missysays

Wow! So I was looking at the YT videos up on the Dancing with the Stars channel (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLOIoa2aEGcM-z1hJx4vy4w) and of course Alfonso's Carlton Jazz is going through the roof in terms of views-- 1.16 views and counting. But Sadie's Duck Samba is also at a not too shabby 709K. That's pretty heavy viewing after just one night.

I don't think it's so much blondes but just cute girls who have a little bit of a nutty side that would appreciate Tom Jones! Ha!

I agree wholeheartedly!!! I loved Witney's performance in this number too- she wasn't just the sexy Latin dancer. She matched his zany Carlton character to a T. It was like she was Carlton's dream girl come to life- someone who's pretty as a daisy but also loves to rock out to Tom Jones!!!

Loved Alfonso's dancing tonight! This is what he can do if the producers give him a strong song and dance combo. Of course the Carlton is a different beast from just any regular old good song and dance combo. But he made it feel different tonight- I felt like I was watching a different story and character all together. Those producers better darn well give Alfonso and Witney awesome song and dance combos from now on out!!! If they don't make the final bc of poor choices by the producers I'm going to hurl! I also think he has the capability to do more than just comedic or upbeat dances. I want to see him do an Argentine Tango or a dramatic Contemporary. I think he can do it. But hopefully with the right song choices. I also think he would be amazing in an old Hollywood style foxtrot. No more Goldmember nonsense please!

THIS!!! I LOVVVEEEED the Carlton Jazz dance!!! Witney outdid herself with the choreography and Alfonso's star power on that floor, his dance ability, and that magic he has when he embodies the music- sigh!!! Just wonderful. This dance was 10x better than both of the Jazz numbers put together from last week. If those B+ dances got a 10 then this deserved a 20. It told a story better than the West Side Story one or the Singing in the Rain one. What impressed me the most was that this dance didn't feel like a copycat of Fresh Prince. It felt like Witney took the seed of inspiration from the Carlton character and dance and then completely riffed on it and created a dance that told this fresh 1960s style romantic comedy. I wanted to see the rest of the story that we only got a one minute snippet of. Where is it?!!! What happens???!!! ;-) Sadie always surprises me with the energy and sass she manages to bring up in her dances. She gives it a good go even when her dancing isn't the cleanest. Lea's dance and package was the only one that made me tear up and cry the entire night. And her beautiful pointed feet- so wonderful. Janel could learn something from Lea in that department. That is what's been bothering me in Janel's last few dances but I couldn't put my finger on it until it was brought into sharp relief in this dance bc the rumba is all about leg strength, balance control and fluidity- even though you wouldn't think it bc it doesn't have fast footwork. Her legs aren't very strong- feet are slippy and she doesn't really control, stretch or point her feet. Plus, after all that Sam Smith promo she did on social media it wasn't sung by Sam Smith!!!

Even within the US the Raise the Paddle is only available to those in the Eastern and Central time zones. No fair!

I'm excited to see Alfonso's Carlton Jazz dance. I really hope that Witney has managed to create a true dance around the Carlton move- that will be the greatest challenge for them this week! Just doing the Carlton for a minute won't really cut it.

I'm wondering if it's just an on-camera interview and not really a true "dance audition." Look at the Pro first auditions that they've been showing this season. Mark, Val, Karina, Cheryl, and Derek were just being interviewed to show producers how their personalities would come across on camera. Val's first interview looked like it took place long before he actually came on for his first full season as a pro.

Well, there is a reason that Janel is on DWTS. If she was really getting the "adult" lead stage roles all the time then she wouldn't need something like DWTS to rejuvenate that part of her career (if that's one of her goals for coming on the show). If you look at her resume (which could also not be quite up to date), her only lead stage roles were when she was a child and they weren't main roles like an Annie but secondary roles within a larger cast. Young Cosette only really has one song in Les Miz and only a handful of scenes at most. She hasn't been able to leverage any of that into an official adult stage career- except for some local musical shows with her boyfriend and their friends. (Though maybe she made a conscious choice to focus her adolescent and young adult career in TV.) Sure she has background and performance experience in musical theater but if you compare her performance ability to say a Sutton Foster (Bunheads)- there is no comparison. To say that it's hard to judge her performance in that Jazz bc it's her strength - I actually could tell the difference between what a "real" Broadway performer would have brought to the role vs what she did last Monday. I think a really legitimate seasoned adult Broadway female lead would have made more of an impact in that number. This is all to say that I feel as if Janel has a lot of room to grow even in something that can be seen as her strength and I agree it is very early in the season so she'll have that chance to grow. Based on DWTS standards she's already really good in how she's managing and performing the dances so far. It'll be interesting to see what other numbers she'll get a chance to perform. This does make me curious to know how she hopes to use the DWTS platform. I wonder if she is trying to get back into Broadway musical theater, if she's just trying to up her recognizability factor so that she can get other LA-based acting jobs, or if she's trying to launch a singing career. (I think she also writes and plays music.)

