shandi AND Paulina during the first two dance rounds, yet Clyde was not in the bottom two. This is fine with me because I really like Clyde.
It was Leeza Gibbons' 50th birthday the night of the Mambo. Let me say that I am a bit older than 50 but even when I was 50 I'd have given my firstborn to look as good as Leeza. Leeza made a great improvement over her first performance. Her first score from the judges was 15 while she scored a 21 for her Mambo. She deserved those extra points for looking so great at age 50.
The judges complained that Ian Ziering had what they called "elbow" issues and goodness, I never even watch a dancer's elbows during a performance. It seemed that Ian's partner had to keep pushing Ian's arm up throughout their Quick Step and the judge's evidently caught this action. Even with that, Ian and his partner have scored an impressive 21 points the first round and 22 for the second round. Their combined total was 43 out of a possible 60.
I know poor Paulina got voted off but I'm not sure she deserved it. For one thing, she was a real sweetheart about having to dance the Mambo, amusingly referring to her "inner Latina". The song Paulina and her partner danced to was the famous rollicking "La Bamba", which I would have thought could have saved Paulina. The judge's were a bit testy and in general were not kind to Paula. Paula and her partner scored a total of 40 points out of a possible 60, certainly not the lowest of the scores. Alas, the American public voted Paulina out.
After the first dance round I would have soundly predicted that Billy Ray Cyrus would be the first voted off the show. In fact, Billy Ray Cyrus showed the most improvement, topping his paltry score of 13 points on his first round with a fine 21 points for the second round.
During one of the pre-performance vignettes, Billy Ray's kids were shown attending one of his practice dance sessions. This added a pleasant dimension to Billy Ray's character, softening that hard-living country-western image he might have to overcome.
Billy Ray and his partner danced to, heh, Rush Limbaugh's infamous global warming parody song..."Burning Ring of Fire". This provided me with the biggest laugh so far of the series. While I thought Cyrus performed well, his dance moves seemed a bit childish to me.
Everytime I see Heather Mills I can't quite get my mind around the notion that of all the females on the planet, Paul McCartney married her.
It's not that she's unattractive or anything but she's not all that.... Also, her behavior post-separation has really been appalling and I think this makes Heather even uglier.
That being said, let me bow my head right now and declare that Heather performed a wonderful Mambo and dear Lord she shook those boobs of hers like a pro. I whisper softly here that it has been rumored far and wide that Heather used to be a stripper. I have no proof of this, understand, but I've read it often enough.
In addition, there's no way that Heather doesn't deserve some great kudos for dancing so well with an artificial leg. It's no matter if she used to take off her clothes for a living or that she's behaving like poor white trash with beloved Beatle McCartney. This woman dances fluidly with an artificial leg and this takes talent. The judges raved about Heather's performance and she and her partner received a combined total of 42 points out of a possible 60 for the first two rounds.
John Ratzenberger is most widely known as Norm's bar buddy in the long-running series "Cheers". This is a fellow that's not all that young and he was also a contender that I thought would get booted off right quick. In fact, the judges praised his Quick Step to the tune of "The Lady is a Tramp". I thought John displayed fine footwork and moved quite a bit for an older fellow. For sure he moved around a lot more than Miss U.S.A. Shandi Finnessey. John and his partner scored a total of 38 points out of a possible 60.
Laila Ali's Dad is Mohammad Ali and I remember this boxer well. Mohammad used to tell the world, proudly and with no humility at all the following..."I am the Greatest". This infamous saying was all the rage during Mohammad's boxing heyday. Mohammad's birth name was Cassius Clay.
Laila, like her Dad, is the greatest. This gal can dance. She's big-boned, she's sexy, she's no shrinking violet. In fact, Ali and her partner received the highest scores for both nights combined, a total of 50 points out of a possible 60. I consider Ali a real contender to win this thing.
I've been hearing whispers that Joey Fatone is the odds on favorite to win this year's contest. Fatone is a member of the singing group "NSync".
I'll not nominate Joey over Apolo but I'll allow that Fatone does seem to have a natural dance talent. First, he's not a small man. Which is not a requirement to win the contest and, indeed, large people do quite well as contestants on this show. Apolo is a big smaller and younger and I think he has the edge over all the male contenders entered this year.
All that so stated, I was very impressed by Fatone's footwork and wasn't surprised when a judge declared him to be "light on your feet". Joey wore a dashing outfit and had a big "J" on the tail of his tux. Joe and his partner got a standing ovation as well as a total of 48 points combined score for the first two rounds.
