realdancemom

The judging is really weird this season. The last two shows, most of the people received a 32. The differences between the top couple score and bottom is very minimal. That means it really is up to the votes. So far, eliminations are about what I expected but it will be painful moving forward. I do understand that there has to be some curve. A pro can't throw as much to somebody like Phaedra vs somebody like Chandler. Phaedra was clean during her routine. She played the character correctly and looked fabulous as Cruella. They could be judged based on quality of movement. For example, Phaedra could have given more oomph to her movements especially when sticking her booty out. Jenn could finish her hip movement more instead of cutting them short. I think that is also the reason why Joey received an 8. His character playing was fine. There was no samba bounce though. Samba is one of the hardest dances, and I'm sure he'll bounce right back. :) I do think he was scored about right and Phaedra too high, though. She should have received 7s. Edit - I thought Chandler should have received at least one 10. She was fierce and the cape work was amazing. Her posture and shaping looked great.

Chandler did attend Debbie Allen's dance academy. I believe that she stopped going regularly at around 9-11 years old. She is now concentrating on acting. Lots of female celebrities take dance. This season, both Brooks and Anna said that they took ballet when they were younger. That's why both did have nice lines and Brooks is flexible. Anna was just a pill to watch with no performance skills. Brooks didn't flow well between moves. Jenn said she took one semester of ballroom in college. Since I watch for the dancing, I really don't care if "ringers" are there as long as they didn't take ballroom seriously. So I don't consider Jenn's one college course as disqualifying. It's about popularity anyway. I agree with the stats above that the top four will probably be Ilona, Joey, Danny, and Stephen. Danny has had two good weeks and his confidence has improved. We'll see what happens when he goes back to ballroom since contemporary and jazz is pretty much a freestyle on this show. So the top four can change. Phaedra was the right one to go. She was the weakest one in her group of weaker dancers. I definitely saw her looking back when she was in front of the line. Dwight should be next. He looked promising on the first show like an Iman 2.0. It hasn't worked out that way. I don't know how big his fanbase is. He is one of the stars that I knew before the season started. I also knew Tori, Reg, and Eric but they're gone.

I know that the DWTS winner is mostly based on popularity. That's how Bobby Bones won. Based on both popularity and dancing, I think Joey will win. To me, that would be a better outcome than if Stephen won. I say that as somebody that loved watching him in the Olympics. He has an adorable personality and is popular. I was excited to find out he was competing. I don't watch the Bachelor or Bachelorette so I didn't know Joey or Jenn before this season. I just know that the show brings a big fan base. Stephen is a decent dancer so it wouldn't be a terrible outcome. I just think Joey is better. I'm still worried about Chandler. There was a mistake in the lift. However, 8 is still too low in comparison to the other dancers getting 8s. I didn't want her at the top of the leader board every week. She shouldn't be this week and she's already getting ringer backlash. However, planting the seed that she doesn't emote enough is problematic. It could work for somebody with a big fan base and give the narrative that they overcame that. I'm not sure how big her fanbase is. I'm still hoping she makes the finals so I can see their freestyle. Based on dancing, I think Phaedra and Dwight should be next.

Since Ilona was upset, she shouldn't have been one of the last three. I'm sure she wasn't so they could have chosen somebody else. Her dance wasn't her best but she looked fantastic!! They finally dressed her properly for her body type. Joey looked really good with his wig. It brought out his blue eyes more.

Thanks for the media links, tv echo. This quote right here is my biggest issue with Gene. “If Gene doesn’t think the woman is hot, she gets a low score. Get this man off my screen. No reason he tried to give Brooks a ten and THE Phaedra Parks a five? #DWTS,” user @shelbykvosburg weighed in." A 5 for Phaedra and 10 for Brooks is ridiculous. His comments were creepy but Bruno makes similar comments about contestants being hot. The difference is that he kind of says that to everyone. It's part of his act. He also gives constructive criticism afterwards. Gene offered nothing.

