November 25th, 2009 by soullldiva

I’m sitting here watching the results show of So You Think You Can Dance and really looking.  Looking at these dancers. On the eve of ‘THE TOP 10″ who has it to make it? Who has real talent, and more than that, who has real heart? Because when it all comes down to it form me, Soullldiva, the Dancemomma, it is about heart. How big is it?  How much do they share of it? Watching the top 10 being revealed tonight (and of course, that ever popular carrot of the TOUR), this is what I’m contemplating.  Let’s see how this unfurls and if I am correct on any of my choices?

Ellenore. This girl is quirky, fun, beautiful and talented. Her emotional range is projected all over the place. From her lustful tango to a hip-hop where her swagger and bravado shows with humor, to her portrayal to a young, impressionable starlet, she has heart and she’s not afraid to show it.

Ryan. It will be interesting to see if my pull to Ryan continues without Ellenore.  But I now recall him immediately catching my eye when I saw him waiting, in agony, to see if his gorgeous wife was in the original top 20. Stunning. Such feeling and heart.  And he absolutely brings it to his dance, and his technical expertise seems to stretch beyond ballroom.

Legacy. I hope this gem can really step it up for his ballroom pieces, because he’ll need it for the long haul. This guy is nothing BUT heart, as he discovered how much more dancing could fulfill him as he performed Mia Michaels moves in Las Vegas. Beautiful. And he’s still experiencing it, seeing how emotional he got last night after his second dance. There is something so special and sensitive about this tough B-Boy. He’s an artist to the core and he’s just now realizing that he can live up to his potential and give so much more in his work. He’s absolutely doing it.

Russell. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this guy could walk across the stage and smile and I’d be riveted. He enjoys every single second of what he does and for me that’s what it’s all about. You have to love what you’re doing, right? And like Nigel, I’ve completely forgotten that he’s a Krumper–a dance style that can be quite harsh, but I totally get with it when he does it. Russell, like Legacy, needs to pull it out for his ballroom pieces, but he’s done pretty darn good with them so far.

Ashleigh. And this is not just because I’ve put my vote in for Ryan. This woman can hold her own. She’s able to very easily portray her love and attraction for her partner, which is an absolute must. And very interestingly, Ashleigh is someone who’s actual body portrays her emotion. The movement of her legs, curve of her arms.  I just get that from her. I dunno. I keep feeling like she has some secret that she’s slowly either letting out or letting go of, and this fires her passion.

Jakob. It will also be interesting to see if Jakob, as with Ryan, will hold my interest when he’s separated from Ashleigh. He has technical out the wazoo and can leap into any type of formation that a choreographer could want. But is the heart there? I watched him last night connect with his partner in their Cha Cha Cha. He absolutely luxuriated in Ashleigh, her body and her movement. But it had emotion, too.  Lust with heart, huh? It’s there and he’s got what it takes.

Those are the few that I have chosen to make it beyond the top 10.  Who will make it to the final performance?  Well…I’m not ready to  speculate on that short list, give me a couple of weeks ;o)

*SPOILER ALERT*

I’ve just watched  Karen be sent home, and I knew that was coming.  Hotness only goes so far, and it took her to the top 12.  As well, a very sad Victor was just eliminated. Neither of them were on my list, so we’ll see how long it can stand up as the dancers are whittled down.

Care to comment, object, offer your own opinion?  I welcome it!

(Images courtesy of FOX Television)

November 25th, 2009 by soullldiva

*SPOILER ALERT!*

The three finalists: Kelly Osbourne and Louis Van Amstel, Donny Osmond and Kym Johnson and Mya and Dmitry Chaplin performed their last dances on the season 9 results show for Dancing With the Stars on Tuesday night. They chose their favorite dances from their 10 week run on the show.

Kelly and Louis chose their Viennese Waltz from the very first show. This dance always stuck with me because not only was it her first dance, she really declared herself in it.  Not only as a dancer, but as a  new person that people had not seen before. Their rehearsal/talk footage of their journey together was very touching; especially moments between the two of them where Louis expresses how proud he has been of her and the progress she’s made through the weeks (I even teared up).

Their waltz was even better than I remembered it, with more romance, love and grace. Bravo! The crowd chanted her name while the judges spoke to her.  She was definitely a crowd favorite. Even Carrie Ann Inaba cried a bit when she said Kelly was her favorite dancer to watch as she went on her journey.

