katha

Yeah, I think Val's been good about giving Victoria stuff she can handle and where she looks decent performing it. I don't expect that to change now in the trio. The show also hasn't been too bad about her story and hasn't completely reduced her to tearjerker material. I've enjoyed Victoria as a contestant well enough and I think their partnership works. Where it gets spotty again is the judging IMO. She's perhaps a bit overscored, but nothing too bad. It's the comparison between her scores and those of stronger dancers where it gets dicey IMO. But we have that discussion about loads of middling contestants who get far, so I don't know the solution here tbh. I think Drew is overscored in a similar way, perhaps it's just the way they don't have the courage to give lower marks in the later half of the season.

I think the promo approach is interesting this time around. She's built her brand so strongly on being relatable and making her fans feel like she shares her diary entries with them. How do you totally switch gears to "mystique" all of a sudden? While I agree that the songs so far aren't very convincing, how the image part will shake out is just as curious. I'm not sure how it will pan out for her. Going colder might work for an artist like Madonna, who never pretended to be anyone's best friend. But so far , Taylor sold herself very differently.

I really, really agree with this. And this is shown as one of the main problem areas in Rory's life. It basically happens with almost everybody (perhaps excepting Lane...and interestingly Luke, where I do think it might actually be grounded in him somewhat recognizing this about her and going out of his way not to force her hand in anything): She gets steamrolled by Lorelai, her grandparents, Paris, all her boyfriends, you name it. She's incapbale of arguments and conflict. She often enough doesn't voice an opinion at all. Then she grows resentful that she's agreed to things she actually doesn't want to do and becomes passive aggressive about it all. That's also one main reason I think she wouldn't work at all with Jess. He is so strong-willed, and in his worse moments rather rigid about it as well, it would lead to endless frustration between them. Either she'd get steamrolled as usual and react in her usual passive aggressive ways. Or Jess would have to hold back to a degree that would be super stifling for his personality, which would end in frustration as well.

In the context of this show, Frankie's acting abilities are impressive. This week showed that again. At the same time, he often enough skates by with mediocre dancing because he nails performance. So I can understand the frustration that comes with that. Plus, contemporary is usually ridiculously overscored on this show, so of course he got full points for barely any dancing. OTOH, his performance was the only genuinely creepy one. The discrepancy in the group scores bugs me because I suspect they're trying to protect someone with that. No way in hell was the one dance six points better. Victoria? Drew? The other side of that might be that someone like Lindsey is a "shocking elimination" through no fault of her own because the producers decided to manipulate the scoring in favour of...someone, some form of desired outcome. Ugh.

I thought Mark got assigned a really crappy concept and a very, very difficult song and turned it into gold. That could have gone so wrong, but it didn't. Lindsey really performed the hell out of it as well. Great stuff! Jordan was good, but once again I thought he was hampered by Lindsay's choice of wardrobe. Why make yourself the sole center of attention, then turn down the lights and dress him in dark colours? To make sure he's not seen at all? He's a great dancer, you don't have to hide him. I really don't get her costume choices sometimes. Nikki was good, Artem has got her improving now. The song was nice, the costumes and set-up were pretty, the choreo was good. She's still tentative and in her head, but it was a lot better now. She was pretty decent last week as well, so it's going in the right direction for her. Vanessa's QS was nice, I thought. And she wasn't bothered by the costume snafu, so good for her. I also thought it was well done choreo and for once the use of troupe actually made sense in the context of the theme and song they were assigned.

I agree on the difference between Nikki and Nancy. Nikki may be younger and more athletic, but she isn't musical, doesn't have a performance background and isn't a natural at grasping performance or the coordination of movement needed for dancing. All of which Nancy had, she knew how to present dances. Nikki comes across as tentative and in her head in the dances, no matter how self-confident she's outside of performances. Which might not be only a bad thing, since it means she's self-aware enough to know that it doesn't come easy to her. Agree that Artem's work for Nancy was stronger, but again, she was also IMO a much more capable partner. With Nikki, I suspect he's struggling to give her something she can pull off half way convincingly. And he probably needs to spend a lot more time teaching her movement and performance aspects than he did with Nancy, that also eats up hours. Though I thought that this week's dance was good, perhaps she's improved enough by now that the dances will get better as well?

