kitcloudkicker

Something like about Riker so far always reminds me of this. But it might just be the hair. I caught the very tail end of that rehearsal - is Allison always that easily distracted? The amount of dancing vs. standing around talking about lots of random other things tipped very towards the latter.

I only caught a bit of their rehearsal, but it was the part where Val was trying to coach her into a look that's not "fierce" and "strong," which I think might be her biggest challenge? I only know her from coming across pictures of her and a little bit from catching her on Janel's instagram, and she seems to drop into "fierce and strong" as her default, which has the danger of coming across as standoffish if it's the only face she gives. (I've seen many a celebrity dismissed by online fans for their "resting bitch face"). It was interesting to see Val pick up on that immediately and start coaching her on presenting as more inviting. In terms of ability I think she's definitely a contender - I have her in my preseason prediction for the finals for sure. The aerial work and theater work set her up well, and I think she has the ability to bring sexy smolder with Val on the dance floor without it seeming like a forced showmance off the dance floor.

Okay, I'm just going to say it, I get real uncomfortable about how Amy and now Noah seem to get treated by certain fans of this show. No they shouldn't be pandered to, but they shouldn't be dismissed either - and being able to execute a dance is more than being able to roll through the ball of your foot or hold your arm in a frame. And Noah's been on the cover of Men's Health and seems to be gaining traction as a motivational speaker - that's plenty a resume to "deserve" to be on this show.

A few months ago, a coworker and I were watching this video of the dance from Party Rock Anthem overlaid with the Cantina Band song from Star Wars, and realized that Redfoo & Co in LFMAO were basically just doing a Charleston. I'm kind of interested in how he'll do in this, I think he might be secret good!

I'm not off the bat that worried about Willow - yes she's very young, and yes Mark does seem to be getting typecast, but unless she's very conservative like Sadie/Candace and I don't know about it, there's no reason why the latin dances have to be that weird. There's a video floating around of (troupe member) Brittany Cherry and Derek dancing a rhumba when she was 15 and he would have been...25/26? And it doesn't feel uncomfortable. If she's open and Mark is good about handling it - which he's shown he can be, could be fine. I mean, he probably started working with Witney when she was that age, right? I don't know anything about her outside her Hunger Games role though. Witney's partner wasn't "officially" announced, but she's with the current Bachelor. Tom was very unsubtle about that, for some roses (I mean reason!)

Rumer is also in with Janel's theater crew, so she's got some stage style singing and dancing under her belt. I know there's a little bit of "My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw that Janel unfollowed Val on Instagram (I hear it's pretty serious)" drama going on with Janel/Val, but I don't think that's the worst partnership for him. Even if there is weirdness there I'm sure they all can be professional, and I could see Rumer fitting in with Val's style. (Or potentially butting heads, but that's the fun, right?)

Hey, I get it, it's like being a Yankees fan. I'm not going to try and convince anyone else to like him if they don't. Just saying, not going to deny that I like his work. And comparing "ringeryness" of contestants, current, past, future, hypothetical, gets way tedious, so I'm not going jump in to that. When I heard the pair, my reaction was "Ooh, I like it, looking forward to seeing those dances." And that's as far as I'll go into. I also don't think there's any obvious dead weight in this cast, at least not as bad as other seasons.

Yeah, the unpopular opinion is that I'm a fan of the pairing ;) I think he does really well with driven, competitive, strong women, and I like watching those partnerships. What can I say, I'm a fan. I like his work, how he approaches the show, and how he treats his partners. She says no, but I think if you watch her floor routines, she seems to have some natural rhythm. She always was billed as the more graceful gymnast while Shawn and Aly were more powerhouses. But I'm excited to see!

Putting the list here, for those who didn't watch the announcement and had to google for it (like me) Rumer Willis & Val Redfoo & Emma Patti Labelle & Artem Riker Lynch & Allison Charlotte McKinney & Keo Michael Sam & Peta Willow Shields & Mark Noah Galloway & Sharna Suzanne Somers & Tony Robert Herjavec & Kym Nastia Luiken & Derek Chris Soules & Whitney I know I'm in the minority here, but eeeeeeeeee! Love Nastia, and I love the idea of her with Derek. Also excited to see Noah and Sharna, and Michael Sam and Peta.

Amy was featured in a prime spot (right after kickoff) Superbowl ad this weekend - it's rather lovely even though it really has nothing to do with a Camery. Including several shots of her dancing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjUfygo5mzw It was nice to see her get lots of twitter love from the Dancing with the Stars cast.

