S20: Charlotte McKinney: Can We Have A Bite Of That Burger?

[radishcake]

Charlotte McKinney is a model who is currently starring in the Carl's Jr. ads in North America. She is partnering with Keo this season! 

[Serendi]

Just watched the hour of Charlotte and Keo rehearsing and it looked promising. Good attitude, she does yoga and pilates and has done jazz and hiphop, and they've figured out she does waaaay better in hold; she has dyslexia, which is a problem by herself but not in hold. Nice people. She even is used to heels!

[spanana]

Problem is no matter how good this woman looks on the dance floor, she doesn't have a fanbase and I can't see her claim to fame being all that appealing to the DWTS demos.  I hope I'm wrong for Keo's sake.  I'd hate for him to be 1st out his first two seasons in a row, but it's entirely possible.

[Serendi]

I'd be astonished if she were first out. There will surely be someone whose dancing or ego lead to them getting the boot ahead of her....

 

Seriously. She looked good.

 

 

ETA: Okay, one downside is at first Charlotte was making showmancey type jokes. Fortunately, Keo discouraged them. I know there exist hordes of people who love showmances, but I am NOT one of them. 

Edited February 25, 2015 by Serendi

[Danseur]

I'm really enjoying the rehearsal viewings. It could go several ways with her. Hard to tell from one hour but she has possibilities. I wondered if she will have the tall model's "gangly limbs" syndrome. She has obviously never danced in heels. They seem to get along well and she is several rungs higher on the likability ladder than his first partner.

I don't mind not-knowing the "stars" since I usually only know two or three every season. Somehow, though, bringing someone on because of a burger and boobs commercial is irritating.

[Serendi]

I was wondering how much of her unsteadiness was from the dyslexia. My experience of people with the usual form of it is they don't know right from left (which I don't either) but they have an amazing spatial sense. I suspect some dances will be fine and others will be very very hard to do. Anyway, Charlotte consistently screwed up her cha-cha (out of hold) at the same place, where she swapped feet when she shouldn't have, then lost it a bit. (Plus she was getting blisters.) 

 

Whatever. I don't know how it'll work out, I just found myself liking her. (Once she stopped with the showmancey crap.)

Edited February 26, 2015 by Serendi

[Mbeaker]

Whatever. I don't know how it'll work out, I just found myself liking her. (Once she stopped with the showmancey crap.)

Ugh, they started with the showmance thing already? That's one of my concerns with this couple b/c judging by Keo's coyness with all the "Kemma" shipping during the tour, I think he likes the attention and is willing to go the showmance route. Always a huge turnoff for me, so I hope they can create dance chemistry without hinting towards more.

[Serendi]

Charlotte was starting it; Keo was stopping it.

[PTVjones]

Interesting... maybe Kemma is an actual couple then. Not many men would turn her down I presume. 

[howmanywords]

The little bit I saw of her and Keo she does seem very likable, definitely way more than what he got stuck with last season.  I'm curious about her dyslexia though and how bad it is. Because if hers is along the lines of one of my cousins she might struggle.  My cousin has a hard time even taking directions because he mixes up words and sentences in his head.  I know some cases arent as severe though.

[smiley13]

I would think she will be an early exit.  As what stated above, she hardly appeals to the main DWTS viewers who are ladies.  

 

Her claim to fame is a trashy commercial, so I don't really care if she can dance or not, I wouldn't vote for her.   I hope to heaven wardrobe makes good decisions when dressing her, or poor Keo may get knocked in his eye.

[Palomar]

Actually I think the Carl's Junior commercial is more funny and snarky than trashy.  Haven't seen the rehearsals but have seen her interviewed and she seems to have a sense of humor and doesn't take herself too seriously.  Not sure which is more of a celebrity....a model, the child of a celebrity, or a reality star.  There are very few legitimate stars on this show. Some people vote for their favorite star, some vote for their favorite pro, some vote for the best dancer, and some even vote for the worst dancer so it is very hard to predict.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Watching the first 20 minutes of their second live rehearsal.

 

She seems very unsteady in heels, and it feels a little like Keo is giving her a bit of information overload. The skeleton movements of this jive seem like it could be something hot and flirty if she can reach a point where she feels confident enough to just let loose and perform. However, she would be high up on the opening night "Deer in headlights Celebrity" betting if I had to pick someone right now...

