This has been a curious season for me to watch. I had very little attachment to any of the stars going in, and I haven’t gained a lot of new attachments to carry me through the season as has happened in the past.
I knew Brandy going in and had fond memories of cruising around my hometown at 16, 17 years old and trading solos with my best friend on “The Boy Is Mine,” so she was my girl up front. I am so happy that she has done so well this season; she is far and away the best dancer of the group. I also have been enjoying Maks this season, as I did last time with Erin. I think he has finally gotten back on track with good celebrity pairings who work well with his teaching style; he’s come off badly in the past, and now I think that had more to do with the stars than with him. Their foxtrot last week to “Fever” was better than the original, which was one of the top dances of all time on the show (with good reason; it brought the house down when it was first danced live three seasons back), and Brandy has been both consistently good in her performances and consistently charming in her rehearsal footage. Her waltz tonight was…it should have been 30. I had chills from the second the violins started playing, and they stayed through that whole song. So beautiful. And then, as Len pointed out, she went the opposite end of the spectrum for a cha-cha-cha that was fun, flirty, sexy, and energetic. Honestly, she deserves to win this thing, votes or not.
I loved Kyle Massey from his first dance on the premiere, and my crush on him has stayed this whole time. He is just such a likeable person; he works hard even when he seems to be goofing off a lot, he listens to suggestions, he takes criticism in stride and keeps his chin up. He’s fun to watch, charismatic, and involved head to toe in the dances. His Viennese waltz tonight was charming—he really does seem like such “a nice young man”; I was imagining him as an escort at a debutante ball or something—and his jive was off the hook. On point with a fun song from my youthful days listening to my dad’s “oldies” station and full of energy without being wild. Impressive as a formal routine, much less the “instant” round! I think I will cry if he doesn’t make the finals.
Because he is the only other person I want to see there.
The other attachment I had started was cut early when Audrina Patridge got voted off. I know! I was surprised to find myself liking her so much, too, but as one of the better natural dancers in a dance competition, she had pulled me past all the clips of her staring vacantly into a glass I’d seen on The Soup and into rooting for her. Her eviction was bullshit. Voting shouldn’t be that important. Lol.
Everyone else either never did grow on me or wore out their welcome within a couple weeks (cough Jennifer Grey cough). I suppose of the remaining three choices, Jennifer is still the one I’d like to see hit the finals the most, because I think she’s a better dancer than Bristol or Kurt, and because I love Derek so much. She danced well tonight to both songs, seeming to have tamed down some of the wildness of two weeks ago that took her paso doble over the line into frenetic.
Bristol Palin surprised me with her Argentine tango–I thought it had some interesting choreography, a few different leg flicks than we’ve seen before, at least recently, and it was overall easy to watch (not usually the case with her, at least for me). Mark did an excellent job of playing the choreography to her natural aloofness or stiffness, so that it seemed intentional, part of her character in the performance. In my opinion this tango was her best dance yet. The instant round of Samba was less successful. She would have a few good shimmies and then lose either her focus or her energy or her sense of playfulness, and all three are necessary for that dance.
Kurt Warner was sort of flipped in terms of which dance round was better for him–his instant was loose and fun. I think maybe he overthinks when he has time to prepare, so the lack of familiarity with the music kept that routine fresh and light. The other…eh. It wasn’t bad, he’s improving week by week, but it wasn’t memorable, either.
I quite enjoyed the challenge of the instant round. Sometimes I get bored with the gimmicks the producers use, the “story night” and the “rock and roll night” and the television theme song night. I prefer the challenges like this one, where it’s more about can you dance when it’s not rehearsed for thirty hours. I thought the forced improvisation showed the strengths of the good performers and gave us a surprise with another.
I wish I could sign off confident that this is all a matter of performance ability going into the semifinals next week. But at this point, I really have no idea if the football guys who get forced to watch this show (“forced”) by their wives or the Sarah Palin supporter voting blocks will manage to push through one of those two instead of one of the stronger performers. God forbid both. That would be a disaster of a finale.
0 评论:
Post a Comment