Hey all!
I hope everyone is having a great summer. Tonight, a brand new dance competition begins and we are here to blog it every Monday night. Dancing with the Stars returns this fall with an all new season. This time around, a new professional dancer will be added to the mix. And that lucky person will be crowned on Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro.
Twelve “aspiring” professional dancers will live together and compete against one another in an audition process to determine who gets to join the flagship series as the newest pro dancer. I place aspiring in quotes because many of these dancers are very well established in the dance community and not really known to be up-and-coming. DWTS current champion, Robert Irwin is our host and we have a legendary mother and son on the judging panel.
Three time mirrorball champion Mark Ballas will be joined by his mom, Shirley Ballas, who is head judge on the British show Strictly Come Dancing. Each week, they will be joined by a special guest judge and starting us out is one of the best to ever do it. Six time DWTS champion Derek Hough will join the panel in this inaugural episode.
In this first week, the twelve contestants will be paired up and tested on technique in jive and samba. After everyone performs, the judges will eliminate one pair, leaving ten dancers to continue in the competition. Let us find out together who will rise to the occasion as the journey begins to find the next DWTS superstar!
Robert welcomes the twelve contestants to the show as well as judges Shirley and Mark. Shirley expects technical excellence and someone who has great choreography and can deal with the pressure. Mark wants heart and imagination. Robert welcomes in tonight’s special guest, Derek Hough. Derek immediately lights up the floor with a stunning routine, showing exactly why he is one of the best professional dancers on the planet. Hello samba rolls! I could watch Derek just dance for an hour to be honest.
Derek says the first challenge is all about technique. Robert explains the guys will be paired to dance the jive and girls, the samba. The contestants head out to see where they will be living. Wow. It’s a pretty amazing piece of property. Gorgeous rooms. The contestants get to know one another and some are quite familiar with the others. That’s what happens in dance. The community is very tight knit and most dancers have either worked together or know someone from a studio or compeittion.
Everyone is very impressed with the rehearsal studio. Derek begins giving his guidance on technique and quality of movement. He pairs up the contestants. He will choreograph a side by side section for the dancers and each one is required to choreograph a solo as part of the routine. He cautions that since technique is the key this week, those side by side dancing will instantly show who has it and who doesn’t.
Derek does some one on one work with the contestants on the solo pieces. As usual, Derek is a great teacher who understands what the judges and audience want to see. Natalie needs to add some energy. She is worried a bit about flexibility. Briar is cautioned not to travel too much. Derek is happy with the progress from the girls. Tristan has a major hiccup in rehearsal when he shows Derek his solo. Jake, meanwhile, is having some trouble with stamina. Derek is a bit disappointed in the male solos. He feels the ladies looked stronger and he wants the guys to really step it up.
Back at home, the guys inform the ladies about Derek giving them some tough love at rehearsal. They head to rehearse because none of them want to be the first guy kicked off.
Show night has arrived. The twelve dancers are ready to perform. Erik & Tristen are first up.
Erik Linder & Tristen Sanders (Jive) – Erik and Tristen do some fabulous side by side work. Nice kicks and flicks on the jive. For the solos, Erik had a bit more technique while Tristen favored some flashy moves. They were both high energy and did a very respectable job. Derek notes the improvement. He enjoyed seeing who Tristen was on the dance floor. He wants Erik to take more risks. Shirley loves Erik’s posture. She wanted more Jive in the solo from Tristen. Mark tells Tristen to do more jive and felt Erik made it look a bit too smooth and easy. He compliments them both. Shirley and Mark doing a little mother and son disagreeing about technique versus breaking the rules a bit.
AJ Pritchard & Jake Monreal (Jive) – Another high energy routine. I felt Jake’s solo was a bit more impressive. He had a lot of jive content and was very animated. The side by side was interesting because it started very strong but seemed to lose a bit of power toward the end. AJ had some nice moments in his solo but failed to wow me as compared to Jake. Derek feels it lacked a bit of energy. Mark tells AJ his technique was good. He tells Jake he needs to work on his posture and focus. Shirley feels Jake dances a bit in front of the music and feels AJ needs to take more risks and not play it safe. All the judges agreed they wanted to see more from that routine.
Allen Genkin & Benjamin Castro (Jive) – Well, this is definitely the best of the three male dances. Both guys are impressive alone and together. Each brought a really terrific mix of technique and entertainment. It looked as though they really practiced to put together one cohesive routine. Benji was very impressive in his solo and Allen brought some dramatics in his. Mark calls it dynamic. Shirley wanted to dance with the both of them. She loved the energy. Derek was left wanting to see more. All the judges agree that this pairing was the best of the three.
Natalie Jolley & Selena Hamilton (Samba) – Dang. It was really hard to take my eyes off of Selena. She was just explosive from beginning to end. Natalie was good and didn’t necessarily do anything wrong but I felt Selena ate her up a bit. I did enjoy the side by side as both did some true samba steps. Shirley thinks Selena is a superstar. She feels Natalie needs to work on flexibility. Derek wants Natalie to not be so safe. Mark feels Natalie needs to let go more. He says Selena was fire from the jump.
Stephani Sosa & Briar Nolet (Samba) – Hmm. That wasn’t exactly great. Briar had a sloppy solo. Did she slip a bit at the start? Steph had a much better solo and was better in the side by side. It was expected to go that way as Steph is the more experienced dancer in this style. But still, the entire thing lacked a bit of finesse and togetherness. It was as though both needed some more time to polish that up. Mark confirms Briar slipped. He tells Steph to work on her transitions. Shirley sees the sensuality but feels she doesn’t walk correctly. She feels Briar needs to study from the waist down. Derek is a bit concerned about Briar considering this is all about technique tonight.
Nina Mayster & Adele Zaikman (Samba) – Whew! I’m tired just watching that. Adele is fantastic and her solo was straight up amazing. Similar to the first of the girls dances, I found myself watching one more. That one being Adele. But make no mistake, Nina came out ready to show off as well. She makes some great intense faces when she dances. They both definitely enjoyed the rhythm of that routine. Derek applauds both. He loved how open Nina is and feels Adele dances “expensive”. Adele is tearing up hearing the praise. Mark calls Adele a killer and fierce. He feels Nina went a bit ahead of the music. Shirley cautions Adele not to block her personality. She feels both ladies can take a bit of the other as Adele can have some of Nina’s open quality and Nina some of Adele’s fluidity and flexibility.
With that, the dancing ends and the judges need to make a very hard decision. One boy and one girl need to leave the competition. It feels as though from what the judges said and the immediate reactions to the dances, Jake and Briar could be in trouble. But let’s see what they ultimately decide.
Shirley announces that Briar and Natalie are in jeopardy.
Mark announces the two in jeopardy for the boys are Tristen and Jake.
Eliminated tonight are… Briar and Jake.
Well, that was pretty obvious. The four that were in danger just happened to be the same four who had issues during rehearsal. Or at least, the four they decided to show us had issues. Briar just had a really sloppy routine and was not at the level this show is looking for. And Jake, while very dynamic, doesn’t have all the polish that some of the others do. Though I do think that it was probably a tough choice between him and Tristen.
This was a solid premiere, though I do feel the show is a bit rushed. Only an hour long, they really stuffed a lot into it. Between introductions, rehearsals, and actual performances, it felt like a race to the finish. A two hour show would have been able to breathe better. When the remaining dancers are dwindled down, it won’t feel as time pressed. But I am just glad to have a dancing competition show on during the summer since So You Think You Can Dance was cancelled. Next week, Brandon Armstrong is the guest judge and the remaining ten dancers take one more step to be the next pro. I’ll see you all in a week. :)