 

They have a bit of an odd dynamic, they kind of snipe at each other a fair bit (plus Keo's sense of humor seems a bit dry where I'm not totally sure Charlotte knows if he's teasing or messing w/ her)....but overall they seem to get along reasonably well. The Q/A interview session actually was pretty informative and maybe reopened the possibility that they could drift into a showmancey type situation but that's a bit of speculation at this point.

Edited March 4, 2015 by PhD-Purgatory15

[Catgyrl]

Well, someone must've pissed in my Wheaties this morning, but I can't stand this girl. Having a hard time getting past the boobage hanging to her waist (PLEASE PULL THOSE THINGS UP!), she just complains too much. I'm hoping it's the dyslexia (sorry, I didn't see the first practice) that's making her nervous about dancing and complaining about his explaining the steps to her, and NOT wanting to learn anything new, because it's too confusing. Yet, the dance she's looking forward to is the freestyle, so she can "do her own thing". Girlfriend, if you make it to the freestyle (highly doubtful), you're gonna be learning 3 dances at once. 

 

That said, I'll take her over Lolo any day. I'm sure they'll make it past the first couple of weeks. And I think I've heard more from Keo in this hour than I did the whole last season. Him without a shirt is yummy, too. :-)

[RemoteControl88]

Well, someone must've pissed in my Wheaties this morning, but I can't stand this girl. Having a hard time getting past the boobage hanging to her waist (PLEASE PULL THOSE THINGS UP!), she just complains too much. I'm hoping it's the dyslexia (sorry, I didn't see the first practice) that's making her nervous about dancing and complaining about his explaining the steps to her, and NOT wanting to learn anything new, because it's too confusing. Yet, the dance she's looking forward to is the freestyle, so she can "do her own thing". Girlfriend, if you make it to the freestyle (highly doubtful), you're gonna be learning 3 dances at once. 

 

That said, I'll take her over Lolo any day. I'm sure they'll make it past the first couple of weeks. And I think I've heard more from Keo in this hour than I did the whole last season. Him without a shirt is yummy, too. :-)

Keo was the best part of that rehearsal.  She is a bit whiny which is grating.  I really like Keo so I'm going to be open minded. But I agree with you...their dynamic is a little off. She whines & complains...and he cracks jokes.

 

Jive week 1 is just plain mean. Here's hoping for them getting past week 1....at least for Keo's sake.

Edited March 4, 2015 by RemoteControl88

[Catgyrl]

RemoteControl88 - I agree 100% with you. I think one has to be super easygoing to be around Keo for any length of time. He's such a jokester. She just came across as very whiny, but that could be nerves, too. (See, I'm TRYING to be nice. LOL) And Jive week one is really just cruel. 

[missysays]

This unedited livestream rehearsal is potentially a good or bad thing. Good for those couples that have a real rapport and interesting things to say to each other and bad for those couples that are off in their dynamic and have an energy that doesn't work well together.

 

I find myself putting Charlotte and Keo in the latter group. I had their rehearsal on for about 5 minutes and then had to stop bc they were causing me to lose my train of thought and get a headache. With the caveat that I only watched a few moments...they both came off as a little manic but in different ways. And on top of it she didn't seem to like him that much and he was overcompensating and instead of slowing down the teaching when she wasn't getting it seemed to speed it up so that it was even harder for her to follow. Plus, their dance choreography seemed way too complicated for someone of her skill level to master.

 

This is such a pity bc physically they are just the right height and build for each other and they look amazing together but if this is any indication of how they'll perform together. Sigh!

[Catgyrl]

Oh, I remember the biggest thing that irritated me (and I'm sure did not endear her to any fans). She commented that someone on Twitter had said she weighed 145 pounds. She acted like they had said 450 pounds; said that was "HUGE", and asked Keo if she looked that heavy. I giggled a little when he asked her, "How much DO you weigh?" So inappropriate of him, but I think he was trying to lighten things up. Then, towards the end, she was reading more tweets and said that someone had either yelled at her, or gotten mad at her (sorry, I was tuning out by that point), and that she wasn't going to read that one out loud. But it really bothered her. I SO wanted to know what they had said!

