katha

Yeah, I get that she was cast as canon fodder and wasn't particularly talented and perhaps also a complainer. She was surely no fave of mine. But if you watched the live rehearsals you saw that Keo's lack of teaching experience also played some part in her struggles and his packaging for her IMO also could have been better. So it did feel like they were throwing her under the bus this week. Hard. Just like the first week package was certainly something the producers put together and sure, Charlotte could have refused to play along, but I think she's aware that she's not well known and doesn't have much standing so perhaps she was going along with it to make nice. Oh well, it's the usual manpulative BS from TPTB. It does smart more when these edits take a mean-spirited turn, though. They all signed up for this nonsense of course, but I personally don't enjoy it that much if they start railroading them.

Well, the judges went in a bit this week. (-; Can't say I disagreed too much with the scores, though. Bruno's comment about Charlotte was uncalled for, glad that Tom threw that right back at him. Liked Noah for the first time, no he can't do as much as the others, but what he did today he did well and Sharna choreographed a great work-around. Liked Riker, but he still seems frantic. Or is that the Allison influence? Rumer was fierce as always and it was cool, but very disco. Not much else Val could do here, though, I guess. Nastia was good as well, but I can see that "connection" might become a bit of a problem for her. And I don't necessarily think that's only on Derek's schedule, she just seems not very open as a person. There's nothing wrong with that, but on a popularity contest it's not ideal. She's got great abilities though and perhaps that aspect can be improved. Thought choreography and music for the paso were great, concept was cool, Mark's costume was borderline. (-; She does lack strengh a bit and it shows in intense dances and I thought it also looked a bit careful due to her injury perhaps? But thought it was pretty well-controlled and precise, no flailing around like it can easily happen in pasos, and she got the performance aspect of it right for the most part. Steadily improving, that one. Michael seems to be getting a bit lost in the shuffle, doesn't he? I thought he did really well in the first week and has been kind of unremarkable this week and the last one as well. Suzanne falls into that category for me as well. Patti again didn't do much. I'm okay with contestants like that staying on as long as the judges don't overscore them. The score for her was right IMO and if the public wants to keep her on they just have to keep voting for her.

Comparisons between Sadie and Willow are relatively pointless, but I'll play because apparently I can't help myself LOL. Sadie was better right out of the gate, she had more confidence, projected bigger, seemed more secure and "grounded". But it didn't seem to me that she had harder content compared to Willow, even in that first week, she just sold it better. Willow doesn't have Sadie's "larger than life" quality (though Sadie didn't have that everywhere, the more serious dances she had to get out of her comfort zone and wasn't as secure). What she does have on Sadie is musicality. That was a problem throughout the season, Sadie getting ahead of the music, looking to Mark to stay on the beat or get back on the beat, Mark making up songs to get her to stay on the music. You can already see that Willow doesn't have that problem. And there was a certain gawkiness with Sadie, and I would disagree with truthaboutluv and argue that it did get better as the season progressed (rumba, foxtrot, quickstep, AT...all of those were pretty well controlled), but yeah, it was there. Willow lacks in strength (being 14 and all), but there was a clear effort to finish her moves, to have correct body placement, point her feet, have proper extensions etc. And what you also saw is that they listened to the judges' critiques in the first week (which were really good and helpful, even if IMO the scores were a bit too low) and worked on that, that wobbliness and daintiness she had in the first week (don't know how to describe it in technical terms) really wasn't such an issue anymore. Well, I mean Redfoo has fanbase, but the kind of fanbase that's got about zero connection to something like DWTS. So he probably has a lot of casual fans who will pick up his next single, but they won't power vote for him on a silly reality show. And he's probably not immediately appealing to the core audience of the show who most likely have no idea who he is. And his dance the first week was pretty bad, it was both bad and forgettable. So I can see how he could be the first elimination.