I tend to give the same sort of benefit of the doubt to reports of "pissed off" reactions to not winning that I do to RBF'd contestants. Unless they're actually giving interviews about how they're so mad, or posting crap on twitter, there's a lot of layers of interpretation between how they acted and how everyone "feels" like they are reacting. They also just got out of a pressure cooker of an intense experience, they're exhausted, they're competitive people, and of course they wanted to win. I don't mind if they're a little bummed, as long as they can hold it together, say the right thing and act like a grown up about it. And then hopefully get a little perspective once they get a little removed from the situation. Since I didn't hear of any temper tantrums about the results I'm inclined to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I do think Anna misspoke when she said "Mark and Derek" were mad, because she then launched into stories about Mark and Val being angry, which didn't follow from her first sentence. And if the Derek who was laughing and singing made-up showtunes with Bethany during the Monday night press line was super pissed, then man, that guy is good at compartmentalizing. I don't think so, I think probably was just that Twitch seems so universally well-liked, and he's also a bit on the rise lately (booking a job in the Magic Mike sequel) that they were just excited to have him. It'd definitely be a weird career move for him to try to be a pro.

Essence Atkins. She's had small parts in a lot of things, I know her from episodes of Smart Guy I'd end up watching on the Disney Channel when I was babysitting in the late 90s/early 2000s.

Huh, I really liked Janel's fusion - better than her Monday dances actually, and that included the music. I liked the drama of it.

Or they ran the encore voting off of twitter, where she has a large and motivated fanbase, who was upset that she got eliminated and who's more likely to tweet than vote? Hmmm...which makes more sense? I like the giving of the encore to the fourth place, actually. I liked when it worked out for James as well and I didn't even like James.

I think we can all agree that the real winner here is me, who predicted that finishing order WEEKS ago. (I keeed, I keeed.) Yay Alfonso! All is as it should be. (When Tony and Keo kept bouncing him around my brain was going, "Careful! His back!!!")

I wouldn't go down that rabbit hole if I were you. If you listen to "people on the internet," Sadie was given the Duck Dynasty dance to tank her chances because it was her best dance so she'd be less likely to show improvement, but also it was unfair and to prop her up because it was her best dance while others needed to show improvement on their dances. Also Janel got the samba as a conspiracy to make her win but also to make her lose, and Bethany and Alfonso had to add 30 second to their dances so that clearly was set up to make them lose because they had to learn more choreography but also it was set up to make them win because they got to show the audience something new. And the entire show is run by Maks' Ukranian Mafia so that Val can win but at the same time Derek and Mark also run the show, oh, and also Witney has a secret unrequited crush on Alfonso. (I stumbled across a youtube video - you don't want to know.)

My concern for a Janel romantic contemporary freestyle is that it might be hard to top their Romeo and Juliet contemporary, which I thought was awesome. But then, it does play to her strengths, so if Val can pull off something different enough it could be great. My concern with the Super Mario theme is theme is I don't quite see what it has to do with Sadie. A fun, high energy dance seems right for her, but if it's just a "cool idea" that's been kicking around Marks head it might come off disconnected. But I'm hopeful it leans more towards very cool, rather than hot mess. Derek's choice seems to fit for Bethany for me, I've liked her more intense/passionate dances the best (the paso, the Argentine tango) so a cinematic dramatization of her building an army of Motavators might be cool. Especially since her jive is on the fun/goofy end of things, so it's a variation in tone. And Alfonso's seems like it's going to pay off in being as fun and awesome as I want. I think he's going to push through the injury (from interviews it he seems like he will even if he shouldn't.) I do like that all four seem to be hitting different tones/moods, which feels right and usually makes it more entertaining. I actually like the contemporary freestyles, but if that's all there is it gets dull. There's a nice variety here, I think.

I've seen rumors that it's to the theme song from Super Mario Brothers. Sounds like it could be... interesting. (What do we think, Mario and Luigi or Mario and Peach?)

Yep, one person gets eliminated Monday, and voting opens Monday night on the final 3 to determine the winner. Votes from last Monday determine who that eliminated person is.

Here's some video from rehearsals. I'm guessing no Janel and Val because she's been filming all week and hasn't been in the rehearsal studio. http://okmagazine.com/videos/dancing-with-the-stars-season-19-finale-rehearsal/

It sounds like they are straight up just reworking the dances, not doing new dances in the old style like they did last year? Derek mentioned in his blog that they "added 30 seconds and refined and reworked some sections" which makes it sound like they're just going to polish up the Taylor Swift dance? Have they done it that way before?

A bit of a preview video on the dwts instagram, if you're spoiler inclined http://instagram.com/p/vrnCRlj0Qe/

It's a heavily flashback centered show, in terms of structure. One of the main characters was entirely in flashbacks up until this year. (When it turned out she wasn't dead after all.) The fact that she'd be still on the show wouldn't have been a surprise to Janel, from my understanding that it was a plan she'd be a continuing character from when the character was killed. I think there was a body though? But it's one of those shows where that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

What I assume is that the PLL filming schedule wasn't necessarily set in stone at the beginning of the season, and there wasn't really a way to know for sure the extent of the potential conflict when she signed on. It's a bummer that this week of all weeks presents such a conflict - it must suck to not be able to invest fully, especially right at the end. I haven't always loved all her dances, but I think you can see she works really hard and wants this.

Yeah, I've only stumbled across it on youtube when fans screen record it and post it - but the access is spotty. It tends to be Derek fans with the occasional Val fans who are the most into it, unless I just haven't found the other ones. But here's a sample from Bethany's samba. (Her cohost is way annoying).