dancey dance

[alonewiththemoon]

Loved the opening number, a Wade Robson piece to Tom Waits' 2:19 danced by underwater demons.  I <3 Wade Robson!  And I was happy to see the African Dance Ensemble do a performance, hooray for non-Western dance!  And the krumping was cool, although the bouncing across the stage on one knee move made me howl in sympathetic pain as I sat on the couch with an ice pack on my own knee.

The solos were all pretty much what you expect from any of them.  Sabra is pretty with her hair back but I miss her 'fro, it added to her ethereal quality.  I think Lacey would be a better dancer if she took muscle relaxants before going on stage--all that frenetic activity gives me a headache.  Lauren is cute and spunky but I don't find her dancing that interesting.  Pasha's solo was cute; it's too bad it took him until this late in the competition to figure out how to dance solo.  Neil is the only one who doesn't look tired at this point.  Danny still hears the music the best.

The results didn't surprise me, though I think Pasha is a better dancer overall than Neil.  Neil's solos might be a notch better, but Pasha's shown much more versatility.  I don't think somebody coming from a partner dance background can really win this kind of competition, so he did well to get as far as he did.  (Swing is different--you can do solo swing, so I don't count it as a de facto partner dance)  Lauren has really improved a lot over the course of the show but Sabra and Lacey are unquestionably better dancers than she is, so it was her time.  I liked that she kept her crazy hair from the opening number for her solo. 

Gossipy moment--what was with the long, long hug between Danny and Lauren at the end there?  Nobody else could come between them!

Read somewhere that Sabra, unlike most of the other contestants, had to work to earn the money for dance school, costumes, etc--her family didn't have the money for things like that.  She even traded janitorial work at the dance studio for classes.  Could I like her any more?  No, I don't think I could.  For me, the show comes down to her and Danny, and in some ways it's the American story of the underclass underdog struggling against the upperclass elitist.  Then I remember that fundamentally they are both artists and these things shouldn't matter.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the show this week, but two hours per night is a bit much, especially if those nights have as many commercials as last night's.  Supposedly my DVD-R will let you start watching a show that's in the process of being recorded before it's done being recorded, so I may try that feature out so that I'm not stuck in front of the tv for all that time.  I gots a life, you know!


I danced last night too, for an hour at the Dance Complex up in the sauna that they call Studio Six.  An African dance class was in there right before me so the room was as humid as can be from all their intense work.  I was dripping before I'd finished my warmup.  I felt like apologizing to my silk veil every time I touched it.  But it was productive to have space to work with, and hopefully all the sweating was good for me in some purging way.  Decided to ditch the zills, as I danced much better without them.  I think my mental image of dancing elegantly to my music doesn't involve zills on my hands, so my body was resisting using them.  Not going to fight that--I'm holding tightly to images of Taheya Carioca and Samia Gamal for this one, that's more important to me than whether I use zills or not.  Plus it will be much easier to pick up my cane at the appropriate time if I don't have to take the zills off first.

Comments

[cassel.livejournal.com]

W. was sad to see Pasha leave - we expected it to be Neil! (He and Danny splitting fighting for modern dance votes). W. suspects it'll come down to Sabra and Lacey - Danny and Neil will continue to split the modern dance votes, but suspects that Pasha's ballroom dance followers will go over to Lacey.

[goat.livejournal.com]

I noticed that it wasn't until Danny danced with Lauren that he really connected with the audience and with his partner. Not sure what the story is behind it, but they've obviously grown a strong bond.

I'm sad to see Pasha go, but I'm no longer invested in the results of the show - I'm just enjoying the entertainment.