I'm really torn on Frankie. Yeah, he's overscored. But I agree with the observation that he acts his dances very well and that is a skillset in itself. I also can't remember any contestant being so strong in that aspect and covering all sorts of flaws with it. It's super interesting and shows how good he is at his day job. He's the best performer around IMO, better than both Jordan (who has charisma, but is a bit one-note) and Lindsey (who has this awkward kindergarten teacher vibe, it's getting better now with Mark's teaching and clever dances...but still). He's just not the best dancer. Mark's been doing super with Lindsey, she's someone who would get totally lost in the shuffle with a weaker pro IMO. No matter her skills. She's not very charismatic on her own. Mark's been catering to her strengths and you also see how great he is at the basics. He can do all sorts of extras, but the reason he can pull off the extras is because he can teach and choreograph at a very high level (which is something that was totally missing with Allison, for example, who wasn't ballroom-trained and IMO usually couldn't pull off her "edgy" things because she didn't have a solid foundation). The foxtrot was gorgeous. The jive a few weeks back was brilliant as well. But Mark's jives usually are. Val is doing great with Victoria as well IMO. Her scores are what they are, whatever. But he's been smart about pushing her as far as she can handle, then packaging her in the most flattering way possible. The jazz wasn't super complicated and probably overscored (but jazz is usually overscored, the judges don't know what to do with that genre...same goes for contemporary), but I found it cute and entertaining and Victoria could perform it well. Val and Disney is such a curious thing anyway. He obviously doesn't give a damn about the whole thing, yet usually produces some of the strongest routines whenever it's a theme LOL. I can't help but wonder if Sasha would have lasted longer with a stronger pro. Gleb didn't seem to know what to do with her. He did good with Adelina Sotnikova in Russia, so far this hasn't translated to the US version of the show IMO.

Rewatched the dances. And no, it isn't a big deal. But Frankie's dance wasn't a 9, compared to what the others got. There was some cha-cha content, but not all that much. And what was there IMO wasn't executed that well. He's got theses permanently hunched shoulders and weird stuff going on with his upper body. What he did have, though, is an actor's ability to sell performance. Which is somewhat different from Jordan's charisma, I think. Frankie is able to get the attitude of the dance right and convince you he's better than he is. Just like "playing handsome" is a thing, "playing dancer" is also a thing. I think that's actually super interesting and it shows that he's a really good actor (which IMO he is). And it deserves to be rewarded, it would be cooler if the judges weren't totally dazzled by it, of course. He probably deserved a mix of 7s and 8s for his dance. 7s for the dancing, 8s for the performance aspect.

The article is well written and clearly explains that the decision to disqualify her was controversial. Nowhere does it state that she faked it or that she's somehow pretending when it comes to the problems with her legs. The ICP got hung up on the fact that her state wouldn't be permanent and that she'd get better with time. And she has gotten better with time. So I fail to see where the scandal is? The rumba this week also made it bleedingly obvious that her range of motion is severely limited. Val tried to be nice about it and tried to cover for her. But IMO it was very clear that the rumba looked like it looked because she couldn't do much else. Being able to use your legs and walk is not the same as doing the more complex movements necessary in all kinds of dancing.

