DWTS Season 29

D

DWTSFan2001

New Member
The pro dancers have officially been announced. 14 of them, maybe that means 14 couples?

All of the pros from last season except for Lindsay & Witney (both of whom are pregnant) will be returning. That's Alan, Brandon, Gleb, Keo, Pasha, Sasha, Val on the male side and Daniella, Cheryl, Emma, Jenna, Peta on the female side.

Sharna Burgess is back and Britt Stewart who was a troupe member before is also returning to the show.

Thoughts? Not a fan of Tyra as host but seems like she and the other producers have devised a relatively decent pro lineup. Great that Sharna is back and they've kept both Daniella and Pasha. The show needed better pro dancers and I think that those 3 are really strong pros. Also plenty of diversity in the lineup now.
 
At least they brought Sharna back! I wonder, with the host changes, if the producers thought they should bring back a fan favorite?

Does anyone know Brit's dance background?

DWTSFan2001 said:
The pro dancers have officially been announced. 14 of them, maybe that means 14 couples?

All of the pros from last season except for Lindsay & Witney (both of whom are pregnant) will be returning. That's Alan, Brandon, Gleb, Keo, Pasha, Sasha, Val on the male side and Daniella, Cheryl, Emma, Jenna, Peta on the female side.

Sharna Burgess is back and Britt Stewart who was a troupe member before is also returning to the show.

Thoughts? Not a fan of Tyra as host but seems like she and the other producers have devised a relatively decent pro lineup. Great that Sharna is back and they've kept both Daniella and Pasha. The show needed better pro dancers and I think that those 3 are really strong pros. Also plenty of diversity in the lineup now.
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davedove said:
At least they brought Sharna back! I wonder, with the host changes, if the producers thought they should bring back a fan favorite?

Does anyone know Brit's dance background?
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Britt isn't from a ballroom/latin background to my knowledge, not sure exactly which though. Apparently she did start some competing and teaching during her time in the troupe though so should be a safer option than Allison, Tyne or Hayley.

I think Sharna probably got the offer when either Lindsay or Witney announced their pregnancies. I thought that she had other irons in the fire but I guess with everything going on, DWTS is a safe income.

They want some long term pros on the cast after all. I'm thrilled that she is returning though, she was always one of the strongest of the post All Star series generation of pros.
 
davedove said:
I noticed that they just announced Artem was returning as well.
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Nice to see Artem back. Hope he gets a good partner, he's had way too many duds on DWTS which was kinda sad when looking at how he was treated on Strictly (1 win, 1 mega ringer, 1 with lots of potential and a middler).
 
I watched the opening show. I didn’t come away with a lot of lasting impressions.

Tyra Banks was lacklustre, without any warmth to draw me in, and she let the show run over by a couple of minutes.

Same awful song selections. Really distracting “audience” noise.

Re: the dancing - I liked Vernon the football player, and Catfish. I liked Justina. I initially had expected that Anne Heche would try to overplay sexiness, but she didn’t and I thought her Cha Cha was ok.

What kind of show assigns a Paso Doble to an animal rights activist??? (Ok, I get that the song doesn’t really qualify as Paso, but presumably that was the intent of the producers....)
 
I enjoyed the show personally.

Lots of dancing potential - really only Charles & Carole sucked. Surprised that Justina & Nev were such good dancers. Loved Jeannie as well, hope this is the season for Brandon to make it further.

Judging was a bit off IMO, too many 6's given out and I feel that they need someone harsher to break the ties on the leaderboard. I did like Derek as a judge - he was encouraging while giving out actual constructive advice as opposed to the usual hogwash from Carrie Ann.

Tyra just isn't a natural host, too awkward but having had 17 seasons of Tess Daly on Strictly, I can handle at least 1 season of Tyra.

As for the partnerships - I wish that Alan & Sasha would get duds for a change, both in the final last season and now with contenders again. Poor Pasha getting Carole and Emma getting Charles (why do they always give her old guys?). Jesse/Sharna, AJ/Cheryl seem like good matches and I see both couples doing well. Same for Skai/Alan but too much of a height difference.
 
