Dancing with the Stars 33x3

[silverstarry]

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33x3: Soul Train Night
The remaining 11 couples get their groove on with performances worthy of being seen on the iconic musical variety TV show Soul Train. Guest judge: former Soul Train dancer Rosie Perez

note: because the show didn't air last week due to the VP debate, there will be two episodes this week and tomorrow's elimination will be

Comments

[v_is_for_violet]

I wish Britt could get a partner that’s actually a contender She’s a great dancer and seems so sweet and fun

[aristobrit]

Joey's back flip was totally professional and he did all the choreography but I couldn't help but notice how flat footed he is. He's the opposite of "light on your feet."

Stephen on the other hand is light on his feet but he doesn't feel the music and I'm not sure that can be taught. Their dance was a triumph of costuming because all I could see was Rylee's extreme bell bottoms.

[silverstarry]

I agree re: Joey vs Stephen.

I wasn't as impressed with Joey's back tuck because it's really just a matter of having strong thighs. When I was in high school, we recruited a couple of football players for a dance performance and taught them how to do standing back tucks even though they had zero dance training.

Anyway, Joey is coordinated and able to memorize the choreography but as you said, he's very flat footed. To the untrained eye, his performances are pretty good, especially if (1) you only watch from the waist up and (2) you compare him to the other male celebs, many of whom are just posing and occasionally walking.

Stephen, on the other hand, has a great lightness to his dance but lacks musicality. His split leap was great though!

[aristobrit]

Even with a low degree of difficulty, Joey did perform it well. I thought the same thing--if you only watch him from the waist up, he looks good. I haven't paid much attention but I think he might be a little pigeon toed.

Stephen does well with all the gymnastic kinds of moves, Rylee should teach him that back tuck as well. He seems to pick up choreography fairly quickly but they need to bring someone in to loosen him up and get him to vibe with the music. He needs to be the opposite of how he is on the pommel horse. It must be so hard for his brain to make his body change gears like that.

[silverstarry]

Stephen has been a competitive gymnast for most of his life so I would bet money that he can already do a back tuck. I'm all for Rylee incorporating it into one of his routines, but I'm guessing that she is erring on the side of caution with adding gymnastics to his routines because that was a criticism of past Olympic gymnasts in other seasons. Viewers complained about gymnasts doing super simple things like leaps and cartwheels (things that five year olds can do), despite the fact that non-athletes have had those elements in their DWTS routines too.

[ashdevilrun23]

I do not be watching but Ilona & Alan‘s tiktoks are giving me life

[nermal_kat]

I finally starting watching this and I noticed there's only one black professional. Also Derick's blaccent kicks in when he critiques the black contestants. What I'm saying is I think this show is racist.

[silverstarry]

There are two Black pros this season (Britt and Brandon), but yeah, DWTS is not very diverse with their pros. The first queer Latino pro (Ezra) has already been eliminated and there are currently zero Asian pros. In any given season, the pros are usually made up of Russians (Gleb, Artem, Pasha, Anna, Dmitry, Elena, Inna), Ukrainians (Maks, Val, Karina, Alec), Australians (Sharna, Peta, Kym, Damian), and Utah Mormons (Derek, Julianne, Jenna, Witney, Lindsay, Rylee, Lacey, Chelsie, Ashly) aka a lot of white people.

Keo was the first Black pro and that wasn't until season 19. Brandon became a pro in S27 and Britt became the first Black female pro in S29. The show has had only two Asian pros (Koko became a pro in S31 and Cheryl was a constant on the show for most of its run, although to be fair I think most people didn't realize Cheryl was half Asian). There was a Colombian pro (Fabian) for one season really early in the show's run. The fact that I can easily count how many POC have been pros in 33 seasons tells you all you need to know.

[nermal_kat]

Wow thanks for breaking it down. I always wondered why so many Russians? But I never really watched until the current season, and always assumed it was a more diverse show.

[silverstarry]

I didn't vote for the worst performance of the night because Eric and Reginald are very close in terms of both skill (not great) and performance (they are having fun). Dwight is barely ahead of them in terms of skill but I'd rather see him go home first due to being an admitted child abuser.