Val shouldn't have reacted to Len's comments like that and he shouldn't have been annoying on SM about it (not that I have much hope of that ever changing). The pros in general should just let various random stuff that Len says go, it never helps to argue. Though I will say it was pretty obvious what was going on and it should have been pretty obvious to Len as well: It didn't seem like Victoria was able to do all the required movements physically and she seemed uncomfortable with the rumba in general (which you saw in her blank face throughout). Val probably didn't want to risk injury and he didn't want to overstep her boundaries on performance. Which is why he went the reduced contempo route. It wasn't great, she got the appropriate scores for it. Whatever. It's nice that he didn't want to throw her under the bus, but then just say you liked the dance and it's fine if Len disagrees. Oh well. The pros do this again and again and fall for Len's traps.

Jordan was expectedly good. I'm repeating myself, but he's just on another level than everybody else. He has body control that none of the others can match, for obvious reasons. Lindsey was entertaining today as well, if slightly gangly and awkward. Relieved to see that Mark delivered strong choreography again, I was a bit concerned after that lackluster quickstep. Getting her limbs under control is where I see potential for growth with Lindsey. Vanessa was cool once again, and I was pleased to see that the nonsense at the beginning was toned down. Now, if Maks could focus just on choreography, that would be lovely. Because every performance so far, once they start dancing, it's all good. The side by side portion was really strong, I thought. Also thought that she was better today than yesterday, but got slightly better scores for her foxtrot. The judges are just weird and inconsistent. Frankie is a pleasant surprise. Debbie wasn't the worst dancer left, but she faded into the background. She hasn't much fanbase, neither has Alan. That's what happens. About the ringer thing: I think it's a bit complicated? Because, by and large, there have been more female "ringers" (or at least female contestants with some form of relevant experience) throughout the years. So of course some of them made it far and/or won. Male ringers tend to stay around for a long time (whereas there's no guarantee of that with the women), but they don't necessarily win. I think there's sexism present in some of the general audience's reaction to all sorts of female celebs on the show. But being a ringer is one aspect, not necessarily always the most important one there. Heather, for example, was cool and introverted. That doesn't go over so well. Obvious displays of self-confidence, asserting yourself, being perceived as aggressive...yeah, no. Nastia became an instant DWTS legend for telling TPTB to shove it. But she had the deadly combination of being introverted, self-confident and strong-willed. Also Russian, they like to "play around" with various xenophobic stereotypes in these packages as well (all the Eastern European pros have had to deal with that BS throughout the years). Frankie didn't deserve that 9 and perhaps it's true that there's a willingness to reward "charming males" for trying and being better than expected. While female contestants have to be good, and even that often isn't enough. And yeah, perhaps Jordan's personality structure wouldn't play so well with a woman. You'd have the same calls of "try-hard, arrogant, cocky, thinks she's the greatest" that usually come in such a situation. But it is what it is, the show's been on for so long, it won't suddenly change for the better in its old age. (-;

Well, that wasn't so bad? Perhaps the second night will bring the trainwrecks caused by lack of practice time? The ringer debate is tiresome and I've always liked good dancing on the show, so I don't mind people with experience. But yeah, at this point it's pretty darn obvious that Jordan is a professional dancer and the other contestants are...not. Getting dance lessons for your stage show/music videos (Lindsey) or getting dance lessons to go with other performance training (I'm sure many of the actors fall into that category) is not the same as being a trained stage performer. Jordan is a trained stage performer. Not at ballroom dancing, but still. His quality of movement is just vastly superior to everyone else's. He's so smooth, really lovely to watch. As for who "deserves" to win. Who cares. As if this show ever was a real competition. He'll deliver good dancing, so that's cool. Victoria was really good. She will probably do better with the dances in hold, where Val can better control her movements. But I'm sure she'll improve overall and I'm looking forward to watching her progress. Once again, Vanessa had an annoying gimmick at the beginning of her dance that then sequenced into very nice foxtrot choreography. And a pretty dress. Maks should just stop with all the outside stuff and stick to the bare bones of the dances. He's good at those. Whenever he tries "story", the outcome can get dicey. Nick is clearly weaker than his wife. Frankie is sweet, and good to see Witney really into it again. Oh, and I love most things Mark, but that wasn't one of his better efforts. The costumes were pretty, the choreography was okay, but he's done better quicksteps. The ones with Shawn, Chelsea, Katherine, Paige were really memorable, this was...nice. Also, Lindsey might have a problem going forward because IMO she's not very charismatic outside her music performer persona. And she also doesn't quite know how to translate it into dance performances without a violin yet. In her packages she's nice and perky, but I can't see a grand narrative for her and she's not a very loud personality. Someone here said she reminds them of a kindergarten teacher and...yeah. That's kinda her vibe. There's nothing wrong with that, but she'll need to be careful that she doesn't fade into the background.