[howmanywords]

Ugh this second rehearsal was worse than the 1st and I can tell she's going to annoy me.  Yeah I cracked up when she mentioned the freestyle. Good luck with that one honey! And Jive week 1? My first thought was they must really dislike Keo. That can prove to be a huge way to make a splash off the bat (see Alfonso last season who SLAYED the jive out of the gate) but I predict for Charlotte, and Keo being able to properly teach it to her will be a mess. 

[Serendi]

Have to say they lost ground for me here. Oh, well.

[spanana]

I didn't see it, but I heard their second rehearsal was pretty bad.  I don't like jive as a week one dance period because unless you are Alfonso chances are it's going to be a hot mess.  But I really wouldn't be surprised if Keo is first out yet again.  Charlotte seems a pain.  Jive is a bad assignment.  She's got no fanbase and certainly isn't going to acquire one based on the little I've seen.  Keo doesn't have a fanbase to draw on and they don't even seem to like each other very much.

 

Which so far it looks like we've got jive, cha cha and foxtrot as first week dances, which seems about the same as last year.  All I know is Michael & Robert have cha cha, Rumer has foxtrot and these two have jive.

[Danseur]

I watched the entire second rehearsal. Keo is a poor communicator and it's not because of his accent which sometimes makes his words unintelligible. His two biggest problems: 1) He talks way too much and uses way too many words and 2) he doesn't listen.

She told him several times that he needed to quit talking because it confuses her but he kept talking as if she hadn't said a word. The more he talked, the more confused she became. She also was irritated that he dismissed her and that caused her to lose focus.

Keo seems, in my opinion, to be extremely fond of himself. He planned a question and answer session so that viewers could get to know them better. Here were two questions he asked her: What do you like about Keo? What do you think of Keo's body?

She seemed slightly repulsed to have to touch him because he was perspiring. She told him he was "sticky" and I can't remember his exact response but he ignored it and gave the impression that hey, it's my sweat, you should like it. That was my perception and I hope I'm wrong.

I liked him last season but of course we saw very little of him. Maybe it will take time and things will improve but right now they seem uncomfortable with each other. She said, "I like attention but he loves it. He loves it far more than I do. He has a lot of respect for himself." Interesting way of putting it.

If this sounds snarky, it isn't meant to be. I'm just disappointed.

[Serendi]

I noticed a lot of that also. Yes, Charlotte was kind of whiny, but he *wasn't* listening to her. If your student knows what confuses her and tells you what you're doing confuses her, stop doing it! 

 

I had the feeling by the second aired interview (I saw about 20 minutes of it) that they've been getting on each other's nerves. And yeah, I think from what I saw it was Keo wanting her to learn how he wants to teach, not how she *needs* to be taught. 

Edited March 5, 2015 by Serendi

[missysays]

I think they both have problematic personalities. As people have said in this thread already, Keo is using every bit of time to promote himself - sometimes to the detriment of his celeb. But Charlotte isn't completely innocent either. She doesn't come off as the most mature person and she's constantly finding ways to insult him in uncalled for ways. Some of it I believe she's not conscious of but other times she says something cutting but then quickly veils it by saying they have awesome chemistry. I hope they get put out of their misery and are the first couple that gets the boot. Yikes!

[Serendi]

Watched bits and pieces of the latest rehearsal - they seem more relaxed. 

 

I'm curious as to why we've only seen a few couples, this one three times. 

[katha]

Watched bits and pieces of the latest rehearsal - they seem more relaxed. 

 

I'm curious as to why we've only seen a few couples, this one three times. 

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.

Edited March 8, 2015 by katha

[Victura]

I wonder if it also has to do with the couples themselves and whether they are willing. Since these two are probably the most unknown couple, perhaps they signed up for more live stream sessions to increase their exposure in the hopes of building a fan base before the show starts.

[spanana]

The majority are out of town.  Suzanne, Patti, Noah, Redfoo, Nastia, Rumer and Robert are currently all out of town.  They can't have Bachelor dude since he's still supposed to be secret.  So it's basically Charlotte, Michael, Riker & Willow that are left and for whatever reason, maybe the work hours thing, they are keeping Willow off camera at the moment.  