Keep an eye on Laila Ali, Joey Fatone and Apolo Ohno for this year's top three. Clyde Drexler could make an inroad as the friendliest and most personable.
DANCE WITH STARS TOP TEN 2007
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Ian Ziering
Billy Ray Cyrus
Leeza Gibbons
Joey Fatone
Laila Ali
John Ratzenberger
Shandi Finnessey
Clyde Drexler
Heather Mills
Apolo Anton Ohno
DANCING WITH STARS POST LINKS
OPENING NIGHT
Quick Step and Rumba Night
Using the "Ad Walker", Apprentice team Kinetic Loses a Big One
I would turn out that the "Ad Walker" is some sort of device that one straps over their torso to wear whilst walking around. The front of the device has some sort of television type of screen that would allow the portable salesperson to show a potential customer detail on what is then being sold. In addition, there is a handy slot to swipe credit cards for ordering.
In this year's Apprentice LA task, teams Arrow and Kinetic were charged with selling season passes to Universal Studios. The Ad Walker device was perfect for a sales setting such as an amusement park. This is EXACTLY the setting that this new technology to sell people stuff was designed to enhance.
Angie, the Olympic athlete, was project manager for Kinetic. Arrow was headed by James.
An interesting sub-story to this task is the budding romance between Tim and Nicole. Which was, due to Nicole being sent packing to team Kinetic, a bit tortured and tested. As this task ended, the viewer is left wondering if Nicole will throw Tim over the bow very soon.
James had to pick an Arrow team mate to send over to Kinetic, which had lost quite a few of its members. James chose to send Nicole and Tim didn't protest a bit. Thus Nicole worked with the Kinetic team and Nicole made a fatal suggestion to her new team on how to sell season passes: Nicole suggested that the Kinetic team sell the tickets whilst wearing roller skates.
The Arrow team, on the other hand, then mostly male and most aggressive sales people, set up a kiosk on the Universal Park entry.
The result was that Arrrow sold a total of $31,366.65 and Kinetic weighed in with a total sales amount of $24,440.37. Which means, of course, that team Arrow won this week's task.
It would be Angie, the project manager for this task, who would be sent home for this Universal Studios task. Although Kinetic newcomer Nicole did make the roller skating suggestion and Nicole could have been fired for this bad idea. In the end, since Angie was the PM, she got the boot.
Trump seems to be a bit obsessed with Nicole and Tim's romance or perhaps he's just acting as if he is to elevate the drama of this romance in the series. At any rate, Trump kept asking Nicole in the boardroom if she loved Tim, did he love her...very personal type of stuff, frankly.
Trump then advised Nicole, yes Donald Trump, world expert on romance and love, gave advice to Nicole and what he told Nicole was a bit over the top. For The Donald told Nicole to drop Tim like a heavy rock for failing to defend her and not trying to keep her on his team. After Angie was fired, Nicole asked permission to go on the Kinetic premises so she could have a heart-to-heart with Tim. The Donald gave her permission and the show ended on this note.
The viewing audience was left in mystery as to what Nicole would say to Tim. We must wait until the next task to find out I must suppose.
Frankly Donald's suggestion to Nicole is a bit dangerous. Advising lovers on ANY action is a dangerous thing in that if the advice doesn't work or makes things worse, then it's YOUR fault. Not that Donald Trump would suffer any pain from a peon apprentice would-be. Still, it seemed unbecoming to have someone of Donald Trump's stature all involved in a little flirtation.
Except the man IS trying to boost his ratings.
APPRENTICE 2007 LA LINKS
First Show 1/7/07
Swimsuit Task 1/14/07
Michelle Quits 1/21/07
Pollo Loco
The Honey of a Task
Priceline Trips and Language
Marketing the Lexis
The Soap Opera Task
Universal Studios Task
More TV Reviews HERE
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1 comment:
Laila is a good dancer, but she's also a professional athlete (like Apolo) so I would expect them to excel in a physical competition. Also, Joey Fatone is a professional dancer so he has an advantage as well. My personal favorite dance team is Ian and Cheryl. They have so much personality and give each dance 100% effort. Ian is not a professional dancer or athlete, but yet he has all the talent of the rest of them -- last week he received six straight "9s" from the judges. I hope he surprises everyone by giving his best performances in the next two weeks and capturing the trophy. If you like Ian and Cheryl, please do your part to vote for them on Monday -- vote 4 times for each phone number and 4 times online. Also, Ian has really cool videos on his websites at www.IanZiering.com and www.MySpace.com/OfficialIZ and there you can sign up to receive his fun email blasts.
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