I found Jordan slightly annoying in his package tbh. But not because he came across as cocky or anything, IMO he came across as a rather typical way overeager theater kid. Anne Hathaway was murdered by the media for that sort of behaviour. But it's no big deal for a man. It's no big deal for me either, I'll just know to focus on his awesome dancing and fast forward through everything else from now on LOL. I thought his tango was fabulous (so difficult to get right in the first week!), but I wish Lindsay had chosen different costumes. But then, I often wish that with her. Rewatching the dances, what you also saw is that Jordan is a professional performer while Lindsey is a professional musician who performs as part of her show act IMO. And that she usually has her violin as a defense shield when she's on stage. She was great, but there are moments when she visibly concentrates on the steps, then she remembers to perform towards the audience etc. She also has a tendency to throw her limbs around a bit, at least it looks like that. So in the context of the show she's a ringer, but IMO you saw that she's not a professional dancer. Rather someone who has had training for her shows and videos. Jordan was super smooth in comparison. Seamless. As for Victoria and Val: I don't think the problem will be with those two at all. Victoria seems to know herself and what she can and can't do. Val is a good teacher and he'll push her as far as she can handle. If there's danger that she could injure herself or jeopardize her recovery, I trust the two of them to handle this responsibly. So of course she won't be as good as the ringers. It's also okay if they score her in the context of her abilities, because they score everybody else in these vague terms as well. Where it might get dicey is if the scores get disproportionally high compared to the others (which IMO happened with Noah to some degree) and if they try to reduce her to a sob story. Which...might happen, since neither the judges nor the show are known for their subtlety and good judgement. That would be a shame since Victoria seems cool and certainly doesn't deserve that kind of patronizing nonsense.

I thought that was pleasant. (-: Jordan was good as expected. Lindsey as well. It was great to see Mark have the chance for choreographing a more difficult cha-cha. He does cool cha-chas, IMO this one was no exception. They can stop with the marrieds and the babies right now. Though I will give the four a bit of a pass for now, since I'm sure the show is pushing them to say that all the time. But it's enough now. Vanessa was surprisingly good and she seems a good match personality-wise with Maks. She's a bit loud and annoying and OTT, so is he. They seem to have a good rapport and no one will overwhelm the other. Also, feared the worst for that dance after the corny beginning, but then the choreo was nice. Nikki was pretty decent, I hope she doesn't have the "way too confident, we just don't like her for no reason" reaction from the audience self-assured female contestants often get. Artem doesn't look terrible with the bleach blond hair. Huh. Frankie wasn't bad either, he might endear himself with his shyness. Victoria was solid for the first week as well, and better than some of the contestants who didn't come in with her limitations. The score wasn't outrageous either, so I'm OK with all of that so far. The question will be how much she can improve. Val had her pretty tightly controlled, but it's the first week, no one knows what she can manage in rehearsal. So I thought it was perfectly legitimate for a start, the goal will probably be to expand beyond that. Val's a very strong teacher, I'm reasonably optimistic that he'll figure something out. And I thought both Vanessa/Maks and Lindsey/Mark were best dressed. Except for Mark's hair. OTOH, he's had worse, so I won't complain too loudly. (-;

I think this cast seems really pleasant for the most part. (-: At least so far no one stands out as really poisonous, that's something. And I will say this: I thought Keo wasn't ready the first time around and should have started in the troupe. But he was great with Charo, not everyone would have been good-natured enough to make it a pleasant experience for everyone involved. He pulled it off. And he and Barbara come across rather well so far as well.