Yes, almost all the examples cited by Danseur are probably the opposite of what he's referring to. Those were mostly instances where pros openly acknowledged that they brought in help to teach a style (in the case of Shirley Ballas) or to choreograph a style they were not that familiar with. Same with things like Val getting outside help for hip-hop. Or Mark co-choreographing Sadie's freestyle with Misha Gabriel, that's all in the open on his social media. What Louis might mean is that some pros get significant outside help for their dances week in and out (or perhaps don't choreograph at all) and it's never openly stated. But yes, he does seem to enjoy stirring these rumours. And it might be tied to his disappointment of not getting a spot this season, so I don't know...he might be overstating and exaggerating things to get back at the show to some degree. OTOH, wasn't that a problem once with Emmy nominations? Louis, Derek and Mark all got Emmy noms for their work and it was fine (making me assume that they all do their own stuff or acknowledge otherwise...not that that's much of a surprise...). Cheryl was nominated as well once and then it came out that she didn't do Drew's freestyle or something?

I thought not only was the dancing better this week (surprising for week two), but the judging was less screwy as well. Thought Nastia had lovely lines and form, but she is a bit closed off. Perhaps that's something that they can work on in the coming weeks. (I hope Henry gets a nice bonus for being a stand-in in rehearsals when Derek's unavailable). I thought Rumer was not quite as good as last week (though still very good), but that might have been more of an issue with the dance Val created? Agreed with Len (?) that there could have been more cha-cha, and it was very sharp. Their foxtrot last week was already pretty sharp as well. Riker did well, and doing something about the hair situation made him magically more likeable LOL. Willow surprised me, she did well last week and I thought she was a bit underscored, should have been more 7s there. But it was a nice, but still somewhat tentative performance. This week was badass. Clearly she was helped by Mark's great choreography, but still. Really fierce for a 14 year old. And since she's a kid she'll probably learn in the fast tempo kids learn, and she's got Mark, who's an excellent teacher. I think she can really improve tons this season. Exciting! Suzanne was enjoyable and improved, Redfoo was improved (not that it helped him anymore). Patti was awesome and yeah, probably a bit overscored, but I don't think outrageously so and I think it'll continue, might as well get used to it. And she does have a good time, so whatever. Chris was pretty bad. Going first made their scores for him probably even lower, but he was the worst of the lot. Charlotte improved a bit as well, I don't know if she was five points better than him. But she was better. And the perception that he hasn't progressed (like almost everyone else) also probably worked against him with the judges.

I think with Mark it's more that he just grew up and got over the worst of rather typical early twenties "look how edgy I am and how I know better than everybody else" tendencies. And he's always been a very kind, very accomodating teacher. He had the patience of ten saints with Bristol Palin. And that was in the middle of his "sturm and drang" phase. Then he seemed kind of burned out with the show, still trying his best, but a bit tired with it. He's been really engaged and very committed since season 18 again, I think. Or perhaps that's my biased perspective because I became a fan that season, I watched for Meryl and Charlie but was super impressed how he handled a rather challenging partner and how both he and Candace just kept pushing and working at it and never gave up, even though it wasn't smooth and easy.

But I don't think the argument is with people who say "I want flirtation/sexy in my dancing, so Willow's not for me" (though I don't agree that it has to be the essence of all ballroom dancing). It's with a whole other theme that's been making the rounds among some viewers of the show basically the minute Willow was announced as part of the cast. This IMO rather gross and sexist notion that treats teenage girls (and only teenage girls, it never applies to boys) as "forbidden fruit", with the notion that any interaction between a teenage girl and an adult male is potentially suspicious (again, same doesn't apply to teenage boys). And then the "solution" for that is to control the girl and deny her any kind of agency...sorry, "to protect her".

But how would that work out with child labour laws? The pros have an insane workload that most probably can't be done (and shouldn't be done) by someone underage. So that only leaves people over 18. I also think in Willow's specific case, having a teenage pro be her teacher and choreographer could be a recipe for catastrophe. Would they know how to adjust training, how to handle the responsibility and stress of being paired with a 14 year old, how to adjust staging, costumes, choreo? Would they know how to handle the endless mindgames of the show and how to keep the worst of that away from Willow? I think that's a terrible burden on a young, inexperienced pro. What I can perhaps see is a scenario where Mark for example coaches both of them and has a hand in the choreo, then the two teenagers perform it. But that's way out there concept-wise and not really conforming with the premise of the show. I thought she did very well and was a bit underscored. Probably both going first and her age working against her. I would have had her with perhaps 26, 27 points. Would have been more appropriate IMO. I don't think she was worse than Chris or Noah. And she was certainly better than Suzanne, who also got 25. But she's well within the range of most couples score-wise and seems to have a bit of a fanbase. If her teenybopper fans vote for her (I know it's always an if with that particular set), she should probably be all right this week. But what do I know... Also thought Michael was underscored a bit. Robert perhaps a tad overscored? Riker is great, but I'm still not sure what Allison can do. This was right in her high-energy (manic?) wheelhouse, we'll see how she'll fare with different assignments. Nastia was good, as was Rumer. But that was to be expected, I guess. And even though I thought the judging was inconsistent in general, I did appreciate that they stayed away from the 8s mostly and didn't hand out 9s.

