| Music Rant of the Week |
[Nov. 5th, 2007|08:06 pm] |
Dancing With the Stars music rant:
First round
Helio dancing tango to a swing. Means his tango was too bouncy, not nearly cat-like enough. Len complained about no heel leads? There aren't heel leads in swing. I think Carrie Ann has simply given up on the music supporting the styling. 9 8 8
Marie got to do her quickstep to the music that Jane should have had for her jive the week before. The good thing is that quickstep and jive are much the same tempo and so the style wasn't compromised. 10 9 9
Mel B's foxtrot music wasn't as bad as it might have been but it still didn't support the styling of the foxtrot as much as it could have done. Carrie Ann's comment about the step size being a little out-of-sync with her being pulled along is a symptom of this. The dance is meant to be stretched out on the floor and the music was supporting a shorter, bouncier style. 8 8 8
Jane's quickstep to Walk The Line is again not only Too Damn Slow but it's also not in any way a quickstep! It's a two-step. Compare it to Marie dancing quickstep to jive tempo and once again, Jane isn't being pushed. And Len was absolutely right about the total lack of body contact. And Jane isn't going to be exciting us as long as she keeps getting music that's too slow for the dance she's doing. It makes the dance feel leaden. 8 8 8
Jennie's Viennese Waltz is... 3/4 time! And it flows which supports the style. Someone must have delegated finding this music. 8 8 9
Cameron's quickstep music was, well, fast. But while it did elicit some bounce it didn't support the glide that's also supposed to be there. Hence Len not liking the style. It was only partway there. 8 8 8
Second round
Helio! Wow! I knew it was samba before I looked! Finally, an excellent music selection! And look what happens when the music strongly supports what the dancers are doing! 9 9 9
And again! Marie's cha cha is to music with a strong cha cha rhythm! She really sells what she's doing but they're right -- not quite enough content. 8 8 8
Mel B and the *checks closed captioning* paso doble? What paso doble? Nothing, absolutely nothing, in that to pull out the paso styling. Nothing. Compliments to Mel for dancing a strong paso regardless. 10 10 10
And again, a real cha cha. Not the liveliest one, it's more relaxed, and that's not what Jane needed. She's had too many that were just a hair too slow to be exciting. She needed lively. 8 9 9
Jennie got a nice rumba, too. Good tempo, has the back beat feel that helps pull out the styling. For myself, I would have liked a little more change-up in the styling -- most of her moves were quick and staccato and I would have liked more mix of slow stretched-out moves with the quick ones. 9 9 10
Cameron's jive was a little slow but not so it felt too slow. And he had some difficult choreography to do which was helped by it being just a little slow, since it gave his longer legs the chance to get to full stretch in some of those moves. 9 9 9
Who should be going home tomorrow: Jane. I like her and she dances well, but not in the same league as the ones who are left. Had the music this week and last not been below tempo I think that would have been much more apparent.
Who will be going home: after last week, it's anyone's guess. |
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| Comments: |
I just... hated the first half of the show. HATED IT. I thought Marie's footwork was a little too slow and awkward considering she was doing a quickstep, but you're right, more a consequence of the music than anything else. The second half was much better, but still not up to par with the rest of the season. It's like Sabrina being gone just drained the magic out of everybody in the ballroom round, and a little of it came back for the Latin round.
Helio is too adorable. His smile is his best part. :) He's a really nice guy, too; he calls in to my brother's radio show every week, and last week, Julianne called in too, as both of them were in Indianapolis for some self-promotion.
The music in the first half sucked. Badly. Jennie was the only one who had music that supported the dance she was doing, and even then it was a touch slow. Just not enough to bother me.
Actually I wasn't surprised that the dancing wasn't up to what we've been seeing mainly because this was the first week they had to do two dances so I was expecting to see the quality drop a little. I'll be disappointed if it doesn't pick up again next week.
I don't know NEARLY enough about ballroom to talk coherently about specifics. I really enjoyed your notes, though.
I didn't like Marie's cha-cha (missed her jive, altho it looked good in the clip I saw). Not sexy enough, I didn't get the feeling she *felt* the music in her bones.
I love watching Jane dance. And as she's relatively close to my age, I'm really rooting for her. But I think you're right, the music choices were really poor for her this week and it's hard to push yourself when the music isn't supporting it. Didn't she rock that gold dress though? WOW.
I wasn't nearly as fond of Mel B's 2nd number as the judges. I found her costume distracting, especially the swinging coat.
LOVED Cameron's jive. He's probably the weakest of the remaining dancers, but I thought the choreography really did him justice for the jive. He has a great 'pop' in his kicks, and good 90 degree kicks too! The beginning was weird - was that intentional or did he really almost miss the beginning of the Jive number?
Hee! I know enough about ballroom to be dangerous. We competed (iz me in icon) until a while back when I developed heels spurs on both feet, so I'm fairly familiar with the accepted tempo range for pretty much all the dances, and definitely with the technical aspects. And with the style and attitude that each dance is supposed to have. Which is why I've had so many music rants this season -- the music is supposed to support and help the dancers bring out the styling whether it be flowing or dramatic or energetic ot whatever else. And it's failed spectacularly to the point where a good piece is a surprise.
Marie's cha cha was all about presentation and not about content. She brings enough personality to her dances that it can be easy to overlook the lack of technical challenge in the steps themselves.
Jane is a good dancer, and I was really glad to see her reach this point at the least (though she should have gone last week). But her choreography and, in particular, her music have not challenged her they way the other dancers have been. And oh yeah, she's looked good in her costumes!
I agree that Mel's costume was distracting but honestly? I was so distracted by the deplorable choice of music that I had to force myself to concentrate and really give her full credit for pulling off a top-notch paso, attitude and all, with neither music nor costume going for her. I've been at a competition where someone decided to try to change up the paso music (it's usually one of two pieces that allow the choreography to hit the high points) and had all the (amateur) couples stand for several seconds trying to find the right beat and , and had the head judge stop the dance and give them a 'do over' with the right music. If only Len could do that...
I thought Cameron really brought it this week, doing some moves as well as the pros would have. Particularly the side by side moves with the high kicks that were in great unison with his partner. I missed the very beginning! And one drawback of having homes in two states is that I have to wait to see it again because the DVR is in the other one! | |
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