Gilles Marini was my personal favorite to win Dancing With the Stars season 8 last spring. It was unfortunate that Gilles did not have the fanbase that little gymnast Shawn Johnson had. While she certainly wowed the crowds and did excellently, Gilles just had that…certain…something extra. Was it sex appeal? Maybe. He simply showed more depth and dimension in his dancing (acting comes in handy, huh?). Take his Argentine Tango, for instance, with his partner Cheryl Burke. Probably the sexiest dance ever on Dancing With the Stars. Don’t think so? Let me know!
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!
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.
The dancers (well, at least those that are in for the long run) are beginning to “settle in” as the top 18 performed last night on So You Think You Can Dance. More talent is coming through, and nerves as well, and its easy to see at this stage who is going to be eliminated at the end of the night.
I am always thankful that the dancers have Cat Deely as an anchor on stage when they’re coming down off their performance and have to face the harsh reality of the judges. Besides being amazingly tall and devastatingly beautiful (not to mention a fashion maven), she really takes care of the kids and makes sure there’s positive spins on everything, as was the case last night when Channing was called a “sack of potatoes” by Nygel Lithgoe.
Some pieces on Tuesday night fell a little flat, such as Bianca and Victor’s Tyce DiOrio Broadway routine, and Channing and Phillip’s Samba, but there were some jewels as well.
Wade Robson has a fierce, fantastic imagination and was able to look at Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” and play with the idea that there were once people in the painting and Vincent got rid of them (which makes them come back for mischevious revenge). He comes up with an amazingly quirky and mesmerizing jazz routine for Peter and Pauline that cranked with immense enjoyment. The dancers really committed to the movement and their characters and it really worked for me.
The only not-so-great thing about this piece was the darn screen in the background, making me so dizzy with a spinning “Starry Night” that it was hard to concentrate on the dancers!
Since Mia Michaels is not on this season (sniff), Wade is now my favorite choreographer. I must have watched his group piece to “Comanche” ten times on my DVR, I loved it so much. His choreography just has a hungry, on-fire attack to it that lends itself so well to the dancers this season. They seem to love performing his stuff (almost as much as I love to watch it)!
Karen and Kevin got a Tabitha/Napoleon hip-hop number where they got to be a manly mechanic and a sexy racing groupie. I realize that NappyTabs is not always a total crowd favorite, but the combination of Karen/Kevin, racing and sex really percolated into something fabulous, clever and fun. Much gyrating! It’s safe to say that Karen isthe SYTYCD resident hottie this season (Mary Murphy already put her on the Hot Tamale Train last week). It’s well deserved on her part, as she really made the hip-hop moves work for her, even though she was out of her element. And she plays the sexy card uber well (did we mention she’s sexy?). Judge Adam Shankman fell out of his chair describing her and the rest constantly say they can’t keep their eyes off her because she’s a magnet on stage. Kevin has his work cut out for him.
Argentine Tango is by far my favorite ballroom style dance, and last night’s Ryan and Ellenore Tango really delivered. Choreographers Miriam Larici and Leonardo Barrionuevo created a slow and sultry dance with a ton of precision work with the feet. Ryan and Ellenore smoked on the stage, with a quiet fierceness and “laser-like connection” (Adam Shankman’s words).
Image courtesy of FOX
They committed completely in both technique and the emotion the Argentine Tango demands. In fact, they were so focused that even Ellenore’s dress being caught in the heel of her shoe for about 40% of the dance didn’t faze either of them one bit. Amazing.
So it was with sadness, but no surprise that the two sent home by the judges at the end of the show were Phillip and Bianca, both of them tappers. Well, at least there is one tapper left–good luck Peter, I’m rooting for you from my living room. Hopefully, there are more out there who are rooting as well.
Last night was a very interesting night on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. I have been looking forward to tango/paso doble night for a little while, it never disappoints.
Argentine Tango is my favorite ballroom dance. Heat, passion, lust, anger and awesome legwork are always in order. The one contestant who really pulled it out of the bag and delivered wholeheartedly was “little” Aaron Carter. Damn if he didn’t pull it together, focus and connect with excellent precision and a LOT of lust for Karina (he’s a young man, who can blame him?). After his last two low-score weeks (and I don’t completely agree with the judges on that) this was new life in his dancing. Unfortunately, his scores were not as good as some of the other contestants, but I really think he gave it all and did excellently (and the judges did like it a lot).
The one dance that I was really looking forward to was Kelly Osbourne’s paso doble. She was doing it to her father Ozzy’s song “Crazy Train” and I thought “oh yeah, this will be great.” It was good, she looked great in her grey skirt and spiky hair, and Louis looked great in his Ozzy Ozbourne makeup.
Kelly and her Daddy 'do
But I think her nerves got the better of her again, I feel like she’s holding on too hard to NOT mess up. I think she held on less in the very first week of competition maybe because it was her first time doing this and she thought “what do I have to lose?” And now, she got such high praise (well deserved) that now she’s afraid to not live up to those standards. Just let go Kelly, and HAVE FUN–you’re great as-is.
On a different note, the hair was completely out of control last night. In fact, Tom Bergeron called it when he said “hairstyles by Fellini.” The ‘do I really liked was Kelly’s ,she looked like a blonde version of her father from the early 80’s. But Lacey’s ratty looking faux-hawk just didn’t read well on TV. As well, Samantha Harris’ terrible, frizzy curly ‘do made her look like she had it done in 1983 with bad hot rollers (and she’s the worlds most glamorous paper doll on TV, they really know how to dress her up). Ugh. THEN to top it off, all the guys wore the silliest, poufy wigs for the Hustle group dance–but that was pure fun! ;o)