Well, many of the other couples are out of town now and apparently they are only capable of filming the rehearsals in one specific room in LA. They didn't really think that through when launching this thing. Willow and Mark are in LA, but I strongly suspect that is also something where the producers didn't do their homework: Stunt casting a 14 year old comes with various restrictions and regulations. Wouldn't surprise me if those livestreams fall under that and we won't be seeing them in those at all.

The thing is: No matter how much you explain that it’s just technique, that rumba doesn’t have to be about "sexy"…within the context of the show it has these connotations and IMO there’s no way to wash that off completely. Same thing with adult teachers dancing with their kid students so they can pass tests etc. Or I guess, this is something that can be explained on the show: Mark is Willow’s teacher and they’ll be dancing together…making things "sexy" or "romantic" is a choreographic choice, and they won’t go there. The judges will not dock points for them not going there. The end. If it’s carefully handled, that might work. I trust Mark to know how to handle it, the show OTOH…jury still out IMO. So far, there’s been some handwringing on social media from fans, but the press in general has been reporting that she’s the show’s youngest competitor, without much judgement on that. And an acknowlegement that Mark has a track record of doing well with young celebs.

Her parents gave permission, so I hope they insisted that rumba for example is off the table in contract negotiations. It wasn't done with Zendaya and she was 16. Now we have new overlords, of course, and they thought casting a 14 year old is a great idea, so who knows... It shouldn't be all that different from Sadie for Mark. She was 17 but the extra restrictions that came with her family kinda threw it into the same territory already IMO, he was constantly working around that. Apart from the rumba and the Argentine tango they forced on him, of course (and he adjusted those as much as he could, too). Which I dearly hope they don't do here. But yeah, it'll be a major handicap. There are just certain characteristics of the dances that probably can't be incorporated. How are they gonna judge that? Are they gonna dock points for that? He's also mild and patient with young celebs, or generally with celebs who seem a bit overwhelmed with the experience. So I understand why he's their go-to guy for that type, but it wasn't necessary to take it to such extremes. It's a very tough assignment and a lot to ask of him IMO. Really side-eyeing the producers here.

Well. I know he'll have a crazy schedule, but Nastia and Derek look good for the win already, don't they? Would agree that the cast is pretty well known for DWTS standards, they seemed to have really applied themselves to get people a bit "above" their usual standard across the board. Emma gets at least a different kind of celebrity with Redfoo, so that's nice. Rumer and Val could be good dance-wise, I can't really predict what sort of fanbase she'll have, though. Noah and Sharna should be cool. Agree that Willow is too young. But I don't think "sexy dancing" will be a problem. Except for the adjusted versions of rumba and AT (and there won't be any rumbas and ATs with Willow. At least I hope the producers have that much common sense...though they've surprised me in negative ways numerous times), there wasn't any of that with Sadie either. So Mark will probably go for the "dancing buddies" approach full-time, what else is he gonna do? Where I think a major problem comes in and where TPTB can't be trusted at all is the ugly, manipulative reality tv aspect of the show. They'll always go for the cheap melodrama and fake conflict and they won't have any mercy on Willow either. They didn't have any on Sadie and IMO you saw that it was getting to her to a degree. It's a lot of stress for someone so young, no matter how poised and no matter that she has experience in show business. But once they made the (IMO ill-judged) decision to cast her, their best option is Mark. They don't really have much younger male pros (and Keo is probably too tall for her and also inexperienced) and since she's so very young, pairing her with a 20 year old wouldn't make the situation any better anyway. And giving her to a young, inexperienced pro wouldn't be a good idea anyway since there's no way to know if he could adjust teaching and choreo as needed for her. Mark at this point has proven that he has the skill and judgement to perhaps make this work. I'm sure she's nice and she'll probably have some skill and be a good worker, but it's still a lot to ask of him IMO. A major, major challenge. And bad judgement on TPTB's part. But what else is new...