I actually enjoyed the show way more than I thought I would, although next week I am going to watch the next day on streaming service so I can forward through the ads. Derek was an great judge IMHO. The music has got to go, though. Nev's foxtrot was the only one that made sense for me.
 
My thoughts:

The contestants seemed about normal for the show, a few I predict will leave pretty early and a few early standouts. The biggest surprise for me was Nev, the Catfish guy. He definitely needs to work on the posture, but he moved really well. Justina was simply fun to watch and she seemed to be having fun, always a plus for me.

Derek did well as a judge. He was pretty supportive of the contestants and actually gave some useful critique.

I felt there was too much of Tyra, but to be fair, she is doing what used to be the jobs of two people.

The dances all seemed too short and rushed, but that's common for a first show of the season, as they have to give everyone's back story and show the meeting of partners. As contestants are eliminated, we should get to see more dancing.

The "audience" was just weird!

I can't pick my favorite partnership yet.
 
I only watched the short clips on YouTube, so no commentary, no judging, no rehearsals, just the dancing.

I didn't care for Tyra at all. I've never been a fan of hers or watched anything else she's ever done. I don't like that they got rid of Tom and Erin. Her walk out at the beginning of the show felt like it was some over-the-top fashion show, and I didn't like her intro/monologue. But I don't think I'm evaluating her objectively so...let's see what happens in the coming weeks.

Skai Jackson was easily the best of the night. I see someone mentioned the height difference between her and Alan, but they've already made the closed position of Ballroom work. I think the height difference won't even matter at all. I also think it was a great example of putting Ballroom tango on modern music.

Jesse Metcalfe had a dark look on his face throughout the show, right from when Tyra did the introductions. He looked like he didn't want to be there. I don't know what's up with him.

I agree with davedove on Nev. He seemed great in so many ways, but his torso was waaaaaaay into Jenna's space. I hope he goes far in the competition.

Only Jeannie's salsa was okay (for week 1, of course). The other two...I don't even know what to say. Nelly was better than the third guy though. The music was a horrible choice, and even the way it was cut up, and the way it ended, and the way the silences were included to cut out the swear words...that dance didn't work for me at all.

Monica Aldama (I hope I got her name right) seems to have some talent. I was happy to see her and Val dance a foxtrot in nice clothes. But the foxtrot has suffered musically so much on this show. Nev's music was good, but the others...

Justina was so bright and had so much fun with it. She was great to watch.
 
ajiboyet said:
I wasn't sure at first, but I've now confirmed that she's not a Ballroom dancer. I wonder why they keep doing things like this.
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They brought in Britt for diversity reasons. Sorry to sound crass and I am all for diversity in dance and the pro lineup but it was painfully obvious in her situation as she isn't a ballroom dancer and it shows. After Allison Holker, I thought that they wouldn't hire a non ballroom dancer again. I also don't get why they wasted a ringer on her - if they wanted to have her to tick the box of having a female pro of colour but keep it to traditional ballroom, they should have given her to Charles Oakley. Out in a few weeks, job done.

Johnny's performances have been lacking both weeks for a figure skater. That tango was especially weak, no technique at all. He seems to be dancing too much in his own 'figure skater' style. A more experienced pro could probably help him break out of that but it's not going to happen. Maybe he'll do a good Rumba or Contemporary but I don't see him delivering on the faster or staccato dances.
 
DWTSFan2001 said:
Johnny's performances have been lacking both weeks for a figure skater. That tango was especially weak, no technique at all. He seems to be dancing too much in his own 'figure skater' style. A more experienced pro could probably help him break out of that but it's not going to happen. Maybe he'll do a good Rumba or Contemporary but I don't see him delivering on the faster or staccato dances.
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Johnny has a very strong personality and sense of self and sense of style. I doubt any coach would be able to fully break him out of his own style unless he really wants to take on whatever expressive style that they are suggesting for a particular dance. But he's still interesting to watch.
 
I haven't watched DWTS is ages. I watched tonight. At least the right couple went. Carol Baskin seemed like a wonderful woman, and I admire her for being game to go on the show. But she definitely didn't have much potential. It's too bad to see Pasha go.
 
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