Carrie Ann Inaba blogs 'DWTS,' week 3What a week it’s been. Whew!!!! Okay, where do I begin? First of all, thank you all for writing. I read your questions and will provide as many answers as I can for you all. I appreciate your comments greatly….and I love blogging!
Let’s start with a neutral area and progress from there…the musical guests. Adele was wonderful tonight performing with such an incredibly passionate and soulful voice. I was mesmerized by her vocal quality. And then, to top it off, having Edyta and Alec dance was just a fancy treat! They are so beautiful to watch together -- I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful couple than those two. I love those showcase numbers. They really display the talent of our professionals and remind everyone how talented and incredible our pros truly are. We also had Hall & Oates, and Karina starring as “THE MANEATER.” She was fantastic in that red outfit. It reminded me of Olivia Newton-John in Grease when she sang “You’re the One that I Want.” She worked the guys in that number and showcased her power on the dance floor. For those of you who are not familiar with Karina’s incredible dancing skills, you should YouTube her. Look out for Karina's performances with Slavic -- they were a fabulous partnership. The ending of tonight's number was cute when Karina kissed her fiancé, Maks. That’s another real-life couple on our dance floor…and that’s nice to see.
It was cute tonight -- during the Hall & Oates number, Dmitry asked me if he could kiss my hand. I like that he was so polite about it: good old-fashioned manners. On a side note, I think Dmitry and Chelsie are doing a great job this year as newcomers. We are grateful to SYTYCD for bringing up these great dancers -- it’s nice to see the synergy between our shows there. But back to this show....
After the jump: Carrie Ann explains how songs are chosen for the performances, and satisfies all your judge-centric foot-fetish needs with photos of the trio's shoes!
Monday night was a fun night…I have to say it again: I LOVE THIS SEASON! The cast is wonderful and really a delight for us judges. I think there is a warmth to this season that makes it fun and friendly -- and in times like this, that’s not a bad thing at all. I was very impressed with Shawn, Gilles, Melissa, Chuck and Ty. They really impressed me this week. Chuck and Ty are finding their way and surprised me with their performances. I will say though, that I find some of the comments by the celebs funny -- especially when Chuck said we might think he’s a dancer just because he’s going out with Julianne. Chuck, no -- we don’t expect you to be a ballroom dancer because you go out with Julianne. We are not unintelligent, my dear. Keep working on your dancing…you’ve got great potential.
Let’s move on to tonight. The dance-off is tough. It’s hard on the poor dancers -- I feel so terrible for them and commend them all for getting out there and not breaking down under pressure. I think Holly and Denise did a good job out there. I can’t tell you people who are not in the studio how much pressure is on the bottom two at the moment they have to do the dance-off. It’s a difficult situation to be in. I was impressed with Denise for her attack tonight. She really took our comments to heart and worked on some of the elements of her performance that were lacking. She seemed to be more confident and less self-aware tonight, which made her performance that much better. It’s a shame she still went home. This goes to show how powerful that audience vote is. She gained 4 points tonight in her score. Bruno went up from 5 to a 7. I went up fro a 6 to a 7, and Len gave her a 7 instead of a 6. So she really did much better in the eyes of the judges. But the audience voted on her other performance and when they were combined, it didn’t help her out of the bottom spot.
OH, speaking of the scores. There was a scoring mishap tonight. Let me explain what happened. We score on a piece of paper. All three judges write down their scores on a piece of paper and I hand it off to Rob, our stage manager, who takes it to the booth where the producers and graphics person are waiting for it so they can type it in -- so when we actually show our paddles, they have the piece of paper in hand (and the numbers are displayed on-screen). Tonight there was a mix-up between Bruno's score and my score. Bruno gave Denise and Maks a 7 and I gave them a 6. I think that most people figured it out just by looking at it. It was just a mix up that was not that big of a deal. Denise’s score was in fact a 20 and Bruno and I held up the correct paddles that represented our actual scores, the ones we'd written on the paper. So, there was no real problem. If you want all the nitty gritty details, let me know and I’ll post it.
Okay let’s move on….WOW….STEVE was safe! Good for him. I think the public loves him. And I can understand why. I do too. I just have a certain criteria by which I must judge all performers. My job is to give my critique and professional opinion -- but lucky you, you all get to vote anyway you please and can just follow your heart...and I encourage that! I think Steve W. gives a great show -- I admire him for his tenacity and I'm happy to see that we have created a dance fan! He is a true dance enthusiast now. You can see how this experience is changing his life. This is a beautiful thing to see. He’s a good egg, that Steve W. I’ve never seen so much joy in a newbie to dancing. I give him respect for that. I smile more watching him than I do some of the people who get great scores. I think we all need a bit of that right now.
Let's see, what else...Oh yes, let me answer a question. Someone asked about the music. I spoke to the producers today to get the accurate explanation. The dancers (pros) are given the opportunity to give the producers a list of songs that they might want to dance to for the season, before the season starts so that the producers can clear the music. However, according to the producers, the pros don’t all create a list. Also, the pros are asked again, once they've been paired with their celebrities, to create a list of songs they might like to dance to. Unfortunately, it seems that not everyone gives their input. And for television, the producers have to think ahead so that they can clear the music for the shows…it’s a long process. So, the answer is that the pros have the option of having input on the song selections, but sometimes, it doesn’t quite all work out.
The costumes are designed by a team led by Randall Christensen and Howard Sussman. Those dresses are incredible works of art. The amount of work it takes to create those outfits is mind-boggling. They are very expensive to create and are often repurposed for the Dancing With The Stars Tour so that they don’t go to waste…it’s a costume recycling that happens. This is good for everyone!
Well, I hope you enjoyed this week as much as I did. I think it was a great show on Monday, and Tuesdays will always be a bit tougher on everyone because of the elimination. But that’s how it goes.
One last thing…people are always asking me to tell you something about what you didn’t see so tonight I’ve included three pictures of some things you never see on the show.
Len: Shoes by Kurt Geiger; Bruno: Shoes by R.M. Williams; Carrie Ann: Shoes by L.A.M.B.
Yes...that would be the judges' shoes. So, for all you people with a shoe fetish, in case you were wondering what we wear under that desk -- here are the shoes we wore on Tuesday night’s show. ; ) Enjoy.
And see you next week. They are doing the Argentine Tango and the Lindy Hop. I’m going to go easy on the lifts….You have to do a few tosses for the Lindy Hop to be a Lindy Hop! And next week, I’ll explain what a lift is as defined for our show.
Oh -- tune in to the Kids' Choice Awards on Saturday to see the number I choreographed. It’s going to be fun…Can’t tell you who the surprise guests are going to be but you might enjoy it! And for those of you who want to win two tickets to the season finale of our show, you can bid on my auction at Clothes Off Our Back. I’ve put together a great package for you to bid on if you feel the urge to. I’ll tell you all about it next week -- why I did it and who it benefits. I know some of you are die hard fans of our show -- check it out and see if it’s something you might want to bid on. The proceeds go to charity, to give pediatric cancer patients dance and movement therapy. It’s the most empowering thing you can give them besides a clean slate of health. It’s a beautiful thing…
Hugs to you all.
See you next Monday!
Carrie Ann
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/03/carrie-ann-in-1.html