I don't know that someone like Roseanne has to be a chore for her pro. If she comes in with a good attitude and is willing to work (and with what she's achieved in her career, there is certainly a fierce work ethic), she could be a hoot. And if she has a bit of talent and showmanship, perhaps she'll even make it quite far into the competition. You just never know how the celebs will react to the show environment.

I think the comparison to Mark is apt and they tried to draw parallels a few times last season. That’s what they were going for with her IMO: someone who did memorable, a bit crazy stuff which also got a bit of a smackdown from the judges from time to time to create headlines and controversy for the show. Problem is: They fundamentally misunderstood what it is that Mark Ballas does and why it works for him on the show (most of the time). Mark knows how to dance, teach and choreograph ballroom and latin. He’s had hardcore training at this stuff since childhood and as I understood it had won a bit on the competition circuit as a very young dancer before coming to DWTS because that’s where you can make a whole lot more money and get a whole lot more exposure. So even most of the wacky stuff Mark does, it’s grounded in knowing how to teach and choreo the basics of the dances. Yeah, it’s a samba with duck movements, but basic samba steps are in there. You can argue that he likes to distort and deconstruct the fundamentals too much (that’s where Len’s problem with him comes in IMO), but the basis for that is knowing the fundamental elements by heart. So he has a solid foundation and then starts freestyling around that. Allison just wanted to skip that. She just wanted to do the freestyle part and then throw in a bit of faking the dance style. It doesn’t work like that, at least not when you’re teaching beginners who need some sort of baseline of technique established first. I really hope that she won’t do that this time around and has seriously studied latin, ballroom and how to teach it to beginners in the last few months.

Well, apart from Allison all the other pros have a proven track record and have shown that they know what they're doing when it comes to this show. So no complaints from me on that front. Agree with the reservations about Allison, IMO she didn't serve Jonathan that well. Hope she really brushed up on teaching latin and ballroom. I know she's made a name for herself as a contemporary dancer, she's got an Emmy nom and a bit of a fanbase, so asking her back probably is also tied to that. We'll see. I think Keo deserves another shot, they gave him a bad partner the first time around. There was no way to determine what he's capable of, all you saw is that he's clearly inexperienced in handling a "difficult" partner. Most would be in their first season. They'll probably also announce one "old" male pro since it's the anniversary.

I wonder if some of that is tied to the way social media works now? I mean, the showmance has been a tried and true staple of DWTS since the beginning. But now they all have twitter and instagram and facebook, where there's the possibility to comment on everything they post. Most of the time it's probably a good thing for celebs, since they can keep in touch with fans, do their PR stuff in a more direct way etc. It may also create a feeling of "knowing" the celeb, of being entitled to things, at least for over-invested fans. And since Val was this season's showmance, he's got the disgruntled shippers now pestering him. It's made worse by the fact that apparently he and Janel aren't on good terms anymore. The way some of them can't accept that they don't actually have any power over these celebs and how they're trying to tell complete strangers how to live their lives is quite startling.

I actually think a Davis/Grant movie sounds like a terrific idea and now I'm sad it never happened! With a skilled director like Hitchcock or Hawks, people who really understood what made Grant special as a presence in movies IMO, it could have been spectacular. Mixing Davis' authority on screen with Grant's brilliance at being the "reactor", could have been fire. Pauline Kael wrote a great essay on Grant's appeal as a leading man, how he was often the pursued and what made him so attractive was the sense that he was never really attainable. That even if at the end of a movie he declared his love for his leading lady you had the sense that he could still change his mind at any time. Hitchcock in particular also really explored the latent sadism in the Grant persona. Davis and Grant facing off in a film noir sound like an interesting idea, both could play at a certain darkness and ruthlessness. More on topic: Weren't there always rumours that Leigh and Gable couldn't stand each other on the set of GWTW?