Mya and Dmitry chose their Jive from week 2, and this was always one of my favorites from her (along with her Salsa from last week). Their dance was very cheeky and funny with cute characters.  This was a great one for them to pick.

Donny and Kym did their Argentine Tango, which continues to be one of my favorite dances of the entire season (along with Kym’s amazing dress). The two of them had real passion, connection and lust (and this from a happily married man from Utah??). Fantastic dance to end with as the evening progressed.

Unfortunately, the Judges did their ridiculous ranking again, like for the Megamix.  This just perplexes me, as it doesn’t give the stars any chance of getting the score that they really deserve. Maybe I was just pissed off that Kelly was ranked 3rd when she deserved more than 26.  In that moment, you could tell that Kelly thought she was not going to win. In an interesting turn, Donny and Kelly were ranked 1st with 30 points. Shades of things to come?

As the reveal of 3rd place happened, I was wiggling my toes and hoping against all hope that it was not Kelly and Louis. But unfortunately, it was, and although overall she was happy you could tell she was disappointed.  Who wouldn’t after giving it their all and doing so well?

They brought the two finalists upstage with the Mirror Ball in between them and the anticipation was so thick you had to swim through it. We waited with the heartbeat thumping…to hear Donny Osmond’s name called as the winner of the 9th season of Dancing With the Stars! This was truly a surprise upset, as Mya has consistently been the front runner to win the entire season.  What a great event, as not only Donny wins, but pro Kym Johnson gets her first and much-deserved win. I was so happy for her, she really deserved it! Mya was super gracious as she expressed how glad she was for Donny and how her experience on the show was amazing.

Donny was so happy and brought his entire beautiful (and huge) family on stage to share his victory. YEA DONNY!

I’ll be back with Dancing With the Stars coverage when they announce the new cast for the spring. But of course I will continue to with my normal dance posts. Ta!

(Images courtesy of ABC Television)

November 24th, 2009 by soullldiva

I always have mixed feelings about the finals.  I think I expect too much out of everyone, and maybe get disappointed. But I forget that these are the same people as before, just one more week along.  So logically, they are not going to turn into full-fledged pro dancers in 7 days (or really 5 days because that’s all the time they get). Tonight I watched with that in mind so I could really enjoy myself.  These three stars (and their pros) have really busted ass to get in the Finals and they deserved it!  Now I wanted them to show me the stuff!

First the stars did one last regular-style dance by themselves.  Kelly Osbourne was first with her Argentine Tango.  Now this is my favorite Ballrooom/Latin dance, and I was crossing my fingers that she would do well, and better than her last effort.  Fortunately, Carrie Ann Inaba made a visit to their rehearsal to give her some coaching specifically on her emotional connection with her partner.  This is something she has always needed to work on, even though Kelly is really “The Transformer” of the show.  She’s the one that’s come the farthest and really discovered dance.  But she has never quite had that connect with Louis Van Amstel that would allow them to play lovers.

Let me tell you she did NOT disappoint. Her footwork was excellent, lines were beautiful and they really smoldered when looking into each other’s eyes. It was the real connection this time, yea!  Strangely, this was the lowest scoring first dance of the night, with a 9-9-8, and I sincerely believe it was the best first dance of all three.  Maybe the judges were warming up or something.  The only big criticism that I heard was from Bruno Tonioli who said that Kelly’s “free hand” was doing odd things while she danced.  Ugh, whatever.

Next up was Mya. Len Goodman paid her and Dmitry Chaplin a visit as they rehearsed. Len’s intention as they practiced was to really push Mya to her limits in the Paso Doble. He even yelled at her about her kicks, that she could kick his upper hand out of the way. This is a great thing, because I have thought through pretty much the whole season that Mya was too cool of a cucumber, and never really revealing much or reaching her limits.

Technically, the dance looked good and had that measure of anger and sharpness that the Paso calls for.  But I really didn’t feel the passion that it needs.  The Paso is such a difficult dance to pull off and make look super spectacular in my opinion, you really need a variety of great moves coupled with a really great passionate anger with your partner. Nothing can hold a candle to Mel B. and Maks Chmerkovskiy’s Paso in season 7. Incidentally, Len mentions Mel’s dance in his critique of Mya, saying hers was up there. As you can guess, I do not agree. Judges scores: 10-10-10.