Agree that that some of Chelsea's dances belong among the best Mark has produced for this show. He was rightly nominated for an Emmy that season. And I think they were a good pairing in general. But Mark's attitude that season wasn't so awesome. Like, I can understand why it happened (you have a breakthrough as a choreographer and are producing some of the best stuff of your career so far....and the judges are bashing you for it in front of millions of viewers every week, while praising you for your brilliance in private. It has to be super frustrating. Derek has told similar stories.), but it sure was annoying to watch. And that freestyle is perhaps the worst thing he's ever done on DWTS IMO, such a self-indulgent mess. What all of that did for Chelsea, I'm not sure. Yeah, she was the best dancer. But when was that ever relevant? I have the suspicion that with another pro perhaps she would have faded into the background as just another Disney kid, pleasant but generic? So Mark might have turned some viewers off her, but otoh he also made her memorable and she was a stand-out performance every week. Here we are, years later still talking about it. (-; I'm excited what they'll produce together with Lindsey. Hopefully they won't push the "edgy" narrative too hard. If Mark never says "out of the box" ever again, I wouldn't mind. (-;

I still say they missed the plot on Colin Farrell. He was brilliant IMO. The first genuinely scary HP villain since Umbridge. What do they do? Blow it up in smoke for a cheap "twist". Whatever. As for Newt, I had some issues with Redmayne's performance choices, but some of that is the script IMO. Or perhaps the realization of the script. There was an attempt to make some of the scarier aspects of the character into funny or cutesy little bits. But that only resulted in flattening him and making him less interesting. Stuff like his recklessness and irresponsibility (how much damage has that broken suitcase caused throughout the world?), or his stubborn, single-minded focus on his animals, or the botched attempt to "save" the girl with the obscurus. That's intriguing, if a bit gray, character groundwork. But none of that was a focus. So I can understand why some critics found the character bland. Something like that is unusual and it can work, but IMO it needs to be done better than in Fantastic Beasts.

Yay that Mark is back! I think at his best he's brilliant and something was really missing without him on the show. Sometimes it all ends with trainwrecks, but he's one of the few who dares to take risks and tries genuinely new things. Also, IMO he's always come across (even in his worst phases) as one of the kindest teachers. Well...he was obviously irritated by the PenaVegas, but he probably wasn't the only one... I actually thought that Keo visibly improved last season. He did a creditable job with a difficult partner. He got on with her quite well, he gave her things where she could ham it up and which weren't too focused on technique. The problem here is that they shoved a newbie with, it seems, zero teaching experience right into a pro spot. He should have started out in troupe. IMO his stint in the troupe visibly helped him last season. Also don't agree that Maks is a bad choreographer. IMO the best dance last season was Heather's rumba. Barely any of the pros can do good rumbas on this show, it's all either try-hard or wannabe contemporary. The one he did with her was pitch perfect. And it doesn't matter that she's a ringer, there have been plenty of ringers who produced blah rumbas on this show. The problem with Maks is that he's so ridiculously uneven. The week before the rumba he did that...thing...with Frozen. It was atrocious. Just ghastly. And it's been like that pretty much his whole DWTS career: Great stuff...then next week nonsense. No rhyme or reason to it. As for Sasha. Yeah, he's short. It's a problem when it comes to finding partners for him. Pros like Artem or Mark don't seem super tall either, but they can be paired with "average height" female celebs. I feel that for Sasha, you have to find him a tiny celeb. And having a ringer is tough. Many pros who have one for the first time seem to crack a bit under the pressure. IMO Sharna showed her inexperience with Charlie White. Keo struggled a bit with Jodie. And so on. Simone also came right after Laurie, it wasn't the greatest timing for her. Glad that Artem made the cut. She went way too early, but Nancy was great and compared to Sasha IMO Artem's work with her was more impressive. They gave him someone capable, but with some limitations. He worked to all Nancy's strengths and tailored stuff for her that suited her, challenged her, but didn't overwhelm her. It was a good season for him. He wasn't on my radar at all before, now I'm curious to see what he'll do this time around. On the female side, I'm curious what Witney will show. She's been really fading away since her winning season and it's a shame. Perhaps she'll find new motivation and shine. Also glad that Cheryl is back.