Edited March 8, 2015 by spanana

[missysays]

Charlotte and Keo were better in this 3rd rehearsal. Either someone said something to them or they watched the footage back and realized how they were coming off. They were much less antagonistic this time around and much more cooperative with one another. I've enjoyed watching these rehearsals bc each pro has a different teaching style. Keo put down these pipes on the floor to teach Charlotte how to keep her steps going in a straight line and he learned that one of her legs is longer than the other so that's why she sometimes moves with a little bit of an imbalance in her steps sometimes. This is the sort of stuff that's interesting and fun to know about each of the couples.

[Danseur]

I agree with you, missy. The third rehearsal was very different. He didn't talk as much, they seemed to be having a good time together and she has definitely been learning to dance.

And I also like seeing the Pros teach and how each does it differently. The teaching style I've liked best so far is Val's. Not too many have agreed with me but speaking as an educator, his teaching is brilliant. He's a born teacher. Sorry OT.

[missysays]

I agree with you, missy. The third rehearsal was very different. He didn't talk as much, they seemed to be having a good time together and she has definitely been learning to dance.

And I also like seeing the Pros teach and how each does it differently. The teaching style I've liked best so far is Val's. Not too many have agreed with me but speaking as an educator, his teaching is brilliant. He's a born teacher. Sorry OT.

Hey I'd love to talk more about Val's teaching style in Val's thread. I like his style too!

[friendperidot]

those aren't the biggest boobs I've ever seen, but she's quickly become one of the biggest.

[RemoteControlFreak]

The little bit I saw of her and Keo she does seem very likable, definitely way more than what he got stuck with last season.  I'm curious about her dyslexia though and how bad it is. Because if hers is along the lines of one of my cousins she might struggle.  My cousin has a hard time even taking directions because he mixes up words and sentences in his head.  I know some cases arent as severe though.

True dyslexia is a disorder that affects the way the brain processes written material.

 

It has nothing to do with balance,  knowing right from left, or comprehending directions.  Some amazing athletes have dyslexia.

 

Dyslexia is an often incorrect or blanket diagnosis for other learning disabilities and cognitive limitations.  This may be the case with your cousin.

 

Whatever dancing problems Charlotte has, it's doubtful they stem from her dyslexia, unless she was required to learn the dance moves by reading written instructions.

[Serendi]

Most of the people I know with what is called dyslexia have a disorder in which difficulty reading is a *part* of it. It's a particular syndrome where they do in fact have trouble with right and left, and where they have an amazing ability in 3D. If that's a misnomer, I don't know what the correct name for it is, but they all call it that. 

 

My impression of Charlotte from the rehearsal videos is that she dressed to minimize the boobs, did NOT go on and on about them, and was much more appealing than what we saw on the show. The opening bit with the melons was straight out of the Carls Jr. ad; I suspect heavy producer interference. She seems to be the designated cannon fodder. 

[Stitsch]

I like her. I'm assuming that TPTB forced her into the 'boob' bit, considering she was hardly focused on them during rehearsals, and I'm sure she didn't want to make waves by refusing to do the bit. Also not her fault that Julianne and Erin continued the boob charade after performance. She had fun while she was dancing and showed a lot of personality afterwards. As a viewer, watching her was much more exciting for me than watching the celebrities that are already taking the competition too seriously. I don't think she'll last past week two, but I didn't find her polarizing.

[TudorQueen]

To me she's the definition of "Not really a star, what is she bringing to the table here?" I don't particularly like her, or her dancing, and I tend to agree with those who say she won't have a big enough fan base to last long. I think her chest may actually be a handicap in terms of the actual dancing.
 

I do like Keo and hope that now that he's done some hard time for two consecutive seasons, he gets a great partner next season.

 

[Former Nun]

Experts also claim these are problems dyslexics face:

• Trouble with writing or copying; pencil grip is unusual; handwriting varies or is illegible.
• Clumsy, uncoordinated, poor at ball or team sports; difficulties with fine and/or gross motor skills and tasks; prone to motion-sickness.
• Can be ambidextrous, and often confuses left/right, over/under.

 

Suzanne Somers was said to have problems with left and right while learning dances for her Vegas acts.