Donny Osmond was next with his Cha Cha Cha. Bruno made a visit to him and partner Kym Johnson to help sharpen up his technique enough to match his showmanship. This is great because Donny can always pull out a crowd-pleasing performance, but not be technically perfect. Bruno took him to task and really put him through his paces. Oddly enough, I didn’t see much evidence of this in his Cha Cha, where he did what seemed as little actual dancing as possible.  I thought I might be wrong, but my friend sitting next to me echoed my thoughts exactly. The judges seemed quite happy with it, so it’s possible I don’t understand the man’s role in the Cha Cha. Judges scores: 9-9-9.

A new element this season was the Megamix, where all three couples danced a “superdance” at the same time.  Three dances, same choreography (by Nick Kosovich from seasons 2 and 3). This, in theory, is a great idea, I always love the pro dances where up to 5 couples dance at the same time–but those are not PRO dancers.  Do you know how hard it is to have six people dancing in complete synchronization and stay in a specific formation?  HARD. I personally thought that the Megamix was a mess, and the girls outfits were rather unflattering and distracting. They combined Viennese Waltz, Samba and Jive which to me was rather jarring.

In any case, the stars seemed to enjoy themselves, which makes it all ok in the end. Mya came in first, Donny second and Kelly third for 30, 28 and 26 points respectively.

Lastly was the most anticipated dance: the Freestyle. They kept on saying that the Freestyle can make or break a dancer and they could win or lose the trophy with it.  I have to say, I completely disagree, and the Freestyle is always interesting to me, but NOT my favorite. I feel that the Freestyle is some odd excuse to trot out every single trick, lift and leap you’ve ever wanted to do.  It’s never simply been about dancing. Freestyles usually do not live up to expectations and don’t always get the best scores.

Kelly and Louis were up first with a disco Freestyle to Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”,which she had adopted as her theme song, just because her DWTS trip has definitely been an up and down one for her. Yet she still came out shining. Her dance was fun and free, with lots of smiling and singing along from her (which I love). Also thrown in were lots of tricks, not all of which were completely pulled off. But she smiled and laughed the whole way along and never gave up. This got her kudos from the judges if not high paddles. Judges scores: 8-8-8.

Mya and Dmitry did a puzzling Freestyle to “Can’t Stop the Beat” from Hairspray. I liked it a lot, mostly for the reason that they didn’t pull out every trick in the book.  It was good dancing, but not show-stopping.  And her outfit was super cute.  I think they should have gone with Mya’s out-of-the-box idea. Judges scores: 9-9-9.

Donny and Kym were last with what was the most entertaining Freestyle of the evening. Donny did what Donny does the best: entertain us with energy, enthusiasm and style (why didn’t everyone do that?). “Hollywood at it’s best, ” yelled Bruno.  Agreed. Carrie said his Broadway number went down into history with the best, including Drew Lachey’s “Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy” and Shawn Johnson’s Jabbawokeez-inspired Freestyle. Two really great ones in a sea of not really memorable Freestyles. Judges scores: 10-10-10. Well deserved.

The voting has been unpredictable this season. Almost as unpredictable as this season’s predictable winner. But the probability of Mya winning the mirror-ball trophy does not take away from the suspense.  Will the obviously enormous fan bases of Kelly’s and Donny’s come out screaming overnight to deliver an upset?  Even though all three stars have delivered a fantastic season (Mya included), I am keeping my fingers crossed for Miss Osbourne.  Nobody deserves the win more.

Agree? Disagree?  Lemme have it!!

November 19th, 2009 by soullldiva

I can NOT believe it. I really thought that either Kelly Osbourne or Donny Osmond would get eliminated last night on the Semi-Finals Results show of Dancing With the Stars. The fanbases came THROUGH in a big way!

Of course, Mya was the first star revealed as “safe” and having a spot in the finals next week. The tension continued when Donny was revealed to also have a spot in the finals. It came down to Kelly and Joanna Krupa. I really thought that Joanna might make it, she seems to have had real staying power all these weeks, even though I felt that she was a rather stiff dancer.

When they announced that Joanna was going home, the look on Kelly’s face when she realized she was a finalist was priceless. She is SO thrilled and it’s a wonderful thing to see. Joanna seemed quite disapointed that she was going home, and I did feel bad, she did do well all these weeks and really pulled out a beautiful Viennese Waltz last night, with lovely emotion. Kudos.

CAN’T WAIT for next week: Finale Time on Dancing With the Stars Season 9!