I thought Sasha and Jenn's dance was sexier than Brooks and Gleb. I agree with CAI and Rosie. Brooke has beautiful lines and she's flexible. So there are some pretty pictures that are made. There's no flow though. It might be Gleb since I don't think he's a good choreographer. However, I've read that Brandon is not a good choreographer and he's killing it this season. I did think Brandon choreographed well for Tinashe. He's also had some really good rumbas. I specifically remember Kenya Moore's. Stephen needs to slow down. This was Illona's best dance so far. I don't know why Dwight couldn't rehearse but that was not good. Phaedra's quickstep was a hot mess and I don't know why she got a 30. It's especially weird since she was the first one and the judges usually score lower for that. I probably like Joey second best after Chandler.

I haven't watched this episode yet. I'm not looking forward to Gene's comments based on posts. It's too bad since I thought Rosie Perez was a good judge that gave appropriate scores. I just wanted to comment on Chandler and Brandon. I'm worried for them since there have been a lot of ringer comments. Brandon is also not one of the popular pros. I don't want her to be a shock boot since I'm looking forward to their freestyle. She doesn't need to win for me but I really want to see them in the finals.

His face also spoke volumes when she said the best part is not doing the dance again. I don't know anything about her except from this forum. Just from this show, I wouldn't vote for her based on personality. Sorry Ezra.

With all its faults, I wish I could watch another episode tonight. I liked when there were more dance shows list this, DWTS, WOD, etc. Now, I have to wait for DWTS in the fall. That also was cut down from two to one season per year. I like the idea of going to the old format for top twenty and then doing the challenges when it's top ten. And if they can't have everyone vote, at least have the audience vote like last season although I know there were complaints about that. Unfortunately, I don't see having a top 20 because that would require a longer season. I don't think they would spend money on that especially with the ratings.

I previously said that I would have cut Anthony based on the duets and Mariyah was the better mover in their piece. To be fair, while it was nice to see Ivan, I think Anthony was at a disadvantage in this case in regards to style. Madison was assigned jazz funk while Dakayla got contemporary with Talia. Anthony would have done better with contemporary. For the Ivan duet, IMHO Anthony did it justice more than Easton would have. Mariyah would have also looked better than Easton in this piece. Of course, Easton is better at contemporary than Anthony but that wasn't the style assigned. From the final two, I would have picked Dakayla over Anthony. It's nice to see a powerful female dancer that can hold her own when it comes to tricks/strength moves with the males. But Madison would have been the winner for me. Too bad, she didn't have a love story.

I would have cut Anthony and have the two women be the top two. Dakayla got a Talia Favia and Easton. She was going through. I thought Madison did better with her duet. I actually thought Mariyah moved better than Anthony in their duet.

Easton is the type of contestant that would have won in previous seasons. The audience loved to vote for contemporary guys with beautiful technique that are good enough in other styles like hip hop. This season, I think Madison should win. I just hope that her injury doesn't get worse. Dakayla really danced for her life. She probably would have been out after the brand challenge. Her raw emotions came through with her solo and it was powerful. Based on the ending solos, Easton was the right one to go. Also except for last night's group number, his face showed how overwhelmed he was with hip hop and jazz funk. He's beautiful in contemporary or a Classical musical number like the trio that Chris Scott choreographed. I like the challenges. Next year, I hope they can get Derek to choreograph a fusion ballroom/jazz number as if they were auditioning for one of his shows. We need some ballroom back.

Madison is my favorite too. Easton is technically good but his expressions are not real. He reminds me of other competition dancers that do fake angsty facials or other expressions. I liked Mariyah's solo more this week than last. She has more unique moves in comparison to Easton.

I believe they are. It's been one of the two choreographers that they have for the smaller groups. It's been Luther, Al Blackstone, and I think the last one was Chris Scott. I'm not sure about Chris for this week. I noticed that this season seems like they wanted more commercial dancers. Avery, Braylon, and Olivia were more Classical/Contemporary or Broadway. I think Make will help Roman.

It would have been better with a big audience. They create so much energy. This year, I would feel gypped as an audience member.