neem

Adam Rippon Reveals ‘DWTS’ Partner Jenna Johnson’s Engagement Details

Nicole & Benji did this number at the US Open Swing Dance Championships a few months back (ETA: the embedding didn't work properly, so here's the link instead). You can go watch YT vids from US Open Swing and others if you want to get a glimpse of what's going on.

Pairs skating? Adam's too short. There are very few male pairs skaters below 5'9", and Adam's 5'7". Anyway, when it comes to ballet training, Adam's mom Kelly has told that Adam has no formal dance training whatsoever. But Kelly herself is a former dancer, so it's not that surprising that Adam has inherited some natural dance talent. Also, Adam's first long time skating coach was Russian (Elena Sergeeva) and Russian skaters/coaches typically do have some ballet training and tend to yell at their skaters about proper posture and arm movements. But looking at how Adam uses his hands and fingers in his past programs, it's pretty obvious he's not trained. My ballet teachers would've NEVER let me get away with loosely curled fingers just hanging there, which seemed to be Adam's default hand mode when he was doing back crossovers to a jump or something. Just... NO. That's actually one DWTS thing Adam has told he's already applying to his skating, to have "alive hands", after Jenna kept critiquing his "dead fish hands".

ICYMI: Jenna Johnson is one of the pros on the current season of DWTS. She's partnered with Adam Rippon and IMO their contemp last Monday was surprisingly good, considering the limited training time and the fact that Adam's not a pro. (The finale is next Monday and Jenna&Adam probably have a pretty good chance of winning.) Actual dancing starts around the 1:50 mark, choreo by Jenna & Talia Favia.

Jesus Effing Christ. Mirai was trying to cope with a stressful situation by cracking jokes, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised if people don't even consider the possibility that she might've been joking (because joking is something only men are supposed to do and women can't be funny, am I right?). Or if they think think female athletes, esp. young ones, aren't allowed to crack jokes so any attempt to do that must be met with utmost disapproval. I bet Mirai was very disappointed, in addition to being exhausted, after her Olympic experience ended with that underwhelming free skate. Instead of breaking down there and then in the mixed zone (like she has sometimes done in the past and gotten some shit for that), she was trying to smile through it and brush it off and make some jokes. But of course, if you're a young female athlete in that situation behaving in that manner, you're basically committing a crime more unforgivable than a footballer beating up his girlfriend. Because apparently all young women, athletes included, must be Proper Young Ladies at all times, and they aren't ever allowed to say something careless in their adrenaline-fueled post-competition mode, because their #1 objective in life should be striving to appear as as humble and demure as possible to placate people who still hold on to some 19th century crap about feminine decorum. And the same sports journalists that always complain how athletes in general, and figure skaters specifically, tend to speak only in canned answers and bland cliches, are ready to pounce and make a big show of being aghast and scandalized when a (female) athlete actually says something unexpected and off-kilter.

Jenna & Adam did an interview for Access (well, the first half was just Adam) and Jenna explained pretty well why somebody who's spent their life gliding on ice wearing stiff skating boots, and has no previous dance training, faces certain challenges when it comes to learning to execute dance steps properly. I just wish more people would get that skating and dancing are actually two separate skill sets (although there's some overlap of course) and that the muscle memory gained from doing skating moves doesn't directly translate into doing cha cha steps on the floor. There's some serious teaching/learning involved... and judging from their first dance, she's done a good job teaching him. She deserves credit for that.

ICYMI: Kristyn Burtt did post-show interviews for Dance Network Adam & Jenna Arike & Gleb (Kristyn says a Notre Dame rep accompanied them for every interview and helped reporters follow the rules and regulations) Chris & Witney Jennie & Keo Johnny & Emma Joshua & Sharna Kareem & Lindsay Mirai & Alan Tonya & Sasha

Mirai was born and raised in the LA area. I’m ESL so I probably perceive things differently compared to native speakers, but to me, Mirai just sounds like a pretty typical young woman who was born and raised in California. However, I'm aware that a lot of people are viscerally annoyed by that kind of "voice". This podcast episode has helped me to understand what's going on here: https://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/vocal-fry-and-other-speech-trends-2.htm After years of following Mirai’s skating career and watching her mature and develop as a competitor… I didn't expect every DWTS viewer to like her or anything but I also didn't expect the amount of people both here and elsewhere who just "can't stand Mirai" and her "attitude" and who find her "over-the-top kind of annoying" and "stupid" and "vapid" and "childish" and basically an arrogant diva bitch from hell with no redeeming personality traits whatsoever.

Nope. He's only done singles. ETA: I've seen him try some ice dance lifts with ice dance guys but that's about it.

Agreed. Btw, when Benji Schwimmer was the guest on To The Pointe, he and Kristyn talked about how cool it would be if Adam were partnered with a male pro on DWTS. That was back in March, but Benji spoke as if that was a pretty realistic prospect at that point. I don’t know whether that was mostly wishful thinking, or something that was seriously considered until network execs vetoed it.

Especially now that Adam not only skipped the customary White House visit (all skaters on SOI were absent because of the tour schedule) but took to twitter and made some headlines (again). The pro-Trump crowd on twitter is pissed off at him (again!) and I'm grateful I'm not on FB so I don't see what's going on there. Meanwhile, looks like Mirai is striving to be apolitical and trying not to alienate the more conservative crowd.

Mirai Nagasu Says Tonya Harding Didn't Know Who She Was When They Met on DWTS

Travis Wall talks about doing figure skating choreo: Choreographer Travis Wall Gives Adam Rippon His Wings in Stars on Ice Lacey Schwimmer is interviewed in the latest To The Pointe episode and it sounds like she's got some interesting TV stuff coming up. She talks about it here: https://youtu.be/U4pSmsplAvo?t=49m50s

Agreed. It’s not that they want to "play up his sexuality". More likely Adam himself is just not interested in toning it down and trying to "act straight" in an attempt to court the ”I’m not homophobic, but…” crowd, and the show runners are well aware of that and allow Adam to be Adam. Also, since there’s no guarantee he won’t be one of the contestants kicked out week one, why hold back? RuPaul is one of Adam’s idols (they met at the Time100 gala yesterday btw) and being able to perform to a RuPaul song on DWTS is probably a big thing for him. So, if it turns out that the judges and/or the TV audiences aren’t accepting of a guy like him who’s not trying to butch it up or tone it down, at least he’s going out guns blazing. And if he survives the elimination and does well after shaking his hips to ”Sissy That Walk” on national TV… Well, more power to him!

Finally some rehearsal footage of Jenna and Adam actually dancing : http://www.etonline.com/how-adam-rippon-plans-to-channel-val-chermkovskiy-for-dwts-exclusive-100984 It seems they've been in NYC for a couple of days now because of the Time 100 gala that Adam attended. Val has visited their rehearsals and has been helping them in some capacity, but it isn't clear to me whether he's done some choreo for them, too, or whether that's all Jenna. ETA: This is a cute little vid... https://twitter.com/Dance10Jenna/status/988603683071053824