Hello! Just watched the 14th's episode

hiya. I'm new too. This is my first post, lol.

I really agree with what you said about Dan vs. Brian this week. And Brian looks awesome w/ his hair straightened, I have decided. lol.

Yeah, it's been so easy for Blake to look good, and much harder for Jamile. I am sick to death of Kamilah. I want her to go home. =\ Nick is amazing, though his mambo wasn't great this week. It was too...slow. I adore Melody, but I am also kind of tired of "the leg" (but if you noticed, Ashlé did it in her solo, and not as well.).

I really like Ashlé AND Melissa (they DO pick on her too much!) but neither of them really wow'ed me with their solos this week. Ash always picks really weird music. I mean, when she picks her own stuff she always picks really ethnic African music. And it looks silly for a blonde chick to always do that...-shrug- Melissa's solo was okay but her costume was absolutely wretched and when you're selling yourself you NEED to sell YOURSELF too. She looked 10-15 pounds heavier in it.

I really wish they'd pick the bottom 4 dancers instead of bottom 2 couples. Then it could still be 2 girls/2 boys but it'd be the DESERVING girls/boys.

I agree about Melissa's outfit.. it looked like a maternity smock, and the light opaque hose with black underwear? Noooooooooo

My husband watches along with me (we do ballroom) and enjoys this more than AI, which he also watches but isn't exceptionally interested. :) He's no homophobe, but he always likes Artem's dances better than the rest, because he dances masculinely. Blake and Nick are too "sensitive" for his taste. He hsa a hard time telling them apart, actually. :)

I'm hoping Melissa and Jamile go this week. Well, not HOPING, but more hoping that Ashlé and Artem stay. WAY hoping Artem stays, I have major Housewife Hots for him. :)

I have any kind of hots for Artem. That is one beautiful man. hahaha.

I think it's a total toss-up about Ashlé and Melissa, because I love them both.

I understand the difference that your husband talks about, even though I don't agree. Or rather, I agree that there's something uber-masculine, almost-macho! about Artem's dancing. But I don't agree that that makes him better than Blake or Nick.

Personally, I heavily favor Nick. They've both got stellar technique, superb musicality and phrasing, a nice arsenal of fire-cracker-style tricks to spice things up. But while Nick seems genuine to me, Blake seems like a big faker. Also, as someone who's been on the female side of "partnering" for ten years now, I have to say that I would be very uncomfortable with Blake as a partner. I feel like there is nothing about the way he dances that contributes to his partner - he is NEVER supportive. True, he hauls those girls through those lifts, but I don't get the feeling that he *cares* about them, as performers. I remember when he was dancing with Ashle, the one time that she lifted him looked more effortless and weightless than any of the lifts where he was picking her up.

I think Nick is more of a team player, whereas Blake just wants people to think he's a team player. And while we're on the topic of team-playerness, Artem out-does them both on that topic. Because ballroom is all about the team. But also because he seems like the kind of person who understands that the pair is greater than the sum of two dancers.

I have the same hopes as you, for who stays. I have any and all kinds of hots for Artem as well.

How long have you and your husband been dancing ballroom? Is it just recreational, have you competed, were you professional? I'm just curious :-).

ris

I agree with everything you said, especially re Blake v Nick. As for being masculine, Blake and Nick both have excellent technique, broader than Artem. Hubby hasn't been exposed to lyrical much (neither have I, actually) and he does NOT like things like Cirque du Soleil or Vegas shows. So if a dance reminds him of those (we once had to sit through a C. d S. 'cause someone gifted us tickets and also went, so we had to sit through the whole thing).. he just hates that. :) Maybe he's picking up on Artem's partnering, which is still the strongest of the three. I hope Artem wins, but I think Nick deserves it the most. :)

As for us dancing, I started at age 8 with folkdance and contra (a style that evolved into square dance, but NOT square dance), and hubby started those at age 20. So I have 27 years of dance (ack), he has 20, and we've partnered for 18 years. Ballroom is a big part of contra, and we've done all the different styles at various times. We never competed or went pro, of course, but we've been in troupes and have performed for years. I also taught it for a few years.

How about you?

I hope Artem wins, but I think Nick deserves it the most. :)

My feelings exactly.

As for my dance history, it's heavily grounded in ballet, since from age 8-18 I was CONVINCED that I would rather die than not be a professional ballet dancer. So I pushed and pushed and auditioned and got myself into ballet schools where academics was an afterthought and basically ate, slept, and breathed ballet for ten years. But any good ballet dancer is "broadly trained" which means you have to take all different kinds of dance. So I did a lot of jazz, modern, lyrical, and ballroom. Also tap, character dancing, flamenco, court dancing. Ballroom was always one of my favorites because it was pretty much the only dance form I came across where choreography wasn't a collection of individuals working together - it really was a couple, and those two people never had to stand on their own (in the context of the dance). After all the pressures of ballet, it was a nice kind of counter-argument. There's the new pressure of not letting your partner down and living up to your part of it, but you really feel like you're not alone.

Over the years since I abruptly decided a ballet career wasn't for me I've kept my hand in at various different kinds of dance over the years. I went through a thick lyrical period, then a really thick ballet one. But after watching this and Dancing with the Stars, I'm REALLY interested to get into a ballroom class. I hope they have one near me.

