So it’s all over the place that Olympic swimmer Greg L0uganis wants to be on Dancing With the Stars. “It would be such a blast.” Louganis has said. It appears that he was a dancer as a child and wore “sequins, headbands and poofy sleeves” for dance routines. Sounds like it’s a perfect match! “I’ve never done ballroom but I want to try. Dance really captures something you just can’t put into words.” he stated. Well said.
Will he be one of the names announced on The Bachelor finale? And if he is will he join the lexicon of Olympians including winners Apolo Anton Ohno, Kristi Yamaguchi and Shawn Johnson??? We’ll see March 1st–I’ll be there watching as the contestants are announced. ;o)
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!
There are bits and bobs floating around the interwebs about the upcoming 10th season of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, premiering March 22nd (only 9 weeks away, an eternity). The first one is that there will be less couples this time around. In season 9, there were 16 couples and they did a bunch of double eliminations. What’s better than dancing–more dancing, of course! But, whatever, less couples are fine, just find me some juicy stars!
Speaking of juicy, here’s the low-down on some of the stars who are rumored to be coming on season 10:
1. Jonathan Frakes: He-llo, former Star Trek: The Next Generation hunko and director (yes, I am really a geek at heart).
2. Genie Francis: lovely Laura from General Hospital (and incidentally, Jonathan’s wife).
3. Bethany Frankel: Real Housewives of New York City star. I prefer my drama to be well-written and I’m not into those shows, so I’m not familiar with her.
4. Suge Knight: Wow, co-founder of Death Row Records??? Interesting…
5. Danny Gokey: former American Idol contestant and really awesome singer. I wonder if he can move as well as he sings. And will he wear contacts or his famous glasses?
6. Erin Andrews: ESPN reporter. I don’t watch a lot of ESPN, so I don’t know Erin.
7. Kurt Angle: Pro wrestler from the TNA wresting show. Well, last season we had Chuck Liddel and I was a big fan of his (my husband is an avid MMA follower, so I was pleased to see him do as well as he did).
8. Dominique Moceanu: 1996 Olympic Gold Medal Gymnast. Olympians tend to do very well (Apolo Ono Anton, Kristi Yamaguchi, Shawn Johnson, all past winners), so if she’s for sure cast she may well be a contender.
9. Vera Wang: Designs beautiful wedding dresses. Can she dance?
10. Lou Ferrigno: Mr. The Hulk himself. Will the big guy be able to move that bulk around with the greatest ease?
11. Danielle Fishel: Former Boy Meets World star and current host of The Dish.
12. Leslie Jordan: a southern comedian I’m unfamiliar with, but apparently he’s won an Emmy award…
13. Greg Louganis: Another Olympian, but a swimmer. That could be very interesting.
14. Jordan Knight: I was never into New Kids on the Block when I was younger, but so many of my friends were. The boy band record is good so far (Joey Fatone is still one of my faves), so he could do well.
15. Dean McDermott: Mr. Tori Spelling, very cute, very rugged.
16. Beth Horn: American Gladiator’s Venom yeah! She could kick a$$ in more ways than one…
17. Jennifer Grey: NOBODY puts Baby in the corner!!! I’m just sayin’, is all.
As I stated, these are all just rumors, but I’ll be on the lookout for an official list as soon as it comes down the line. Should be a verrrrry exciting Season 10 for Dancing With the Stars!
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.
“It would be such a blast.” Louganis has said. It appears that he was a dancer as a child and wore “sequins, headbands and poofy sleeves” for dance routines. Sounds like it’s a perfect match! “I’ve never done ballroom but I want to try. Dance really captures something you just can’t put into words.” he stated. Well said.
