"The Hip Action Was Like Replacement Hip Action"

Bruno is such a goof. (He said this to Penn Teller). I sometimes think he plans out his lines before the show...

I loved the opening number — loved that they introduced all the pro dancers up front and let them shine. I love that Louis van Amstel danced with Karina Smirnoff 🙂 my two favorites…

How much did Priscilla Presley seem like she didn’t want to be there during intros?!

I thought Penn was cute. He’s an enormous man and the choreography Kym gave him actually worked for him. Her opening splits, where he took her leg up, was a good idea for a tall guy — it elongated her and kind of brought him to her level, and I love how he darted through her legs right after that. With that huge body, he looked like a whale! And the ending, with the flowers he magically pulled out from his sleeve and presented to her — adorable. He jumps too much though — his biggest problem, hopping around to make up for lack of rhythm and speed — common among beginning men. She just needs to teach him that hips produce the rhythm not bopping up and down.

Okay, I just completely fell for Jason. Oh my, oh my! — he is so dapper, so gentlemanly, so smooth, such the consummate ballroom man! Awesome posture — I think that water bottle on the head during practice helped. And so graceful, and for a sports guy??? What was all that crap about not wanting to be girly? My pet peeve. But it seemed only for show, especially with the tutu thing. Funny though how American men think Latin is girly, because he was doing Cha Cha during practice when he said that he was now going to have a rep in the locker room. But then they have no problem with Standard — like they think Standard is more manly than macho Latin. Well, Standard is closer to ballet, so I guess ballet is manly by the same logic 😀 My biggest problem with him is his feet — he did the pigeon-toed thing a couple of times, particularly on a stretch where his back foot was lunged out and it was very noticeable. Edyta should get him to stop it! Another pet peeve…

Okay, now Cristian has stolen my heart as well… Whoa did Cheryl trust him — she threw herself right into his arms! I don’t know what Bruno and Len were on about regarding his shoulders though, it was his feet that bothered me; he wasn’t as pidgeon-toed as Jason, but sometimes on those New Yorkers (cross overs) the back foot was not turned out. I’m sorry, am I ridiculous? It’s just a huge pet peeve, and a common mistake beginning men make. Maybe it’s my ballet background… Anyway, I think Cristian is a lot of fun and I love his complaint that he’s Chilean (known for food and wine) and not Brazilian (dance country), so even though he’s Latino, he’s not so great on his feet — an embarrassment since everyone on his white TV show (Ugly Betty — totally didn’t recognize him from that!!) expects him, as a Latin, to be a natural dancer. Hence his reason for being on the show — to be what he should already be.

Oh so cute that they had Helio on saying how he felt about Julianne Hough’s “being with another man”! I know many people don’t like his politics (which I don’t know about since I never watch syndicated shows), but Adam seemed endearingly self-effacing. He said DWTS seemed pretty humiliating, so thought it was something he should try. Also moaned, “I felt horrible for the kid, ruining her perfect record.” Aw. Cute foxtrot. He was pretty good, except those pidgeon toes happened again, and his butt was sticking out at one point, losing that martini glass pelvis-connecting shape with Julianne so important in Standard. Bruno said he was not Fred Astaire, but Will Ferrell?… I didn’t think he was comical at all. All the judges are being pretty harsh actually. I thought he was pretty good, for it being his first try. His footwork was flawless, which for foxtrot is hard; he didn’t seem to miss a step. And that battemant kick was bent-kneed, but I was surprised at how high up it went. He did look stiff, but who can blame someone’s opening-night nerves?

Okay how smooth is Mario? He said one of the reasons he wanted to do the show was to meet Karina 😀 Methinks he is the next Sabrina though — he has a lot of dance background with that R&B and hip hop. I don’t care if it’s not ballroom; dance is dance. I still love him though. For the first time ever while Karina was on the floor, I watched someone other than Karina! The judges are being nice, with the exception of Len, who pointed out some heel leads that I’d missed — that you never do in Latin. That’s the annoying thing with the judges — they act like dance background is irrelevant. He’s got the highest score so far. Youth is also a big factor in learning to dance well fast. He had some pidgeon toes too though… I think what it is is the Latin shoes with the 3/4 inch Cuban heels. Those heels, short as they are, make a non-turned-out foot look just awful. But with his groove, his natural hip action, it was almost non-noticeable.

Eeee — I love that Anna Trebunskaya took Steven Guttenberg to the Vegas Classic — a real, live, authentic competition — on this show! I even saw some familiar faces — Lucas! I liked their routine; it was cute. I felt like there was a story there though, but I couldn’t figure out what exactly it was. They were playfighting and making up, and flirting with the judges, but it didn’t really all come together as a narrative to me. Still, he was very charismatic, and how excellent was that jump and kick! Carrie Anne’s right — he’s a real charmer. And Len’s right that he enjoyed himself and his smile was infectious. He’s the performer of the group — this season’s Marie Osmond (except a better dancer :)). Sweetly self-deprecating too.

(By the way, did anyone see that movie, “Kissing Jessica Stein”? — has nothing to do with this show, but there’s a line in the beginning of that film, spoken by one of the dweeby guys Jessica goes on a blind date with. Trying to dazzle her with his wit, he tells her he’s “humorously self-defecating.” I couldn’t stop laughing, and now, everytime I go to say self-deprecating, I have a frightening tendency to say defecating.)

Anyway, I like all the guys. Every single one of them. And I have about four favorites. Now what? The women ensure us they’re superior to the men. Marlee Matlin said it’s not about her deafness but her great hips. Then why, of course, did she bring the former up in the first place?? Marissa Winokur got a lot of cheers. Good for her — I’m really excited to see her. And I love Kristi Yamaguchi!