I've never taken contra before, and I confess I don't know much about it. The more I learn about dance the more I learn how much I have to learn! I'm so interested to try so many things - there are scores of eastern traditions of dance that I've barely scratched the surface of in a seminar here or there, not to mention things like hip hop which I've only taken a few times. Dance is an never-ending adventure, whether you branch out into a million things or stay focused on your one specialty. I think it is such a wonderful art form. I'm glad it's more prevalent in the popular culture these days, at least for right now.

ris

About Ashle's leg lift, I think she was doing something different.
Because I think I remember seeing her do that in her audition.
Plus it was more modern-y looking, so it went better w/ her choice of music.


i loove her.
i met her at a competition befoore =]

How long ago did you meet her? What kind of competition was it? What kinds of dance do you do? Just curious. :-)

ris

I really wish they'd pick the bottom 4 dancers instead of bottom 2 couples. Then it could still be 2 girls/2 boys but it'd be the DESERVING girls/boys.

My sister came up with a system whereby for each dance, the judges would award each individual dancer a certain number of points out of ten. Then at the end of the show, the bottom 4 would come from that system. She (my sister) even thinks that points should carry over from week to week, but that would only be fair if they would make sure everyone gets to do all styles, otherwise it's not really fair.

Ash always picks really weird music.

I agree. My mom actually likes it, because she says it's different, and the movement she's doing looks like it could actually be part of a modern dance. But I just can't help but think of it as "jungle weirdness." I think I would be more ok with it if she didn't cap it off by wearing bone-necklaces or animal prints.

I am sick to death of Kamilah. I want her to go home. =\

Agreed. Sadly, either Ashle or Melissa will be first.

ris

I was also really happy this week to see Mary not being a total bitch to people. heh heh.

It's true, she's made some really UNACCEPTABLE comments. I felt like she was always way too mean to Allan, even if she had some valid points. They could have been made without the nasty.

But then there were so many other things, VALID TECHNICAL POINTS that, after her opening speech of "I'm hard on people, I just call it as I see it," she just totally let people waltz on by. I'm thinking of Destiny in particular, doing the waltz (unintentional pun). I feel like she's probably the most inconsistent judge. But I have a feeling that I would really love her class, as a teacher/choreographer she seems like the hard-case-hoot type that is challenging but fun, and without tolerating any BS.

ris

Marisa, I totally agree with everything you said. This show is so frickin' lopsided. Poor Jamile had to do ballroom dancing pretty much every week while people like Blake/Artem get to do dance styles that favour them. For once I'd like to see Artem do hip hop. I don't think he could pull that off... *lol* His solo performance left a lot to be desired while Jamile's was eye-catching & unique. I like Artem but I'd rather have Jamile stay.

I think Kamilah is the best female dancer.. I dunno what the judges were smoking when they were doing their critiques.

I agree that the judges had their asses on backwards this week. I guess they were handing out crazy pills in the green room.

I don't agree that Kamillah is the best female dancer . . . but in a way I don't think any of the girls on this show are/were the best female dancer. Maybe it's my inner competitor speaking, but I feel like I've been to open classes in New York where I've seen girls who were way more versatile, way more pull-together, way more performance-oriented than any of the girls who made it onto the show. It's strange to me, because the crop of guys seemed way more up to what I think of as "the current biz par." Nick, Blake, Jamile, Artem, Craig . . . these guys look like the top of the heap to me. But none of the girls really do, especially not now. Melody looked the closest at the beginning, but she's disappointed me a lot since Hollywood week. Now Ashle is seeming closest, but she's a little bland sometimes, for my taste. Melissa is inconsistent - sometimes she looks like a pro, sometimes she looks like a student. Kamillah has the best "game face" of them all - she's the one putting the performance in the steps, rather than the steps in the performance. But she's got the weakest technical elements of all the girls.

There's no girl like Nick or Blake, where I feel like she's got the "basic professional elements" covered. Either I'm worried for her in her double pirouettes, or I feel like I'm watching a mark-through, or else I feel like she's more of a prop than a partner. So I guess at this point I don't really have a favorite girl. It's Ashle by default, but that's mostly because 1) she's not Melody and 2) I think she has the strongest technique and, being something of an ex-classicist, in the end my heart usually follows technique.

As for Artem and Hip Hop, I am so afraid of that happening. Because I think you're right, I think that would be his weakest suit. But the man is a god of Hotness, I would be SO SAD to see him leave the show. But hey, it might happen this week anyway, and I have to admit that, Hotness be damned, I don't think he should win this competition. Although if it comes down to him and Blake I am SO voting for him (I noted in other comments that I feel Blake is a faker and not an "honest" partner). But if it comes down to him and Nick . . . probably not. If it comes down to him and Jamile . . . AHHHHHH DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE.

Because my mom and I have been having a conversation - Jamile is Someone Special. A pretty amazingly versatile dancer, given that we've seen him tackle all manner of ballroom dances and not suck at most of them even though he's not had Day One of training in the technique. But beyond the dancing - he's got "it." The magic. My mom calls it his "Cole Porter coolness." He is truly a Class Act, and hot to boot. I am actually dreading next episode, because I think both he and Artem are wonderful. I wish Blake would go instead, even if his technical prowess DOES far exceed their own (guess I'm not THAT much of a classicist). Jamile deserves an episode of no ballroom, at the very least.

His solo performance left a lot to be desired while Jamile's was eye-catching & unique.

And I definitely agree with that statement. I said to my mom that for both the girls and Artem, they do better when they are doing "a style," when they have a choreographer not just telling them what to do, but telling them "who to be." But Jamile - holy crap! - he IS a style all unto himself. He doesn't need to be told who to be, because he's already Somebody. I really really respect that.

ris

Welcome to the community!

Thanks!

ris

i am COMPLETELY obsessed with nick.