And America's Favorite Dancer is...Russell

Sorry about the hiatus. I think the back to back seasons wore me out. My apologies.

So this is a first. The person I wanted to win actually won, but then after he won I was upset. Can we talk about Russell's performance last night?

First off, I never bought it for one second. I think Russell knew that he was going to win (he had that cocky glint in his eye two nights ago that Jeanine had right before she won) and it started to freak him out, so he manifested this leg injury. Why, you might ask. It's hard to say, the mind is a strange place. I am guessing so that if he didn't win he could somehow blame it on his injury. Obviously, the votes had already been cast. Which is exactly why I started thinking that Russell was one strange dude.

Then he won. And he took off his shirt. And he jumped around on his "bad leg". And then Cat had to pull him off the floor. It was a combination of a World Cup game winning goal, Academy Award speech, and touchdown dance. I did not like it. I was having full blown second hand embarrassment. I had to hide in my kitchen for most of it.

Tuesday Night's Show 11/17 -GUEST COMMENTARY!

I was unable to watch the show last night. In lieu of my normal commentary, I will post an email I got from a friend this morning:

i hate legacy more than ever. he was too busy trying to show off his six pack that his posture was terrible throughout the dance. not to mention how he is so obsessed with himself that he plays with his own shadow. and who is paying the judges to rave about jakob (he is soooo forgettable)? his toes were pointed during a hip hop routine!!!!!!

thoughts?

Wednesday Result Show

I full on loved the opening piece. It was complicated, dynamic, compelling and I enjoyed every second of it. Perhaps Dave Scott can be the one who replaces Tabitha and Napoleon!

Dominic from Season 3? Flock of Seagulls haircut? Kmart commercial? Scooter? I'm not even going to comment. But I want to put it out there. 

Did you catch that the song Kevin did his solo to was written by Wade Robson...

I liked Karen's solo and I am not sure that she deserved to be scolded along with the other girls for having weak solos. I'm not sure that Ellenore's was even that bad (though I can see what they meant by her trying to be too quirky). Pauline's was not so good.  She was the obvious choice to go home. 

Looks like the show is not headed for a blackout but a tapout. I don't know if I totally agree with the choice. I think Peter might have been able to grow more with time.  But Kevin did have the better performance this week, so I guess he does indeed deserve to stay.

More Tuesday Night

Karen/Kevin and Ashleigh/Jakob were both great dances. I was pleasantly surprised. And I think both of them are good couples as well as individuals. Kevin really needs to not wear his hair like that ever again, as he looks way to much like the car thief in "Adventures in Babysitting."

I have to say that I am not often moved by the dancer's personal stories, but I was totally moved by Peter talking about his work with people with special needs. That just speaks volumes about his character and I am really impressed. And then I loved his dance with Pauline. The costumes were adorable, they looked great together, and I thought that they really pulled off a good quick step. Interestingly enough, Nigel pointed out how it was not a technically well performed quick step, but he acknowledged that the overall performance was a success. 

I was thinking this morning about why I like Legacy when it seems like a lot of other people don't. And I was wondering if it's because I never like the person who wins, I never pick the winner, and Legacy feels like a good person to back if I want to have at least one season where my favorite dancer wins. On the other hand, he is getting a lot attention right now, and is running the risk of peaking too early.

As far as Legacy's routine, clearly I loved it. I mean really loved it. And I thought Kathryn was very good. I don't know if she deserved all the criticism she got. Oh! I just had a thought. At around this point last season, Phillip and Jeanine did a very similar Broadway at a time when Phillip was all people talked about and Jeanine was completely under the radar. Conclusion: Kathryn is going to win.

All I can say about Ryan and Ellenore is that it should have been a train wreck and it was not. Not even close. But it was not awesome. But we have definitely seen people fall harder when out of their element. 

Eeek. What happened to Mollee and Nathan? I hope they don't go home over this bc I see a lot of potential in both of them.  It almost seemed like nerves rather than that they could not handle the dance. They just looked a bit uncomfortable out there.

I can't believe Russell and Noelle did the African Anteater Ritual. But man did they rock it. Not as well as Patrick Dempsey did, but they rocked it. 

Tuesday Night's Show

When I saw that there were two married couples on the show, the first thing I thought was, "Oh, this is going to totally break up both their marriages." I was partially kidding, and definitely did not want it to actually happen. Hence, I was really upset when Karen announced that she and her husband were splitting up.

Another side note, I was watching a CSI:NY episode yesterday about rival hip hop dancers (who obviously end up murdering each other) and they were playing the song that Legacy danced to last week. And then I notice that it was Legacy dancing to the song. It was hard to miss the person walking backwards on their hands. So I did a little IMDB investigating and found out that Jonathan "Legacy" Perez has been a background dancer on a couple shows and movies. There were also some head shots of him, which I found odd, because that seemed a little too "professional." I always think these people are no-names that just walk off the street, and then it always turns out that they already have a few dance accomplishments under their belt.

Was it me, or was one of the routines last night a combination of Tyce's addiction piece and Travis Wall's piece with Jeannine and the heart locket? I think Victor and Channing danced to it, and perhaps Stacey Tucci choreographed it. But you know how I am with names...

In truth, I was not able to watch most of last night's episode, so I am going to watch it now and post more thoughts later.

Deleted Comment #3

In response to my recollection that Joshua had once lied about his dance training:

"At least he can dance, unlike you"

DELETED COMMENT #2

wow, your blog posts are so superficial and tasteless.

calling jeanine cocky and saying you're not impressed by routines in your old posts. do you think you can dance?