Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Dancing With The Stars - Week 4

A Teacher's Perspective

By Debra Stroiney

I know, I know, I was wrong last week about who would be voted off. I did not expect such a huge fan base for Steve Wozniak! I am wondering if Denise got voted off because of some of the things Maksim said which were published.

I feel that it is always an interesting week when they have new dances that they can also perform lifts in. It kindof shows you what the instructors focus on when they are coming up with their routines and how they are teaching their students. I find it interesting that more of the men stood there in the Argentine Tango than they did in the Lindy Hop. Usually Argentine Tango would be easier to pick up on. It’s slower, the footwork is not as difficult, and there are many options. I feel all those who danced the Argentine Tango except for Gilles and Lil' Kim were filled with times of standing and a lot of lifts. We all want to see the lifts but it is also important to make sure there is dancing in there too. There was more dancing in the Lindy Hop routines than the Argentine Tango routines.

I knew when I saw Shawn Johnson’s routine that the judges were not going to like it. Mark played to her gymnastics, and I see nothing wrong with this. They created that routine for her fans and the audience. It is probably one of the only dances that they could do this with and it didn't look out of place. They put on a fantastic show, and it was fun to watch. She still danced quite a bit. In fact, Melissa probably did almost as many tricks as Shawn did but the one difference I saw is the tricks flowed better in Melissa's choreography.

Ty Murray is definitely the most improved dancer. This is what you want to see when you are working with a professional who is teaching you to dance.
I cannot believe how rude the judges were to Steve Wozniak. When they said that he stinks, you could see that Karina was also affected by this. I don’t blame her; it is a reflection on her as a teacher if they are negative. In some ways, he just does not have the ability to learn as quickly as the others but Fred Astaire always said that anyone can learn to dance. That is exactly what Steve is doing - he may not be a performer but he is learning to dance. I wonder if the fans can save him again this week.

Something will have to change in the coming weeks or the audience votes are going to be even more important. Now I feel that we have the dancers who are coming out and trying hard but just don’t perform very well. Then we have those who are mediocre, they are doing well but they just don’t have the extra uniqueness that the others seem to have. Now the judges are starting to reflect this in their scores and comments.

I really don’t know if I can pick the two that may be voted off this week. I am thinking that one of them is Holly. Her fan base is not as strong as the two Steves.

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