(image courtesy of ABC television)

November 18th, 2009 by soullldiva

Whew! Well, after the fallout from Nigel Lythgoe’s tirade last week, the mood on the set of So You Think You Can Dance this week was decidedly subdued. Criticism was given quite a bit milder, and enthusiasm was not as big (geeze, Mary only yelled once the entire show). This was not to say that the dancing did not merit enthusiasm, however. This was a darn good night, with my favorite dance of the season so far.

Ashleigh and Jakob opened the night with a NappyTabs Hip-Hop number. The story was of a girl and her cheatin’ guy–and she finds out by looking at a text on his phone (how very of the times). I love that NappyTabs tells stories with their choreography. Before SYTYCD, I had never experienced Hip-Hop this way, and it was quite a revelation for me. Ashleigh and Jakob really came out fighting in this piece, they took hold of the story and told it with the movements, creating their relationship. They absolutely had the passion and the hurt, but I felt needed just a tad more love. After all, there’s no hurt if there was no love, right? Nigel predicted Jakob to go to the top 10, and told Ashleigh she has grown super-fast as a dancer on the show. Kudos all around.

Next were Karen and Kevin with a Spencer Liff Broadway ditty from Sweet Charity. This was an interesting combination of super-cuteness and super-hard choreography. Broadway is never an easy task, and doesn’t usually garner high praise from the judges. Karen and Kevin were cute together (a 180 from sizzling hotness the past few weeks), but the level of cuteness and humor needed to be far above what they gave on stage for the whole thing to work. Lots more *wink* would have worked for them.

Interestingly enough, Noelle and Russell drew Foxtrot once again out of the hat, with Eddie Simon choreographing. Wow, did Russell improve vastly from his Foxtrot a few weeks ago. But seriously, can Russell do no wrong? The two of them looked like they were having just the time of their lives up on stage, you could almost feel the joy through the tv. Their movements were smooth and effortless and were great to watch. Sheer elegance.

Channing and Victor got a Tyce DiOrio Jazz number where they got to portray “two curious, eclectic, blackbirds coming out to play,” as Tyce said. They used the Beatles’ “Blackbird” covered by Bobby McFerrin, which lent itself very well to the stacatto movements. They had good connection and synchronization and really popped in this dance. I could have even taken even more bird-like mannerisms. After all, if you’re going to portray an animal, you might as well go all the way, huh? Channing and Victor definitely seemed to enjoy them selves in this, there was a certain freedom that I’d never seen before in their dancing.

Kathryn and Legacy drew the “Paso Doble from Hell” (choreographer Tony Meredith’s words). This one was a lot of fun to watch. The Paso can very easily look silly and overdone, and this was not the case with Kathryn and Legacy. They committed to the story of the sea Admiral coming back to claim his angry, heartbroken woman. Whew! Much anger, passion, heat and fire. There could have been a little more precision, and Legacy’s shoulders were pretty tense (as were Kevin’s, it’s common with guy dancers), but overall it was really terrific.

Ellenore and Ryan performed my favorite dance of the night, and of the season so far, a Travis Wall Contemporary number. This told the story of a broken up couple who happens to bump into each other one day. She nursed a broken heart for along time and got over him, he suddenly realized he missed the boat with her. The moment they bumped into each other was truly exquisite, they really took their time and SAW each other, and reacted, it was a real moment. From there the connection strengthened and their performance was superb. Their movements were completely in tune with each other, and you felt their dilemma with the “I really love you but I can’t do this again” thing. They had a fearlessness when they danced with each other, and the lifts and leaps just seemed to happen with no effort. The dance closed brilliantly, bringing them back to the first moment where they bumped into each other, portraying the whole experience happening in a moment in their heads, and they went their separate ways. Genius.

Mollee and Nathan closed out the show with a LaurieAnn Gibson Pop Jazz routine. Loriann had them use an interesting technique of doing a lot of yelling while they danced, because sound unlocks the spirit. I liked this odd technique, sound is always good, and it also gets you to BREATHE, which dancers often forget to do (yeah, right?). Unfortunately, Mollee’s dress was truly awful and took me completely out of it to begin with, and then I just didn’t GET this dance at all. What was I missing? There was even one move where they looked like they were in a sexual position. But, they were big, coordinated, strong, and committed to the dance. Kudos. Not much connection with each other, however, and I really think that comes with just being too young and inexperienced in relationships. They are babies, after all. Talented babies.

Well! We wait with baited breath for elimination tonight. Will Kevin and Karen get sent home as Nigel predicts? Tune in and see!

(Images courtesy of FOX television)