Mark also told the story of the infamous gorilla suit: Apparently he made an off-hand joke, production thought it was a super idea! The question is, what do you do as a pro in that situation? I guess you can say no, but if they're very insistent you jeopardize your relationship with your bosses. And yeah, IMO they're cast as cartoon characters: Val's the "sexy one", Mark's the "eccentric one", and so on.

Some fanvideos of the tour cropped up on youtube: Latin group dance (with Val and Emma solo): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl-AEN65-JE Alfonso's freestyle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIaXDU373B8 Sasha and Emma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjnvJ6q7OK0 Val doing Paso: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ge-wgk5KdI Val, Mark and Dylan Chambers playing flamenco and then Keo and Emma dancing rumba: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KXNlkz0Sgk Val, Witney and Mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhaQ1Gm4YP0 Witney and Mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTYmN365vGY Kym, Keo, Sasha and Paul: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4SrRBJrGuE Kym and Keo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRGC2OvSJRQ Perhaps there's more, that's the stuff I could find. I think it all looks great. (-: And I have to say, it is a stark reminder how much the pros are dancing down to their celebs and holding back. Wow. Alfonso can keep up somewhat because he's got his dance training etc. I'm glad the focus is on the pros and I think having other celebs there would have diluted that, people like Sadie and Janel (great as they were in the context of DWTS) just wouldn't be able to keep up at all. Or when you see footage of Sway, the production of the DWM dance studios, and even Meryl, really awesome on DWTS, is visibly out of place and you see how much Maks is holding back when he dances with her compared to how he dances with Peta...I mean, theoretically I know that the judges blubbering on about "dancing like a pro" are full of it, but to see clear evidence like that is still a bit of an eye-opener, I guess LOL.

So, belatedly just wanted to say how much I enjoyed Mark's work with Sadie this season. It's one of my fave partnerships of his, probably together with Shawn Johnson and Katherine Jenkins. (I loved the choreo in season 12, and I liked Chelsea and their partnership, but his attitude was just terrible....I understand where it was coming from to some degree, but still.) Yes, yes, the rant about Len murdering creativity or whatever he was going on about and general grumbling was a bit much at times. (-; But his friendship with Sadie, how he worked within the various restrictions her family had and still came out with awesome choreo for her week after week and the general sense of fun and enjoyment they brought this season was lovely to see. (-: And he just strikes me as a really kind and generous guy, when he's not being annoying that is. (-; Sadie has some talent, but she also came with limitations like her gangly, awkward limbs (that she possibly hasn't quite grown into yet) and movements and her issues with timing/musicality. What she did bring though, was a good attitude, a certain knack for performing and the willingness to throw herself into whatever wacky thing Mark came up with. (-: There's a photo of their quickstep where they both have these OTT mugging facial expressions and it cracks me up because it shows why they worked and why many people found them entertaining: Two goofballs on the ballroom floor. And I thought she greatly improved throughout the season, the areas where she didn't...well, those are probably long-time things that can't be straightened out on a format like DWTS. She showed tremendous growth in the styles that didn't come naturally like rumba, contemporary, foxtrot, AT, which surprised me, since they seem such a bad fit for her personality. But they're among my favourite dances of hers. I'm ambivalent about teenagers, particularly minors, on this show. Not even because of the supposedly "sexy dancing", since that can be adjusted, but it seems like a lot of stress and the manipulative reality TV show machinations aren't necessarily a super great environment either. Also always annoyed that it's only ever pearl-clutching about young women, never about male teenagers on DWTS. Sadie has a very sunny personality, but IMO you could still see that she’s pretty sheltered and not as "emotionally robust" as the show biz people around her: Getting upset about being „in jeopardy“ in week two, the rumba, the foxtrot mistake, freaking out about the foxtrot mistake, that puking episode, probably other things not shown. That this didn’t become a major issue throughout the season is on Mark. He probably knew that he couldn’t apply too much pressure on her without freaking her out. That’s just something she couldn’t have handled IMO. In the recap when she said there was only one stressful day in her whole DWTS experience, well she was just being her usual kind and gracious self, but the geneneral idea that her experience was a happy and relatively relaxed one struck me as true enough. She also wasn’t particularly invested in winning. Major kudos to Mark for that as well…no matter his own feelings on the matter, it didn’t define his work with Sadie and she didn’t get the message that she somehow had to "win it for him" or whatever. So, to sum up all this rambling, I thought it was a job very well done and he should be very proud of his work this season. (-:

