Dancing With The Stars

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PlacentiaSoccerMom · #1 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Tue May 20, 2008 9:35 pm

I read that Aretha Franklin was going to be on the show next season.

The news was accompanied by this picture. (NSFW)

Spoiler

Even if you are the Queen, you should still wear a bra.

silvercamaro · #2 Post by **silvercamaro** » Tue May 20, 2008 9:41 pm

Oh, my.

No, I did not say, "Oh, mine."

Bob Juch · #3 Post by **Bob Juch** » Tue May 20, 2008 9:47 pm

She's always had a good pair of lungs.

kayrharris · #4 Post by **kayrharris** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:18 pm

That's one scary photo.

SportsFan68 · #5 Post by **SportsFan68** » Wed May 21, 2008 12:38 am

Congrats Kristi!

She was beyond fabu!

peacock2121 · #6 Post by **peacock2121** » Wed May 21, 2008 4:34 am

kayrharris wrote:That's one scary photo.

goodness

gracious

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #7 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Wed May 21, 2008 6:48 am

Jason seemed like a very nice guy, but I am glad that Kristi won.

kayrharris · #8 Post by **kayrharris** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:17 am

I pulled and voted for Jason every week. Kristi had such a big advantage over the others, I couldn't look at it as a fair competition at all. The guy is 6'6" and a NFL player for goodness sake.

Considering the challenge he had compared to Kristi, he should have won.
JMHO. I wish they would make it more evenly matched and not have someone so much better than the others that the judges go crazy with every dance.

dimmzy · #9 Post by **dimmzy** » Wed May 21, 2008 9:20 am

TPTB knew that if they wanted to guarantee a woman winner, they needed a ringer.

Kristi is a ringer. Nice girl, nice family but ... a ringer.

Ditto if they had gotten Mary Lou Retton.

fantine33 · #10 Post by **fantine33** » Wed May 21, 2008 9:38 am

kayrharris wrote:I pulled and voted for Jason every week. Kristi had such a big advantage over the others, I couldn't look at it as a fair competition at all. The guy is 6'6" and a NFL player for goodness sake.

Considering the challenge he had compared to Kristi, he should have won.
JMHO. I wish they would make it more evenly matched and not have someone so much better than the others that the judges go crazy with every dance.

BoB, you cancelled out my Cristian votes!

Cristian was my horse from the beginning, so I was sad that he made third while Jason Frankensteined around most of the season (I did think he outperformed Kristi on the final dance (quickstep v. jive), though).

The biggest travesty was Mario! He was great and got nothing but crap from the judges, particularly Len. He would have rocked the freestyle. I wonder if they thought that he could have been a legitimate threat to Kristi winning if he managed to amass a big enough fanbase, so they dumped on him at every opportunity to keep him down.

tlynn78 · #11 Post by **tlynn78** » Wed May 21, 2008 9:44 am

I'm glad Kristi won, too. I understand where the 'she had an advantage' people are coming from, but disagree. If they had told her up front "okay, you've had dance training, so you'll be docked x number of points per dance to make it fair' then I'd agree. She had dance training. So did Mario. So did Jason, btw (he took lessons in FL in preparation for the show - I know, not as a youngster, like KY) Jason, Christian, et al all had different life experiences that let them bring things to the competition that others didn't have. It's a dancing competition. Whoever does it best should win, not 'most improved' or 'overcame greatest odds' (that would be Marlee Matlin, for me). A very enjoyable season, for me.

t.

kayrharris · #12 Post by **kayrharris** » Wed May 21, 2008 9:47 am

I would much rather have seen Cristian win than Kristi, for the same reasons I had before. I think he did great and he overcame his injury and even seemed to get better.

I got mad at the judges every week. Pretty much disagreed with everything they said and didn't like the nitpicking they did. It's hard to say if ABC tried to get the winner they wanted.

peacock2121 · #13 Post by **peacock2121** » Wed May 21, 2008 9:52 am

I do think the level of difficulty chosen by the professional dancers for their students made the palying field equal. Kristi always had far more difficulty in her routines than anyone. She did not get higher marks for the difficulty, she got judged on how she did the steps.

There is also a bigger difference than any of us realize between gliding on ice and moving one's feet on a floor.

silvercamaro · #14 Post by **silvercamaro** » Wed May 21, 2008 10:21 am

peacock2121 wrote:I do think the level of difficulty chosen by the professional dancers for their students made the palying field equal. Kristi always had far more difficulty in her routines than anyone. She did not get higher marks for the difficulty, she got judged on how she did the steps.

There is also a bigger difference than any of us realize between gliding on ice and moving one's feet on a floor.

I agree. As I see it, the primary advantage provided by her previous training for the ice was her understanding of arm position and how to make the lifts work. She simply was wonderful, IMO, although I give Jason great credit for learning to use his size. He is now, in fact, a much better dancer than the previous football player who won (Emmitt Smith.)

This was the best group of people the show has yet seen.

dimmzy · #15 Post by **dimmzy** » Wed May 21, 2008 10:24 am

Good points, all. YET, yet ... Kristi did dance training 5 HOURS A WEEK FOR 15 YEARS. Admittedly, not ballroom, but ballet and jazz.

Perhaps the judging should include degree of difficulty : )

Right away, based on the photo I saw, if Aretha is chosen, she should get some difficulty points right upfront.

So to speak.

fantine33 · #16 Post by **fantine33** » Wed May 21, 2008 10:51 am

Although I do think Kristi was something of a ringer, I don't think it's because she had an unfair advantage as far as dance experience. I think it was because of her athleticism, work ethic and popularity with a built-in fan base. Especially since I think that the majority of viewers of both this show and figure skating are probably females. They are also more likely to vote.

I agree with Sliver that I think her previous pairs experience with Rudy Galindo was probably her main advantage as far as experience. In fact, I think her skating background and dance training could have a been a DISadvantage.

The closest analogy I have is when I was learning italian. I thought it would be helpful that I already knew French and Spanish. But it actually hurt my progress because I was trying to correlate italian grammar and translations and syntax and whatnot with the other languages and it's not the same. They are all Romance languages, but they are more different than they are alike. For instance, I can understand French, Italian and Spanish (just enough to be dangerous), but I'm totally lost in Portuguese.

Plus I think Mark's choreography worked against her, since it was mainly crafted to showcase him.

Despite all that, she put in mucho hours and concentration because that is who she is. She was the best and she deserved to win.

Wow, this sounds like I was a Kristi fan, and I really wasn't. At the beginning, Shannon was my girl. Ha!

tlynn78 · #17 Post by **tlynn78** » Wed May 21, 2008 11:18 am

At the beginning, Shannon was my girl. Ha!

She had the legs for this, they should have used them better. I'd kill for her legs.

t.

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #18 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Wed May 21, 2008 11:24 am

dimmzy wrote:Good points, all. YET, yet ... Kristi did dance training 5 HOURS A WEEK FOR 15 YEARS. Admittedly, not ballroom, but ballet and jazz.

Perhaps the judging should include degree of difficulty : )

Right away, based on the photo I saw, if Aretha is chosen, she should get some difficulty points right upfront.

So to speak.

Her center of gravity will work against her.