I don't think Nicole was the best technician either- esp if you start comparing her with other past celeb dancers on DWTS. But I do feel that she had more inherent clean-ness in her step execution than Janel has shown in her 3 dances. Janel's foxtrot in hold positioning might have been good but I think that had a lot to do with Val helping to position her in hold. The performance of the foxtrot was light and lovely but there was a moment when she does a back layout and then twist in Val's arms and she almost doesn't make it around or hunches over in a funny way. Alfonso's jive and Tommy's AT have been my favorite performances so far this season as well. And while I think Janel's Jazz was a good dance it didn't transport me the way Alfonso's jive did. I was very conscious of the stops and starts in her Jazz (And in re-watching I'm very conscious of how she didn't completely lose herself in the dance either. Look at the very end pose- instead of throwing her arms back and enjoying the final end pose on Val's knee- she pauses and re-arranges her face into a pout. It took me right out of the mood of the dance.) Whereas in Alfonso's jive there were no breaks in movement that took my mind outside the enjoyment of the dance. For me, the mark of a great performance is when I forget about watching for steps but am able to lose myself in the interpretation of the music. In Tommy's dance, the beginning of the AT captivated me and made me forget to watch for steps. There is a little break at one point where his face bumps into Peta's arm or side in a funny way but otherwise I stopped paying attention to the moves and just felt the mood of the dance. I couldn't quite lose myself in Janel's Jazz performance bc I was conscious of her setting up for steps or movement. It may be because the dances that Val has created so far have been pretty fast-paced. She almost doesn't quite have room or space to completely lose herself in the music bc she's rushing to get to the next move. Maybe this week's rumba with a more slow-downed pace will allow her to start to learn how to hold out and finish moves and truly embody the music in a deeper way.

It's been a while since I've seen Nicole's dances but from the get go I think she had cleaner technique in terms of her ability to execute her steps with sharpness adn precision. Also her leg, arm, and foot placement as well as the control she had over her ability to develop her arms and legs from her core had more control and clarity than Janel. Plus, Nicole had the ability to generally stay in sync with Derek in the step-based sequences. I feel sometimes with Janel that she doesn't have full control of her technique yet. It's still early in the season so she may very well develop this later on. From a performance perspective, I feel like Janel hasn't learned to fill out the space with her body movement yet. It may be that she's small in stature but her horizontal movement across the floor isn't as stretched or as outreached as it could be. I hope that's something she can work on. Other small in stature competitors like Shawn Johnson or Sabrina Bryan really filled out the space with clean lines. I think that will go a long way towards making Janel a more complete dancer and not just reliant on her facial expressions. BTW, Mya was one of the best dancers DWTS ever had. She was j***** big time in her season.

I'm hoping that the Carlton dance will put Alfonso and Witney back into the game but I'm not sure why I'm a little worried about it. It's only week 4 where else will they go after this? I would almost prefer that they just be given a real ballroom dance like a tango or foxtrot and be given a real tango or foxtrot song to interpret with it. Otherwise, people could just say that he's milking his claim to fame or doing the Alfonso groove thing and not really growing. I could see the judges criticizing him for that this week. Which is such a shame, he and Witney have the best performance and technical capacity of any of the other couples this season. In that jive, they embodied the music and the dance style so naturally. The past few weeks they've been saddled with weird dance style and song combos. Can you imagine what that "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" number could have been if it had been a true hip hop? Or if that "Goldmember" had been a disco? Or if they had been given a more traditional quickstep song? I think Alfonso has the ability to master the ballroom and latin dances if he were only given the right songs to support those dances. Hope he and Witney can recapture their mojo and learn to either negotiate more with the producers over song choices or select better song choices for themselves.

My perception of Janel isn't just that there isn't a whole lot of dancing in her numbers as others have mentioned but that even her performance quality doesn't really register for me. Here's what I mean. I actually agree with Carrie Ann- even though she put it horribly. Janel's performance tends to come mainly from sexy expressions on her face. I don't see her performance all that much unless the camera is pulled in tightly to her face and even then her facial expressions are mainly sexy- but not commanding sexy more cutesy, pouty lips sexy. Yes, she's bright and vivacious but it doesn't really go beyond that- there's no nuance or power. I compare her performances to say an Amber Riley and Amber's best performances seemed to come from her whole body and emanate from her like she was an extension of the music. Janel's performances don't seem to come from her core. Yes, she's executing steps but they don't seem to flow naturally from her. There are little pauses here and there. She does have a lot of fight and moxie so she's able to get through the dances and you think she's done a bang up job but if you re-watch her dances there's no there there in her steps. Even in West Side Story, there's a moment where she does these feisty stomping moves and flounces her skirt. That move isn't difficult- it's basically standing in one place and moving your skirt around and she surely stomps with enthusiasm but it doesn't seem to flow naturally it actually feels a little amateurish to me. If you look back at the original movie and Rita Moreno's own version of stamping movements and use of a full skirt it's so much more naturally sexy and sort of oozes out at you. With all this critique, I could still see her winning though bc the other cast members aren't that strong this season (except for Alfonso and sometimes Lea). She’s also probably getting a ton of support from the PLL fans. I just feel like she's getting a lot of praise that wouldn't necessarily be coming her way in a tougher season. And Alfonso has been saddled with some very weird song/dance style combinations in the past couple of weeks. His momentum has been dragged down and her competition momentum has been bolstered over the past week or two.