Since it doesn't seem like Anna has any inside scoop on Val, Mark, Derek and their feelings, this all just strikes me as speculation on her part. I thought Val looked disappointed. Mark was an emotional mess for the last few minutes of the show, even before the results were announced he couldn't stop crying. So he took a shower to take himself out of the situation and regroup. When he did come back, he was somber but composed. No one threw a hissyfit, Mario-Lopez-style, so it's all right with me. (-; And yes, they were gracious on GMA the morning after. It also makes sense that the celebs have an easier time with this IMO. Yeah, they all work hard etc. But the pressure on the pros is insane: They're responsible for teaching, choreography, staging, costumes, providing emotional support for the celeb (which I think Mark had to do quite a bit, that also strikes me as draining), dealing with their celeb's various foibles, working around injuries (their own and the celeb's), then also do the pro numbers. The celebs get to walk away from this afterwards, for the pros it's their day job.

I think Sadie is a really sweet kid. She has a great attitude, works hard, is respectful and gracious. Her partnership with Mark is fabulous, they have an awesome big brother/little sister vibe going on. Mark is really great at being patient and kind (which sometimes works against him when he gets the "problem cases" TPTB think no one else can handle LOL. Well, him and Tony.). That’s one of his best features as a teacher, and it’s been on full display this season IMO. And luckily for him, he got someone talented and nice and teachable this time. And for all the talk of being a reality TV star…I don’t think Sadie quite gets yet how the manipulations, storylines etc. on DWTS work. She seems to take it at face value, hence the occasional displays of emotional vulnerability. That’s perhaps the one negative thing, I don’t like seeing her stressed and upset because the shenanigans of the show are getting to her. But other than that, I think Mark has done a fantastic job teaching her and choreographing for her. And Sadie’s improved a lot throughout the season IMO, I don’t think she’d have been able to do the Contemporary, the Foxtrot, the Quickstep or the AT at the beginning of the season. The gangliness and slight awkwardness is probably not something you can get totally under control with a few months of dance training, but she’s emerged as a really graceful and at times even sophisticated performer. (-: My surprise of the season. And I’m really excited to see what they’ll do for the freestyle!

I do feel bad for him in that he was clearly excited to be on the show in the beginning. The pairing with Allison just wasn't ideal because she doesn't really know how to teach ballroom/latin at this point. So he became a bit of a "victim" of TPTB experimenting. But yeah, by now everybody should know that being a good dancer doesn't help you on this show if you don't connect with viewers. And bad dancers have made it far many times because people wanted them around. It's a popularity contest. The scoring influences things, but if the general audience doesn't want to go along with the judges, they just won't. I'm frustrated by it as well sometimes because I find good dancing entertaining, but that's the nature of the beast. Jonathan IMO also wasn't a good dancer, that's not only on him but also on getting a pro who couldn't yet deliver, but it is what it is. Peta, in contrast, knows how to handle Tommy and how to get the best out of him. This happens again and again, season after season, yet people still act shocked and you find outrage in recaps etc. For a more recent example, I don’t think Lea was much of an upset or even a great surprise tbh. We’ve seen "shocking eliminations“ that aren’t all that shocking again and again. If you look at facebookology, which isn’t a 100% indicator but has proven rather useful, her dance got the least likes again. Then comes Tommy with about 100/150 votes more than her, then the others who all have considerably more than Tommy. I think we still have to see if Tommy really pulls in much of an older/general audience crowd that offsets all trends on social media. Because so far he outlasted the people who weren’t scoring that much better than him and weren’t doing better on social media than him either.

Apparently his wife posted that he's feeling better and he's also rehearsing again, at least to some degree. So hopefully it's not so bad and he can go on dancing. I love Alfonso and hope he wins it all this season! (-: That said, if there is a risk that he's really jeopardizing his health, then he should pull out. Sure, it'll be disappointing, but at the end of the day it's a plastic glitterball.