I hope Craig goes out with a great movie, Casino Royale and Skyfall were such strong offerings. Perhaps a new director and set-up will work out well. He's really helped out the franchise when it was in a rut and IMO made it workable in a modern setting, when for me it hadn't been for a long time. He's getting rave reviews now for Logan Lucky, giving him material where he can stretch his acting muscles might be good... IMO about the only things worthwhile in Solace were his and Kurylenko's performances. And I'd agree that there were stretches where he was clearly phoning it in in Spectre, but he was surprisingly funny in a deadpan sort of way in bits there. There's a moment right at the beginning where he's just destroyed half a city....again...and he's sitting on a sofa amidst the ruins and has such a resigned look on his face....it's hilarious and all made so with his perfect timing. And yeah, getting in shape for that stuff at his age must be hell. Sure, he gets tons of money. But then, he's also made the franchise tons of money. And now they have more time to find the next one, since they don't seem quite sure where they want to take it after Craig. One aspect that's running through the Craig movies and IMO has become an interesting bit of characterization is that joke where the Ms, Q, Moneypenny, Vesper, you name it call him a brute and dumb muscle and Bond kinda sorta agrees all "yes, yes, you're right, nothing to see here". Then he goes off on his own, disregards all orders he doesn't like, temporarily gets chased as a traitor, then saves the day with all his rule breaking and insubordination. But somehow keeps the fiction in everyone's heads going that he's a "blunt instrument" who likes to follow orders. It's a neat commentary on which kind of intelligence is acknowledged and which isn't IMO. Bond's brilliant. But he's mostly brilliant in practical ways and in making quick decisions in high pressure situations, all tied to physical activity. So everyone around him forgets that he could kick their ass with his mental capabilities as well and he's having fun playing to their prejudices. That's one of many neat touches Craig has brought to the character IMO.

I thought it was interesting that the first movie kinda backed out of the fairytale aspect of it a bit, though. Which was one element I liked about it. It was acknowledged that both Carrie and Big had a lot of baggage and their relationship wasn't always the healthiest, which resulted in overdramatic wedding dramz, sure, but it felt vaguely true to the characters. So, when they got together at the end, I personally thought it felt a bit more "earned" than after the sixth season. At least both of them put in a bit of thinking about why that mess happened, how they feel about it all, how they are both responsible etc. They had these overly handy solutions for her problems in this aspect sometimes, but I liked that the show at least somewhat acknowledged that Carrie was in a profession with little job security (which got worse as time went on) and that she couldn't handle money. And flighty behaviour that might have been cute in her twenties, wasn't cute anymore a few years later with everyone around her settling down. And IMO SJP played the growing anxiety and nervousness of the character well, how adrift she became and how she didn't quite know how to plan for her future. But was aware that she needed to do something.

I think Simone is not very engaging as a performer and also not very fluid in her movements and I also think it's mostly tied to all her gymnastics habits. I've also not been convinced by some of Sasha's decision making when it comes to how to present her. In a situation like this the problem becomes the usual sadistic DWTS sledgehammer approach to everything. They recognize something real (Simone having some difficulties in performance) and turn it into melodrama central. Then the celeb and pro have to deal with the exaggeration and laser focus on issues that aren't actually all that bad. And yeah, it's usually done to female conestants. I remember how they dragged Alexa/Mark and Tamar/Val around the block almost every week and gave them weird passive aggressive critiques and weird packages because they decided those were the drama couples. If you're not watching DWTS for the fake soap opera, this aspect of the show is super annoying.

