Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak To Compete In Dancing With The Stars - Season 8

Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak will be competing in the next edition of the popular television reality show "Dancing With The Stars" (DWTS), ABC Television announced recently. The man known as "The Woz", created the original circuit board used for the Apple computer and teamed up with Steve Jobs in 1976 to market it. Wozniak quit working full time at Apple two decades ago and after years of working on various projects, re-emerged last month as chief scientist at Fusion10, a data storage start-up. Fusion10 uses closely-packed clusters of flash memory chips in servers to enable them to find data very quickly.

Wozniak will show off his dance moves alongside 12 other celebrities in season 8 of DWTS which will air on March 9. He will be competing against Jewel and her rodeo star husband Ty Murray, singers Belinda Carlisle, Chuck Wicks, Lil' Kim, and Denise Richards, actors/artistes Gilles Marini, David Alan Grier, Denis Richards and Jackass star Steve-O, gymnast and Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson, football legend Lawrence Taylor, and entertainment reporter Nancy O' Dell. Renowned ballroom judge Len Goodman, and dance choreographers Bruno Tonioli and Carie Ann Inaba return as judges for this season.

Dancing with The Stars (DWTS) is based on the format of the top rated British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) show, Strictly Come Dancing in which celebrities are partnered with professional dancers in various dance routines that are judged by an expert panel and by public votes. Season 1 of DWTS premiered in the USA in 2005 and was an instant hit there. Unlike SCD where only standard ballroom and Latin American dances are performed, other dance styles like American Swing, Smooth, and Rhythm are also showcased in DWTS. The dancing greats who have taken part in DWTS include Karina Smirnoff, Corky Ballas and his son Mark Ballas.

The past winners of DWTS were:

Season 1 - Kelly Monaco & Alec Mazo

Season 2 - Drew Lachey & Cheryl Burke

Season 3 - Emmit Smith & Cheryl Burke

Season 4 - Apolo Anton Ohno & Julianne Hough

Season 5 - Helio Castroneves & Julianne Hough

Season 6 - Kristi Yamaguchi & Mark Ballas

Season 7 - Brooke Burke & Derek Dough


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> Swing, American Smooth And American Rhythm Dances

'Dancing Pig' Quits "Strictly Come Dancing"

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) political correspondent John Sergeant, nicknamed 'The Dancing Pig', announced last week that he was pulling out of the BBC dance competition Strictly Come Dancing because he is afraid that he might win. Sergeant has been this season's surprise (or rather, rising) star on the BBC hit show despite being harshly criticized by the judges as the worst-ever competitor on the programme. One compared him to a 'dancing pig in Cuban heels' and accused him of not taking the competition seriously. Despite consistently receiving the lowest scores from the judges, television viewers however thought otherwise and have repeatedly voted for the portly Sergeant above more accomplished dancers.

Like its American spin-off, Dancing With The Stars, the BBC show pairs celebrities with professional dancers in various ballroom and Latin American dance routines that are judged by an expert panel and by public telephone votes. Week after week, the judges have lambasted the 64-year old Sergeant for his wooden and clumsy dance moves. In one episode, while dancing the Paso Doble, he inelegantly dragged his partner Kristina Rihanoff across the dance floor thus earning him the sobriquet 'The Dancing Pig'. "It was always my intention to have fun on the show and I was hoping to stay in as long as possible. The trouble is that there is now a real danger that I might win the competition. Even for me that would be a joke too far" Sergeant said in a statement.

Strictly Come Dancing is now into its sixth season and is a top rated show in the UK. This season, 16 celebrities were paired off with 16 well known professional dancers. The professional dancers included Matthew Cutler, Karen Hardy, Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace. Matthew Cutler, dancing with Alicia Dixon were last year's winners. Cutler was a former 4-times UK Closed Professional Latin Champion. Karen Hardy, partnering Mark Ramprakash were the winners in 2006. Before her retirement from competitive dancing in 1999, Hardy was dancing with Bryan Watson and they had won several world championships. Simone and his partner Cacace are the current UK Professional Ten Dance Champions as well as the World Argentine Tango Show Champions.

It really comes as no surprise that Sergeant has been able to come this far in the competition in spite of, or rather because of his ungainly dance style. Despite appeals by judges to the television audience to vote for the best, rather than the most popular dancer, the viewers had differing views. Many had found Sergeant to be entertaining and had wanted to keep him in the show as long as possible. His unexpected decision to quit prompted an outcry from his fans who accused the BBC of forcing him out. Rumour has it that the rules for the next season of Strictly Come Dancing may be changed to prevent another "John Sergeant" situation. Austin Healey, the former England rugby international is now the favourite to win the show.

Warmest Regards,

Dance Aficionado
Dancesport Malaysia