[RemoteControlFreak]

Experts also claim these are problems dyslexics face:

• Trouble with writing or copying; pencil grip is unusual; handwriting varies or is illegible.
• Clumsy, uncoordinated, poor at ball or team sports; difficulties with fine and/or gross motor skills and tasks; prone to motion-sickness.
• Can be ambidextrous, and often confuses left/right, over/under.

 

Suzanne Somers was said to have problems with left and right while learning dances for her Vegas acts.

The American Dyslexia Association disagrees with these unnamed experts:

 

"A dyslexic person of good or average intelligence perceives his environment in a different way, and his attention diminishes when confronted by letters or numbers. Due to a deficiency in his partial performances, his perception of these symbols differs from that by non-dyslexic people. This results in difficulties when learning to read, write and do arithmetic.“  source: http://www.american-dyslexia-association.com/Dyslexia.html

 

As does the Mayo Clinic:

"Dyslexia is a learning disorder characterized by difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words. Also called specific reading disability, dyslexia is a common learning disability in children.

Dyslexia occurs in children with normal vision and intelligence. Sometimes dyslexia goes undiagnosed for years and isn't recognized until adulthood."  source: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dyslexia/basics/definition/con-20021904

 

And the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

"medical : a condition in the brain that makes it hard for a person to read, write, and spell"  source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dyslexia

Edited March 18, 2015 by remotecontrolfreak

[smiley13]

This woman was really obnoxious and a really bad dancer.   I hope that she is gone sooner rather than later.

[marketdoctor]

Dyslexia is complicated--in part because it can hide other learning disabilities, and it comes in different levels of severity, and because some peolpe are academically gifted enough in other ways to compensate (Sir Richard Branson, for instance.) 

 

What bugs me about Charlotte is that her strategy in life seems to be the victim, even in situations where that's not an appropriate response.  For example, if someone doesn't adapt to your learning style, you have at least three choices:

 

1.  Find someone else who does.

2.  Adapt to their teaching style.

3.  Complain about how you're a victim.

 

The first two aren't always possible--but she'd win more fans if she showed evidence of trying.  Then there's the whole sports bra issue.  I will try to be tactful here:  For someone who's in shape generally, either she has a very unusual metabolism, or she exercises...and if she's exercised, she's almost certainly encountered the need for a sports bra before.  That makes the whole "get some tape" scene from the first episode seem really fake, and her response was that she was a victim of circumstance beyond her control--because going on a dancing show was beyond her control, and knowing basic physics/fashion was beyond her control, etc.  (That might be another kind of learning disorder, but it's not dyslexia.) 

 

She might be a kinder person than she appears on TV, but if so, she needs to work harder at getting that expressed.

[marketdoctor]

Dear Ms. McKinney,

 

Thank you.

 

You reminded me of a quote from a great book:  "Be careful who you pretend to be, because in the end, you are who you pretend to be."*

 

Last night, you weren't a woman who, as an astute observer last week noted:

 

 

...her response was that she was a victim of circumstance beyond her control

 

But this time you were more than a woman who people mean things about them in high school and on the Internet for being curvy (because as people probably told you at the time, dropping out of high school wouldn't change that.)  You pretended to be the woman who could put that behind you, and with a simple wave of your hand went from the sad lady to the happy dancer.  In so doing, you became the woman who rose above her pain to create better art.  According to the judges, you were 30% better (26 vs. 20), and that lets us all think we can be 30% better too. That might not be what we are, but it's what we can pretend to be...and that's worth doing either way.

 

Good luck.

 

* That book is Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night, made into a movie with Nick Nolte and Sheryl Lee.

[Stitsch]

^^ That was beautiful.

[marketdoctor]

Thanks, Stitsch! 

 

ETA:  Good luck, Charlotte.  It's funny that being dyslexic can make you more creative, so you're actually MORE likely to win a Nobel Prize than most people (don't take my word for it; look it up.)  And if it can help you read better, if you're not sure what something says, try scrambling the letters a bit (don't try to unscramble them; you might overdo it.)  It's sort of like if you take three left turns, you'll turn right, or vice-versa.  It's worht a shot.

Edited March 31, 2015 by marketdoctor