My feeling (based on nothing...) is that Normani is getting lots of votes and so they're throwing support behind her because the show doesn't want to be on voters' wrong side. Also, she's just packaged so well. I just think Val is doing everything, everything right with her. Tied to that, it's understandable that there's Val fatigue now, just like there used to be Derek fatigue. But IMO it's becoming a similar situation because both pros seemed to really develop a sense for how to work the show to their advantage and how to present all their partners in the most advantageous light. Normani's contemporary could have gone so wrong, but it was really affecting IMO. The trio was cheese, since the song was cheese, but at least they had fun with it and were committed to the ridiculousness. Simone and Sasha is sorta the illustration that it's not so easy having a ringer. Yeah, we all roll our eyes when the pros blabber about how much pressure it is. But it is a lot of pressure and it's not easy to get it right. The foxtrot had a lot of content, but it didn't seem that well executed and it came across as generic. The trio was interesting, though. Not a fan of the costumes, but the performance was nice. I suspect they were hard on her to rile people up and get her more votes, it's straight out of the Charlie White/Alexa PenaVega "we're being sadistic to you so you'll survive another week" playbook. I think Emma's choreography has picked up in the last weeks. I still don't find it spectacular, but it's nice and entertaining now. She's probably not used to having people with as much potential as Rashad, so IMO it was a bit slow going in the first few weeks. It's good now, though. David was sorta buried with niceness this week. Scores were middling, judges' comments were middling, he wasn't put in jeopardy. I suspect they're trying to get rid of him, at least that's their standard formula. If it will work is the question, of course. Bonner should have been gone weeks ago, so at least he's gone now.

Yeah, I suspect this is just the reality of the situation. The pros don't do this for fun, this is their job, their employment. And sitting out even one season always brings the risks that the producers will just throw you over for the next hot thing. It doesn't matter how popular you are, everyone can be replaced. Since this is the majority of their yearly earnings, probably, of course they keep on. Also? Val's not getting any younger. He's 30 now, I think? In dancer terms, he doesn't have all that much time anymore. So it makes sense that he earns as much money now while he still can. He's got his skill set as a dance teacher and the dance studios, he won't be destitute after his DWTS career is over. But right now is the time for him to cash in. That's the economic truth behind all the sparkly BS all the pros have to spout on the show. And I don't blame them for spouting all that BS tbh, you see how fickle TPTB are.

I noticed he already took out lifts in the AT, it was a great dance anyway. They have contemporary next week, which also often relies on lifts in this show, but no one says they have to incorporate 50 lifts. So they'll just focus more on dancing, I'm sure it can be done.

I agree with this somewhat, but I think it might be something the pros underestimate if they haven't dealt with it before: Getting a ringer is pressure. And everyone is telling you you're doing it wrong all the time, particularly with social media now, where you get a constant barrage of often nasty comments. Sharna arguably somewhat mismanaged Charlie White because she was rather inexperienced then. Karina IMO has had seasons where she tried too hard when she had someone with potential. I actually think even Derek went a bit crazy in the Shawn season because he wanted to make it Extra!Special! and it turned some people off as try-hard. Val did brilliant with Zendaya until the last two weeks or so IMO, where he seemed to really tighten up and succumb a bit to the pressure of the situation. Val actually really won me over with Laurie last season because I don't think having a teenage gymnast ringer is that easy and you can get a lot wrong, but he seemed to have a clear strategy in place and didn't back down to outside forces or get over-ambitious. Simone is more of a power gymnast, so there's a bit more difficulty to get her fluid in her movements. I think Sasha is feeling the heat of teaching her to dance without the gymnasts mannerisms and it's not so easy and he wants to pack the routines and he wants to bring in the tricks...and sometimes it becomes too much and he gets stressed and it all gets a sheen of desperation. You never know how pairings work out until the season is underway...