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"Dancing with Stars" Season 7
marigold:
An interesting article:
Actress: 'Dancing with the Stars' tour pure pleasure
Turn up the music because the dance is on.
Dancing with the Stars: The Tour brings to the Valley celebrities such as Lance Bass, Toni Braxton and Maurice Greene from Season 7, and Marlee Matlin from Season 6.
In this fourth tour, dancers will also include Maksim Chmerkovskiy , Mark Ballas and Derek Hough, Kym Johnson, Lacey Schwimmer, Edyta Sliwinska, Karina Smirnoff, Alec Mazo, Cheryl Burke and Fabian Sanchez.
The two-hour show features a re-creation of the TV show's stage and set design, a 10-piece live band and two giant video screens showcasing never-before-seen rehearsal footage, behind-the-scenes interviews and outtakes, as well as other surprises.
Matlin, Academy Award-winning actress, gave The Republic a scoop on the tour and her experience as a dancer:
What can you tell me about the tour show and cast?
"Everyone is great. It's like a wonderful reunion. Maurice is a jokester; he's just hilarious. Lance is a sweetheart and I love to listen to his stories of traveling on the road with 'N Sync. Toni is a 100 percent class act. She's just so professional and sweet. And I love dancing with my crazy mambo king, Fabian Sanchez. And the rest of the dancers are wonderful, total pros. I learn something new each and every day from them."
What's the difference between being on the Dancing with the Stars tour vs. the TV show?
"There's a big difference. The TV show is about the most competitive experience one could ever expect. You're performing live in front of 22 million people every day. It's brutal, but I loved it. The tour is like a wonderful reunion and we are dancing for pure pleasure. No scores, no tears, just pure entertainment. The audience eats up the show and we have a great time dancing for them each night."
How much practice and preparation are you having for the tour? How do you keep a routine while on tour?
"We had two weeks of rehearsals before the tour began. During the show, it took me one week to learn one dance. On this tour, I had to learn six dances in one week. But I did it and have been practicing hard to make sure each and every night is as fresh as the night before. Fabian, my dance partner, and I find any moment we can to keep our dances fresh in our minds. Last night, we were rehearsing in the hallway of our hotel!"
What is your favorite song or rhythm to dance to?
"I love the mambo. It's the dance I didn't quite get right on the show because I misstepped. Now I get to dance it right all across America. Also, watch for me in the Hollywood classics part of the show because you might not know it's me at first."
What do you miss about being on the show?
"I miss all the energy, the freshness of a new dance routine each week. I miss the electricity in the air when we go on live at 8 p.m. each Monday. It's like classic television when nothing was predictable. I loved that feeling and would do it again in a second."
Is this your first time on a tour bus? How is it and do you feel like a rock star on tour?
"It's a world that I'm sure everyone has fantasized about and now I get to live it out for a few months. The bus is unbelievable with my own bedroom, full bathroom, dining room, living room, kitchenette and huge flat-screen TVs. All I can say is thank goodness I'm married and sober."
Link to the article: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/12/26/20081226gl-stars1227-ON.html
marigold:
An interview with DWTS Maurice Greene:
Dancing with the track star
After Emmitt Smith appeared on "Dancing with the Stars," he said he was no longer known primarily as a football star. Instead, he became the guy from the dancing show.
Maurice Greene can relate to this redefining power of prime-time reality television. The Olympic gold medalist finished in fifth place on the most recent season of the dance-competition series.
"A lot of people look at me, and they're like, 'I know you from somewhere,' and then, they're like, 'Oh yeah, you're the sprinter,' " Greene says. "Now I'm the dancer, and it's, 'Can you dance with me? Dip me!' Things like that."
The concert-tour version of "Dancing," featuring Greene, Lance Bass, Toni Braxton and others, arrives Saturday. Green compared running in a straight line with spinning in circles in a phone conversation prior to the show.
Question: Do you have a favorite dance?
Answer: My favorite routine would probably be the paso doble. It's a Latin-American dance. It's very masculine. It's a fighting dance. You're like the matador and the bull. I had a lot of fun doing that one. And I would say our jive is a lot of fun, also.
Q: How much prior dancing experience did you have?
A: The only dancing experience I've had was dancing in the club. And dancing in the club and doing these ballroom dances are doing two completely different things. So I'd say I've had no dancing experience.
Q: Are there parallels between track training and practicing dance routines?
A: The competitive part of me came out. That's what made me work so hard. I was a workaholic in track, so I just took my work ethic to the dance floor, because there is no movement in track and field that is the same in dancing. You just have to learn it and work hard and conquer something new. In track, I was just going straight. In dancing you got to move all around the floor. One heel has to be on the floor while your toe is doing something different. It's just totally different.
Q: Are you more nervous in front of a television studio audience, a live concert audience or an Olympic audience?
A: Studio audience. In the show, I was more nervous there than in any time in my life. I'm more comfortable in an Olympic finals race than I am lying in my bed at home.
Q: But there are a billion people watching the Olympics.
A: I love that.
Q: Then why don't you love dancing on TV?
A: I'm not saying I don't love it. But I'm out of my element. I'm not used to dancing. It doesn't come natural for me. We only have four days to learn each dance. I didn't know if I was going to mess up a routine or nail a routine. It's a very nervous and scary feeling.
Q: Would you have traded your TV dancing for a chance to compete in Beijing?
A: If I could have stayed healthy and have been able to train with no injuries, I would have loved to go to Beijing and compete. But my body's a little bit older, and it's harder to recover. That's why I decided to retire.
Link to the article: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090116/ENT/901160322/1025/rss05
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