I agree, it was cute, but had some disappointing aspects. The ballroom judge (the one in the middle) was the only one who had any clue what he was talking about. I thought it was hilarious how the host misinterpreted his remark of the flowers and grass to be a compliment (when he was basically saying that the dance was all showy and flowers, and no grass) Then, they were shocked when it got a 4.

The show took me back to my chain school days of seeing all those pro/am solos. You know the look, the guy is basically standing there, while the girl does all the showy stuff. Or, the guy is in total control while the female student is holding on for dear life...hilarious.

Of course, no matter how good or bad it is, it's great to see ballroom dancing on primetime on a major network. I hope it does well and they bring it back.

If any ABC execs are checking this out, here are some suggestions for improvements:

1. Show more of the training
2. Get rid of the cheesy host
3. Use only real ballroom dance judges
4. Have the celebrities train for 3 months prior to the show.

5. Have the couples dance something other than solos they've worked on. Get all the couples on the floor at once, and let's see who can really dance.

Anon dancer made some very good points. To me, it is ridiculous that only one judge is a qualified ballroom judge. The others have no idea what they are talking about.

And I agree that the host stinks, and I too would like to see more of the training.

Anon dancer's suggestion that the celebrities train for 3 months is not feasible.

As a ballroom dancer and judge for over thirty years, I actually am impressed with how well the celebrities are doing. Ballroom dancing is not easy.

I thought it was silly. The pro men danced waltzes with their partners (even tho they were really Latin experts), and the pro women did their cha-cha flamboyant stuff while their amateur men stood still for them. They should all do the same dance- all waltzes, or all chacha or whatever.

And training the amateurs to do gold level open choreography has nothing to do with pair dancing with lead follow.

Jerry

Jerry, maybe they should re-name the show

Dancing *NEAR* the Stars

Hahhaha.

I thought it was great fun and we had many laughs talking about it after our Thursday Night private small group practice.

At least John O'Hurley got to dance a couple of syllabus steps. LOL! And, while everyone expected Evander to be the focus O'Hurley definitely stole show.

We are speculating that:

1. The male celebrities will only dance the latins because they'd never be able to lead the standards well enough to fool the general audience.

2. The female celebrities danced flowers because expecting them to dance figures at a high enough level to be entertaining to the general audience in a live broadcast is too dangerous. Posing is easier.

Regardless, our group of critics is hoping they get to do a Paso Doble. O'Hurley is a natural for it.

I'm also planning to tape the final as the community center up the street from us has a wide screen TV and a bar and will let us bring our own tapes for show. Good excuse to party.

OB

Oh, what a great idea OB -- having a party on the night of the finale.

Next week the guys will be dancing ballroom and the ladies will be dancing Latin. So, we get to see Edyta in a ballgown, Charlotte & John playing to her strengths, Louis/Alec & partners playing to their teacher's strengths, and Evander in a tux. Oh yeah, and Rachel Hunter in a Latin dress. She's got loooong legs. It's gonna be fun!

hey
I was dissapointed with the show. I thought it would be more dancing and less freestyling. It was nice to watch and hopefully it will attract more people to dancing, but i think it misrepresented ballroom dancing. I am looking forward to next week hopefully there will be more dancing!
~Becca~

Just in case it's not known, this programme is based on the UK BBC's show "Strictly come Dancing" which has been hugely successful, capturing biggest-ever Saturday evening audiences, has run several times, and made a mint of money for the BBC. The american producers apparently decided to leave the format virtually unchanged.
True, they don't show all the hard work, but which sporting film ever did (other than Chariots of fire)? Only sports people would really relate to it.

I thought is was great fun! And I liked the mix. There was a lot of posing but what could anyone do within 6 weeks that knew nothing and probably did not devote 8 hours a day since they have a life outside of dancing. But it might gets folks interested and excited about dancing so GREAT! All Dance Judges. Maybe too hard for anyone to get anywhere and... the end.... Larry

Just for fun:

Can you match the "Stars" styles to people you know?

Our little group managed to match Evander & O'Hurley to styles of people we know here. We just aren't going to tell them!

OB