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"This is week six; we're moving beyond potential now." Carrie Ann Inaba said to Shannon Elizabeth, summing up the theme of Monday night's Dancing with the Stars. Kristi Yamaguchi has been the high scorer and best dancer from the beginning but with her whiz-bang jive she finally scored her, and the season's, first perfect 30. But it's among the rest that things are really getting interesting. The field kind of flip-flopped as front-runners Jason Taylor and Ms. Elizabeth faltered, and slow-starters Cristian de la Fuente, Marissa Jaret Winokur and Mario had their best dances yet. As far as the dancing goes, this is Kristi's game to lose; take her out of the equation and it's anybody's game. That said, and sad to say, the likely (as in most deserving based on performance) ejectee is Marlee Matlin. It's an unpleasant fact that at this point, the remaining competitors are good enough that Ms. Matlin's handicap is really starting to stand out. All the judges are understandably effusive in their admiration, but there's just no getting around that her dancing is not as good as the others. It's impressive when you consider that she can't hear the music, but who at this point are you going to send home instead of her? I would have been the first to suggest Marissa, for all the reasons I have categorized in previous posts and which you can collect under the catch-all heading of "desperate and annoying." But last week and this, Ms. Winokur has danced her heart out. Her Viennese Waltz this week, a dance calling for grace and elegance, was -- against all odds -- stylish and well-executed. Or how about Cristian de la Fuente, another chronic bottom-feeder? He tanked last week and ended up in the bottom two. If Priscilla Presley hadn't still been in need of dispatching, his number would have surely been up. But he turned it around this week, also with a dance -- the foxtrot -- that seemed designed to confound him. His best performances have been those in which he could flaunt his macho energy and latin swagger (if only he could tango every week). But he swirled and swooshed with sophisticated restraint through the foxtrot -- he seemed to be channeling, in his words, "Federico Astaire." Or maybe Mario. He's been on low-burning auto-pilot through most of the season. Last week he finally roused himself, finally realizing that he wasn't going to be able to bluff his way through. Though head judge Len Goodman thought his rumba was "too raunchy," Carrie Ann and Bruno were beside themselves. Bruno exclaimed "ridiculously god" while Carrie Ann said "that was better than good sex." He rightly named Jason as his primary competition and promised to take him on and that's a promise he finally seems ready to act on. Or you could go ahead and vote Kristi off for being unfairly advantaged -- she's a professional, Olympic-champion ice skater. Hello, that means she's spent her life training to be the super-athlete's version of a ballroom dancer. Once again, she was great, but she's just so clearly in a different category than the rest; she's more like one of the show's professional dancers. At this point in the show's successful run aren't at least some of the dancers break-out stars in their own right. How about next season we have Edyta come back as one of the Star competitors? It wouldn't be that different from the situation we have now with Kristi. Still, she can really dance and she's beautiful to watch. As Bruno almost shrieked after her jive, "that was top-notch, high-definition entertainment." I still think that before the end, the audience will vote her off as an act of fealty to the show's amateur principles. But for now, she's the standard-setter. Marissa won't make it to the end because for all of her bounce and enthusiasm, she's not the natural dancers that others -- Jason, Shannon, Mario -- have proven to be. So that leaves Marlee. She's beautiful, she's smart, she's gutsy, and it's her time to go. |
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Comments
Posted by Rocky @ 8:09 AM Tue, Apr 22, 2008
No doubt that Kristi is the "best of the lot" but she has an unfair advantage. Of the others Jason does what few large men can do with his fluid moves. Somewhat timid with "sexy" moves and that can be understood. Shannon has to go also. Marissa looks out of place although she is a talented performer. Bergeron is a great host but dump the girl that works with him. It is good entertainment.
Posted by Shannon @ 1:39 PM Tue, Apr 22, 2008
Kristy is no different than any other athlete that has been on the show, sure she has talent but they all have the edge of performance whether it's ice skating, football, racing or acting. Football players often take ballet lessons, they have rigorous schedules and if you think about it, some of their "plays" could be considered
"choreographed" which is designing and implementing body movement. Not really too much different than having to learn to move your body in dance. They also know how their body works as well as any figure skater would. Last year, Sabrina Bryan was doing great but, I also saw videos where she did ballroom dancing in her show. Did she not have to take any lessons to do that? I would think she did. Also, Joey Fatone, Joey Lawrence and Mario had dance lessons for music videos and live concerts, is that not
"experience?" There seems to be somewhat of a double standard here and I really think it needs to be addressed. Get over the fact that Kristy has "experience". The person or persons from the show chose her knowing her talents so it must not have been such an issue to them at that time. Therefore, it should not be an issue now. She is working her BUTT off and you should just stop bellyaching, sit back and enjoy it.
Posted by RachelB @ 5:13 PM Tue, Apr 22, 2008
I agree with Shannon.
I think that all of the Kristi-bashers are just jealous because she is so darn good. Why don't we actually, for once, pick the best dancer to win the competition?? What a concept. Kristi comes out every week and does an amazing job. She actually has a much harder job than the other contestants, having started off so great, to bring it to a new level each week, and she does. I tip my hat to both her and Mark. They look great together and work their you-know-whats off. The choreography is excellent, and, the main thing they have that the others don't is polish. That is because they have such a high standard for themselves, that they make sure it's awesome before they ever perform it for us. More people need to enjoy and appreciate what they bring to the show. THEY ARE AWESOME AND SHOULD WIN HANDS DOWN.
Posted by Stanley Kaneshiro @ 7:48 PM Tue, Apr 22, 2008
Regarding past experience, Priscilla Presley studied ballet, Shannon Elizabeth took dance lessons as a child, Marissa was in two dance musicals on Broadway. Paula Abdul is being considered for next year's show.
The only thing that's unfair is the way America snubbed Yamaguchi after winning the Olympics and here on this blog.
Posted by Jenny @ 7:15 PM Sat, Apr 26, 2008
I think Kristi's Rumba really should have shown America a thing or two. Yes, I believe she has some advantage coming from a sport where aesthetics counts. *However*, if you watched Kristi in her Rumba, where she wasn't concentrating on technique so much - you could see that naturally, she is as awkward with the moves as many other contestants. That performance, for me, really showed HOW HARD Kristi has been working to make each week look "easy" and "natural" - which it isn't, even for her. Besides, I think she has some disadvantages too (like not being as good of an actress as the others). I agree with other posters that some of the other contestants have had previous experience; (isn't half of being in a boy-band dancing?)